London mayor Ken Livingstone faces a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday that will rule on whether he should be disciplined for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard.
Livingstone, a member of Britain’s ruling Labor party, won widespread praise for rallying Londoners after the July 7 bomb attacks on the city but he has frequently courted controversy.
He will appear before the Adjudication Panel for England which rules on the conduct of local authority members.
The panel has the power to impose sanctions ranging from a censure to a five-year ban from public office.
Denial of anti-Semitism
Livingstone clashed in February with journalist Oliver Finegold of the Evening Standard newspaper -- which has been involved in a long-running feud with the mayor -- who tried to ask him questions after a function at city hall.
When Finegold told him he worked for the Standard and tried to ask questions, Livingstone asked: “Have you thought of having treatment?” and then asked “What did you do? Were you a German war criminal?”
Finegold said he was Jewish and found the remark offensive. Livingstone then said the reporter was “just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren’t you?”
Livingstone has maintained his remarks were not anti-Semitic and simply reflected his annoyance at a newspaper he has accused of hounding him. At one time Livingstone wrote restaurant reviews for the newspaper.
