A Muslim police officer has been sacked by the Met after being found guilty of gross misconduct after he published social media posts comparing Israel to the Nazis.
A police misconduct hearing relied on the pro-Israel IHRA definition of antisemitism to determine that Detective Constable Ibrahim Khan disseminated antisemitic material on Instagram to around 250 people, in the period from 17 October to 23 October 2023.
The judge also dismissed the evidence of a Jewish rabbi who denied the material was antisemitic on the grounds that his evidence was submitted too late.
The material included:
- A photograph of a mass grave from 1945 next to a mass grave in Gaza.
- An image of Adolf Hitler morphing into Benjamin Netanyahu with the text “the irony of becoming what you once hated.”
- The text “Well done Israel, Hitler would be proud.”
- A text saying: “Gazans have none of this. It’s a concentration camp.”
- A text stating “don’t forget to teach about the Holocaust from a ‘neutral’ place…oh wait” – which the judge found was intended to suggest that the way in which the Holocaust is taught is somehow exaggerated or distorted.
- A text saying: “imagine being so powerful a group that when you deliberately kill children people are afraid to condemn you for it” – which the judge determined implied that Jews control the media.
- Texts suggesting that the events of 7 October 2023 were a fabrication.
In mitigation, DC Khan denied that the material was antisemitic, backed by a statement provided from Rabbi Herschel Gluck.
DC Khan said that the IHRA definition of antisemitism is not legally binding and also denied that the material was grossly offensive.
He also said that the timing was highly relevant, as the material was posted at a time of considerable political and military turmoil in the Middle East, and at a time when DC Khan himself was subject to difficult personal and family circumstances.
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Nevertheless, the judge found that individually and collectively, the messages were antisemitic and grossly offensive, and that in reposting them, DC Khan’s actions amounted to gross misconduct.
The judge said: “I reject the submission that the timing of these posts assists DC Khan. In circumstances where he denies the material is anti-Semitic or grossly offensive, neither the wider global political situation nor his own personal circumstances prevents his posting of the material from amounting to a breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour…
“Given that DC Khan had posted the material to around 250 people there was a very real risk that it could have been made public. There is very significant public feeling around the situation in the Middle East, as is clear from the number of ongoing public demonstrations, and were DC Khan’s behaviour to become public, this would be likely to result in a severe deterioration in public trust and confidence in the police service as a whole and would make the policing of such demonstrations more challenging. I find that his culpability is high…
“It is entirely unacceptable for police officers to post anti-Semitic and offensive material on social media. The material was made available to around 250 people. Offense was caused to DC and there was a significant risk of enormous harm to public confidence in the police service were his behaviour to become widely known. The conduct took place at a time of very real national public concern about the situation in the Middle East.”
