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Jeremy Corbyn, whom the former Chief Rabbi of the UK deemed a “dangerous antisemite,” had high praise for rapper whose lyrics demonize of the Jewish state.
By United with Israel Staff
UK politician Jeremy Corbyn was trounced in historic fashion in 2019 when his left-wing Labour Party had its worst election results in a century.
Among his failures was leading the party as vicious antisemitism permeated its ranks, with the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission concluding Labour committed “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” directed at Jews.
Corbyn was disciplined due to his rejection of the report’s findings.
This should come as no surprise, since Corbyn supports boycotts of Israel, has met with activists linked to the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups, and refused an invitation to visit Israel’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem when he was invited then head of Israel’s Labor party Isaac Herzog.
In 2018, Corbyn’s abysmal record led former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to deem Corbyn a “dangerous antisemite” who lends “support to racists, terrorists, [and] dealers of hate who want to kill Jews” and “remove Israel from the map.”
With Corbyn’s troubling past in mind, it should come as no surprise that he recently showered praise on a D-list anti-Israel rapper in the UK called Lowkey.
While the British performer may have no luck writing popular songs, his lyrics have garnered condemnation from members of the Jewish community and supporters of Israel.
Lowkey’s lyrics include statements like “nothing is more antisemitic than Zionism” and “Israel is a terror state.”
On Sunday, Corbyn offered his support to the rapper, tweeting “well done Lowkey” in response to recent Dutch concerts, adding “what energy and good messages you carry!”
In response, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) told the UK’s Jewish Chronicle website, “The controversial rapper and activist Lowkey has previously described Israel as a ‘racist endeavour’ and Zionism as ‘antisemitic’, and has spoken of the ‘Zionist lobby’ in the context of global capitalism.”
“He has also repeatedly associated with the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson and the conspiracist and disgraced academic David Miller, and was recently embroiled in a controversy at the National Union of Students. Whether despite or because of this inflammatory record, Lowkey has drawn praise from none other than Jeremy Corbyn for the ‘good messages you carry’. Yet still, the Labour Party is happy to have Mr Corbyn as a member. Why is the Party so stubbornly unable to see what all of the rest of us can?” wondered the CAA spokesperson.
According to the JC , Lowkey “endorsed a campaign of vandalism against Israeli businesses in the UK, pushed 9/11 conspiracy theories in a poem, and recently claimed on Iran’s Press TV that the media has ‘weaponized the Jewish heritage’ of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ‘stave off’ inquiries about far-right groups in the country.”
In May 2022, Corbyn and Lowkey were both slated to appear at an event called “Marxism 2022.”
Other speakers at the event included Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian academic who “praised Jew-killing terrorists as ‘heroes’ and has written that ‘Zionist lobbies…buy presidents,’” and Irish politician Richard Boyd Barret, “who was warned last year by a government minister that his shocking comments about Israel had been raised at a ‘global level.’”
The institution that agreed to hose the event, Queen Mary University of London, told the JC: “We encourage a wide range of views, political as well as academic, which might entail the airing of opinions and ideas that are unpopular, controversial or provocative Our approach to promoting freedom of speech is set within our values. We stand against racism in all its forms. As a University we have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This covers all activities of the University.”
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