UK's Jeremy Corbyn: IDF, Hamas are both terror groups

Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the UK's Labour Party, accused both the IDF and Hamas of being terrorist groups in an article he wrote for Tribute Magazine on Friday.

His article came in response to a vote held in the British Parliament on whether or not to support a ceasefire, where the majority of MPs voted against the ceasefire motion.

Corbyn, who has repeatedly refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist group and once famously referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as friends, compared the Israel-Hamas conflict to the conflict that divided Ireland. 

In the article, Corbyn writes of the suffering that Palestinian civilians in Gaza are experiencing. He attributed the suffering to the ongoing conflict but fails to mention Hamas withholding resources which could alleviate much of the distress experienced.

“With every passing minute, another human being in Gaza is killed. Survivors under siege are running out of the basic means of survival. Doctors are performing surgery without anesthesia. Babies are fighting for survival in incubators running out of electricity,” he wrote.

Corbyn’s controversial paragraph 7

In the 7th paragraph of the article, Corbyn mentions Hamas’s October 7 attack; which indiscriminately took the lives of 1200 people including children and foreign nationals. In this paragraph, Corbyn wrote “I deplore the targeting of all civilians. That includes Hamas’ attack on 7 October, which I have repeatedly condemned in Parliament, in print, and at every demonstration that I have attended.” [SIC]

In the same paragraph, Corbyn continued to speak about Gazan civilians suffering from the “25,000 tonnes of bombs onto a tiny strip of land populated by 2.2 million people” but he did not mention the daily barrage of rockets sent by Hamas and other groups which indiscriminately target Israeli civilians. 

Corbyn goes on to say, again in the 7th paragraph, that “If we understand terrorism to describe the indiscriminate killing of civilians, in breach of international law, then of course Hamas is a terrorist group.” Corbyn added that “The targeting of hospitals, refugee camps and so-called safe zones by the Israeli army are acts of terror too; and the killing of more than 11,000 people, half of whom are children, cannot possibly be understood as acts of self-defense.”

How would Corbyn solve the conflict?

Corbyn insisted that a “ceasefire is just the first step to the release of hostages, the end of the siege of Gaza, and a just and lasting peace.” 

He added that the next step was “dialogue between the people of Israel and the people of Palestine. This requires facilitating a conversation between all parties, which includes people with whom we vehemently disagree, and whose actions we have condemned.”

It was argued that, without applying the steps above, there would be an “endless cycle of occupation, terrorism and retribution, which leaves Israelis living in fear of hostilities and Palestinians with the promise of indiscriminate retribution.“

Lightly touching upon Hamas’s future role within the Gaza Strip, Corbyn wrote that Palestinians should decide who governs them. Gaza has not had an election since 2006.

Despite this, and Corbyn’s assertation that “Many of the Palestinians [he] knows are no supporters of Hamas,” a recent poll by the Arab World for Research and Development found that 63.6% of Palestinians in Gaza supported the October 7 attack and a further 74.7% of Palestinians said they exclusively supported a single Palestinian state. 

“Peace is not possible without understanding the root cause of its absence,” Corbyn added. “[We] have to understand that Palestinians are living under occupation and a system of apartheid.”