'Zionists worse than animals,' post shared by UK Labor official reads
The event came to light after a complaint was filed with the Labor party.
By DANIEL J. ROTHUpdated: MAY 5, 2016 13:01Cameron and Corbyn argue over anti-semitism claims
In yet another row concerning the UK's Labor party and the Jewish community, two elected officials were discovered to have supported "extreme" social media posts concerning Israel, with one message saying that "Zionists were worse than animals," London based newspaperJewish Newsreported Tuesday.Labor party Councillor Aslam Choudry said he was "unreservedly" apologetic following the discovery that he shared an offensive Facebook post that compared Zionist to animals, adding he was unaware of the content before promoting the message.The event came to light after a complaint was filed with the Labor party.“I shared a video without realizing what was in it and apologize unreservedly. The views expressed in the video are abhorrent and deeply offensive . There is no place in society for any form of anti-Semitism,” the Brent Councillor said in response to an inquiry made by Jewish News.“I wanted to make people aware that others can make comments without us noticing them. We will not necessarily see those comments which could cause offense," Choudry added. "I have [learned] a salutary lesson about who should be a so-called Facebook friend and I will be making sure I am extremely careful in what I share and post.”Following the exposing of Choudry's sharing of an inappropriate post, a shadow minister in the Labor party was stricken with a similar scandal after he was accused of promoting "extreme" tweets, with one message saying Israel should have been "put in the Middle West" and not the Middle East.The 2011 tweets by Norwich MP Clive Lewis were exposed after political website Guido Fawkes published their findings, Jewish News noted. “Israeli commenting on #Egypt ‘They shldn’t have located Israel in the Middle East.Too dangerous.They should have put it in the Middle West,'” Lewis wrote. Lewis was appointed to the Labor frontbench as a shadow minister in the Energy and Climate Change team in 2015 after MP Jeremy Corbyn was elected head of the party. Before finding a career in politics, Lewis served in the Royal British Army as an infantry soldier and served three months in Afghanistan in 2009.
The incidents mark the latest controversy within the English opposition group, with Labor leader Corbyn facing a rash of harsh criticism following similar events from party members over the past several months.