LONDON—Hamas, the terror group that governs the Gaza Strip has ‘’saluted’’ Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and thanked him for his message of support to Palestinians.
The group said in a statement that Corbyn’s solidarity with Palestinian cause ‘reflects an advanced moral and political position worthy of all praise and thanks’
The Labour leader sent a message to a march in support of Palestinians in London last Saturday, which Hamas said it had received with “great respect and appreciation”. “We have received with great respect and appreciation the solidarity message sent by the British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to the participants in the mass rally,” Hamas said in a statement. “We also salute Mr Jeremy Corbyn for his principled position in rejecting the so-called Trump plan for the Middle East.”
In a statement read out during Saturday’s National Demonstration for Palestine in central London, Corbyn reportedly said Labour was “united in condemning the ongoing human rights abuses by Israeli forces, including the shooting of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza.”
Hamas has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the British Government since 2001.
In a reaction to Hamas’ message to Corbyn, Jennifer Gerber, director of Labour Friends of Israel, said: “Any decent politician would run a mile from the endorsement of an antisemitic terror group which brutally suppresses the Palestinian people.”
She added: “The fact that Jeremy Corbyn chooses not to do so says all you need to know about the man and his warped and horrifying world view.”