Jewish groups slam Gaza-Holocaust comparisons by pro-Palestine MP

Mohamed shared a similar sentiment, posting on X: “The Israeli government & the IDF, brazenly aided & abetted by the US, UK & many EU & other states, are committing a pre-declared live streamed genocide/holocaust on the Palestinians with the latest plans of putting ~2million people into concentration camps.”

His remarks drew immediate condemnation from Jewish groups, including allegations of antisemitism.

The Jewish Leadership Council told the JC that: "This egregious accusation isn’t a lazy slip of the tongue but a repeated and calculated act to taunt Jews and accuse us of the very crime which of which we were victims.

"It’s antisemitic and should be retracted.”

Responding to the JLC’s comment on X, Mohamed wrote: “It is the assessment of the Jewish son of a holocaust survivor & millions of Jews around the world.

"What should we call the deliberate bombing of & shooting of babies, children, women & men waiting in line for life saving food and hearding people into concentrated camps in a small area of Gaza?”

But a spokesperson for the CST added: “This is awful language to use and is a gross distortion of history which is deeply offensive. Mohamed ought to apologise.”

And Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “Yet again we witness a Member of Parliament trivialising the Holocaust to attack the world’s only Jewish state.

"The Holocaust was not simply ‘something bad’ - it was the systematic, industrialised attempt to annihilate an entire people, resulting in the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children.

"To invoke the Holocaust in the context of contemporary political debate is not only a grotesque distortion of history, but also profoundly offensive to survivors, their families and the memory of those who perished.”

It comes after Mohamed’s fellow independent MP Adnan Hussain, who represents Blackburn, was criticised by Jewish groups on Monday for suggesting that Israel was planning to use “gas chambers” on Palestinians in Gaza.

“I suggest that if they want to champion the Palestinian cause, and avoid the impression they are working together to coarsen the public discourse, they swiftly review the language they are using.”, added Danny Stone MBE, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) lists the act of comparing the policies of contemporary Israel to those of the Third Reich in its list of examples connected to its definition of antisemitism, which has been accepted by the UK government.

Since being elected in July last year, Mohamed has been an enthusiastic critic of Israel.

At Prime Minister’s Questions in January, he appeared to equate Israeli hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons – some of whom are convicted terrorists.

He has also accused the BBC of “biased anti-Palestinian and pro-Israel reporting” since October 7.

The Dewsbury and Batley MP came to national attention when he intervened in a parliamentary debate to defend the practice of first-cousin marriage.

He told MPs in December last year that that while he accepted that there were “health risks with first-cousin marriage”, he didn’t think it was right to “empower the state to ban adults from marrying each other not least because I don't think it would be effective or enforceable”.

He added: “The reason the practice is so common is that ordinary people see family inter-marriage overall as something that is very positive, something that helps build family bonds and helps put families on a more secure financial foothold.”

Mohamed was one of five MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, elected as independents on an explicitly pro-Gaza platform.

During the general election campaign, he told a rally in his West Yorkshire constituency to boycott products that he said were supporting “Israel and Zionism”.

Addressing a crowd he said: “go home and find every brand and every product that has been supporting Israel and Zionism from the beginning of time and throw it away... Put the list on your fridge. Tell your children when you go to the shop to buy sweets ‘do not buy this’ and ‘do not buy that’. That is the least we can do.”

Iqbal Mohamed has been contacted for comment.