At it again: ex-MP David Ward attacks ‘rogue’ Israel

Newly-elected as a councillor in Bradford, notorious former Lib Dem MP David Ward is at it again – tweeting about the “rogue state of Israel” in defence of a Labour MP who admitted to sending anti-Semitic messages.

Ward, who was suspended from the party in 2013 for refusing to apologise for questioning Israel’s right to exist, once again took to Twitter to defend Naz Shah, who suggested Israeli Jews should be transported to the United States.

“Credit to #NazShah for raising important issue of #US support for rogue State of #Israel,” the former Bradford East MP tweeted on Saturday, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).

In 2014, with tensions inflamed over the Gaza military offensive, Bradford West MP Shah shared a diagram by Jewish American professor Norman Finkelstein, which suggested transporting Israel’s Jews to the U.S.

She subsequently apologised to the Jewish community and resigned as an aide to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has vociferously condemned anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Ward caused outrage ahead of HMD in 2013 when he compared the atrocities of the Holocaust with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. A year later, he suggested that he too would fire rockets from Gaza.

It is unclear whether the Liberal Democrat Party will reprimand Ward over his latest tweet, after he was elected councillor for Bolton and Undercliffe on Thursday.