CAA prepares third disciplinary complaint against Jeremy Corbyn over 2012 interview in which he blamed Islamist terrorist attack in Egypt on the “hand of Israel”

Footage has emerged of an interview in which Jeremy Corbyn blamed a terrorist attack in Egypt on an Israeli conspiracy.

Asked on Press TV, an Iranian television channel which had been banned from broadcasting in Britain the year earlier, about an Islamist terrorist attack in which sixteen Egyptian police officers were murdered, Mr Corbyn blamed Israel.

Mr Corbyn made the comments in 2012 in an interview with Lauren Booth, who has previously said that Gaza is “the largest concentration camp in the world today”. Mr Corbyn said: “I’m very concerned about it [the attack] and you have to look at the big picture. In whose interests is it to destabilise the new government in Egypt? In whose interest is it to kill Egyptians, other than Israel, concerned at the growing closeness of relationship between Palestine and the new Egyptian government?” Ms Booth then asked: “Would a Muslim go against his Egyptian brother and open fire?” Mr Corbyn responded: “It seems a bit unlikely that would happen during Ramadan, to put it mildly, and I suspect the hand of Israel in this whole process of destabilisation.”

Mr Corbyn was a paid contributor to Press TV, accepting £20,000 for his appearances even after Ofcom had revoked Press TV’s broadcasting licence.

The International Definition of Antisemitism, which Mr Corbyn’s Labour Party refuses to adopt, states that “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong’.”

Mr Corbyn appears not to consider such behaviour to be problematic, having previously written an impassioned letter to the Church of England, defending disgraced Reverend Stephen Sizer, who had claimed that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is now making a disciplinary complaint about the matter to the Labour Party, however in the past, the Party has failed to take action over our complaints, in stark contrast to its fierce investigation of its own MPs, Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge, who face disciplinary proceedings over their angry criticism of the Party for refusing to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. The Party’s antisemitism czar has also lashed out at Campaign Against Antisemitism.