Former Bradford West MP Naz Shah was “ignorant about Judaism” when she made the anti-Semitic comments leading to her suspension, she stated at a Leeds synagogue Sunday night. 

“It is my job in the Muslim Community to highlight the issues of anti-Semitism,” she stated, according to the Jewish News. “Going to Auschwitz is a fantastic idea but it won’t fix the problem. We need to educate the community.”

“It’s up to me to own the narrative,” she continued. “To have conversations with the Muslim community [about anti-Semitism] and that’s my responsibility.”

Shah added that she made these realizations after she was asked to apologize to the House of Commons and to the British Jewish community.

“I looked at myself and asked whether I had prejudice against Jewish people,” she stated. “But I realized I was ignorant and I want to learn about the Jewish faith and culture. I do not have hatred for Jewish people.”

In April, Shah had posted comments advocating the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, suggesting that the population be expelled to the United States.

Several months earlier, Shah sparked controversy when she insisted that Arab stone-throwing was not to blame for the death of Israeli children, including Adelle Biton, who died in 2015 after suffering serious injuries in a stone-throwing attack two years earlier.

Despite both gaffes, Shah insisted Sunday that she believes in Israel’s rights to exist and to self-defense, and that – contrary to fellow Bradford politician and rival George Galloway – she does not believe in Bradford being an ‘Israel-free zone.’