Paul Calvert talks to Barbara Dingle as she celebrates Passover and Resurrection Sunday at the Jerusalem Channel Passover Conference in Israel



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Paul: Are their many Pro-Israel groups in Parliament?

Barbara: Yes. I think that Conservative Friends of Israel is one of the largest lobby groups within Parliament. There are also Labour friends of Israel and they are very important because sadly the Labour Party is full of people with very much an anti-Israel view, even anti-Semitic.

Those people in the Labour party, like Joan Ryan, although she has recently resigned, she was chairman of Labour Friends of Israel. Ian Austin is somebody else who was a Labour MP, he also resigned from the Labour party. He is an excellent man and all these people in the Labour party who support Israel certainly need our support. Another group we have is the Trade Union Friends of Israel and these brave people need all our support as well.

Paul: Just recently on International Holocaust day, Jeremy Hunt was there with a Holocaust survivor unveiling a statue of a UK hero Captain Frank Foley. Who was he and is it important to see someone like Jeremy Hunt getting involved in ceremonies like this?

Barbara: It is very important and I was very honoured to be there. And yes, Jeremy Hunt made an excellent speech as he unveiled this statue of Frank Foley who was a British diplomat. He wrote a lot of papers to save Jewish lives in the holocaust. So that is very important. What was amazing and I think ground breaking, was that at the Conservative Friends of Israel reception in Parliament, Jeremy Hunt was one of the main speakers, and I think for the first time ever, a British foreign secretary, probably a British government minister actually referred to the 1930's white paper restricting immigration to what was then Palestine as a 'black moment in British history'. That was really wonderful to behold that our Foreign secretary actually said that.

Paul: Do you think the British Government should apologise for what was done in that time?

Conservative Friends Of Israel

Barbara: It is always controversial talking about apologising for things from previous generations. I don't think the general public understand this, but yes I think it would be good. It is something that we certainly do need to repent of and interestingly I know many Christians especially here in the land, people in Israel, people like Rosie Ross and her repairing the breech team have done much repentance and it was indeed as Jeremy Hunt said "A black spot on British history".

Paul: We have heard about the Labour party, and a lot of the anti-Semitism that has been taking place within the Labour party. Are you surprised that there is still anti-Semitism today?

Barbara: Yes and no. We know it is the longest hatred in the history of humanity. We know ultimately it is a spiritual battle and I believe the devil is behind it. So in some ways I think until Jesus comes we are always going to have this battle.

Paul: Do you think anti Zionism is now the anti-Semitism?

Barbara: I do. It's very clever of the enemy, of anti-Semitic people to change the language. It's the same hatred, it's the same mindset, but instead of talking about Jews they talk about Israel. Yes, Israel is now used, the word Israel instead of Jews, where as Jewish businesses were blacklisted in the 30's during the holocaust. Now we have BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) working against Israel, it is the same mindset.

Paul: Does BDS actually work because you can boycott Israel but aren't Palestinians going to lose their jobs?

Barbara: Yes BDS doesn't work. That is why I am delighted to say bilateral trade between Israel and the UK is up and it is worth billions of pounds. Also there are things with our national health service, where something like 1 in 6 of the medications prescribed by the NHS comes from Teva; the pharmaceutical company in Israel. So I often say to people, if you're into BDS then you had better not get sick.

Paul: If you have got a heart for Israel should you be lobbying your MP about some of these issues that we are seeing rising up today?