Paris, 8 November
Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed support for the UK Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) action against Nazim Ali, a London chemist and organizer of the annual “Al-Quds Day” march. “A complaint registered regarding his antisemitism was presented to the Practice Committee (Ethics Panel) of the UK Pharmaceutical Regulatory agency, but was rejected on the claim that their member’s behaviour could be seen as ‘grossly offensive but not antisemitic’.”
During the march, led by Ali, he used his loudspeaker to claim that the June 2017 Grenfell 24 storey tower fire – causing 72 dead and over 70 wounded – was “an act of the Zionists.”
Calling for the “annihilation of Israel,” he added that the Israeli Army was “a terrorist organization murdering Palestinians, Jews (sic) and British soldiers.”
Many of the marchers waved banners of Hezbollah – the Iranian sponsored organization on the UK terror list. The presence of anti-Zionist “Rabbis” provided whitewash for the otherwise anti-Jewish libel.
Samuels noted that, “Ali had incited the over 1,000 marchers with: ‘we are fed up with the Zionists… fed up with their Rabbis… fed up with their supporters… who are supporting the Tory Party… Zionists who give money to the Tory Party to kill people in high-rise blocks’.”
The Centre noted that “Ali is apparently a Director at the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), holding status under the England and Wales Charity Commission”… “In 2015, following the murder of 12 staff members of the French journal Charlie Hebdo by Jihadi terrorists, IHRC distastefully presented it with its annual ‘Islamophobe of the Year Award’. IHRC has also, reportedly, campaigned for the repeal of much of UK anti-terror legislation.”
“On its website, IHRC claims that ‘Nazim Ali’s comments were found to be offensive but not antisemitic UNDER THE IHRA DEFINITION’…thus setting a legal precedent”… Samuels stressed: “We must ensure that this sets a warning, not a precedent”… “The IHRC and the Practice Committee (Ethics Panel) of the UK Pharmaceutical Regulatory agency’s ruling flies in the face of the British recognition of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, that certainly includes anti-Zionism as a cover for antisemitism in its denial of Jewish self-determination, which represents most of Ali’s libelous language.”
In fact, the Pharmaceutical body had recognized that Ali “brought the profession into disrepute” and that “his fitness to practice was impaired.”
“Rather than action on the professional level, however, perhaps Ali’s political connections would be of more appropriate interest… Indeed, IHRC’s BDS (antisemitic Boycott campaign), seems to have granted a discordant exception in that Nazim Ali’s chemist shop sells Teva Israeli pharmaceutical products… Business before anti-Zionism!?” suggested Samuels.