Labour MP Nadia Whittome held a meeting in Parliament with an activist who said that “plotting” Zionists would be “removed” from the Middle East and praised a rabidly antisemitic cleric, the JC can reveal.
Saleem Nusseibeh, who was part of a delegation from campaign group Palestinian Forum in Britain that met Whittome in December last year, can be seen in a video clip recorded two months earlier praising Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s “commitment to the causes for the liberation of the ummah [the Muslim world]”.
Qaradawi, who died in September 2022, was known for his extreme antisemitic statements, including a call for the “annihilation” of Jews and his claim that the Holocaust “put Jews in their place”.
Nusseibeh, who headed University College London’s Justice in Palestine Society, also told a recent anti-Israel demonstration outside UCL that the “third intifada will bring the Zionist entity to its knees”.
Salem Nusseibeh at a demonstration outside University College London
At another rally in January 2022, the activist told protesters that “plotting” Zionists would be “removed (from the Middle East), their presence will be gone” as students chanted the
Hamas rallying cry “From the river to the sea”.
When contacted by the JC, Whittome, the MP for Nottingham East, failed to explain why she had agreed to a parliamentary meeting that included an activist with such an inflammatory record.
Instead, Whittome said she supported “a negotiated, diplomatic settlement based on two states — a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, alongside a safe and se-cure Israel — and I have met both Jewish and Palestinian groups to discuss both Israel-Palestine and UK politics since being elected to Parliament”.
She added that she had “long been outspoken against antisemitism in all its forms, including its manifestation in certain critiques of Israel and Zionism.”
Writing on Facebook about its meeting, the Palestinian Forum said it had raised with Whittome “the draft law that the British government intends to adopt to criminalise the BDS boycott movement of the occupation state of Israel”.
The MP, who travelled to “Palestine” last May on a trip organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told the JC: “The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is not something I have endorsed, as I believe that some of its calls to action do not enhance the prospects of peace and reconciliation.
"However, I am concerned about the government’s proposed bill, which would stop public bodies from taking a different approach to the government on foreign relations”.
Whittome added that she had "no prior awareness of the remarks you have quoted to us and attributed to Saleem Nusseibeh, and of course I in no way condone them."
Whittome was one of a number of MPs and peers to sign a 2022 letter to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, expressing concern about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged annexation plans.
The JC has asked the Palestinian Forum in Britain and the Labour Party for comment.
