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Labour shadow minister met group which praised suicide bombers

The JC understands the meeting was not pre-arranged, but that the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association met the MP after turning up at the Commons

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Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer met members of a controversial anti-Israel charity in Parliament it has been revealed.

Members of the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association (CADFA) - which has previously praised suicide bombers as “martyrs” - posed outside Parliament with a banner which accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” before meeting Sir Keir, their local MP, last month.

The JC understands the meeting was not pre-arranged, but that CADFA met the MP after turning up at the Commons.

The banner was said to be related to a campaign to halt the eviction of families from Jabal al-Baba in the West Bank, after the IDF issued an eviction order for the entire village.

CADFA’s website previously published a post which described suicide bombers Osama Mohammed Bahar and Nabeel Mohammad Halabiyeh, who carried out an attack in Jerusalem in 2011 which killed 11 people and injured 155, as “martyrs”.

The charity told the JC the post was on the website “in error”.

A CADFA spokeswoman said: “As soon as it was drawn to our attention, we removed it. It in no way represents the views of CADFA.

“We explained this to the Charity Commission when it was drawn to our attention and they were satisfied.”

The spokeswoman also confirmed that CADFA members did not show Sir Keir the banner they unfurled shortly before their meeting.

The Sun reported this morning that Sir Keir invited CADFA, which is based in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, to Parliament on November 22.

A spokesman for Sir Keir told the Sun: “The meeting was held with constituents as part of a public lobby held in Parliament.”

The JC also reported in April this year that CADFA was one of two groups to raise concerns about free speech during a Camden Council motion to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

The motion was voted through unanimously, however.

Meanwhile a Brighton housing campaigner has been suspended from the Labour Party after posting a spoof Chanukah video featuring the faces of three councillors on Facebook, the Brighton and Hove News reports.

The faces of council leader Warren Morgan and his Labour colleagues Anne Meadows and Caroline Penn, two of whom have “Jewish connections”, were added to the video.

After being accused of antisemitism, Daniel Harris said he had intended the video to be “a bit of fun”.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The Party takes all complaints extremely seriously. A Labour Party member has been suspended from the Party pending an investigation."

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