March 22, 2006
London's controversial mayor Ken Livingstone has allegedly told two billionaire businessmen they should "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs" if they did not like his policies. Last month, Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute for likening a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard. His latest outburst involves the brothers David and Simon Reuben, who are behind the planned US$ 7 billion Olympic City construction project for the 2012 summer Olympics. At his weekly press conference, the mayor reportedly said a "poisonous state of relations" now existed within the consortium developing the East London site. He blamed the Reuben brothers for the collapse of plans for a new hospital in Central London. However, opposition members of the London Assembly said that the brothers were not Iranian, but born in India of Iraqi Jewish parents. Brian Coleman, assembly member for Barnet and Camden, was quoted by the "Daily Mail" as saying: "This is the latest anti-Semitic remark by Livingstone. He clearly has a major problem with the Jewish business community. To suggest that these men should go to Iran is shocking, outrageous and grossly offensive to the entire Jewish community."
