‘Tell that to the Palestinians, Keir’: Greens spokesperson’s Holocaust Memorial Day response sparks fury

The Green Party’s equalities and diversity spokesperson responded to a post by the Prime Minister repeating the words “Never Again” as he recalled the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust by writing: “Tell that to the Palestinians, Keir.”

Sharmen Rahman,  who was appointed the national spokesperson for Equalities and Diversity last August, and who was the parliamentary candidate for Leicester South, made the comments on January 27—Holocaust Memorial Day—after Keir Starmer posted on social media about the need to confront antisemitism and remember the Holocaust as “one of the darkest stains on humanity.”

Starmer had noted that the Holocaust “stands as one of the darkest stains on humanity: the systematic murder of six million Jews, each one an individual life extinguished by a hatred that sought to erase the entire Jewish people” and called for antisemitism to be challenged whereever it appears, to ensure “never again” meant exactly that.

Rahman replied: “And ensure that ‘never again’ is a promise we uphold, not just a phrase we repeat. Tell that to the Palestinians, Keir.”

Rahman also subsequently reposted the Green Party’s official statement for Holocaust Memorial Day, which referenced “those murdered during the Holocaust and all genocides,” but did not specifically mention the six million Jewish victims.

Critics, including Jewish groups, noted and objected to the omission.

The controversy deepened after Rahman defended Hannah Spencer, the party’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate, who had posted: “Never again but still selling arms to Israel,” above a photo of Labour’s Angela Rayner lighting a Shoah memorial candle.

When Jewish News exclusively reported on Spencer’s comments, Rahman stated: “demanding action against a genocide is not a ‘Holocaust smear’, it is how we apply the lessons we have been taught about this monstrous crime against humanity. That ‘Never Again’ means never again.”

It also emerged that Spencer had retweeted a post by Rahman describing Rayner’s visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as “performative” and referencing the “real live ongoing genocide” in Gaza, suggesting that lessons from the Holocaust had gone unlearned.

The comments drew sharp criticism from Jewish Labour peer Lord Katz, who said: “It’s quite unbelievable this Green candidate used Holocaust Memorial Day to belittle the memory of six million Jews killed in the Shoah to make a tawdry political point.”

Ella Rose-Jacobs, national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, called Spencer’s remarks a “classic example of Holocaust Inversion”—using the Holocaust to make inappropriate comparisons and weaponise its memory.

A Labour Party source alsos added: “Keir drove the racist antisemites out of Labour, but they’ve found their home in the Green Party. Zack Polanski has a choice between condemning this hatred from his candidate or endorsing it with his silence.”

The Green Party rejected allegations of antisemitism, calling them “nonsense” and arguing that such accusations “debase the term.”

On Saturday, Rahman also attracted criticism for responding to the publication of additional pages from the Epstein Files Transparency Act by posting: “There are no Muslims in Epstein’s list.”

She further shared another post stating: “Hamas is not in the Epstein files.”

Under Zack Polanski’s leadership that party has been dogged with controversies involving the Jewish community, despite his own background.

He has repeatedly declared himself as proudly “Jewish and gay” but in the aftermath of Israel’s war in Gaza has adopted a position of outright hostility to Zionism, and has attempted to position that party as pro-Muslim, in what critics have said is “sectarian”.

The party have attempted to suggest they can win the Gorton and Denton by-election on February 26, but both Reform and Labour have played down the Greens chances.