Federal NDP candidate ousted for comments comparing Israel to Nazi Germany
Ottawa (QNN)- The federal NDP has ejected its candidate in a Halifax-area riding over comments she made last year on social media comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
Rana Zaman, a social activist and Muslim who has spoken publicly about fighting Islamophobia, won the NDP nomination in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour in early May. She was ousted last week after several tweets surfaced from last spring in which she condemned the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces during peaceful protests in Gaza.
“Thousands of Israelis came into Palestine and were welcomed when the world turned them away. Now they’re committing genocide against Palestinians because Israel is not willing to share! Tell me what are Palestinians supposed to do..just die..oh wait!They are!! Where’s your heart?”, Zaman tweeted June 4, 2019.
“I wonder if #Israel borrowed this from the #Nazis after they saw how successful they were? At the speed Israel is killing I wonder if they’re aiming higher than six million #Palestinians? #Gaza is the new #Auschwitz and #Israeli the gatekeepers!”, another tweet read.
“If Israel is so advanced then why can’t they avoid shooting defenceless paramedics and journalists, unless they’re killing innocent people deliberately!” she wrote on June 3. “Israel’s injustice and arrogance can no longer be defended and people are are wise to Israel’s tired old rhetoric.”
If Israel is so advanced then why can’t they avoid shooting defenceless paramedics and journalists, unless they’re killing innocent people deliberately! Israel’s injustice and arrogance can no longer be defended and people are are wise to Israel’s tired old rhetoric.
— Rana ZamanSOS (@ranazamanNS) June 4, 2018
Thousands of Israelis came into Palestine and were welcomed when the world turned them away. Now they’re committing genocide against Palestinians because Israel is not willing to share! Tell me what are Palestinians supposed to do..just die..oh wait!They are!! Where’s your heart?
— Rana ZamanSOS (@ranazamanNS) June 4, 2018
A statement by NDP national director Melissa Bruno justified removing Zaman as the NDP candidate saying that she used “unacceptable language”.
In another statement, B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn commended the NDP for cancelling Zaman’s candidacy. “There can be no room for anti-Semitism in the NDP, or any serious Canadian political party,” he said.
Zaman commented tweeting “I regret to say I’ll no longer be the candidate for the NDP, due to “words” used in tweets about Palestine/Israel.My attempt failed to get engagement to start a conversation a year ago but thanks to interested parties is successful today! Activism has its price, I’m willing to pay.”
Several Zionist and pro-Israel entities in many countries try to legalize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which includes “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as an example of modern anti-Semitism.
