Ken Livingstone doubles down on denial he said Hitler was a Zionist
Ahead of a hearing on his future in the UK Labor Party, former mayor of London Ken Livingstone doubles down on his denial that he said Hitler was a Zionist.
Livingstone was suspended from the party after he said on an April 2016 radio interview that Hitler was “supporting Zionism” before “he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
Releasing on his website a 17-page statement that he plans to give at Labour’s national constitutional committee (NCC) on Thursday, Livingstone says he did not say Hitler was a Zionist but just claimed that Nazi policy “had the effect of supporting” Zionism.
“I did not say or suggest that Hitler was a Zionist. I did not make any equation of Hitler and Zionism. I neither criticised the transfer agreement or the section of Zionism that participated in the agreement. I did not draw any historical parallels with the situation today anywhere, including with the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” the statement reads.
“It has been suggested that my comments were offensive. For the sake of absolute clarity, I reiterate that I had absolutely no intention for my remarks to cause offence, least of all to Jewish people, and I am sorry if they did,” it adds.
