EXCL Labour MP demands Shadow Cabinet minister apologise for Auschwitz and Palestine comments

A senior Labour MP has called on a Shadow Cabinet member to apologise over comments where he appeared to draw a comparison between Auschwitz and the treatment of Palestinians.



Andy McDonald made the remarks as he defended one of his key aides for describing Israel as "an apartheid state".

PoliticsHome revealed last week how Karl Hansen, who is policy adviser to the Shadow Transport Secretary, had tweeted a link to an article about Bedouin nomads being ordered to pay the costs for the demolition of their own homes in Israel and wrote: "How anyone could read this article and deny that Israel is an apartheid state is beyond me."

Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, Mr McDonald appeared to compare the treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazis' extermination of European Jews during the Second World War.

"As an MP I had the privilege with the Holocaust Educational Trust to go over to Auschwitz and take over the enormity of that atrocity and that has absolutely shaped and formed my thinking and to see what such an abomination that was," Mr McDonald told the Paterson on Sunday programme.

"At the same time I've also travelled to the West Bank and seen what life is like on a daily basis for Palestinians."

But in a letter to Mr McDonald, Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan said comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany "constitute a form of anti-Semitism".

The Enfield North MP added: "As the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust made clear in response, your comments are highly offensive.

"Jeremy Corbyn acknowledged yesterday the pain and hurt caused to the Jewish community by anti-Semitism within the Labour party.

"In that spirit, I would ask that you urgently retract your comments and issue a public apology for them."

EXCL Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan MP demands Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald apologise over comments he made about Auschwitz and Palestinians on Sky News on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/8dtdIn7t84 — Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) 27 March 2018

In response, Mr McDonald said he "did not and would not draw a comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany".

He said: "It is my fervent hope that all of us in the Labour party will engage in good faith with each other so that we can successfully tackle the scourge of anti-Semitism and be true allies to Jewish people and communities."

NEW: Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald responds to Joan Ryan's letter demanding he apology for comments about Auschwitz and Palestine. pic.twitter.com/HE0wno8PNy — Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) 27 March 2018

APOLOGY

The latest Labour anti-Semitism row comes a day after hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to demand Mr Corbyn does more to tackle the problem.

The Labour leader also apologised for defending an anti-Semitic mural on Facebook in 2012.

He said: "While the forms of anti-Semitism expressed on the far right of politics are easily detectable, such as Holocaust denial, there needs to be a deeper understanding of what constitutes anti-Semitism in the labour movement.

"Sometimes this evil takes familiar forms – the east London mural which has caused such understandable controversy is an example. The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. This was long ago, and rightly, described as 'the socialism of fools'.

"I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012."

Mr Corbyn, who is also seeking a meeting for the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council to discuss the problem, said he was a "militant opponent of anti-Semitism" and pledged to do all he could to stamp it out of the Labour party.