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Lib Dems withdraw party whip from MP David Ward over Israel comments
Lib Dems withdraw party whip from MP David Ward over Israel comments
(about 11 hours later)
A Liberal Democrat MP has had the party's whip withdrawn after repeatedly clashing with Nick Clegg over comments questioning the continued existence of the state of Israel.
A Liberal Democrat MP suspended by the party after questioning the continuing existence of the state of Israel has refused to apologise for his remarks.
David Ward, the MP for Bradford East, sent a tweet this weekend in which he asked: "Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the #Zionists are losing the battle – how long can the #apartheid State of #Israel last?"
David Ward, the MP for Bradford East, had the whip withdrawn on Wednesday after a series of rows with the party's most senior members over his views on Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.
His tweet followed a blog, written in the runup to Holocaust Day in January, which said "the Jews", who had suffered during the Holocaust, had inflicted "atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel" within a few years.
He was told that he would no longer be considered part of the parliamentary party at a meeting in Westminister after writing on his Twitter page on July 13: "Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle - how long can the apartheid State of Israel last?"
His suspension, which is due to last eight weeks, is largely symbolic as it comes the day before parliament rises for its summer recess. However, Lib Dems hope it will send a message to Israel and Britain's Jewish community that the party will not tolerate such offensive comments.
Ward, who has a majority of 365 in his constituency, condemned the ruling as disproportionate saying such views were widely shared.
Ward's suspension follows a meeting with party leader Clegg, his deputy Simon Hughes, and chief whip Alistair Carmichael on Wednesday.
"I will not apologise for describing the state of Israel as an apartheid state. I don't know how you can describe it as anything else. I am genuinely quite shocked at the reaction to the kind of thing many people say," he said.
In a letter sent to Ward and released to the public, Carmichael said Ward had previously agreed to use language which was "proportionate and precise" but his tweet posted on 13 July failed that test.
The Liberal Democrats have been accused of failing to respond quickly to allegations of anti-semitism before.
"During the meeting we put it to you that your most recent statement – which specifically questions the continuing existence of the State of Israel – is neither proportionate nor precise.
Last year, the Lib Dem peer Lady Tonge resigned the whip after refusing to apologise for an outspoken attack against Israel.
"Unfortunately, we considered your explanation to be unconvincing and it did not satisfy us that you understood the importance of conducting the debate on this issue at all times and in all places in terms that are proportionate and precise.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that Ward's suspension from the parliamentary party was "too little, too late" and "an empty gesture".
"We wish to reiterate that this is not about telling you what your views should be. Indeed, we have all visited the occupied territories and we have all experienced an instinctive and liberal reaction to the humanitarian suffering we have witnessed," Carmichael wrote.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "David Ward has never fully apologised for his comments, which deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust and caused deep pain and offence. It is about time the whip was withdrawn."
The party's chief whip said that Ward's comments had exasperated senior figures in the party because they were open to misinterpretation and caused offence.
"You will know that Nick, Simon and I have a consistent track record of being outspoken about illegal settlement activities of Israeli governments and the threat this poses to the two-state solution for which the party has long argued.
"It is also immensely frustrating for us to find ourselves constantly responding to questions about disproportionate and imprecise language from you. These interventions cause considerable offence rather than addressing questions of political substance about the plight of the Palestinian people and the right of Israel's citizens to live a life free of violence.
"It is extraordinarily difficult to gain traction in that debate at an effective political level if the expression of our concerns is undermined by the way your language misrepresents the view of our party.
"Whilst we understand you have your own views about this process, which has been long and complicated, we also hope you recognise that we have given you every opportunity to reconcile the expression of your views with the party's policy on a two-state solution. Unfortunately, you have not been able to do that.
"Therefore, it is with regret that I have to inform you that we have decided to suspend the Liberal Democrat whip from you," he said.
Ward wrote on his website in January that he was "saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps, be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza".
He initially defended the comments and said his party's response – reprimanding him – had been "regrettable", but later apologised for the "unintended offence" that his words had caused. He insisted that neither he nor his comments had been anti-semitic.
Ward was said to be "really disappointed" at the decision to withdraw the whip.
Last month Mike Hancock, the Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South, resigned from the party's whip. He is being sued in the high court by a vulnerable constituent who says she was sexually assaulted by Hancock after she asked him for help in a neighbourly dispute. Hancock denies the accusation and has vowed to clear his name.
Ward is not the first politician this year to face a party's disciplinary procedures for making allegedly anti-Semitic remarks. Lord Ahmed was suspended by Labour in March after claiming he was unfairly jailed for 12 weeks in 2009 because Jews "who own newspapers and TV channels" placed pressure on the courts to punish him for supporting the Palestinians in Gaza.
He also alleged, falsely, that the judge who sentenced him – for sending text messages during a motorway journey that ended in a fatal collision – was appointed to the high court after helping a "Jewish colleague" of Tony Blair.
Ahmed was about to face a Labour disciplinary hearing in May when he resigned from the arty. He continues to attend the Lords as a crossbencher.
