The deputy leader of the Green Party in Wales has posted a rant on social media which compares Israel to the Nazis.
Pippa Bartolotti, a controversial politician who was previously a fashion designer, claimed Israel wanted a “final solution” for the Palestinians.
She said Gaza was an “open air concentration camp” and that the British government was “in cahoots” with Israel, a “Western puppet state”.
Her comments were posted on Facebook on Thursday as an apparent response to Donald Trump’s announcement the previous day that the United States would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
More than 900 people shared the post.
Ms Bartolotti is no stranger to controversy when it comes to Israel. In 2011 she was arrested and detained in Givon jail in Ramla by Israeli authorities after taking part in a “flytilla” of activists travelling to the country.
The Green Party was forced to apologise on her behalf in the same year when she questioned the suitability of Matthew Gould to be Britain’s ambassador to Israel on the basis that he was, she said, “a Jewish Zionist ambassador” and called for the Foreign Office to investigate his “loyalty” to Britain.
In her comments on Facebook about Jerusalem, the senior Green figure wrote: “I think it's important to explain that Jerusalem is not a Jewish city - any more than Israel is a Jewish country. Israel is in fact a Western state, taken by force in 1948, in bloodshed and massacres of the unarmed and innocent indigenous population.
“Israel is in fact a Western puppet state, given legitimacy by Western governments and the oil rich arab states who would rather sacrifice their own than forgo the great wealth which comes from trade with the governments - such as our own - with whom they are in cahoots.
“Palestinians in Gaza are effectively trapped in an open air concentration camp from which there is only slim means of escape. Palestinians in the West Bank are forever banging their heads against a brick wall in their search for a peaceful solution.
“The government of Israel is only interested in the final solution, i.e. a total Jewish State and the expulsion of all non-Jewish inhabitants. It is towards this end that Trumps cruel decision is aimed.”
A Green Party spokesperson said: “This post does not represent the views of the Green Party and we have asked Pippa to delete it and apologise.”
Ms Bartolotti told the JC: "Israeli settlers talk about the ‘final solution’ for the Palestinians, and it appears they do so with impunity. It is for this reason that I chose to use the words. In reality they appear not to be antisemitic after all.”
