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?

Zack doesn't give a shit about the environment, given his policies would trash it.

Neither does he hold progressive views on gender. He's falling over himself to remove women's hard fought-for rights, so that men can have even more.

It is the very antithesis of 'progressive' to take away rights from the oppressed group (women) to give more to the oppressor group (men).

Him being Jewish just gives cover for the vile antisemites in his god forsaken party.

Wise up.

Conspiracy theories like the idea that the rapes in October 7th were made up? Or that Jews are a snake encircling the world that needs to be decapitated? Both of which were said by Green candidates, and defended in a previous post in this thread.

Sorry that's what I meant. "IF you give me evidence (which you now have) I'll consider it accordingly."

Jewish is not the equivalent of Islamist. Islamism is an extreme ideology within Islam and its not remotely islamophobic to say so.

And this bullshit sleight of hand is exactly why you don't get the sympathy you so cry out for. Try being fucking honest for once and see if it helps.

Who's "you"?

Where exactly have I cried out for any sympathy?

And it was a snake with a giant Star of David on it encircling the world, and antisemitic trope that's as old as the hills. And was posted a little bit before she also posted than Donald Trump is owned by the Jews. So it's hardly a stretch to figure out what she meant.

Edit: that was in response to post above that was deleted while I was typing that.

Where exactly have I cried out for any sympathy?

That wasn't what they meant by you.

"He's the political embodiment of "some of my best friends are black".

Absolutely.

And on a side note... It really didn't take them long to go from "One of the unfortunate results of it is that its very difficult now to take reports of anti-Semitism at face value" (oh, can't you just feel how tragically unfortunate they find it?) to "this bullshit sleight of hand is exactly why you don't get the sympathy you so cry out for", did it?

I'm sick to death of all this and I'm not even Jewish, so the thing I'm really taking personally is the insult to my intelligence.

How do these people think it's not blindingly obvious?

And how do they think anyone believes that Dave didn't get parked as nutter in chief to sanitise and deny the antisemitism that runs through that vile party like a stick of rock?

Just googled Shahrar Ali.
"Dr. Shahrar Ali, a former Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (2014–2016), has been involved in significant legal battles with the party concerning his "gender-critical" beliefs.
Legal Action and Rulings

• February 2024 (First Case): A court ruled that the Green Party unlawfully discriminated against Dr. Ali by removing him as a party spokesperson (policing and domestic safety) in February 2022. The judge awarded him
• in damages for injury to feelings, citing procedural unfairness and discrimination against his gender-critical beliefs—specifically his belief that biological sex is real and immutable.
• September 2024 (Costs Hearing): The Green Party was ordered to pay
• in legal costs to Dr. Ali.
• Ongoing Legal Action (2025-2026): In September 2025, Dr. Ali launched a second legal claim against the party, accusing them of continuing to discriminate against him after he was later excluded from the party for a two-year period following his initial win.

Core Issues

• Gender-Critical Beliefs: The disputes center on Dr. Ali’s public statements, including criticism of teaching transgender identities to two-year-olds and his views on female sports competitors, which were deemed transphobic by party activists.
• Party Policy and Discipline: While the court upheld the protection of Dr. Ali's beliefs, it also affirmed that political parties have the right to remove spokespeople for views that conflict with party policy, provided fair procedures are followed. The Green Party apologized for procedural shortfalls in his initial removal.
• Internal Divisions: These cases highlight deep divisions within the Green Party over gender-critical views and trans rights, causing concerns about potential financial strain on the party.

Note: In April 2026, reports indicated Dr. Ali made further criticisms of the party's direction under new leadership. "

Googling Sharah Ali sent me down a rabbit hole @Whatifitallgoesright & discovered this article about Polanski:

Beware the bankrupt hellscape of Polanski Land

The Green Party leader’s plan to banish Right-wingers is as comical as it is chilling

It was on his podcast Bold Politics that he wondered out loud whether Right-wingers should have a place in society. He said he’s down with the idea of building a “complete utopia” but first we might have to do something about those nasty people who refuse to genuflect at the altar of his own wet-Left bonkers politics.

“There are people,” he said, “who identify as Right-wing or indeed even far-Right. And no matter what humanity or community we put them in, they are set on destroying [things] or pushing this toxicity”.

Could we really live with this ideological riff-raff, he wondered, or should we fence them off? “Do we think we can change their minds? Or is it a case of building a society that doesn’t include them?”

Even his guest, the broadcaster Zakia Sewell, seemed startled by his Stalinist dream of a society made up of hellish zones, where Lefties get to play a full role while Right-wingers are herded into a limbo of unpersonhood. Might you be “in danger of alienating people who are perhaps more moderate”, she asked?

