Israel/Palestine

Source: Times of Israel

Former London mayor told he’s brought party into disrepute; British Jewish leadership: He lacks all decency, expel him from Labour

Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Thursday suspended a veteran and senior member, Ken Livingstone, after he claimed that Adolf Hitler was initially a supporter of Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews,” and charged that for decades in the UK there has been a “well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticizes Israel policy as anti-Semitic.”

The comments by Livingstone, a veteran former London mayor who sits on Labour’s national executive and heads the opposition party’s international policy commission, prompted outraged calls, including by many of his colleagues, for his removal from the party, and intensified a crisis in Labour over anti-Semitism within its ranks.

“Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour Party, pending an investigation, for bringing the Party into disrepute,” Labour announced.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Livingstone should be kicked out of Labour altogether. Board President Jonathan Arkush said: “Ken Livingston’s comments were abhorrent and beyond disgraceful. His latest comments combine Holocaust revisionism with anti-Semitism denial, when the evidence is there for all to see. He lacks any sense of decency. He must now be expelled from the Labour Party.”

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-spiraling-anti-semitism-row-labour-suspends-livingstone-for-saying-hitler-backed-zionism/