Livingstone Condemned By Top Israeli Politician

The leader of the Opposition in Israel has described Ken Livingstone's comments that Adolf Hitler allegedly supported Zionism as "horrific".

In a letter to Jeremy Corbyn, Israeli Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog said he was "appalled and outraged by the recent examples of anti-Semitism by senior Labour Party officials in the United Kingdom".

In an interview earlier this week, Mr Livingstone claimed that Hitler supported Zionism before he "went mad and ended up killing six million Jews".

Mr Herzog – whose father served with the British Army – said the former London mayor's comments were "unthinkable for a British politician in the 21st century" and described Mr Livingstone as "surely anti-Semitic beyond hope of redemption".

Mr Livingstone has denied any suggestion of anti-Semitism, saying on LBC radio on Saturday morning that when he led the Greater London Council in the 1980s, his administration funded campaigns against anti-Semitism and financially supported exhibitions about the Holocaust.

In his letter, Mr Herzog also mentioned Labour MP Naz Shah, who shared a post on Facebook suggesting that Israel should be relocated in the US.

He said that such a sentiment, combined with Mr Livingstone's comments, "sickens all those of moral conscience to the core".

Mr Herzog said that despite the Labour Party having a "proud and distinguished history of fighting racism in every form", recent events must "act as a red alert and prompt immediate action".

He invited Mr Corbyn to bring a delegation to visit Israel's national Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, "to witness that the last time the Jews were forcibly 'transported', it was not to Israel, but to their deaths".

Mr Herzog finished on a more positive note, saying: "I'm sure there remain many Labour Party activists with a willingness to engage and better understand the scourge of anti-Semitism.

"By doing this, perhaps we can ensure that the anti-Semitism expressed in recent days is not the example set to (the) British young generation, but rather one of tolerance and acceptance of all people, regardless of faith."

Jeremy Corbyn has appointed the former director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, to head a panel which will draw up "a statement of principles and guidance about anti-Semitism and other forms of racism".

A strengthened code of conduct will provide guidance on acceptable language, according to a Labour party statement, and "make explicitly clear for the first time that Labour will not tolerate any form of racism, including anti-Semitism, in the party".