Jeremy Corbyn, the United Kingdom’s former Labour Party leader, refused to define Hamas as a terrorist organization in a televised interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV on Monday.
Corbyn made a similar refusal on October 9, only two days after Hamas invaded Israel and brutally murdered 1,200 people.
He refused to assign this label despite Hamas being designated a terrorist organization under the UK’s Terrorism Act—and his own 2016 admission that he regretted describing Hamas and Hezbollah as friends.
Avoiding condemning Hamas again
Piers Morgan asks Jeremy Corbyn 15 times whether the former Labour leader thinks Hamas is a terror group.Jeremy Corbyn refuses to answer.@piersmorgan | @jeremycorbyn pic.twitter.com/F9kr1OLtj1
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) November 13, 2023
In the heated discussion, Morgan can be heard repeatedly asking Corbyn, "Can you call them a terrorist group, Jeremy?" In response, Corbyn avoids the question and asks "Is it possible to have a rational discussion with you?"
After much avoidance, Corbyn promises to say something in response to the popular interviewer's questions, but his promise is left unfulfilled when the former Labour leader attempts to divert the conversation to the topic of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The clip ends with Morgan's other guest—British trade unionist Len McCluskey, leader of Unite the Union, which supported the Labour Party and its former leader—affirming that "of course" Hamas is a terrorist group, to which Corbyn can be seen rolling his eyes.
Gary Mond, Chairman of the National Jewish Assembly in the UK, told The Jerusalem Post, "It is no surprise at all that Jeremy Corbyn will not condemn Hamas nor describe them as a terrorist organization. In the past he has referred to them as his friends.
"Much more worrying is the extent to which his views are partially and possibly fully shared by others in the Labour Party, especially the roughly 200 Labour MPs and the 200 to 250... Labour Parliamentary candidates who might become MPs about a year from now if Labour wins the next UK general election to the extent our opinion polls suggest," Mond said. "This is absolutely beyond frightening."