Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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Senior U.K. diplomat said arrested over anti-Semitic tirade
« on: 2009-02-10 08:24:51 » |
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062752.html
Last update - 14:14 09/02/2009
Senior U.K. diplomat said arrested over anti-Semitic tirade
By Haaretz Service
A senior diplomat in the British Foreign Office has been arrested for inciting religious hatred after he launched into an anti-Semitic tirade at a London gym, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
Witnesses told the British newspaper they heard diplomat Rowan Laxton shouting "f**king Israelis, f**king Jews" while watching a TV report of Israel Defense Forces operations in Gaza from the seat of an exercise bike.
He also reportedly shouted that IDF soldiers [Bl.] (My emphasis) should be "wiped off the face of the Earth."
The Daily Mail said Laxton continued the tirade even after he was approached by other gym users.
A complaint was later filed to police and Laxton was arrested and charged with inciting religious hatred, which carries a maximum seven-year prison term. He has since been released on bail.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said in response to a query by Haaretz that, "We are aware that a complaint has been made to the Police about an alleged incident involving a member of our staff.
"The alleged incident was not in the course of his official duties. It is not appropriate to comment further until the Police have finished their enquiries."
Laxton is in charge of the South Asia Group at the Foreign office, where he is in charge of United Kingdom diplomacy for the region, according to the Daily Mail. His boss, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, is Jewish.
Laxton, who married a Muslim woman in 2000 and has lived in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, is considered an expert on the Middle East.
The British newspaper quotes Mark Gardner, deputy director of the Community Security Trust, a group that monitors anti-Semitism, as saying: "This alleged case is particularly shocking, given the position held by the civil servant in question."
The Daily Mail said that in response to a query on Monday, Laxton denied that his comments were anti-Semitic, but dodged answering whether they were anti-Israel. [Bl.] (My emphasis. )
[Blunderov] The law, as somebody once remarked, is an ass. Would inciting hatred against Israel count as inciting religious hatred? Clearly Israel is intent upon forging a state that is informed by Rabbinical law and no other. Does this therefore make it a religious state against which it is illegal to incite hatred? If so, then what about the statements by governments, including perfidious Albion, about other religious states like Iran or Afghanistan? Or are only government spokesmen allowed to speak "freely"?
A most strange and lozenge-shaped affair indeed. I await the court case with interest.
I feel a Snark quote coming on...
"You may charge me with murder--or want of sense--
(We are all of us weak at times):
But the slightest approach to a false pretense
Was never among my crimes!
"I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!"
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