Israeli minister: British MPs 'encouraged terrorist attacks' with Palestine vote

Israel’s intelligence and strategic affairs minister Yuval Steinitz has accused British MPs of “encouraging terrorist attacks”, following the parliamentary vote in support of Palestinian statehood.

Steinitz, a senior cabinet figure and member of PM Netanyahu’s Likud party, made the remarks in an interview with The Telegraph while on a visit to London.

He described the 274-12 vote as “miserable”, and said it left him “surprised” and “frustrated.”

In the immediate aftermath of the vote, Israeli deputy education minister Avi Wortzman took to Facebook to comment that the way “[ISIS] is developing over your way in London is really lovely”, adding: “They truly feel at home.”

Meanwhile, at a rally on 19 October in Manchester attended by Chancellor George Osborne, Board of Deputies’ vice president Jonathan Arkush accused MPs of displaying “bigotry and bile”, condemning the vote in the same breath as he cited “attacks on synagogues.”

The response by Israel advocates to the parliamentary vote has been criticised by many, including in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, whose correspondent claimed that Britain’s Jewish leadership had “out-manoeuvered a right-wing Israeli government, from the right.”