British MP Withdrawn for Criticizing ’Israel’

Local Editor

A British lawmaker who described the Zionist entity as an "apartheid state" whose future is in doubt after "inflicting atrocities on Palestinians" was suspended by his party on Thursday.

David Ward, a member of the Liberal Democrats, the smaller grouping in Britain's two-party coalition government, was reprimanded after making a series of remarks against the Zionist entity.

Ward refused to apologize after sending a message on Twitter on Saturday which read: "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?"

Earlier this year, the 60-year-old wrote on his website 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".

They decided to "withdraw the whip" from Ward until September 13, meaning he is effectively expelled from the parliamentary party and must sit as an independent until the sanction ends.

Ward, who has a majority of 365 in his constituency, condemned the ruling as disproportionate saying such views were widely shared.
"I will not apologize for describing "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.

A former college lecturer and local government official, Ward was elected in 2010 to represent a district in Bradford, a northern English city.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team