The mayors of Los Angeles and Miami have demanded their London counterpart Ken Livingstone apologize for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi guard.
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| London mayor downplays Nazi remark / By YNETNEWS |
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Pressure building on Livingstone to apologize for likening Jewish reporter to Nazi camp guard |
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Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn warned that London mayor Ken Livingstone would not be welcome in the second-largest U.S. city until he made amends for comparing the journalist to a concentration camp guard earlier this year.
"Unless and until Mayor Ken Livingstone of London apologises for his comments ... he will not be accorded or offered any official welcome to the City of Los Angeles," Hahn said in a letter to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Calls on other mayors to follow suit
In the letter, made public Thursday by the Los Angeles-based Jewish lobby group, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, he also urged his fellow U.S. mayors to follow suit and bar Livingstone from official visits to their cities.
Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez also slammed Livingstone for making the remarks, for which he has so far refused to apologize, although he has said he had not meant to offend the Jewish community.
"It is the responsibility of elected officials to set the example and treat others, no matter what their background, with respect," Alvarez said on a letter released by the Wiesenthal Center.
The left-wing London mayor drew fury with comments he made on February 8 to
London Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold.
Livingstone said Finegold was "just like a concentration camp guard" by "just doing it because you are paid to" -- a reference to working for the paper, which the mayor considers hostile to him.
Livingstone's comments "demeaned the memory of the Nazi Holocaust," the Wiesenthal Center said.
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