Mayor of London Suspended 4 Weeks
Remarks to Jewish Reporter Bring Censure

By Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 25, 2006

LONDON, Feb. 24 -- A disciplinary tribunal on Friday ordered London's outspoken mayor, Ken Livingstone, suspended for four weeks for causing "damage to the reputation of his office" by comparing a Jewish newspaper reporter to a concentration camp guard.

"His treatment of the journalist was unnecessarily insensitive and offensive," said the decision by the Adjudication Panel for England, an independent body that oversees the conduct of local officials. "The mayor does seem to have failed, from the outset of this case, to appreciate that his conduct was unacceptable."

The unusual punishment comes at a time when Britain, like Europe in general, is wrestling with the definitions and limits of free speech. Muslims around the world have angrily protested a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims have argued that Europe has laws against denying the Holocaust but has no similar protections for Muslims.

The decision divided London's political world. Critics said Livingstone's comments showed a bewildering lack of appreciation for the pain caused by using Holocaust imagery to insult Jewish people. The mayor and his allies called it an absurd and disproportionate punishment in which an appointive panel has reversed the will of the London electorate.

"This decision strikes at the heart of democracy," said Livingstone, long known as one of Britain's most combative politicians. "Elected politicians should only be able to be removed by the voters or for breaking the law. Three members of a body that no one has ever elected should not be allowed to overturn the votes of millions of Londoners."

Livingstone's suspension is set to begin March 1. He has the right to appeal to the High Court.

"It sends a clear message that people in public office should act and speak responsibly," said Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust. She said the decision showed a "recognition that there are consequences to what you say and do."

The issue centers on an exchange Livingstone had with Oliver Finegold, a reporter from the Evening Standard, as the mayor was leaving a reception in downtown London in February 2005. The newspaper has frequently criticized the mayor and his policies.

Finegold, writing in Friday's newspaper following the decision, said he introduced himself as an Evening Standard reporter and the mayor replied: "How awful for you. Have you thought of having treatment?"

Finegold was tape-recording their conversation, and audio of the following exchange was posted on the BBC Web site:

Livingstone: "What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?"

Finegold: "No, I'm Jewish. I wasn't a German war criminal, and I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did it go tonight?"

Livingstone: "Actually you are just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?"

Livingstone's comments, widely reported in the British media, angered many British Jews. Two weeks later, the mayor made a public statement expressing regret that his remarks may have been seen by Jewish people as downplaying "the horror and magnitude of the Holocaust." He added: "I wish to say to those Londoners that my words were not intended to cause such offense and that my view remains that the Holocaust against the Jews is the greatest racial crime of the 20th century."

But Livingstone steadfastly refused to apologize to Finegold, or to the Evening Standard and its owner, Associated Newspapers, which also owns the Daily Mail. In his statement, Livingstone accused those papers of being "the leading advocate of anti-Semitism in the country for half a century," and said more recently that they had targeted asylum seekers and Muslims.

In his exchange with Finegold, Livingstone condemned the Evening Standard as "a load of scumbags" and "reactionary bigots . . . who supported fascism."

The disciplinary panel concluded that "matters should not have got as far as this."

"But it is the mayor who must take responsibility for this," the ruling said. "It was his comments that started the matter and thereafter his position seems to have become ever more entrenched."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a private group that filed the complaint with the disciplinary panel, said in a statement Friday: "Had the Mayor simply recognized the upset his comments had caused, this sorry episode could have been avoided. He has been the architect of his own misfortune."

Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, who is Jewish and would take over in Livingstone's absence, said in a statement that the decision was "absurd" and that the issue had "been blown out of all proportion."