Labour’s Mayoral candidate said on his Saturday LBC show that “Meshal of Hamas is someone Israel can do a deal with” and compared him with Gerry Adams of IRA/Sinn Féin.
Commenting afterwards Mike Freer MP said, “Once again Livingstone has displayed his anti-Israel feelings. Hamas are committed to the destruction of Israel through violence, and until they accept the Quartet’s principles they can only continue to be treated as a terrorist organisation.
To compare Meshal and Adams is as wrong as it is naïve. The IRA had been defeated militarily and politically before Gerry Adams was brought to the table and the IRA did not have the sole aim of wiping the UK off the face of the earth.”
Ken Livingstone’s comments are the latest in a string of attacks on Israel and support of extremist Islamist organisations.