Gerald Kaufman, MP for Manchester Gorton, has been around since I was too young to vote. He would never describe himself as being on the left of the Labour Party but he is one of the best constituency MPs there is - and on Palestine his stance has been admirable.
Last night he spoke at a benefit for medical aid in Gaza and this is what he said:
"The slaughter we have seen in Gaza is only the latest blood soaked episode of many. In Gaza they have not got sewage, they have not gotmedical supplies or hospitals, they have not got schools to go to.
"It is for us to demonstrate that what is going on in the Middle East can't be excused by saying Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Many of my family were killed in the Holocaust. They did not die to provide cover for Israeli Jews to kill Palestinians."
"What we have to do is to give a voice to the people who care until Justice is brought to the people of Palestine.
"Nobody believed that apartheid would go in South Africa. But it did go. Now Apartheid in Palestine has to go. And it will go if we work for it to go. The erection of an Apartheid state can not go on. "
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
KAUFMAN ON GAZA
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3 comments:
Kaufman edited an excellent book called The Left more than 40 years ago. He also made an excellent comment when Benn resigned saying he was sorry that he hadn't gone many years earlier. If there were more Kaufmans then Labour would be in power permanently.
I would obviously disagree with Kaufman's comments on Benn and many of his policy positions - but he's been an MP a very long time for Manchester Gorton and people in the constituency have always praised his hard work ( whaetever their ideological disagreements).On Palestine, he has been very sound.
It was not only Kauffaman who was right on Benn. When Benn sat by the bedside of Bobby Sands, it was Michael Foot who vented his anger at the Geat Hypocrite asking how many more innocent peopel had to be killed by the IRA and why Benn's ego had to intrude on everything.
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