Anti-racism trainer who ran Cabinet Office inclusivity workshop has record of comparing Israel to Nazis and wishing death on “Zionists” and was even barred from standing as a Labour candidate
An anti-racism trainer who ran an inclusivity workshop for the Cabinet Office reportedly has a record of comparing Israel to Nazis and wishing death on “Zionists”.
An investigation by the JC revealed that Mizanur Rahman, known as Mizan the Poet, ran a training session at the Cabinet Office in 2019 called “an inclusive Britain”, despite having shared posts comparing Israel to Nazis and white supremacy.
According to the report, in 2014, Mr Rahman posted photos of prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp alongside people at the Ephraim-Taybeh checkpoint, referencing the supposed “similarities”. In a caption, he said: “In the Holy Land, the Zionist government, with the support of the majority of Israel’s population, are themselves perpetuating a holocaust against the Palestinian people. After the bodies are counted and the atrocities documented, how will the Zionist government excuse themselves for committing these crimes against humanity?”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Mr Rahman also tweeted about a wounded Israeli soldier: “Hopefully he, and all IDF soldiers and Zionists, will lose more than just their limbs…their lives!!!!”
Another post said: “#Israel has no right to exist. Israel was founded on terrorism, ethnic cleansing and practises antisemitism as #palestinians are #semitic.”
In 2018, he reportedly attended an Al-Quds Day march in London, where flags of the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hizballah, were on display. One of the speakers at the rally called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Hizballah has since been banned in full in the UK as a terrorist organisation.
After a session at the Ministry of Defence in 2019, he reportedly tweeted: “I spoke about institutional racism/Islamophobia, the role of the media, Prevent, detention centres and other ways that racism manifests in society.”
When former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended resigned from the Labour Party after claiming that Hitler supported Zionism, Mr Rahman reportedly described Mr Livingstone’s remarks as “pure historical fact”.
This month, Mr Rahman apparently complained to the Labour Party after being banned from a list of potential candidates for local council.
According to the JC, when asked on Twitter whether he still believed that all Zionists should die, Mr Rahman said: “The answer to that is no. I, personally would like a peaceful solution to the conflict where Palestinian rights would be upheld and treated equally to their Israeli counterparts. With that said, the Palestinians are living under an occupation…” adding that he had “nothing against Jewish self-determination,” before giving further views on Israel.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “The Cabinet Office has recently adopted an increased due diligence process for guest speakers in line with cross-government best practice. This includes enhanced searches of social media. All events are consistent with the Civil Service Code of Conduct.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is astonishing that the Cabinet Office could have engaged a speaker who apparently holds such virulent antisemitic views to educate about racism. This incident is one of many that raise troubling questions about the ‘anti-racism training’ industry in this country. Not only has this field long had a blind spot when it comes to racism against Jews, but examples of industry figures actually promoting antisemitism arise too often to be ignored. Over the past several years, we have seen how frontline politicians have identified as ‘lifelong anti-racists’ in an effort to deflect very real allegations of antisemitism. It is time that public bodies and private corporations stop assuming that just because people call themselves ‘anti-racist’, they actually are.”
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