The federal Green Party has nominated a candidate in Nova Scotia who was dumped by the NDP in the last national campaign after her tweets compared Israel to Nazi Germany and suggested Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.
Rana Zaman tweeted on Aug. 24 that she is the Green Party candidate in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, the riding where she was dropped by the NDP after her remarks emerged in the lead-up to the 2019 campaign, Canadian Press reported.
The party’s website confirms she is the candidate in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour. As of Aug. 25, it said her bio was coming soon. The party said it would issue a statement on her candidacy.
In dropping Zaman as an NDP hopeful in the riding in June 2019, the party said the language she had used in her social media posts was “unacceptable. We expect our candidates to engage on important issues respectfully.”
Ironically, Zaman had complained to the media only the month before about hateful comments she had received on the campaign trail for being Muslim and an immigrant.
On June 4, 2018, Zaman tweeted that Israel is “committing genocide against Palestinians because Israel is not willing to share! Tell me what are Palestinians supposed to do…just die…oh wait! They are!! Where’s your heart?”
In another tweet from Sept. 8, 2018, Zaman questioned why Canada would do business with Israel, which she called an “apartheid state.”
In a different tweet, Zaman wrote, “I wonder if #Israel borrowed this from the #Nazis after they saw how successful they were? At the speed Israel is killing I wonder if they’re aiming higher than six million #Palestinians? #Gaza is the new #Auschwitz and #Israeli the gatekeepers!”
And in a December 2018 tweet, she asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “Is it your plan to ban #BDS after claiming it’s #antiSemitic and then punish individuals and #organizations if they support it? You advocating for #ApartheidIsrael because of their stellar #HumanRight record or wealthy lobby efforts?”
Following her removal by the NDP, Zaman issued a statement on Twitter saying: “I regret to say I’ll no longer be the candidate for the NDP due to ‘words’ used in tweets about Palestine/Israel. My attempt failed to get engagement to start a conversation a year ago but thanks to interested parties is successful today! Activism has its price, I’m willing to pay.”
Later, she apologized, again on Twitter, saying that she posted her tweets after seeing “unarmed Palestinian protesters” being shot during the 2018-2019 Gaza border protests.
Following her removal as candidate, Zaman said she reached out to “leaders and friends in the Jewish community” to solicit their input and advice.
“I now appreciate that my tweets comparing Israeli actions to those of Nazi Germany were inappropriate, hurtful and sadly, may be viewed as antisemitic,” she tweeted.
She claimed her posts were meant to “raise awareness, engage others in a conversation and dialogue that would be productive… My emotions at the sight of so many innocent Palestinians being shot, maimed or killed during the March of Return overwhelmed me. I have learned an important lesson, the need to be mindful and not to use this analogy in the future.”
Late in 2019, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission formally rescinded an award it had made to Zaman earlier. The commission said it had been unaware of her statements, which “were directly contrary to the principles of the award.”
Dartmouth-Cole Harbour is currently held by the Liberals. In the last election, the Green candidate received 5,280 votes, or about 10 percent of the total.
