British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Reuters / Pierre Albouy.

Ten years after UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn infamously referred to terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends” during a parliamentary meeting, Hamas finally returned the compliment with a statement “saluting” the far-left politician for his “principled position.”

The lead item on the official Hamas website on Friday showed a photograph of Corbyn above a fulsome statement of appreciation for the message that the Labour leader sent to a Palestinian solidarity rally in London last weekend.

The statement said that Hamas had “received with great respect and appreciation the solidarity message sent by the British Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.”

Corbyn’s words reflected his “support and solidarity with the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights to freedom, independence and self-determination,” the statement said. “It also condemns the ongoing occupation and its crimes against our people, and reflects an advanced moral and political position worthy of all praise and thanks.”

It continued: “We also salute Mr. Jeremy Corbyn for his principled position in rejecting the so-called Trump Plan for the Middle East or the ‘Deal of the Century’ if it was based on erasing Palestinian rights, primarily the right to an independent state.”

The statement ended by calling on the current British government “to stop supporting the Israeli occupation state and to listen to the voice of wisdom and reason and adopt policies in support of the Palestinian legitimate rights that will lead to stability in this vitally important and highly turbulent region.”

According to the London-based Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally where Corbyn’s message was received with raucous cheers was unambiguously hostile to the Jewish community.

Groups present included the neo-fascist National Front, along with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the CAA said.

The CAA noted that the rally participants “cheered as a speaker, Glyn Secker, told them that American rabbis fueled the neo-Nazis who shot and killed worshippers at synagogues in the United States, and that Jewish organizations and leaders were ‘in the gutter with rats’ and ‘part of the problem.'”

The same crowd “began cheering at the mere mention of Mr Corbyn’s name and applause and cheering continued as his statement was read,” the group reported.