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London Mayor Ken Livingstone (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 23, 2005 |
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Most people expected the mayor of London to apologize for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. Instead, Ken Livingstone lashed out at the reporter's employer Tuesday, accusing it of a long history of anti-Semitism and scare-mongering about immigrants.
"I have nothing to apologize for," Livingstone told reporters at a press conference.
Livingstone refused to say sorry for comparing a newspaper reporter to a Nazi guard -- an offhand comment that drew anger from Jewish groups and calls for contrition from Holocaust survivors, the government's race-relations watchdog and even Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The mayor said he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a "German war criminal."
Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception earlier this month, replied that he was Jewish. Livingstone told the reporter he was "just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?" He referred to Finegold's employer as "a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots."
His remarks to the reporter were recorded and played before the London Assembly last week. The body passed a unanimous motion calling on the mayor to withdraw his remarks. Blair also urged Livingstone to apologize.
The Standards Board for England, which supervises local government, is considering whether Livingstone breached the code of conduct of the Greater London Authority. If so, he could be barred from holding office for up to five years.
The mayor said he had been deeply affected by the reaction of Jewish groups and others to his remarks. "My words were not intended to cause such offense," he said, adding that he considered the Holocaust "the greatest racial crime of the 20th century."
But he defended his attack on Finegold, his employer the Evening Standard and its sister paper, The Daily Mail. Livingstone, a staunch left-winger once nicknamed "Red Ken" by the tabloid press, has long had a testy relationship with sections of the British media -- especially with Associated Newspapers, parent company of the Mail and the Standard.
The Mail, which had a pro-Nazi editorial line in the 1930s, has been accused of scare-mongering in its emotive coverage of issues like immigration and crime. Critics say it still adheres to the motto of its founder, Lord Northcliffe, who said the recipe for success was to give readers "a daily hate."
Livingstone said the Daily Mail had been a "leading advocate" of anti-Semitism for half a century.
"Whilst it is true that the Mail group no longer smears Jews as bringing crime and disease to the United Kingdom as they did a century ago, it is only because they have moved on," Livingstone said.
"After decades of pandering to racism about our citizens of black or Irish origin, they have moved on and now describe asylum seekers and Muslims in similar terms," he said.
The Daily Mail accused Livingstone of peddling "a distorted view of a distant past."
"His attempt to excuse his offensive behavior by launching an hysterical tirade against the Daily Mail is transparently a diversionary tactic," the newspaper said in a statement.
The Evening Standard also accused Livingstone of attempting to divert attention from his insult.
"His accusations against the Mail are absurd. But they are in any case irrelevant: the Evening Standard is a different newspaper," the newspaper's statement said.
Jewish leaders expressed disappointment at Livingstone's failure to apologize.
"He knows that Holocaust survivors were deeply wounded by his remarks. He may not have intended this, but that was the effect of his words, and therefore he must accept responsibility," said Britain's Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. "His failure to offer an unequivocal apology is both regrettable and damages the stature of his office."
Holocaust survivor Roman Halter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the mayor's comments were "planting seeds of discontent."
"I think, whatever his heart tells him, his brain should tell him that he should apologize and move on," Halter said.
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