Opinion
Pro-Gaza MPs comparing Israel to Nazis brought shame onto Parliament
To weaponise the most painful events in Jewish history, to which some Jews alive today are witnesses, is to play with fire.
July 11, 2025 11:50
2 min read
A few weeks ago at the Royal Courts of Justice, a little-noticed hearing made a significant judgement on the question of antisemitism. The case involved a solicitor, Farrukh Husain, who had been struck off for a series of antisemitic social media posts. He appealed – and lost – and in the course of the hearing Mr Justice Chamberlain considered the question of whether or not it is antisemitic to compare Israel to Nazi Germany.
“The language or imagery of Nazism is often used as a taunt”, he observed, as it “deliberately references and weaponises the most painful events in Jewish history, to which some Jews alive today are witnesses and which continue profoundly to affect many others.” Then he got to the rub: “Depending on the context, a criticism of Israel which pointedly uses Nazi language and imagery as a racialised taunt of this kind could reasonably be regarded as antisemitic.”
It is hard to think of any more pointed use of Nazi language and imagery than what two Independent MPs, Iqbal Mohamed from Dewsbury and Batley and Adnan Hussain of Blackburn, posted on X this week. Mohamed accused Israel of committing a “holocaust” in Gaza; Hussain posted: “We’re on the concentration camp stage. Gas chambers next?”
They were responding to news reports that Israel planned to construct a humanitarian zone in Gaza to separate Palestinian civilians from Hamas, and the use of the word “concentrate” in one headline was all it took to open the Nazi-themed floodgates. Of course, as MPs they are entitled to oppose, criticise and condemn Israel as much as they like; but using the Shoah as their rhetorical weapon of choice is something else entirely.
Perhaps these two MPs do not believe they were being antisemitic. Perhaps, in their world, this is par for the course when it comes to speaking up for Palestine. But they are playing with fire. The Holocaust, as Mr Justice Chamberlain acknowledged, is the most painful episode in modern Jewish history and remains a source of trauma for survivors and their descendants; and it is hard to avoid the suspicion that people who repeatedly turn to the Holocaust as a comparison for Gaza know this all too well.
It is the Jewishness of both the Shoah and Israel that gives the comparison its visceral punch, and it is this exploitation of Jewish pain and suffering that makes it antisemitic. It carries a multi-layered sting, entwining Jews with the worst of their persecutors while also implying that the Holocaust was not so special after all.
Of course, Mohamed and Hussain did not come up with this trick. It is a well-worn tactic, developed decades ago as part of Soviet antisemitic anti-Zionism and now seen on countless homemade placards whenever protestors march for Palestine. Even Hamas have given it a try, staging their grotesque hostage ceremonies earlier this year in front of banners with slogans decrying “Nazi Zionism.”
It is a baseless charge to make. The devastating death toll in Gaza – by no measure on the same scale or for the same purpose as the Holocaust – is the result of a real, tragic conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, a material struggle over territory and sovereignty. In contrast, the Nazi project to murder every Jewish man, woman and child was borne of an entirely imaginary conspiracist fantasy that believed the Jews to pose a mortal danger to Germany, a delusion shaped by centuries of European Judeophobia.
There was no Jewish equivalent of Hamas in 1930s Germany, nor anything like the October 7 atrocity. Jews did not seek to destroy Germany, nor does Israel seek to murder every last Palestinian today. The two situations are incomparable.
It feels humiliating even to write those words, as if responding with facts implies that the charge may carry some merit. It is so demeaning, such a gross affront to Jewish dignity and a distortion of Jewish history to have to plead that Jews are not like Nazis. And yet here we are. Perhaps we should expect nothing less from these two MPs, but they not only disgrace themselves – they bring shame onto the institution of Parliament itself.
Dr Dave Rich is Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust
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