Search

British train union boss, Corbyn supporter, rails against Jewish activist in ‘anti-Semitic tirade’

Steve Hedley can be seen shouting at pro-Israel supporter Richard Millett in the re-emerged 2011 video.

By World Israel News Staff

Calls for British rail union leader Steve Hedley to resign have followed the release of a 2011 video showing him “spewing out racist poison” in an “anti-Semitic tirade” against a Jewish activist, The Daily Mail reports on Saturday.

Hedley, whom the Mail describes as “militant” for his threats to hold a rail strike on Christmas, is seen in the video yelling at pro-Israel activist Richard Millett during a talk entitled Palestine’s Fight For Freedom at the School of African and Oriental Studies.

“You’re an absolute disgrace to the Jewish people. You are a modern-day fascist, you are a modern-day Nazi, by supporting those policies that oppress a… minority in your own state,” Hedley said.

“What the Nazis did to you, you’re doing to the Palestinians,” he said.

When Millett says, “Feel better?” Hedley says, “Better than you, obviously. But then again, you’re one of the chosen people, so you might feel better than me, huh?”

“So it’s about being Jewish?,” Millett said.

“It’s about being a Zionist,” Hedley answers.

Millett became widely known after British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he lacked “English irony,” the Mail reports. The comment was widely viewed as anti-Semitic.

Hedley is also a supporter of Corbyn.

Hedley is facing calls to resign from his £105,000- a-year role as Senior Assistant General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) over the outburst at a pro-Palestinian meeting.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Millett commented on Hedley’s remarks.

Millett said that Hedley’s “chosen people” comment “is a reference to the Bible, it’s not about Israel but Jews in general. It’s about the Jews being given a purpose by God to go out into the world and do good things. It has nothing to do with being a better person.

“But it’s been reinvented as a derogatory term which basically means, ‘You think you’re better than me because you’re Jewish.'”

Millett said, “I don’t see how someone who makes such obviously anti-Semitic remarks can hold such a senior role at a union. He should resign from his position.

“But I feel these people have been emboldened to say what they really think and can get away with it now that Corbyn is Labour leader. And if he becomes Prime Minister, nothing is going to stop them.”

Hedley has said that he regrets using the phrase.

The Mail reports that a former Labour MP, Ian Austin, said “Here we go again. Yet another of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest associates spewing out racist poison.”

“This is anti-Semitism, pure and simple,” he said, calling on Corbyn to “condemn these disgusting comments.”