A SENIOR Labour MP has asked the UK Government to intervene after an Israeli foreign minister secretly videoed their private conversation and shared it online.
Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, called for UK ministers to step in after she was recorded without “knowledge or consent” during a visit to the Israeli parliament – the Knesset.
The unauthorised video was then posted online by Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister.
Thornberry called for the UK Government to intervene as Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer answered her committee’s questions on Tuesday.
Raising the Israel trip, she said: “Would you expect, minister, if there was a visiting delegation of members of parliament to the House of Commons, for the delegation to be videoed without their knowledge or consent?”
Falconer said: “Certainly not. I think that'd be very unusual.”
Thornberry went on: “Or for it to be put onto Instagram and indeed briefed to, let's say, the Daily Telegraph in disparaging terms.”
Falconer said: “I'm not familiar with the details, but clearly if someone was visiting the House of Commons, we want to show them courtesy.”
Thornberry went on: “It would be particularly bad, wouldn't it, if it was the deputy foreign minister of Israel who would be videoed in the UK and for disparaging comments to be made about her evidence or a private meeting that she'd had, let's say, with us?
“Because the opposite has just happened to us and a video of us at the Knesset meeting the deputy foreign minister has been posted on Instagram.
“We understand that, I mean, certainly we had no knowledge that it was being videoed and assumed, of course, that it would never happen and I have to say I've just found out about it and to say that I'm cross might be an understatement.”
“We did our utmost to keep decorum at all times and to remain polite and restrained. But I do think this takes it to another level, and I would ask the Foreign Office to investigate this, please, and to find out why this has happened, who made the decision, and to ask them to take it down and to apologise.”
Responding, Falconer said: “Chair, thank you for bringing it to my attention. It's obviously the first I've heard about it. I'll look into it and come back to the committee.”
The video in question had been shared on Instagram by Israeli deputy foreign minister Haskel.
It was then reported by The Telegraph in an ingratiating interview-cum-profile of the politician.
The paper reported: “Ms Haskel is one of those magnetic individuals who don’t raise their voices in order to make a point. Instead, there is an intense relentlessness – she is utterly certain of the Manichaean justice of her case, that history is on her side, as she crushes the arguments in front of her.
“Emily Thornberry, the Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, found this out the hard way last month when she visited Jerusalem to discuss the fabled two-state solution.
“In the end, Ms Thornberry trailed off mid-sentence, meekly waving her hand, perhaps relieved to move the conversation on.”
The Israeli government has been approached for comment.
