A Liberal Democrat candidate has apologised over a tweet sent in 2014 comparing Gaza to “Nazi ghettos in which Jews were trapped”.
Wera Hobhouse, 59, most recently served as the Lib Dems’ climate change spokesperson and was elected as a member of parliament for the Liberal Democrats in Bath in 2017. She is standing again in next month’s general election.
Hobhouse tweeted in 2014 that “#gaza seems to remind terribly of Nazi ghettos in which Jews were trapped during Holocaust. For what reason do we remember Holocaust?”
Another tweet sent the following year read: “‘Israel cynically using memory of the Holocaust’. ‘Never again this suffering to anybody not just Jews’ #bbcthebigquestion.”
Hobhouse told Jewish News: “I abhor antisemitism with every fibre of my being. My mother’s brothers and sisters had to flee the Holocaust because they were Jewish, and it destroyed their families. I had an uncle imprisoned in Dachau, and a great uncle murdered because he was mentally ill.
“This was the reality for my family in Nazi Germany, and we still live with the trauma. However, I apologise unreservedly for any offence I have caused. Looking back at these tweets I realise that trying to discuss hugely serious issues via 140 characters is a mistake.”
The Liberal Democrats adopted last year the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and its examples, which include comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
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