British MEP Claims Party Leader in 'Israel's Pocket'

Rachel Hirshfeld

A British Liberal Member of the European Parliment has accused his party leader of being “in Israel’s pocket” after the Liberal Democrat leadership condemned a party colleague for comparing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazis' treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust.



Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for the North-West of England, posted a message to Twitter, defending party colleague and UK Member of Parliament David Ward, who said last Friday that he is “saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.” 




Davies posted a message Saturday on his personal Twitter account saying, “Lib Dem leadership quite wrong to 'reprimand' David Ward. Makes Nick look like being in Israel's pocket. In fact he is a fierce critic.”



Davies’ defense of Ward seems to follow his own expressed position from 2006.



"I visited Auschwitz last year and it is very difficult to understand why those whose history is one of such terrible oppression appear not to care that they have themselves become oppressors," Davies said at the time.