In April 2016, Shah reposted a August 2014 Facebook post with a map from Norman Finkelstein's website showing Israel superimposed on the United States, with the headline "Solution for Israel-Palestine conflict - relocate Israel into United States". Shah had added the comment that this might "save them some pocket money" (i.e. US funding for Israel). Finkelstein defended the map as humorous. Shah responded that her views on Israel had moderated, and stepped down as John McDonnell's PPS.
The Labour MP was pictured attending a series of protests against McDonald’s, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s due to their alleged support of Israel, prior to her controversial remarks.
The Bradford West MP was active in a Bradford Boycott group that called for action against organisations and businesses that "support apartheid Israel".
On August 7, 2014, the group shared an image from a shop in Kashmir with the sign "I don’t sell or welcome any Israeli in my shop".
It was reported that Shah attended the protest at McDonald's just hours before she made a Facebook post calling on Israel to be "relocated" to the United States. In this protest, she spent the evening ‘playing dead’ in McDonald's with two of her children, aged seven and ten at the time.
The report states that the group stormed the Bradford restaurant, chanting "Allahu Akbar'. They staged a number of protests at the branch and smeared ketchup across the premises, according to activists. Footage shows activists chanting 'Free, free Palestine!'
Shah also co-ordinated protests at Sainsbury's and Tesco, and carried a coffin at a pro-Palestine rally in London where she was filmed chanting "Shame on you".
The firms were singled out by Bradford Boycott as being in support of Israel.
It was revealed that Shah had shared a graphic arguing for the "transportation of the Israeli population out of the Middle East and into the US, claiming in the post that the "transportation costs" of deporting Israelis would be "less than 3 years of defence spending".
In another post, the MP urged people on Facebook to back suggestions Israel was "committing war crimes in a poll in 2014 and said that "the Jews are rallying" to vote. Another report revealed that Ms Shah had made Facebook post comparing "Israelis to Hitler".
Jeremy Corbyn condemned her posted comment as "Offensive and Unacceptable". She was suspended from the Labour Party that month, pending investigation. In July, she was reinstated but given a formal warning for bringing the party into disrepute and told to apologise. Shah said she had shown "ignorance", and that the post was antisemitic, but that she was not.
She currently holds the post of 'Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction'.
In August 2017, Shah retweeted and liked a tweet from a 'parody' account claiming to belong to Labour member Owen Jones that read "Those abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere just need to shut their mouths. For the good of diversity".
Shah deleted the 'retweet' and 'unliked' the original tweet. A spokesperson said "This was a genuine accident eight days ago that was rectified within minutes." Pointing out that herself and her Mother were victims of abuse.
In April 2018, following Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's death, Shah paid tribute by tweeting an image incorporating Mandela's quote "Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country", a reference to the murders committed by the ANC where they would place a tyre over a victims head, fill it with petrol, then set it alight. A gruesome and barbaric punishment dealt out to anyone who stood in Mandela’s way.
Shah later deleted the tweet, [not realising that once you say something on the internet it is out there forever, regardless of the number of times you press 'Delete'].