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Ken Livingstone says creation of Israel was a 'great catastrophe' in TV interview

In an Arabic TV interview, Ken Livingstone reportedly said: 'The creation of the state of Israel was fundamentally wrong'

Friday 06 May 2016 17:07 BST

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Ken Livingstone calls creation of Israel a 'catastrophe'

Ken Livingstone has denied comments he made about Adolf Hitler harmed Labour's election results, as more incendiary remarks made by the former London mayor emerged in which he said the creation of the state of Israel was "a great catastrophe".

Mr Livingstone, who was suspended from the party last week after suggesting Adolf Hitler supported Zionism before he "went mad", returned to the airwaves on election day blaming "far right" Labour MPs for stoking up division in the party.

Questioned on the fallout from his comments, he told Sky News: "The simple fact is, so many people have gone on to the internet now, they have seen Joseph Finkelstein's brilliant interview.

"A lot of people, it's a shock to discover there had been that relationship between a small section of the Jewish community in Germany and Adolf Hitler but it's historically true.

"And the simple reality of all of that is we shouldn't be ashamed about some of the mistakes our government has made in the past and I don't think the people of Israel, don't need to be ashamed of what happened 80 years ago."

HIs comments followed the emergence of a new interview in which he said that creating Israel was "fundamentally wrong".

In an interview with Arabic TV station Al Ghad Al Arabi filmed on 20 April and broadcast on Wednesday, he said: “The creation of the state of Israel was fundamentally wrong, because there had been a Palestinian community there for 2,000 years.”

In the clip, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Mr Livingstone suggested some tensions in the Middle East could have been avoided by Jewish people being resettled in the UK and America after the Second World War.

“The creation of the state of Israel was a great catastrophe,” he said.

“We should have absorbed the post-Second World War Jewish refugees in Britain and America. They could all have been resettled, whereas 70 years later, the situation is still very tense, and there is potential for many more wars, potential for nuclear war,”

John Mann MP call Ken Livingstone MP a 'Nazi apologist'

"The simple truth is that the situation in Iraq today is worse than what it was under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

"All the Western interventions in the Middle East had nothing whatsoever to do with introducing democracy."

He also said he chose to boycott Israeli products such as dates.

"I believe that the endorsement of double standards in the Middle East was one of the causes that led to the development of the terrorist Islamic groups today," he said.

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

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1/14Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Israel and Palestine

The simple fact in all of this is that Naz made these comments at a time when there was another brutal Israeli attack on the Palestinians; and there’s one stark fact that virtually no one in the British media ever reports, in almost all these conflicts the death toll is usually between 60 and 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Now, any other country doing that would be accused of war crimes but it’s like we have a double standard about the policies of the Israeli government

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Antisemitism in the Labour Party

As I’ve said, I’ve never heard anybody say anything antisemitism-Semitic, but there’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic. I had to put up with 35 years of this

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Naz Shah

It’s completely over-the-top and rude, but who am I to denounce anyone with all of that. It was wrong. I don’t think she is antisemitic, it was incredibly rude but I don’t believe she is an antisemite. When the NEC investigation is finished they'll say it was rude and over the top but they won’t find any evidence that she actually hates Jews. We’ve got to investigate all these charges and the context in which they are made. If she is antisemitic like the other three or four members we’ve found who are antisemitic, she’ll be expelled

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On other alleged antisemites in Labour

That is part of the classic antisemitic thing about an ‘international Jewish conspiracy’ – that is the reason we need to have an investigation. I’ve got an open mind. I’ve seen nothing to suggest to me that she is antisemitic. I wouldn’t have supported her if I [thought] she was antisemitic

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On whether what Hitler did was legal, as stated by Naz Shah

That’s a statement of fact – Hitler, I’m sure, passed all those laws that allowed him to do that … it’s history … literally, Hitler was completely mad, he killed six million Jews. She’s not saying it’s legal to kill six million Jews: what they were doing in that country allowed them not just to kill six million Jews, kill all the communists, kill all the leftists like me, my father almost died when a Nazi sub sank his boat. I have no sympathy with Hitler

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On another alleged antisemite in Labour

No, that is, and that’s why she’s been suspended or expelled. What I’ve said is that in 47 years of the party in all the meetings I’ve been in I’ve never heard anyone say anything antisemitic. There are bound to be in a party of half a million people you’ll have a handful of antisemites, you’ll have a handful of racists. You’ve managed to dig out virtually every antisemitic comment that Labour members have made out of half a million people. I’ve never met any of these people. There’s not a problem. You’re talking about a handful of people in a party of half a million people. Jeremy Corbyn has moved rapidly to deal with them

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the allegations

He met with Naz and she agreed she would stand down while the investigation is going on. He called her in to see her. There’s been a huge investigation of virtually everything that anybody put on the internet … many of these people are quite new and recent members of the party that joined in the big influx. 300,000 new people came in

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On his meeting a man accused of antisemitism in London

This is the man who called for Muslims around the world to donate blood after the attacks of 9/11 when he came to London I went with him to the Regent’s Park mosque where he said no man should hit a woman and you should not discriminate against homosexuals. So I can’t equate what I heard him say… he made no antisemitic statement while he was here in London. I don’t investigate people. I’ve simply said what I believe to be true which is that Naz was not antisemitic. She was completely over the top, very rude, but that does not make her an antisemite

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann’s comments

He went completely over the top. I was actually doing a radio interview at the time that he was bellowing that I’m a racist antisemite in my ear. I’ve had that with John Mann before a few weeks ago screaming that I was a bigot down the phone. I’m not an apologist for anyone who makes antisemitic statements. What I’m saying is don’t confuse antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli government policy

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On calling a Jewish journalist a “concentration camp guard” whilst Mayor of London

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On claims about Hitler and Zionism

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann

I’d simply say to John Mann go back and check. Is what I say true, or is it not? The BBC, you’ve got a huge team of researchers, it will take just an hour or two to go back and confirm. I was asked a question, I answered it. I have never in 45 years since I won my first election, I have never lied. I have always answered the question

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On raising the issue if Hitler

It lays you open to people smearing and lying about you. I’ve always answered the questions put to me and that simple fact is we’ve had a handful of people saying antisemitic things in the Labour Party, they’ve been suspended, some of them are on their way to being expelled, some of them have been expelled already

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On people calling for him to be suspended

All my usual critics – but the simple fact is I agree with them; there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour party. For them to suggest I am antisemitic is a bit bizarre considering we worked with Jewish groups and put on exhibitions about the scale of the holocaust, we worked with Jewish groups to tackling the scale of antisemitism back in the 1970s. I’ve always opposed every form of racism whether it’s against black people or Jews. I’m going to stay in the Labour party and continue to fight against all forms of racism and discrimination as I have my entire life

"We imposed harsh sanctions on Iran for over a decade, because we believed that it was developing nuclear arms [...] On the other hand, Israel has possessed nuclear arms for 40 years. It is the first country to introduce nuclear arms to the Middle East.

"But we have still not acknowledged that, and not imposed sanctions upon it."

Al Ghad Al Arabi has been broadcasting from London since 2013. The station was also launched in Cairo in November 2015, with a ceremony attended by Tony Blair.

Mr Livingstone is one of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's oldest political allies, but Mr Corbyn was forced to move against him after his attempt to defend the Labour MP Naz Shah backfired, leading to the former London mayor himself being accused of racism.

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