Boris Johnson says ‘antisemitic’ march on Armistice Day is ‘obscene’

Boris Johnson says ‘antisemitic’ march on Armistice Day is ‘obscene’
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 06/11/2023

- 08:04

Updated: 06/11/2023

- 08:15

The former PM said: ‘They were trying to terrify. They were using human terror as an instrument of war and violence to achieve their political ends, that is not what the Israelis are trying to do.’

Boris Johnson has said that it would be “obscene” to hold an “antisemitic” protest march against Israeli military action in Gaza on Armistice Day.

The former Prime Minister told GB News during a visit to Israel: “They should remember that Remembrance Sunday is there very largely to commemorate the many, many people in our country, but also across the Commonwealth, who fought against Nazism and fascism.

“And I think for them to go out and demonstrate in favour of an antisemitic pogrom - which is what they would be doing - is obscene…

Speaking to GB News’ Home and Security Editor Mark White, he continued: “I certainly want to see a two-state solution. I want to see that somehow or other that has got to be achieved.

“I don't think it's reasonable to expect that the Israelis can have on their doorstep an armed state with a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence run by Hamas. Absolutely not.

“There is just no way that is going to happen. That's off the agenda. So there will have to be some other solution and there are many different permutations, but that's where it will end up.

“But for the time being we've got to focus on, I think the Israelis have got to focus on taking the necessary steps to ensure this can never happen again.”

He added: “What I will say is that the people who take those decisions about the use of terrorist or not terrorist, they should go to the rooms that I've just been in.

“They should go…where the brutality was dispensed by those Hamas terrorists and they will be in absolutely no doubt what those people were trying to do.

“They were trying to terrify. They were using human terror as an instrument of war and violence to achieve their political ends, that is not what the Israelis are trying to do.”

After visiting one of the villages attacked by Hamas, he said: “Look at what happened. Remember, this is sadism.

“This was an orgy of brutality and torture against innocent people, who were chased around the rooms in their houses and shot.

“Now, there's a difference between that and what the Israeli soldiers are trying to do in Gaza.

“What the international community needs to remember is the difference between what Israel experienced, the terrorist attack, and what they're trying to do now.

“What they're trying to do now is make sure that never happens again.”

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