MP 'disgusted' as Black Country baroness resigns in anti-Semitism row
An MP has branded comments made at a House of Lords event where Jewish people were blamed for the Holocaust as 'totally unacceptable'.
A speaker at the meeting chaired by Tipton-born Baroness Tonge also compared Israel to terror group Islamic State.
Baroness Tonge resigned from the Liberal Democrats at the same time as she was suspended from the party. She later told the Express & Star she had not heard the full 'rant'.
But Walsall North MP David Winnick said he was 'disgusted' by the comments, which were made at the event run by the Palestinian Return Centre.
One speaker told the event: "Just as the so-called Jewish state in Palestine doesn't come from Judaism, Muslims will say that this Islamic State in Syria is nothing to do with Islam.
"It is a perversion of Islam just as Zionism is a perversion of Judaism."
The speaker later referred to a rabbi as a 'heretic', adding he 'made the economic boycott on Germany which antagonised Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systemically kill Jews wherever he could find them as opposed to just make Germany a Jew-free land'.
He went on to say that the rabbi told the New York Times in 1905 that there were 'six million bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism'. The speaker urged the audience to note the number.
This famous quotation is regularly used by Holocaust deniers to suggest that the figure of six million Jews later killed by the Nazis was a myth.
Mr Winnick, who is Jewish, said: "The comments made are totally unacceptable. The comments amount to Holocaust denial and heresy. All those who made comments should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves."
But speaking to the Express & Star, Baroness Tonge insisted that she had not heard the speaker's words properly.
"I was chairing the meeting so I didn't speak. I think the remark was made by an ultra orthodox Jew who went on a rant, which many found difficult to understand.
"I didn't pick up what he said and others didn't either so I can't really comment further on what he said," said Baroness Tonge, who attended Dudley Girls' High School.
"I do think it's quite ridiculous that chairing a meeting where there is a lot of heated debate and shouts can mean getting disciplined because I have not argued with the speakers," added the peer who joined the party in 1959.
She had previously been nicknamed 'Jihad Jenny' after reportedly sympathising with suicide bombers.
A Lib Dem spokesman confirmed Baroness Tonge had been suspended by the party pending an investigation. The peer said she would now sit as an independent.
The comments made at the event have also outraged the Israeli Embassy in London, with spokesman Yiftah Curiel saying it was 'hard to believe' what had happened.
Baroness Tonge said she 'wouldn't have thought' there was anti-Semitism at the meeting but said she cannot speak for every person at the meeting individually.
"I know that I have never been, never will be anti-Semitic," she added. "Of course I stand by chairing the meeting."
A House of Lords spokesman said: "This was an event privately organised by a member.
"The content of such meetings is a matter for the member and not the House of Lords."
