UK: Lobby group paid for former Home Secretary Suella Braverman's £28,000 trip to Israel
A lobby group spent tens of thousands of pounds on former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman's four-night visit to Israel in the spring.
According to the parliamentary register of interests, the National Jewish Assembly spent £27,801 ($36,129) on the trip, which Braverman stated was a "solidarity visit to Israel following 7 October attacks".
The sum included close to £1,000 for flights for Braverman and her husband, and close to £27,000 for "accommodation, meals and visits within Israel".
Based in North London, the National Jewish Assembly says it is a "representative" Jewish organisation, which serves as a "conduit for the communication of the views of British Jewry to government".
Three priority areas for the organisation, according to its website, are the promotion of "Jewish life", support for Israel and tackling antisemitism.
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The visit took place between 31 March and 4 April 2024, months after Braverman was sacked by the then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak, after she wrote an article accusing London's Metropolitan Police of displaying double standards in their policing of pro-Palestine and far-right protests.
As home secretary, Braverman described protests against Israel's war on Gaza as "hateful" and wanted to ban chants calling for the liberation of Palestine "from the river to the sea".
Under Braverman, the Home Office mulled whether to ban the display of Palestinian flags at protests.
In a letter she wrote in October, Braverman called on police forces to be alert for displays of Hamas flags, logos or other demonstrations of support for the Palestinian militant group.
Hamas was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in 2021.
But Braverman also called on police to consider the context in which Palestinian flags are waved to assess whether public order offences of harassment or incitement may have been committed.
"Behaviours that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example, the waving of a Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate such as when intended to glorify acts of terrorism," she wrote.
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