Labour candidate apologises for saying she would ‘celebrate’ Netanyahu’s death
Coventry South candidate Zarah Sultana 'sorry' for post from 2015
A general election candidate has apologised for saying in 2015 that she would “celebrate” the death of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Labour staffer Zarah Sultana, 26, who is contesting the Coventry South seat, made the comment on Twitter in 2015, the Jewish Chronicle reported on Monday.
Sultana wrote in 2015: “Don’t ‘celebrate’ the death of any person regardless of what they did.’ Try & stop me when the likes of Blair, Netanyahu & Bush die.”
In a statement on Monday, she said: “I posted these tweets five years ago when I was a student, from an account I then deleted.
“I wrote them out of frustration rather than malice, in response to the endless cycles of global suffering, violence and needless killing resulting from decisions by political leaders.
“In particular, the Iraq War and the killing of over 2000 Palestinians in 2014, mostly civilians, which was condemned by the United Nations.
“I do not support violence and I should not have articulated my anger in the manner I did, for which I apologise.”
Challenged on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday morning: “I have to say in all honesty I don’t know the complete ins and outs. I’ve obviously heard what you’ve put to me now. There’s lots of stuff about various candidates on all sides here.
“I honestly don’t know the details of who said what when. I think every candidate should uphold the values of the Labour Party and that’s very important to me.”
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