Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Friday claimed Jewish voters misunderstood him when he asserted in 2016 that Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s, but repeated his claims nonetheless. Interviewed on Sky News , Livingstone referenced Hitler seven times and repeated his claim that “Zionists did a deal with Hitler in the ‘30s. They collaborated.” However, he also described the coverage of his comments as attempts by “the Tory press” to “demean” him, adding, “It always gets you into trouble if you tell the truth.” Livingstone insisted that anti-Semitic allegations against him were a "smear", adding, "You only have to go on Jerusalem's Holocaust website. One of the documents you can download about the deal the Zionists did with Hitler in the 1930s.” "Hitler wanted to get all the Jews out of Germany and the Zionists wanted to move them all and create a Jewish state in Palestine,” he continued. Livingstone has been suspended since April 2016 when he made the claims on Hitler and Zionism. The party several months ago extended the suspension until the conclusion of an internal probe into his conduct over allegations that his claims were anti-Semitic or otherwise offensive to Jews. Livingstone is one of dozens of Labour members who have been suspended and expelled from the Labour party due to anti-Semitism over the last few years. A report released in October of 2016 determined that the Labour party’s leadership is failing to seriously confront the anti-Semitism among its ranks. In the Sky News interview, Livingstone said, "When we had the hearing a year ago, I said 'If you expel me I will go to court. You haven't got a chance of winning.'” "How can you expel someone for stating a historical fact but take no action against MPs who lied about what you'd said, and claimed I'd said Hitler was a Zionist? I am optimistic. I believe that the truth should prevail.” (Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