It’s horrendous that the leader of a party that looks set to clean up among the keffiyeh classes in the leafier bits of Britain can so cavalierly gab about exiling people on the basis of their beliefs.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/35cb6024ae06af63

Ain’t that the truth!!

contrary to various posters on this thread, I know that the Green Party has - like any serious political party - had a full suite of policies about all kinds of issues, not just "the environment", for a very long time.

These were all developed and voted for by party members over the years, and as a result were often pretty radical in comparison to what was on offer from the mainstream parties - including things like the decriminalisation of recreational drugs (& the provision of E-testing at venues); strategies to bring empty buildings back into use; a universal basic income; abolishing the monarchy; signing the international treaty for nuclear non-proliferation etc etc....

It's hardly surprising that they've also adopted internationalist policies which reflect their care for the (whole) planet, and all the people/ other species who live on it, human and animal rights...

Of course anyone who cares about ecology would be opposed to war! And to the military actions of Israel (and the USA). Look at the state that Palestine's been left in, and what's happening in Lebanon - it's not just people being wiped out, but everything, as part of a deliberate strategy to make it impossible to grow food/ live safely. War tends to leave land poisoned, littered with mines & depleted uranium, and is not healthy for anyone - look at the ongoing health issues in places like Iraq.

It is NOT anti-semitic:
to question the narrative that's been pushed by the inherently-biased mainstream media.
to question the propaganda and social media manipulation being (proudly and openly) carried out by the state of Israel.
to be critical of the apartheid system that's operating in Israel (including the new death penalty laws which will only be used against Palestinians).
to be critical of an ongoing, live-streamed genocide.

It IS anti-semitic to conflate Israel's policies with all Jewish people, or to claim that someone being Jewish means they can't possibly make a stand against such obvious injustice. Most of us know that plenty of Jewish people, both inside and outside Israel, have criticised the actions of the of Israeli Govt and the violent/ illegal settler movement.

There still isn't any actual evidence of any "mass rapes" being carried out by Palestinians/ Hamas on 7th October, but there is plenty of documented evidence of thousands of Palestinian prisoners (men, women and children) being sexually abused and tortured. If you don't believe me read this: https://www.btselem.org/publications/202601_living_hell

There is also evidence of the IOF deliberately targeting young children (and shooting them in the head), as well as medical personnel and journalists, despite this constituting a war crime.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/un-human-rights-office-condemns-targeting-journalists-and-attacks-on-hospitals/

Oh, and there's also evidence of Israel iillegally harvesting organs from dead Palestinians, as far back as 2009.... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/21/israeli-pathologists-harvested-organs so it's hardly an anti-semitic "conspiracy theory" either.

PS: I have voted Green in the past. My reasons for not doing so now are nothing to do with their criticism of Israel/ support of Palestinian human rights.

@Longtimelurkerfinallyposts "There still isn't any actual evidence of any "mass rapes" being carried out by Palestinians/ Hamas on 7th October"

Hamas used sexual violence as "part of a deliberate genocidal strategy" during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, an all-women group of Israeli legal and gender experts allege in a new report calling for justice.

The Dinah Project says the report is based on a review of evidence including first-hand testimony from a survivor of an attempted rape and 15 former hostages held in Gaza, as well as accounts from witnesses to sexual assaults.
It lays out what the group describes as "a legal blueprint for prosecuting these crimes, even when direct attribution to individual perpetrators is impossible".
Hamas has denied its forces committed sexual violence against women or mistreated female hostages.

However, a UN mission concluded in March 2024 that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attack in multiple locations, including rape and gang rape, and that there was "convincing information" that hostages had been subjected to sexual violence, including rape and sexualised torture.

And before they were assassinated by Israel, three top Hamas leaders were also accused by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor of the crimes against humanity of rape and other forms of sexual violence, in addition to murder, extermination and torture.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mz8gxzg82o

Evidence points to systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas in 7 October attacks

Guardian aware of sexual assaults for which multiple corroborating pieces of evidence exist

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks

People might want to question their ability to understand antisemitism if they find themselves reaching immediately for antisemitic tropes and focussing only or predominantly on Israel amongst all the horror happening in the world. If they claim that, against the evidence that Israel is an apartheid state or just parroting claims of genocide without any acknowledgement of the genocidal Hamas attack that triggered the war, and indeed cherry picking one aspect of the attack to quibble over.
On sexual violence of 7 October as Twiglets says, see
Home - Dinah Project https://share.google/T1eD1nyr1CSR0krFY

Im not aware of anyone saying 'someone being Jewish means they can't possibly make a stand against such obvious injustice'. Everyone knows Jews & Israelis criticise the government all the time and are active in peace and interfaith work. This is just a straw man. The issue is when people hold Jewish people rather than the government responsible for things they dont agree with and when they cant be bothered to figure out what is and isn't an antisemitic way to criticise Israel. And dont stop to question why they are so obsessed with Israel and don't care about the impact it is having on the people in the diaspora when 'anti-Israel' activism tips over into blatant antisemitism on a regular basis.
Which does take us back to the Greens policy of prioritising Gaza. Its cynical & racist.

