Former MP calls for pro-Hamas protesters to be jailed
A former Black Country MP has called for people chanting slogans in support of Hamas terrorists to be sent to jail.
Ian Austin, former Labour MP for Dudley North, and now an independent member of the House of Lords, criticised a 'deluded mob' of pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting 'from the river to the sea' at London's Liverpool Street station.
He said: "People chanting slogans supporting terrorism should be locked up, and if any of them are not British citizens, they should be booted out of the country.
"The Jewish community in Britain must be protected and those who commit hate crimes or support terror groups such as Hamas prosecuted."
Lord Austin said his own father arrived at Liverpool Street station as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany in 1939.
"It was shocking to see the station taken over by a pro-Palestinian mob on Tuesday," he said.
Writing for a national newspaper, Lord Austin said these chants were extremely intimidating for Jewish commuters.
"It is one thing to call for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel, but this hateful chant means a Palestinian state from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean, the area which includes Israel.
He said Hamas's own charter called for Jews to be killed, and said peace would mean the surrender of 'Islamic land'.
"It is utterly deluded to call for an immediate ceasefire," said Lord Austin.
"This is not campaigning for peace. "It is demanding Israel lays down its weapons, because a ceasefire would obviously not be observed by the terrorists, who would use it to plan their next attack."
Lord Austin said over the past month Hamas had fired more rockets at Israeli civilians than Germany did at Britain throughout the whole of the Blitz.
"These barbaric monsters tied defenceless families together and burned them alive, massacred babies and raped young women," he said.
"They kidnapped everyone from old ladies who survived concentration camps in the Holocaust to toddlers seized from their parents."
Lord Austin said this left Israel with little choice but to defend itself,
"It is heartbreaking to see the impact on innocent people in Gaza, but we must recognise that responsibility for their suffering lies completely with the terrorists who use civilians as human shields," he said.
"As long as they are allowed to do so, more civilian suffering will continue."
