AIBU to be concerned about Green candidates and antisemitism?

[Twiglets1]

Ironically, given that the Green party is led by a Jewish man, the party has become home to political candidates causing distress and fear for many in the Jewish community.

Dr Phil Brookes, the Green Party candidate for Manor Park, Newcastle stated in a social media post that “it takes serious effort not to be a tiny bit anti-Semitic”.

Then there’s Sabine Mairey, the Green candidate for Clapham Town in south London. She posted a video on social media stating that a terrorist attack on a synagogue was “not anti-Semitism” but “revenge”.

Councillor Hau-Yu Tam is the Green candidate in the Deptford ward of Lewisham. She has expressed support for her “brilliant comrade and lawyer” Franck Magennis whose law firm Riverway to the Sea has sought the de-proscription of Hamas – the anti-Semitic terrorist group responsible for the mass murder and rape of October 7. She said she was extremely proud of Magennis for “blazing the way on this intervention”.

Ifhat Shaheen is a Green candidate in Stoke Newington. She has defended the October 7 attacks and suggested that Israel is harvesting organs from Palestinians.

Also in London is council candidate Saiqa Ali who posted an image of the Earth being strangled by a snake clothed in an Israeli flag, accompanied by the caption “It’s time to cut the head of this snake”.

Chandni Chopra is the Green Party candidate for Heaton, Newcastle. She has questioned whether Hamas used rape during their attacks despite the horrific evidence and previously described Zionism as a “mental illness”.

A second irony is that many Green Party voters will pride themselves on their anti-racist credentials. Why then is there growing support for a party whose candidates expressed such overt racism towards one of Britain’s minority communities?

Given that he's only there to sanitise and deny their antisemitism and he's constantly exploited his ethnicity to that end, it does seem weird that he doesn't seem to have realised this would happen. Then again, a) he's really not very clever and b) people who let themselves be used as a cover for hatred do always think the haters will make an exception for them, because they're not like other girls/Jews, and they get shocked when they find out their puppetmasters do in fact hate them too.

I read a report about Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, visiting a camp in Chad, and hearing the stories of the women and girls who had been subjected to sexual violence. It was not an easy read.
I couldn't find a report on any of the mainstream news bulletins.

https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2024-10-14/the-duchess-of-edinburgh-visits-chad
On the royal website.
Not widely publicised.

But we’re not focusing on them. They’re still our close allies. We’re still trading with them, selling them weapons, the US handing them billions of dollars every year, and Europe inviting them to pop song competitions. If and when we DO start focusing on them in a meaningful way I’m sure some of noise will quieten down.

We sell everywhere weapons. It’s a big industry paying big taxes to keep our public services running. I have no qualms about this whatsoever.

You know that Eurovision isn't Europe, don't you?
I've no idea what your last sentence means.

Jewish people in the UK are not selling Israelis weapons. The UK has little to no influence over the Eurovision Song Contest or the US. If you don't like us buying Israeli goods it's fairly easy to boycott them. This does not involve pretending Jews are firebombing their own ambulances and then denying that they are threatened in the UK, even after several arson attacks and attempted arson attacks in the space of a few weeks.

You seem a bit confused. Of course regular protests, flags flying, endless memes, petitions and social media posts, banning & harassing Israeli & Jewish performers etc is all focus'. The UN has passed more than double the resolutions against Israel than any other country.

Israel is not 'invited' to Eurovision, its broadcasting organisation is a member of the body that runs it.

We sell Israel a tiny amount of military components and equipment. I dont see what the US has to do with us?

Though none of this has anything to do with Jews in this country they are still being harassed and attacked and murdered, so what makes you think that any change in policy towards Israel would make the slightest bit of difference?

Am I misunderstanding or are you saying that if the UK stops trading with Israel and essentially treats them as a parish state, people will stop shouting antisemitic abuse (and worse) at British Jews? What will happen if everyone cuts ties with Israel and how long will that thing take?

Also nobody is shouting about Sudan, nobody is marching to end the ethnic genocide there yet the UK sells quite a lot of arms to the UAE, hundreds of millions of pounds worth every year in fact. And the UAE funds the RSF which is massacring so many in Sudan. So if there's radio silence on that bloodshed here in the UK, by your logic - how is that still happening?

