The federal Greens have nominated a candidate in Nova Scotia who was turfed by the NDP within the last national campaign after a tweet surfaced through which she had compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
Rana Zaman tweeted Tuesday she is the official candidate for the Green party in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, the riding where she was dropped by the NDP after her remarks emerged within the lead-up to the 2019 campaign.
Zaman, a powerful supporter of the Palestinian cause, was criticized for online posts denouncing Israel’s armed forces for shooting Palestinian protesters.
One in all the posts compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany’s actions in Europe through the Holocaust.
Zaman apologized after the comments emerged, saying in a tweet she realized that her remarks were “inappropriate, hurtful and sadly could also be perceived as antisemitic.”
Reached by telephone Tuesday, Zaman declined to comment, saying a press release was being prepared.
The federal Greens’ position on Israel has been among the many issues that has led to infighting and factionalism throughout the party for months under leader Annamie Paul, who was elected to her position in October 2020.
In June of this yr, Green MP Jenica Atwin crossed the ground to the Liberals over views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in addition to broader tussles over power and authority throughout the party.
Atwin had warned about Israeli “apartheid” in a Twitter post on May 11, deeming Paul’s more traditional statement on violence within the region as “completely inadequate.”
There had been a long-simmering feud within the party after a social media post from Noah Zatzman – a former Paul adviser who has since stepped aside – that called out unspecified Green MPs for antisemitism.
The Greens’ social media stir didn’t end with Zaman.
Kerri Coombs, the Green candidate for Red Deer-Lacombe in Alberta, tweeted a couple of days ago about British Columbia’s provincial health officer: “I personally see Bonnie Henry as a serial killer with an ‘Angel of Death’ psychological profile. I’ll leave it to others to determine whether I’ve been reading too many #COVID studies within the ↕lancet, watching too many episodes of ↕CrimMinds-CBS or each.”
Coombs recanted on Tuesday, saying she regretted the tweet and that it was “meant to be funny.”
“I did binge-watch ‘Criminal Minds’ and binge-read COVID studies through the lockdown,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2021.
