Just Stop Oil are accused of deploying ‘antisemitic tropes’ after comparing oil executives to the Nazi architects of the Holocaust

Just Stop Oil have been accused of deploying ‘antisemitic tropes’ after comparing oil executives to the Nazi architects of the Holocaust.

The environmental group said it has been gathering evidence on those it deemed complicit in committing ‘climate genocide’.

It suggested that ‘those in charge’ were as culpable for deaths caused by climate change as Nazi leaders were for the murders committed in concentration camps.

In a statement, the group said: ‘Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi, at his trial in Jerusalem, sought to defend himself by saying that he never killed any Jews as he was only in charge of transporting them to the death camps.

‘The judges overruled this obscene defence and he was hanged. Similarly, when those in charge today go to court, the judgment will be the same.’

The environmental group yesterday said it was gathering evidence on those it deemed complicit in committing ‘climate genocide’

Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962, was one of the masterminds and central organisers behind the Nazis’ final solution policy, which resulted in the death of up to six million Jewish people.

A spokesman for the group – who claimed they had ‘Jewish heritage’ – doubled-down on the offensive comparison, likening the climate emergency to ‘a giant gas chamber’.

The spokesman said: ‘I understand that comparing oil executives to Nazis may seem outrageous to some people.

‘But if this isn’t evil I don’t know what is.

‘When we understand the scale [of the climate emergency] and think about the scale of evil committed by the Nazis then we can see that both are catastrophes of unimaginable proportions.

‘Forgive me for saying this and I say this very sincerely but it is like we are all trapped in a giant gas chamber.’

But last night a furious coalition of Jewish charities and antisemitism campaign groups accused the controversial eco-group of ‘devaluing’ the memory of those killed in the Holocaust.

A spokesperson for antisemitism awareness charity the Community Security Trust said: ‘It is absolutely sickening to see the victims of the Nazi Holocaust abused for publicity by Just Stop Oil.’

Antisemitism tsar Lord John Mann said the group risked polluting their message by ‘falling into antisemitic tropes’.

He added: ‘It demeans the debate about climate change to lazily use this antisemitic language.’

Danny Stone, CEO of the Anti Semitism Policy Trust said: ‘In drawing these inappropriate comparisons between the Nazi genocide and climate change, the Just Stop Oil spokespeople have betrayed their ignorance.

Just Stop Oil held a slow march protest on Westminster bridge earlier today, holding up traffic

Earlier today eco-protesters brought London’s streets to a temporary standstill after slow-marching in five separate locations around the capital

‘They are, I’m sure, perfectly capable of expressing their concerns without facile, lazy, offensive, irresponsible and inaccurate comparisons which have the net effect of devaluing the memory of the Holocaust.’

Earlier today, eco-protesters brought London’s streets to a temporary standstill after slow-marching in five separate locations around the capital.

The eco-group, which campaigns to end all new oil and gas licences, have previously invaded the court during the Wimbledon championships and run on to the pitch at Lord’s during the Ashes.