Green Party councillors compared Israel to Nazi Germany over ‘concentration camp’ slur

Two Green Party councillors have been criticised for appearing to equate Israel’s actions in Gaza with the those of the Nazis.

Hau-Yu Tam, a councillor in the London borough of Lewisham, shared a post on social media featuring in piece in Scottish outlet The National, which said that Foreign Secretary David Lammy had condemned “Israel's plans to create concentration camps for Palestinians”.

Writing on X, Tam posted: “Concentration camps. Zionists in Labour and, it pains me to say, the Greens, target anyone comparing Zionism with Nazism, and the genocide of Gaza with the Holocaust. There are other examples we could draw from, they said. But day by day, these comparisons more make themselves.”

Green deputy leadership candidate and Leeds councillor Mothin Ali made a similar comparison.

He went further than the Green Party’s official criticism of the policy, which they said amounted to “ethnic cleansing” and urged the government to “act now to protect Palestinian lives and prevent any further atrocities”.

Sharing an infographic criticising the policy, which said that: “Israel are planning to force Gaza's population into an 'internment camp' in Rafah”, Ali added: “Into a camp where Palestinians will be concentrated... i.e. a concentration camp”.

Councillor Mothin Ali celebrated his local election victory by declaring it was 'for the people of Gaza' (Photo: TikTok)[Missing Credit]

Lammy did not use the phrase “concentration camps” but had criticised plans announced by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz to confine the entire population of Gaza in a new “humanitarian city” in Rafah in an appearance before the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Israel has rejected suggestions that the plans are in any way comparable to the Holocaust.

The two councillors’ comments were robustly criticised by Jewish communal organisations.

A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust (CST) told the JC: “Comparing Israel to the Nazis is a grave misrepresentation of history and is deeply offensive, both to Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community worldwide. Comments like these are beneath the standard of public service we expect from elected politicians.”

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) concurred, telling the JC: “Inverting the Holocaust to attack the Jewish State isn't just absurd, it perpetuates the antisemitism which is rising in this country.”

And the JLC urged the Green Party to take a stance against the comments by Tam and Ali: “Any political party which actually cares about tackling antisemitism would make it clear that such views are not welcome amongst their membership.”

Tam and Ali’s comments follow similar remarks made by independent MP Adnan Hussein.

The Blackburn MP also suggested that that Israel is planning to create “gas chambers” for Palestinians, in a since-deleted post on X.

Hussein was rebuked by the Holocaust Educational Trust, whose CEO, Karen Pollock CBE, told the JC: “Whatever one thinks of what is happening on Gaza, raising the spectre of gas chambers, which were used for the industrialised murder of millions of Jewish people as the Nazis tried to wipe out an entire race, is a grotesque distortion of the Holocaust and deeply offensive to survivors, their families and the memory of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust.”

The JC has previously reported another incident of councillor Tam equating the Third Reich with Israel.

In April, the former Labour councillor who defected to the Greens, compared Zionism with Nazism and shared a post on social media saying the ideology was “pure evil” and should be “abolished”.

She also expressed support for Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ali has also made vehement criticisms of Israel. He has previously defended the right of “indigenous people to fight back” after October 7.

The Leeds city councillor dedicated his victory in May last year to a victory “the people of Gaza” and was filmed shouting “Allahu Akbar” while standing in front of the Palestinian flag shortly after the result was announced.

He also lashed out at Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, a Jewish university chaplain in Leeds who had been targeted by pro-Palestine activists after he had returned to Israel to serve as an IDF reservist.

Ali wrote: “This is Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch. This creep, that’s the only way I can describe him politely, is someone who went from Leeds to Israel to kill children and women and everyone else over there.”

He subsequently said he was “sorry for any upset my comments caused about the Gaza conflict.”

In a statement to the JC Tam said: “I note with revulsion that you have resolutely refused to engage with the material substance of my tweet, which is itself petty grounds for writing an article. Israel is building a concentration camp - the term used by Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister - to force Palestinians into, ‘before they expel them’.

That is yet another war crime, on top of the millions and millions of war crimes that Israel have committed against the Palestinians and it is terrifying in its bare sadism. As a bare minimum, we should all do everything in our power to speak about such crimes and work to stop and prevent them.”

Ali and the Green Party have been contacted for comment.