And the UK has sold huge amounts of weapons to Saudi throughout the horrific war in Yemen. The arms argument is just Bullshit. And if the US didn't fund the Iron Dome we know EXACTLY what would happen to Israel.

He may be very slightly out of his depth in the political sphere. Where most of his opponents will have a degree in Law, Economics or PPE from Oxford, Zack studied Drama. At Aberystwyth.

Nothing against Drama or Aberystwyth, but it’s probably not the best background for someone aiming at being our next prime minister.

UK arms sales 2024:
Saudi £2.9 billion
UAE £100 million
Israel. £11 million

If you really think that anti semetic attacks in the UK would end if this £11 m of arms sales to Israel was stopped then you are deluded.

The reason that there are anti semetic attacks in the UK is simply because hating Jews has now become acceptable in certain circles, even if they have to dress it up with the cover word of "Zionists".

Student arrested after chanting about putting Zionists 'in the ground' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8gdelw79po

Try this: https://archive.ph/S01GW

Well, Chaim Rumkowski was also a Jew. So was Otto Weininger

Anyone who knows Jewish history isn't surprised by the emergence of another one of their ilk.

THIS - totally. And you know what - no one will call you antisemitic because you're being just.....balanced and normal.

Agree about the phenomenon of people amplifying and chuckling over tik tok propaganda. It seems so tone deaf to me to be laughing along with a regime like the IRGC - they are going to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK later this year according to Keir Starmer!

What next - laugh along with Hamas if they employ people to make some Lego videos too … What about Putin? Maybe he should employ the same company.

I agree. What I found rather pathetic about this Oxford student was that apparently they had to 'workshop' the chant. All that education, and they had to have a workshop to come up with a pathetic piece of doggerel. The land of Keats, Shelley, Shakespeare, Milton, so many great poets. All the education and privilege he has and that's the best he can come up with.
And the best he can come up with is also antisemitic.

Imagine if he'd spent all that time actually informing himself of the history of the conflict; studying border changes and peace accords and looking into why the latter have failed.

Yeh I had to leave that board, too depressing. Any mention of what happens to people including women and children before they get executed and it’s pounced on and for the propaganda instead.

That rhetoric and the digital blackout mean the citizens have nothing. No voice, and overridden by some who will do anything.

Polanski: Greens no more anti-Semitic than Labour

Mr Polanski, 43, defended the party against allegations of hostility towards Jewish people among members, arguing that anti-Semitism existed across all political parties.

Last month, The Telegraph revealed that Green Party activists had described Jewish people as “an abomination to this planet” and questioned whether the attack on four Jewish charity-owned ambulances in Golders Green was staged to blame Iran.

Asked whether the Greens had an anti-Semitism problem, Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, told Good Morning Britain: “I don’t think it has any more of a problem than any other political party or in society.

In March, The Telegraph revealed that members of the Greens for Palestine group, a Left-wing faction in the Green Party, had claimed Jews “murder, bomb and starve” children and shared posts on social media suggesting the Golders Green attack was “an inside job”.

Another member described Jewish people as an “abomination to this planet”.

Labour urged Mr Polanski to take action against those involved, saying growing evidence of anti-Semitism within the Green Party was “deeply troubling”.

The Conservatives called the language from activists “utterly appalling”.

The Green Party was approached for comment at the time, but declined to say whether it had launched an investigation or removed any members as a result of the findings.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/04/27/polanski-greens-no-more-anti-semitic-than-labour/

I notice Nadia Sawalha was on Loose Women today.

@Twiglets1 Polanski was very poor. He doubled down, and genuinely didn't seem to understand what was being asked. Or why.

Almost unkind to expect him to be able to answer questions about actual politics as opposed to hypnotism or boob enlargement or whatever.

Asked whether the Greens had an anti-Semitism problem, Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, told Good Morning Britain: “I don’t think it has any more of a problem than any other political party or in society.

Fuck me. This is not the flex he thinks it is.

😂😂😂