I met anti-Semites before they were anti-Semites, Labour frontrunner says

British Labour party leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn denied suggestions he knowingly associated with Holocaust deniers, speaking out Monday for the first time after being hit with allegations of links to anti-Semitic figures.

Calling Holocaust denial “vile and wrong,” Corbyn said a pro-Palestinian activist he donated money to had not publicly denied the Holocaust at the time of their meeting 15 years ago. Regarding ties to Israeli Islamist Raed Salah, he said the sheikh had not espoused anti-Semitic views at the time of their meeting in

Corbyn is regarded as the front-runner as the main opposition Labour party picks a new leader, but has come under fire in recent weeks for associations with pro-Palestinian figures who have espoused anti-Semitic views.

Corbyn told an interviewer for British Channel 4 Monday that he attended meetings by a pro-Palestinian group called Deir Yassin Remembered, which was founded by Paul Eisen, a Holocaust denier.

But the politician said that at the time Eisen’s views were not public and added that he never would have associated with the group if Eisen had publicly stated such views.

“I have no contact now whatsoever with Paul Eisen and Deir Yassin Remembered,” Corbyn said. “I did attend a number of events concerning Deir Yassin Remembered some years ago, I think two or three of them.”

“Fifteen years ago [Eisen] was not a Holocaust denier,” he said. “Had he been a Holocaust denier, I would have had absolutely nothing to do with him. I was moved by the plight of people who had lost their village in Deir Yassin.”

He said his donations to the group, which commemorates a depopulated Palestinian village in what is now Jerusalem, were of inconsequential amounts.

Corbyn also responded to a tape which surfaced last week in which he is heard praising Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who has been jailed in Israel many times for a variety of terror-related and other offenses.

Salah is considered a hate preacher in England and visited the UK in 2012 despite being barred from entering the country. In the video, Corbyn is heard calling him an “honorable citizen” and inviting him to tea at the House of Commons.

“We had quite a long conversation and I made my views very clear. He did not at any stage utter any anti-Semitic remarks to me. Had he been convicted at that time then I’m surprised the Israeli government allowed him to travel,” Corbyn said Monday.

Also Monday, the Jewish Chronicle, Britain’s largest Jewish paper, reported that the Labour party will conduct an investigation after dozens of hateful messages were sent to MPs who criticized Corbyn’s statements and behavior.

The paper cited instances in which John Mann, chairman of a parliamentary group against anti-Semitism, was sent emails and tweets in which he is called “Utter Filth” and a “Zionist stooge.”

Mann had been a vocal opponent of Corbyn’s leadership race.

“I have very serious concerns about Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters,” Mann said in an interview to the Sunday Express. “I’ve received some vicious anti-Semitic abuse and I’m expecting the Labour Party to take action against this.

“This began six weeks ago when I challenged the membership system. I said it was crazy. This was something I’ve done several times, including in Parliament on May 10, before Corbyn was a leadership candidate.

“I warned the system would lead to all sort of groups joining in. It is a mad system open to abuse by everyone, from the far-right to the far-left.

“It seems I was right. I have been described as a servant of the Israeli Prime Minister, a Nazi Zionist, a Zionist scumbag. This is all because I chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism.”

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Mann said many of those sending abuse had openly expressed their support for Corbyn.

He said other non-Jewish MPs, including leadership candidate Liz Kendall and new Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan, were among those targeted for anti-Semitic abuse.

A Jewish politician from the Labour Party said on Friday that the views of Corbyn, who is far ahead in the race to take over the leadership of the main British opposition party, are cause for “serious concern.”

Ivan Lewis, the shadow, or minority, party cabinet minister who is also a former chief executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation, urged his party not to vote for Corbyn.

“Some of [Corbyn’s] stated political views are a cause for serious concern,” Lewis said in letter to his local party members on Friday, according to the Guardian. “At the very least he has shown very poor judgment in expressing support for and failing to speak out against people who have engaged not in legitimate criticism of Israeli governments but in anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

Corbyn, who has ties to the Socialist Campaign Group, Amnesty International and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, was criticized on Wednesday by the Jewish Chronicle, which claimed that he had ties to “Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright antisemites.”

“We are certain that we speak for the vast majority of British Jews in expressing deep foreboding at the prospect of Mr. Corbyn’s election as Labour leader,” the newspaper editorialized.

In response to the Jewish Chronicle editorial, Corbyn released a statement saying he was “proud to represent a multicultural constituency of people from all over the world and to speak at every opportunity of understanding between Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths,” the Guardian reported.

The Labour Party is expected to announce results of the leadership race on September 12.