British Jews Slam Labour Party For Not Booting Ken Livingstone

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By Josefin Dolsten April 5, 2017

(JTA) — Jewish groups decried a decision by the Labour Party to temporarily suspend Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, rather than expel him over comments deemed anti-Semitic.

Livingstone, 71, was suspended for a year from his party on Tuesday for an April 2016 interview with BBC radio in which he said, “Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism.”

Prior to the decision, Livingstone was serving a one-year suspension for the comments, which was set to expire this month.

Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Tuesday that “[r]elations between the Labour Party and the Jewish community have reached a new all-time low,” according to the BBC.

The Jewish Leadership Council, an umbrella group for various Jewish organizations, said the decision was “deeply shocking” and “highlights Labour’s disregard for repairing the historic, but broken relationship with the Jewish community,” according to The Jewish Chronicle.

The Jewish Labour Movement called the decision a “betrayal of our party’s values.” The one-year suspension, the group said, was “insufficient for a party that claims zero tolerance on anti-Semitism,” according to The Chronicle.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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