In the latest anti-Semitism controversy engulfing the Labour Party, the former Labour Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was suspended for bringing the Labour Party into disrepute after stating in a BBC radio interview this morning that “Hitler was supporting Zionism”.
Speaking in defence of Naz Shah MP, who was suspended from the Labour Party yesterday after it emerged she had made a series of anti-Semitic social media posts, including one which called on Israelis to be “relocated” to the United States, Mr Livingstone said: “Hitler was supporting Zionism… Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
He added that Naz Shah was the victim of a “well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby”.
In the same interview, he said it was “over the top…to think of anti-Semitism and racism as exactly the same thing”.
Click here to listen to the interview.
In a separate interview this morning on the Today programme, Labour MP Rupa Huq defended Naz Shah’s actions as a “silly” mistake, stating: “Naz Shah did not write any anti-Semitic tracts, she just clicked share”.
The MP for Ealing Central and Acton then compared tweeting a graphic of Israelis being transported out of the Middle East to tweeting a funny photo of Boris Johnson on a zip-wire.
Click here to listen to the interview.
In the most high-profile incident yet of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, it emerged that Bradford West MP Naz Shah called for the State of Israel to be removed from the Middle East and “relocated” to the United States.
Yesterday, new details emerged of social media posts she made arguing that terror group Hamas is a “legitimate resistance movement”, as well as her employment of an anti-Semitic parliamentary aide.
In a u-turn, the Labour Party announced that Ms Shah was to be suspended from the party by the General Secretary: “Pending investigation, she is unable to take part in any party activity and the whip is removed”.
