SWC Welcomes Firing of UK Lawmaker Over Allegations that Israel Harvested Haiti Earthquake Victim's Organs

February 15, 2010

SWC Welcomes Firing of UK Lawmaker Over Allegations that Israel Harvested Haiti Earthquake Victim's Organs

The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed the firing of House of Lords Baroness Jenny Tonge as Health Spokesperson after she made comments calling ‘for an inquiry into allegations that Israeli solders were involved in organ trafficking in Haiti.’

This hatemongering was apparently also disseminated online by the Palestine Telegraph, of which Tonge is a Patron and, subsequently, posted on YouTube.”

A letter to UK Liberal Party Leader, Nick Clegg, by Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, commended him for taking action.

Samuels noted that “Tonge was already fired in 2004 as your Party Spokesperson on Childrens’issues for suggesting that she ‘could consider becoming a suicide bomber.’”

A Jerusalem Post article reiterated the Center's position and reprinted parts of the letter:

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center also welcomed the decision. In a letter sent to Clegg, director for international relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, commended him for removing Tonge from her position as health spokesperson in the Lords but called for her to be permanently expelled from the party.

“This agitator, reportedly known in radical circles as ‘Jihad Jenny’ is a hazard to the health, not only of the Liberal Democrat Party, but of the UK,” Samuels said. “Tonge’s language arguably encourages the Islamist call to British-born children as eventual recruits to Jihad.”

Samuels said he considered “Tonge’s apologies as “recurrent and showing no remorse” adding that as a “recidivist”, she should have no place in a party whose constitution claims to reject all prejudices and discrimination.

“We urge you to ensure that the Liberal Democrats live up to those values by definitively expelling ‘Jihad Jenny’ from your ranks. For, as long as she remains, the Liberal Democrat party is passively endorsing positions explicitly defined as anti-Semitic by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency’s 2004 Working Definition,” Samuels said.

For further information contact Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.


The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).