Senior UK lawmaker praises article tying George Floyd killing to Israel
Rebecca Long-Bailey. Image by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
(JTA) — A prominent British lawmaker for the Labour Party praised and retweeted an article that claimed falsely that Israeli secret services trained U.S. police in knee chokes.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, who ran for the party’s leadership in April and now is its point person for education issues, wrote Thursday on Twitter, “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond” and enclosed a link to an article about the British actress and anti-capitalism activist.
In the Independent article, Peake is quoted as saying that “Systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
The article included a denial of the claim by the Israel Police, whose spokesperson, Micky Rosenfeld, stated that “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway.”
The case of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody on May 25 when an officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes, has triggered an outcry over perceived police racism.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called the claim a false “conspiracy theory,” adding in a statement that she had asked Long-Bailey to retract it.
The lawmaker on Twitter then wrote that her endorsement was of Peake’s “significant achievements” and not “of all aspects of the article.”
Van der Zyl called that tweet “pathetic,” reiterating the demand that Long-Bailey retract her endorsement.
The post Senior Labour lawmaker praises article tying George Floyd killing to Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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