The Board of Deputies of British Jews has called on the Liberal Democrat party to dismiss lawmaker Jenny Tonge for saying that Israel has been a major cause in the rise of Islamic terror across the globe.
“The treatment of the Palestinians by Israel is a major cause of the rise of extreme Islamism and Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State terror organization],” Tonge stated, adding that Israel was provoking a generation of violent extremists who would have “a justified grudge” against Israel and Britain.
“It is time for Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron to expel her once and for all from the party,” the Board of Deputies said in a statement. The Board’s vice-president, Marie van der Zyl, said that Tonge’s speech was yet another example of the lawmaker’s “outrageous” comments, JTA reports.
In 2012, for example, Tonge addressed an Israeli Apartheid Week event at Middlesex University, where she participated in a discussion on “how to get rid of the Zionists,” saying it “was a difficulty, because they believe so passionately about their position.” However, she continued, “Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there forever in its present form,” before attacking the “Israel lobby” in the U.S. Afterwards, she resigned from her position as party whip after being given a choice by party leader Nick Clegg either to resign or to apologize.
Clegg also removed Tonge from her position as party health spokesperson in 2010 for demanding that Israel set up an inquiry into the Jewish state’s alleged organ harvesting on the black market in Haiti, where an IDF medical team was providing emergency treatment for earthquake victims. Clegg called her statement “wrong, distasteful and provocative.”
