A senior charity consultant claimed that Israel is “more Nazi than even the Nazis” and shared a message on social media suggesting that atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct 7 were an inside job.
Tariq Shaekh, who is director of his own limited company offering “fundraising, marketing and charity strategy services for the growing UK third sector”, according to his LinkedIn profile, was previously chief executive officer of Human Aid & Advocacy for 20 months.
Mr Shaek recently posted a video in which an Israeli TV presenter appeared to threaten citizens in several Arab countries, with the caption: “When will the world wake up to the fact that Isrea! [sic] is more Nazi than even the Nazis were.”
On Nov 19, he shared on social media a post by another user who wrote: “If you truly believe one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with nuclear weapons, who is the hub for surveillance technology didn’t know where Hams [sic] was on Oct 7, (were able to break through a concentration camp) and their military did not respond for more than 6 hours was by accident, but now as they are bombing civilians they all of a sudden know where they are, I am sorry you are an ignorant fool.
“And your foolishness is enabling genoide [sic].”
It went on to add: “All of these wars were pre-planned. I’ve been speaking about how they want to ethnically cleanse the region and expand their state for years using their own statements and sources.”
UK must be ‘smarter on Islamist tactics’
Charlotte Littlewood, an extremism expert at the International Centre for Sustainability, said: “Suggestions of an ‘inside job’ and painting Israel as more Nazi than the Nazis are a standard part of narrative warfare employed since 9/11 that acts to paint the victim as the aggressor.
“We need to get smarter on Islamist tactics and harsher on extremists that manipulate the generous UK system to spread their hate.”
Anti-Semitism campaigners said it was “appalling” to imply that the Oct 7 attack was pre-planned by Israel.
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Comparing Israel to Nazis is anti-Semitic, according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.”
He added: “But even more insulting is the suggestion that Israel orchestrated or deliberately turned a blind eye to Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 people on 7 Oct in the worst anti-Semitic atrocity since the Holocaust.”
It comes as the chairman of the Charity Commission, Orlando Fraser, warned that charities “must not allow their premises,” events or online content “to become forums for hate speech”.
‘Very impressed’ with the Taliban
Mr Shaekh’s former employer, Human Aid & Advocacy, already faces scrutiny from the Charity Commission after The Telegraph revealed in September that it had sent a delegation to Afghanistan to meet the Taliban – including its foreign minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Human Aid & Advocacy described the August trip as a “fact finding mission” and said it took part in a “series of meetings between the scholars and Afghan officials”.
However, delegates were complimentary about the Taliban government, with an NHS chaplain who sits on the charity’s Islamic scholars board declaring himself “very impressed”.
There is no suggestion that Mr Shaekh was involved in the trip and it took place 10 months after he had left the charity in October 2022.
The watchdog’s regulatory compliance case to assess reports of the trip is ongoing.
It is understood that the regulator’s remit does not include consultants who are not employed by charities themselves, but it may engage with organisations if it believes it is using individuals who may present an unnecessarily high reputational risk. This does not necessarily mean any wrongdoing has been committed.
On Saturday, a spokesman for the regulator declined to comment on Mr Shaekh’s case because he was no longer directly employed by a charity.
Referring to the August trip to Afghanistan, the spokesman said: “We are aware of reports about Human Aid & Advocacy and as a result have opened a regulatory compliance case to assess this further.”
Human Aid & Advocacy and Mr Shaek were approached for comment.