Baroness Jenny Tonge has been sacked

Baroness Jenny Tonge, a Liberal Democrat frontbencher in Britain, has been sacked as the party's health spokeswoman after urging an inquiry into charges that Israeli forces in Haiti harvested the organs of victims, British media outlets reported Saturday.

Tonge, who served as a Liberal Democrat spokeswoman in the House of Lords, has been removed from the post.

Party lead Nick Clegg initially refused to take steps against Tonge, whose comments were published by The Jewish Chronicle Thursday. However, he later changed his position, dismissing the baroness' comments as "wrong and distasteful."

In a statement issued by Clegg, Saturday he said: "Following discussions with the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, I have decided that Jenny Tonge will stand down as Liberal Democrat health spokesperson in the Lords following her unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF humanitarian operation in Haiti."

"The comments were wrong, distasteful and provocative and I recognize the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community," he said, while noting that he does not believe that Jenny Tonge is anti-Semitic or racist.

Source: http://www.thejc.com/

Britain - Former British MP Tonge: Probe claims of IDF organ theft in Haiti

Baroness Jenny Tonge, a former Liberal Democrat member of the British parliament, said this week that Israel should set up an inquiry to disprove allegations that its medical teams in Haiti “harvested” organs of earthquake victims for use in transplants.

The organ theft claims were published last week in the Palestine Telegraph, an online journal based in Gaza of which Baroness Tonge is a patron.

Tonge told the JC that IDF forces were “to be commended for their fantastic response to the Haitian earthquake," but added, “To prevent allegations such as these — which have already been posted on YouTube — going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”

Ed Fordham, the Lib Dem candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, was quoted by the JC as saying, “It’s abhorrent that anyone should suggest that something as perverse and sick as this should be investigated.”

Monroe Palmer, chairman of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, added, “Whilst I welcome Tonge’s approval of Israeli actions in Haiti, she is misguided to call for any investigation. On this basis, there could be calls for an investigation to discover the ‘truth’ in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

The allegations came in an article titled Focus on Israel: Harvesting Haitian Organs by an American researcher, Stephen Lendman, who accused Israel of a “crime against humanity”.

Lendman referred to a “damning” YouTube video uploaded by an American resident of Seattle, Washington, accusing soldiers in the IDF delegation to the earthquake site in Haiti of being involved in stealing organs from their patients.

The man, who calls himself T. West, fronts a group called AfriSynergy Productions, whose declared goal is to empower the black man. The video purports to present something to think about while exploiting the horrible tragedy that has befallen Haiti to recycle false claims that IDF soldiers engage in organ trafficking.

Source: http://www.thejc.com/