On 12 April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the alleged sexual violence on 7 October.

The EU said the two groups' fighters "committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war."

On 23 April 2024, the annual UN Secretary-General's report called on the Israeli government to allow access to "relevant UN bodies to carry out a fully-fledged investigation into all alleged violations".

In July 2025, Hamas was added to the UN's sexual violence blacklist.

Why are you defending Hamas @Longtimelurkerfinallyposts ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_and_gender-based_violence_in_the_October_7_attacks

Denies that Hamas raped women on October 7 (and kind of implies that October 7 was sort of acceptable if mass rapes hadn't taken place, which obviously they did) and weaponises a scandal from 30+ years ago in which law and protocol were broken, and action taken against the perpetrator (entirely rightly), as some sort of evidence that the Jewish state routinely and continuously steals organs.

And lectures us on antisemitism.

Zack Polanski is interested in one thing and that is himself becoming a heavy political player

he is more than happy to pick up the far left voters who hold anti semitic views who previously supported Corbyn who also had a cult following

far right and far left politics have more similarities that not just one side intellectualises their prejudice yet for everyone else it’s plain to see

Do Green party members also make statements about other conflicts in the world, take part in marches about those conflicts etc? Or is it just Israel that interests them so much?

I find it deeply suspicious when British people have intense and overwhelming feelings about another country while having no personal connection and ignoring all the other injustices happening worldwide. And it’s not to say anyone should turn their backs on the rest of the world, I have just never seen this sort of outcry about any other topic and you do have to wonder why ‘this’ war is so deeply horrifying and all the others are fine to ignore.

Am also curious - from the hate marchers themselves - what you think these marches have accomplished? The war continues, Netanyahu and Trump do whatever they want, and the only accomplishment I can see is that my family is scared to go into town, wear a Jewish star or go to school. So hurray for you if that was your goal (and honestly it’s not ‘not’ the goal for all the marchers. Plenty quite pleased with that result!)

One sentence about continuing to support Ukraine.

A big emphasis on Israel and Palestine.

greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/a-fairer-greener-world/

I am aware of the Dinah Project and its report, A Quest for Justice (which was after all partly (£90k) funded by UK taxpayers - thanks to David Lammy, prominent member of 'Labour Friends of Israel'), thank you all.

I am also aware that in response to it being published in 2025, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, stated: "It is my understanding that neither the [U.N. special commission appointed to investigate the October 7 attacks] nor any other independent human rights mechanism established that sexual or gender-based violence was committed against Israelis on or since the 7th of October as a systematic tool of war or as a tool of genocide."

The methodology of this 'research' has been roundly criticised by many. There is very little evidence to back up the claims of rape being used systematically, as a deliberate tactic by Hamas, and still zero forensic evidence.

I am writing this as someone who has been involved in campaigning and educating people about rape and sexual/ intimate violence for decades.

When October 7th first happened, I heard the reports and did not disbelieve them at first, as I am well aware of the prevalance of rape as a weapon of war, historically and currently. However since looking into it further, I have come to believe that we were lied to, by so-called 'journalists' parroting Israeli Govt press releases rather than fact-checking. These are the same media outlets that routinely ignore the very real, evidenced mass rape of Palestinians by Israeli forces (many of whom frankly boast about their activities online).

Interestingly, I don't hear any of you talking about that, never mind condemning it, or the fact that an Israeli mob (which included Govt officals) actually rioted in support of the men ("heroes") caught on camera gang-raping a detainee at Sde Teiman, while the woman who blew the whistle on this abhorrent practice was prosecuted....

I am against all rape. And all war crimes.

And illegal/ non-consensual organ-harvesting (which appears to still be going on nowadays, judging by the state of some of the Palestinian bodies released to the international Red Cross/ Crescent over the past few years: after examining them, respected/ experienced surgeons have testified that commonly-transplanted organs had been surgically removed).

https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/02/uk-gave-90k-to-sexual-violence-report-central-to-israels-genocide-propaganda/

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/un-statements-undercut-dinah-project-report-october-7-sexual-violence-claims

We see an lot of the Livingstone Formulation on this board. Three cheers for Polansky giving us a Principle.
www.jewishnews.co.uk/from-the-livingstone-formulation-to-the-polanski-principle/?fbclid=IwdGRjcARZgYBjbGNrBFmBAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHk3JMuwomo9X59MH1V5wrZnFaLAq9MCB6Hv1y1Agc9NBypLgWbsIf2L7d5q-_aem_d92S9gtsgeJh5nRO16yLJQ