London – The Labour party deputy leader was speaking on Andrew
Neil’s This Week where they were discussing whether it was ever acceptable to
make bad-taste jokes when she repeated an antisemitic joke she had protested
against in the past.
She said: “I’ve long been accused of being a humourless feminist and
I’ll give you two examples that I’ll protest about because they were offensive
and hurtful.
“So, this was a Guy’s Hospital rag magazine back in the day, and people
like Andrew say that these things are perfectly all right.
“One was ‘How do you get a
hundred Jews into a mini? One in the driving seat, 99 in the ashtray’ and that
is not funny.”
Mr Neil reacted with fury at the comment and said: “All right, well
we’ll stop with that one example and we won’t bore with the minute silence that
you would dare to think that I would think about that because you have no
knowledge of that at all.”
She then tried to defend herself but he told her to be quiet.
Mr Neil is has been vocal in the past about the need to fight
anti-Semitism and recently addressed the Holocaust Education Trust where he
spoke of how it was becoming more insidious and how society needed to be even
more vigilant.
Writing on Twitter after the programme was aired, the presenter said:
“What was wrong was 1) Even to tell that so called joke on live TV. 2) Claim I
would like the joke. Appalling on both counts”.
He rejected claims he had overreacted to Ms Harman’s, saying: “Really?
How would [you] have handled being accused of liking a vile antisemitic
slur?”
What was wrong was 1) Even to tell that so called joke on live TV. 2) Claim I would like the joke. Appalling on both counts. https://t.co/0RJVTVAX2U
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) November 3, 2017
After vile ‘joke’ she told I did her favour with “be quiet”. What would you have done if she’d accused you of liking anti-Semitic jokes? https://t.co/UkM31K2WuP
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) November 3, 2017
But Ms Harman defended herself on Twitter by posting an extract from her
recent autobiography, A Woman’s Work, where she recounted seeing the antisemitic
joke, along with another racist one about a Pakistani man, which she complained
about to the hospital and referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
She wrote: “The South London Press ran an editorial condemning me for
overreacting and being humourless. But the Jewish community and local black and
Asian organisations were deeply appreciative when the hospital apologised.”
Anti-Semitic “jokes/banter” perpetuate discrimination & hatred. No laughing matter #BBCTW pic.twitter.com/WisHfL6Ivn
— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) November 3, 2017
