British MP Naz Shah, pictured, told BBC Radio 4 that she is not antisemitic. Photo: Facebook.

JNS.org – British Member of Parliament (MP) Naz Shah — who was suspended in April from the Labour Party for suggesting that Israel should be relocated to the United States as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and was later reinstated — told BBC Radio 4 that she is not antisemitic, but admitted she had used antisemitic language.

Shah’s initial comment sparked an antisemitism scandal that resulted in the suspension of at least 50 other Labour members and extended to former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who was suspended for saying in a BBC interview that Hitler had supported Zionism.

In the new radio interview, Shah reflected on “how stupid I was and how ignorant I was” when she made her comment about relocating Israel. She said, “The truth is that some of the stuff I have since looked at and understood, I didn’t know at the time.”

“I didn’t get antisemitism as racism,” said Shag. “I had never come across it. I think what I had was an ignorance….And I had to really question my heart of hearts. Yes, I have ignorance, yes everybody has prejudice, subconscious biases, but does that make me anti-Semitic? And the answer was no, I do not have a hatred of Jewish people.”