Outrage at claim of Grenfell ‘Zionist’ plot
Islamic activist investigated following allegations of anti-Semitic comments made after fire
AN ISLAMIST activist has claimed the Grenfell Tower victims “were murdered” by Zionists who fund the Conservative Party in an astonishing outburst being investigated by police. Nazim Ali, a director of the Islamic Hu- man Rights Commission (IHRC), is accused of exploiting the tragedy during an anti-Israel demonstration in the days after the fire. The Metropolitan Police said it was investigating allegations of anti-Semitic comments made during the protest.
Mr Ali, who is managing partner of a private health clinic in west London that charges patients up to £150 for a GP consultation, told the rally on June 18: “As we know in Grenfell, many innocents were murdered by Theresa May’s cronies, many of which are supporters of Zionist ideology.” In video footage posted online, Mr Ali goes on to say: “Let us not forget that some of the biggest corporations who were supporting the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell, in those towers in Grenfell, the Zionist supporters of the Tory Party.”
In another outburst, he says: “It is the Zionists who give money to the Tory party, to kill people in high rise blocks … Careful, careful, careful of those rabbis who belong to the Board of Deputies, who have got blood on their hands.”
The Al Quds Day march is held on the last Friday of Ramadan and was initiated by Iran in support of the Palestinian cause. IHRC supports the political wing of Hizbollah, whose military wing is banned in the UK as a terrorist organisation. It encouraged its supporters to “bring a Hizbollah flag to show support for the political wing of Hizbollah”.
Mr Ali, who chairs the rally, is listed as a director of the IHRC, which co-organises the event in the UK. In 2012, Mr Ali introduced Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, as the keynote speaker. Mr Corbyn did not attend this year’s event.
The IHRC describes itself as an independent, not-for-profit campaign and advocacy group which works with the UN and submits reports to Government.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, said it was appalled by Mr Ali’s comments and had reported him to the police. It said it was “grotesque” for him to link the Grenfell Tower disaster with his opposition to Zionism.
A CST spokesman said: “In any circumstance, these comments would have been utterly hateful, but to hang them on what happened at Grenfell Tower beggared belief. It was, of course, a pro-Hizbollah demonstration, but such hatred would have been staggering even in Beirut or Tehran, never mind the streets of London.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We received an allegation of anti-Semitic comments and it is being investigated by detectives from Westminster CID. The inquiry continues.”
The IHRC failed to respond to a request for comment from The Sunday
Telegraph. In response, Mr Ali told The
Sunday Telegraph: “You have not presented what I said accurately in the wider context of what was said in the prelude to the minute’s silence for Grenfell. As presented it sounds somewhat inelegant … To say that some of Theresa May or the Tory party’s supporters are Zionists is hardly controversial.”