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?

Just came across this Goethe quote on X, seems pretty apt here:

”Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side.”

Being anti Israel is not antisemitic

but it usually is, when you read the anti Israel threads and there are plenty of those…

What a novel take.

What exactly is “anti Israel”?

Because the other Jewish countries are fine with you?

Actually, if the only country you've got a problem with is the Jewish one, because it's Jewish *, you are in fact antisemitic.

Don't worry, people made plenty of excuses for antisemitism before the modern state of Israel existed so if you ever get your wish and the Jewish state is destroyed, there'll be plenty of other historic antisemitic accusations you can call on.

*Apart from the 20% of non-Jewish citizens with full and equal rights.

That very much depends on what you mean by being 'anti-Israel' but its hard to imagine a person who was not antisemitic saying 'I am anti Israel' because why would anyone with any understanding say such a thing?

He sounds quite deranged! It's interesting that the Green party is only asking its candidates to delete racist posts rather than questioning whether having racist candidates is appropriate in a public election.

I wouldn't be happy to have someone like Adderley represent me at any level. I've already experienced people who were formerly friends or friendly acquaintances dropping me like a stone once they realise I'm Jewish. (I'm on the Jew-ish side of things so people don't immediately clock on.) Imagine if you needed your local councillor to help with an issue and it was someone with those bigoted and ignorant views? You'd be on your own at best.

As a left wing Jew I feel completely disenfranchised. There is literally nobody to vote for.

Fighting racism...by being thoroughly racist? 🤔 Is this the highest calibre of candidate we can hope for?

I agree. I'm really tired of people going on about being on the "right side of history" as though it's a line in the road that you can just hop over to join the virtuous. I feel that for about 95% of us, picking a side is foolish because the history is so long and complex. Unless you're thoroughly educated and informed about the situation, it's surely better to stick to condemning violence (and oppressive regimes) and hoping for peace?

It really upsets me that people can so completely ignore or deny the other wars and genocidal activity around the world. My Sudanese colleague whose entire family has lost everything and had to flee their home has never once expressed hatred towards anyone else. Yet I have to witness marches going past my workplace and listen to colleagues making dreadful antisemitic comments about a conflict they don't even seem to understand let alone have any personal involvement in. I despise the casual racism and hatred that's been brought about by the 7th October massacre yet for me, almost the worst thing is is smug hypocrisy of people who are happy to turn a blind eye to the Sudanese genocide, the mass rape of Eritrean women, the plight of Afghani women, the way that the Iranian government uses the war as a cover for inhumane executions, the violence committed again Nigerian women... The list of horror goes on and on but if course no Jews equals no news as far as these people are concerned.

It is. You can oppose the actions of the Israeli government, as many of us do, but once you get into debating the existence of Israel as an entity and portraying Zionism as racism, you are being antisemitic. I suppose there are a lot of people who don't want to admit to their bigotry so hide behind statements like that, but objectively, being anti Israel involves being antisemitic and therefore racist.

Completely agree.

Adderley's post-suspension statement 🤣🤣🤣 think he might be slightly overstating his own importance here. He appears to believe he's a statesman silenced because of his immense courage.

Those Greens have some dreadful policies which ard nothing to do with the original concept of being 'green'. I've voted for them in the past but never would again.

I thought the greens were about cycling and recycling. They have really changed and I wouldn't vote for them.

oh that phrase "right side of history" is so overused and smug!

They assume they know 100% what the "right side of history" is, but often the full picture doesn't emerge until things that happened in the past have settled down and we can look back calmly and make objective judgements.

It's so arrogant, isn't it?
That's what these people are like. They're right, everyone else is wrong! It's an "echo chamber" if there's a difference of opinion. I love a good political discussion - we used to have these on here!

I'm so sorry you have experienced this with friends dropping you because of being Jewish. What the heck is wrong with people??

Even as a non Jewish atheist, I struggle to know which party I will vote for in the next General Election. I can understand it being even harder in your position.

Although the GE is a couple of years away, so I hope the tide of public opinion will have turned sufficiently by then against antisemitism that political parties will really understand that they need to show more support for Jewish people in the UK. Not sweep antisemitic comments made by their own candidates under the carpet as the Green party has done recently.

There is little difference of opinion tolerated on the Conflict in the Middle East board anymore. This AIBU is actually a refreshing change for me to see that people can recognise antisemitism and lots of people are as angry and worried about it as I am.

Yes, also people differentiating effectively, and understanding the broader picture. The knee jerk reaction, or repetition of slogans is just so tiresome and meaningless.
On one thread I was asked "do you want to see babies killed?" which has to be one of the more ludicrous questions I've been asked about the whole conflict.

But yet is thrown at Jewish people all the time. Its clear blood libel.

It’s a completely ridiculous & offensive question.

Makes you wonder how they get through life being so argumentative.

Yes, that hadn't occurred to me.