Given the date, the reader might understandably think what follows is an April 1 spoof. Unfortunately for UKIP, it isn’t.
On Monday, the UK Parliament was officially dissolved marking the official start to campaigning in the 2015 general election to be held on Thursday, May 7. But just hours into the campaign, Jeremy Zeid, the UKIP nominee for the London constituency of Hendon was replaced after posting on his Facebook page that Israel should “do an Eichmann” and kidnap President Obama.
The Facebook post was made after the US federal government declassified a number of documents relating to Israel’s nuclear program. The “Eichmann” reference alludes to the kidnap in Argentina in 1960 of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents. Eichmann was subsequently spirited away to Israel and later stood trial for war crimes associated with the Holocaust. He was sentenced to death and executed at a prison in Ramala in 1962.
Not for the first time, UKIP, whose main campaign planks are tighter immigration controls and a British exit from the European Union, found itself under the media spotlight as a result of one of its members, and in this case a parliamentary candidate, making questionable remarks.
Before the last parliament, UKIP had two MPs at Westminster, both former members of the Conservative Party who had resigned their seats and defected to UKIP. Both won back their seats under the UKIP banner in subsequent by-elections.
The first poll released since formal campaigning began in this year’s general election put UKIP on 10 percent nationally, down 2 percent from their previous standing. Even at 10 percent, UKIP stands a chance of picking up a sprinkling of seats in the new UK parliament and are seen as most likely to gain seats from the Conservatives.
Zeid posted on his Facebook page, “Once Obama is out of office the Israelis should move to extradite the bastard or ‘do an Eichmann’ on him and lock him up for leaking state secrets,” according to a screenshot captured by Hope not Hate.
In a comment on the same post, Zeid added, “Just kidnap the bugger, like they did to Eichmann.”
Zeid’s remarks were just the latest in a series of embarrassments suffered by UKIP as a result of the outpourings of some of their candidates and prominent party members.
In early March, UKIP sacked their Commonwealth spokesman, Winston McKenzie after he’d calling Croydon, a borough on the outskirts of London “a dump”. But McKenzie’s views on Croydon were mild compared to remarks he’d made while standing as UKIP candidate in a 2012 by-election in Croydon North. During campaigning, McKenzie described gay adoption as “tantamount to child abuse” and “unhealthy”.
And such questionable remarks aren’t the sole preserve of UKIP candidates. Just days after McKenzie’s sacking, David Coburn a UKIP’s sole Scottish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) came under fire concerning remarks he was alleged to have made concerning Scotland’s leading Muslim politician, Scottish Government minister and Scottish National Party member, Humza Yousaf.
In a newspaper interview, Coburn was alleged to have said, “Humza Yousaf, or as I call him, Abu Hamza,” a reference to Islamist radical cleric Radical cleric Abu Hamza, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism offences by a New York judge last January, having been extradited from the UK.
Zeid, 65, defended his comments when interviewed by the London Evening Standard. He claimed his decision to step down on the same day he’d made the “Eichmann” comments was “pure coincidence,” adding, “I stood down because I’m fed up with having to fend off accusations. I have to consider my health. That comment I made about Obama, I stick by it 100 per cent.”
UKIP announced Zeid had been replaced as a candidate for Hendon constituency by dentist Raymond Shamash.
A UKIP spokesman told The Guardian, “[Zeid] was right to resign. We are looking forward, not back.”
