The Times of London revealed that a leader of Britain’s largest Muslim charity had posted a string of antisemitic and pro-Hamas posts on Facebook. The revelation forced Heshmat Khalifa, a trustee and director of Islamic Relief Worldwide, to step down.

In his Facebook posts he referred to Jews as the “grandchildren of monkeys and pigs” and called Egypt’s president a “Zionist pimp.”

Islamic Relief's £570 million income over the past five years included contributions from the United Nations, the European Commission and the British taxpayer.

Khalifa wrote on social media that Hamas is “the purest resistance movement in modern history”. He added that declaring its armed wing a terrorist organization was a “shameful disgrace to all Muslims.”

Many of his antisemitic insults were aimed at Egypt's president Al Sisi. Khalifa called the Muslim president a “pimp son of the Jews”, a “Zionist pig”, a “Zionist traitor” and a “Zionist criminal”. Khalifa deleted the posts after the Times informed him that they would be writing about them.

Khalifa denies he is antisemitic; he told The Times that his comments were “my expressions of frustration with the political regime, rather than beliefs that I hold”.

He added “I did not intend to insult the Jewish community and neither do I hold views which are antisemitic. I have dedicated much of my life’s work to promoting tolerance and freedom of religion and beliefs.”