British lawmaker apologises over Israel remarks

LONDON (AFP) - A British lawmaker apologised on Saturday after he accused "the Jews" of "inflicting atrocities on Palestinians on a daily basis", sparking a flurry of condemnation.

In a post on his website on Friday Liberal Democrat David Ward said he had signed a book in Britain's House of Commons "honouring those who died during the Holocaust".

But he also used the blog to criticise Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, drawing parallels with the mass murder of Jews in World War II.

"Having visited Auschwitz twice... I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza," he wrote on his website on Friday.