Protesters from the UK Just Stop Oil group prompted outrage on Thursday after comparing themselves and their cause to the people who hid Anne Frank during the Holocaust.
“The people who hid Anne Frank during WW2 were criminals... So were the French Resistance. Obeying the law does not give you the moral high ground — not when it's still legal for our government to greenlight enough oil and gas to kill millions. Good people break bad laws,” the group tweeted.
Just Stop Oil also recently enraged central London motorists by blocking busy roads during the daytime.
Video of the incident showed fed up drivers getting out of their vehicles and physically dragging the protesters off the road.
The eco group’s tweet was a response to a tweet by the former leader of the UKIP party, Henry Bolton, who praised a court’s decision to keep group member Louise Harris in prison until her trial, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
Nearly 700 Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested by London police since their campaign began to block roads. Over 110 people face charges.
Just Stop Oil’s offensive comparison was met with anger, with Mike Katz, chair of Jewish Labour, tweeting that it was a “phenomenally bad take.”
“My Jewish great grandmother was hidden by brave neighbours in Ulm, Germany for the duration of the war. You’re nothing like them,” Telegraph contributor Bella Wallerstein replied to the group in a tweet.
The chair of the Leeds Jewish Representative Council, Simon Myerson, blasted the environmentalists, tweeting: “Good tip: Don’t try and compare your self-indulgent performative nonsense to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. Because it’s crass, wrong and arguably racist.”