LONDON, 5 March 2005 — The mayor of London called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a “war criminal” and said in a newspaper article published yesterday that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing.
Ken Livingstone, already mired in controversy after comparing a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard, also accused Sharon of organizing terror against Palestinians and endangering Londoners by fueling worldwide anger.
An official in Sharon’s office in Jerusalem called the mayor’s comments “too low to respond.”
“Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office,” Livingstone wrote in an opinion piece published by The Guardian daily. He then referred to Sharon’s involvement in the 1982 massacres in Lebanon’s Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps.
Israeli-allied militiamen killed hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the massacres, and Sharon was forced out of his job as defense minister after an Israeli commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible.
“Sharon continues to organize terror,” Livingstone said. “More than three times as many Palestinians as Israelis have been killed in the present conflict. Israel’s own expansion has included ethnic cleansing,” he added.
“Ethnic cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral. They are also fueling anger and violence across the world. For a mayor of London not to speak out against such injustice would not only be wrong, but would also ignore the threat it poses to the security of all Londoners.”
Livingstone was responding to a newspaper article by Henry Grunwald, the head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, urging the London mayor to apologize for comparing a Jewish newspaper reporter to a Nazi death camp guard.
The mayor has refused to say sorry for the offhand comment made last month, which drew calls for contrition from Holocaust survivors, the government’s race-relations watchdog and even Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Standards Board for England, which supervises local government, is considering whether Livingstone breached the code of conduct of the Greater London Authority. If so, he could be barred from holding office for up to five years.
In the Guardian article, Livingstone again denied that he is anti-Semitic, and said his poor relations with the Board of Deputies stemmed from his past criticism of Israeli policies, including the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
He also said the Israeli government was promoting a distorted picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe by implying that the biggest upsurge of hatred targeted Jews.
“All racist and anti-Semitic attacks must be stamped out,” Livingstone wrote. “However, the reality is that the great bulk of racist attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and Muslims... For 20 years, Israeli governments have attempted to portray anyone who forcefully criticizes the policies of Israel as anti-Semitic.”
