British Labour MP Naz Shah resigns for anti-Israel remarks
A parliamentarian from the British Labour Party has resigned after she was forced to apologize for backing calls for Israel to “relocate” to the United States.
The Bradford MP, Naz Shah, who made the comments in a 2014 Facebook post, stepped down as the parliamentary private aide to the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, British media reported Tuesday.
Before becoming an MP in May 2015, Shah shared a graphic showing the outline of the occupied territories superimposed onto a US map with the comment “problem solved.”
The graphic said the relocation would be a “solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict,” and that it would allow the Palestinian people to “get their life and their land back.”
Shah added a note saying the “transportation cost” would be less than three years worth of the US military assistance to Israel. “America will no longer have to spend $3 billion tax payer money per year for Israel’s defense,” she added at the time.
The MP has also posted an article on social media which linked Zionism with al-Qaeda.
The comments created a backlash within the UK Jewish community, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews calling them “simply appalling.”
In a statement Tuesday, Shah apologized for her remarks but said, “I made these posts at the height of the Gaza conflict in 2014, when emotions were running high around the Middle East conflict.”
“I will be seeking to expand my existing engagement and dialogue with Jewish community organizations, and will be stepping up my efforts to combat all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism,” she added.
In early July 2014, Israel waged a devastating war on the Gaza Strip. The 50-day offensive claimed the lives of nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children.
During the Israeli onslaught, Shah posted a link on Facebook to a newspaper poll asking whether the Israeli regime had committed war crimes in Gaza.
All of Shah’s Facebook posts from 2014 have since been deleted.
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