Britain bans Israeli legislator, welcomes Hezbollah propagandist

posted at 6:00 pm on March 10, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Moshe Feiglin had no plans to visit the UK, but the British have banned him from entry anyway. The Israeli legislator received a letter from the Home Office explaining that his written opinions about the Arab war on Jews met their criteria of hate speech and/or incitement to violence, and that his presence would not be “conducive to the public good”:

The UK’s Home Office has banned Likud central committee member Moshe Feiglin from entering Britain.

A letter sent to Feiglin from the office of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, and published in this week’s Jewish Chronicle, says the minister has excluded him from the country, even though he had no plans to visit.

“I am writing to advise you that following the London bombings in July 2005, the home secretary announced a list of particular activities that would normally lead to a person being excluded or deported from the UK on the grounds that their presence in the country is not conducive to the public good,” the letter reads.

The unacceptable activities listed in the two-page letter include “writing, producing, publishing or distributing material; public speaking including preaching; running a Web site and using a position of responsibility” to “foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.”

What did Feiglin write? In one excerpt quoted by the Home Office letter, Feiglin called Mohammed “strong, cruel, and deceitful.” In another, Feiglin said that the Israelis have the right to declare war, but on the people assisting the Arabs through their moral relativism:

“In order to declare that we are right, we have to declare war. It’s not the Arabs who are murdering mothers, but those merciful people who gave weapons to the murderers. It’s not the Arabs who are burning babies, but the peaceniks who recognized the justice of the Arabs’ cause. It’s not the cruel people who are bombing us, but the merciful people who showed them mercy. War now! A holy war now.”

The Home Office may have a point with at least the latter, although it seems more likely that Feiglin intended this as a rhetorical “holy war”. Even if not, though, the British seem to have a double standard when it comes to exclusions. Just a few days ago, they granted access to Ibrahim Mousawi, a high-ranking editor for Al Manar, the Hezbollah propaganda station based in Lebanon. Here’s a sample of Al Manar programming from MEMRI:

Israel is now in the throes of death, due to the grip that has tightened around its neck. I used to be one of those who did not support acts that can be characterized as adventurous, like destroying American targets, blowing them up. But now… yesterday I was thinking about this and I looked up what the jurisprudents had to say in this matter. I hold that people who cannot stand with the Islamic resistance, but can carry out, in their countries and in other places, actions that would in some way paralyze this enemy – they should indeed paralyze the enemies’ interests, and destroy their facilities wherever they may be, but on condition that they do not confuse things.

Also this, a poem by a little girl after the killing of Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin:

“Oh Muslims, Palestine is calling you, respond to the call. Jerusalem is calling you, beat the drums of jihad, open the doors, the slumber has lasted too long. I called and called, but they are all deaf, mute, dead.

“You will not be spared by the Zionist robbers. Woe to them, quivering from the echo of an avenging child’s cry. Their heart is shattered by a cry of ‘Allah Akhbar‘ from a bare-chested child, his weapon is ‘Allah Akhbar,’ ‘Allah Akhbar,’ ‘Allah Akhbar.’”

The Home Office might want to rethink their exclusion policies if they keep out an Israeli elected official but allow radical Islamist propagandists into the country. Otherwise, the poems may someday substitute London for Jerusalem.

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