Jews should "overcome" horror of Holocaust, says Corbyn ally

Mr Kent was speaking to supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for whom he is a patron with Mr Corbyn, outside Downing Street on Monday when he claimed the horrors of Germany’s Nazi regime had left people suffering from a “guilt complex” in relation to Israel.

He is also claimed Zionism did not represent Judaism and that many Jews “know this perfectly well”.

Mr Arkush said of the PSC speakers: “This motley band of people from the past show why we can be confident that when we make the case for Israel calmly and reasonably, we will expose the malicious posturing of those who think that the only way forward for a just and secure peace for all is to push Israel into the sea.

"That’s what we’re up against. It’s discredited, it’s nasty and it’s hateful, but that must be so obvious to all that we can be sure that history is with us.”

Addressing a crowd of 200 supporters, who had gathered to protest about Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Theresa May, former Roman Catholic priest Mr Kent gave his opinion on why the Israel/Palestine issue had yet to be resolved.

Mr Kent said: “The trouble is that many of us suffer from a guilt complex, certainly at my age.

“My wife’s great-aunt was cooped up a Berlin suburb in 1942,  put in a railway carriage and taken for five days and five nights without any food or water of any sort, then put in a gas chamber.

“The memory is something that inspires people in the wrong direction.

“We have all had terrible sufferings in history – all of us. But we actually have to overcome that and start to live like human beings together.

“I believe it is perfectly possible. And I think there are many many Jewish people –Jews for Justice [for Palestine] for one – who know this perfectly well.

“To be a Jew is  not to be a Zionist. That’s a different qualification.”

Last night John Mann MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism condemned Mr Kent’s speech.

The Labour MP said: “Bruce Kent ought to be studying the role of the church in antisemitism. But I doubt he ever has – or will.”

Mr Kent has repeatedly been pictured and attended meetings alongside Mr Corbyn with the Labour leader, who has been a high-profile campaigner for nuclear disarmament.

Others who spoke at the PSC demo on Monday included Baroness Jenny Tonge,  PSC chair Hugh Lanning and representatives from Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, and Jews for Justice for Palestine.

Ms Tonge said: “I am sick of hearing about new settlements and expansions. I am sick of children being bullied, battered and sometimes shot. I am sick to death with the way the Israeli government behaves. It is not a Jewish government – it’s nothing like the way Jewish people behave.”

A representative of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods claimed: “Because Zionism says Jews have special rights, Zionism is a racist ideology.”

He added: “Israel is a terrorist state. End Israel apartheid now”

She called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel insisting: “Never give up - Palestine will be free.”

Mr Lanning said: “Israel does not speak for the Jews of the world – it only speaks for Israel, if that.”

Zionist Federation protesters, who mounted a counter-demonstration, chanted: “We want peace – you want war” at the PSC demonstrators.

But a small group of the ZF crowd raised eyebrows when they began chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump” in support of the new US president.