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Dina Rickman
Jan 12, 2015
The Liberal Democrat MP David Ward once claimed in a blog written on Holocaust Memorial Day that “the Jews” had failed to learn the lessons of genocide.
He has now appropriated the slogan used to demonstrate unity after the Paris terror attacks, in which Jewish people were targeted simply for their religion, to draw attention to what is happening in Palestine.
Ward's comments came in the wake of terror attacks in France by Islamist extremists which killed 17, including four people in a kosher supermarket on Friday.
Ward, the MP for Bradford East, tweeted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's presence at a unity rally in Paris made him "sick".
He then co-opted the "Je Suis Charlie" slogan that had been used by many as a symbol of unity after the attack on Charlie Hebdo's offices, in which 12 people died. Other slogans used in the wake of the attacks included "Je suis Juif" (I am Jewish) and "Je suis Ahmed" (I am Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim policeman murdered in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo building).
He has made no other comments about the killings on Twitter, apart from tweeting a piece by Nick Clegg about free speech.
In response to the comments the vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "We are disgusted, yet not surprised to see David Ward MP for Bradford, using the cold-blooded murder of four French Jews to attack the Israeli Government and its Prime Minister.
"We know that Ward habitually uses such events to demonstrate and support his open hostility to Israel, we condemn his comments and expect the Liberal Democrat Party to take action. It goes without saying that Jews in the UK have felt the reverberations of Friday's attack on a kosher supermarket in France which has fuelled communal insecurity.
"Our elected representatives should be looking at ways and means to reassure society but regrettably David Ward appears to feel no responsibility to do so. He is contemptible”.
Last July, Ward was also criticised after tweeting he would likely fire rockets into Israel if he lived in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the Lib Dem confirmed to i100.co.uk Ward still takes the whip for the party.
More: David Ward sorry not sorry for Gaza tweet
More: [The most moving and powerful pictures from the Paris unity rally]4
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