A foreign office minister has caused outrage after implying Jeremy Corbyn used antisemitic language while speaking out against the UK’s arming of the Israeli military. Lincoln MP Hamish Falconer was speaking during an urgent question in the House of Commons about the proposed expansion of the illegal E1 settlement in the West Bank, which would see Israel build more than 3,000 homes there. Falconer criticised the E1 project, which he said would divide the area “in two” and “mark a serious breach of international law”. He confirmed that ministers were “in discussions” over a ban on goods from Israeli West Bank settlements. But Corbyn, the Your Party parliamentary leader, said such a measure would be toothless without also stemming the flow of weapons and military cooperation to Israel. “It is Israel’s strategy, Israel’s plan, and Israel’s determination we are up against. Merely condemning them for this occupation of E1 will achieve nothing,” Corbyn said. “There has to be a policy of stopping all arms trade and military cooperation of any sort with Israel until they end this settlement policy. Anything less than that simply will be just hand-wringing that the Israeli government will just ignore.” In response, Falconer said MPs needed to be “really careful in our language”.

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