Israel’s Ambassador to Britain, Daniel Taub, complained about comments made by a Liberal Democrat MP after Sunday’s solidarity march by world leaders in Paris.
In a tweet, the MP, David Ward, representative for Bradford Eas, wrote that the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the march “makes me feel sick.”
In a letter to the leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the ambassador urged him to take ‘’immediate and forceful action’’ over the comment.
“At a time when world leaders were united in condemnation of extremist atrocities, Mr Ward’s statement is a disgraceful attempt to politicise suffering, delegitimise Israel, and justify acts of terror,” the ambassador wrote.
He added, “It also exhibits a callous disregard for the Jews of France, many of whom look to Israel as they are increasingly targeted because of their religion.”
His his tweets, Ward also appeared to take issue with the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan, instead tweeting “Je Suis #Palestinian.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said the MP did not speak for the party and that his tweet was “clearly in bad taste”.
David Ward is well known for his anti-Israel outbursts. During last summer Operation Protective Edge against Hamas, he said that if he lived in Gaza he would “probably” fire rockets at Israel and publicly referred to Israel as an apartheid state.
In 2013, Ward was briefly suspended by the Liberal Democrats after writing on his website that “the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could … be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel.”