THE Foreign Office has intervened with the Israeli government after a minister shared a secretly filmed recording of a senior Labour MP.
Emily Thornberry, a former Labour frontbencher who now chairs Westminster’s Foreign Affairs Committee, had asked the UK Government to step in after an unauthorised recording of her was shared online by Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel.
At a committee hearing with Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer on Tuesday, Thornberry said: “A video of us at the Knesset [the Israeli parliament] 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.”
She went on: “There were many things said in the Knesset by many members of the Knesset that we found quite provocative and indeed, if I'm really honest, quite insulting – and the attitude of some of the members of the Knesset were remarkably rude.
“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.”
The National understands that the Foreign Office raised the issue with their Israeli counterparts and that the video was removed as a result.
However, no apology has been forthcoming and the Israeli government has not responded to a request for comment.
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The Jewish Chronicle reported that a “senior source” who had been present at the meeting claimed that the video was not a secret.
“It was obvious to everyone in the large committee room that the meeting was being filmed. No one from the British delegation asked for Chatham House rules or said the meeting was off record,” they told that paper.
The recording had seen Haskel ask Thornberry: “What happens if there are elections tomorrow in the West Bank? Did you go there to talk to them? Why haven’t there been elections there?”
During her response, Haskel interrupted the Labour MP, saying: "The fact is that there are no elections because the day after Hamas is going to take control."
Thornberry had also raised concerns that the video had been briefed to The Daily Telegraph “in disparaging terms”.
“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 a video posted by Ms Haskel on Instagram, she calmly asked Ms Thornberry if the Labour MP understood the unhappy history of democratic exercises in the Palestinian territories; if she had spoken to anyone in the West Bank to ask how they would vote (Ms Haskel believes they would vote for Hamas).
“In the end, Ms Thornberry trailed off mid-sentence, meekly waving her hand, perhaps relieved to move the conversation on.”
