MP uses ‘gas chambers’ slur as he criticises Israeli plan to ‘concentrate’ Gazans in Rafah

The independent MP Adnan Hussain has drawn criticism after referencing “gas chambers” as he shared a newspaper report on Israel’s defence minister calling for the IDF to “concentrate” the population of Gaza in an area of Rafah.

Highlighting the word “Concentrate” the Blackburn MP wrote on X: “We’re on the concentration camp stage. Gas chambers next? Don’t let it make you angry though, that would be an extreme reaction.”

In a statement the Holocaust Educational Trust responded to his post saying:”It is shocking to see these comments from a Member of Parliament. It is disgraceful to use the Holocaust as a stick to beat the world’s only Jewish state.

“Whatever one thinks of what is happening on Gaza, raising the spectre of gas chambers which were used for the industrialised murder of millions of Jewish people as the Nazis tried to wipe out an entire race is a grotesque distortion of the Holocaust and deeply offensive to survivors, their families, and the memory of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust.”

The Jewish Leadership Council added:”Mr Hussain knows exactly what he is doing. This post is an absurd attempt to invert the Holocaust to attack the Jewish State. This isn’t just wrong, it perpetuates the antisemitism which is rising in this country.”

Hussain, who had shared a report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday night,  attempted to double-down on his comments, in an exchange with the barrister Simon Myerson KC on X.

“There are many Jewish people making this comparison simply because the facts point towards it,” he claimed.

“It’s a critique of a state apparatus carrying out a genocidal campaign, nothing at all to do with race, faith or individuals.”

Myerson responded writing:”I’m afraid you’re wrong.

“You compared Israel to the Nazis. That’s racist according to any definition you adopt.

“The Jews you cite to give you a pass, are both disengaged from the community & a tiny fraction of it.

“You use them to upset every other Jew. That’s indefensible.”

Israel’s defence minister laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.

Israel Katz said he has ordered Israel’s military to prepare for establishing a camp, which he called a “humanitarian city”, on the ruins of the city of Rafah, Haaretz  reported.

Palestinians would go through “security screening” before entering, and once inside would not be allowed to leave, Katz said at a briefing for Israeli journalists.

Israeli forces would control the perimeter of the site and initially “move” 600,000 Palestinians into the area – mostly people currently displaced in the al-Mawasi area.