Echoes of the Corbyn years in the local elections
All parties will discover, when the scrutiny intensifies during an election period, that some of their thousands of local council candidates have said or done things that embarrass the party and which it does not condone.
What matters is what the party does about it.
Reform UK is reportedly investigating Sajjad Raja, the Reform UK candidate for the Moortown ward in Leeds, after it emerged that he allegedly chanted “from the river to the sea” in a march against Israel in June 2024.
In a video, the candidate is apparently seen at the front of the march with a Workers Party of Britain sign reading: “For Britain, for Gaza”. The far-left Workers Party of Britain is led by George Galloway and Chris Williamson.
Reform UK has meanwhile allegedly expelled another candidate, David Robert Prior, for not disclosing that he was formerly a member of the far-right British National Party (BNP).
The Conservatives have dropped Ishfaq Hussain, a former councillor and now candidate in the Dogsthorpe ward in Peterborough, after he reportedly replied to an offensive anti-Islam social media post earlier this year with the words: “another zio bot”. The term “Zios” is invariably used pejoratively and often considered an antisemitic slur.
A few years ago he was suspended from the Party over similarly inflammatory rhetoric.
But it is the Green Party that is causing by far the greatest concern in the Jewish community.
There, it is not merely a few isolated candidates whose rhetoric is deeply worrying, but that of the Party’s leaders.
As Jewish synagogues, charities and businesses are being firebombed practically every day, Green Party Leader Zack Polanski has conceded that there is some antisemitism but that it is also diluted by a “perception of unsafety” and accused a rival party – Labour – of “weaponising antisemitism”.
That is an old refrain that we would have hoped had died out after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation into antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn, who also claimed that antisemitism was being weaponised or exaggerated.
The only people “weaponising” anything are the people trying to burn down the Jewish community.
Zack Polanski should apologise and withdraw his comment, but instead he has defended it.
It gets worse.
Mr Polanski has not only shown that nothing has been learned from the EHRC investigation but essentially that he rejects its findings.
After we referred Labour under Jeremy Corbyn to the EHRC, the Party was found to have been so racist against Jews that it broke the law. Following the ruling, the Labour Party was issued with a mandatory action plan and forced to make reforms.
Now, Mr Polanski says that he should have supported Mr Corbyn and that he now believes that the antisemitism allegations against Labour – which an independent public body tasked with upholding equality found to be justified – were essentially bogus.
He now apparently feels that he and his Party are now facing similar allegations.
According to our polling, 76% of British Jews think that the Green Party is too tolerant of antisemitism among their officeholders.
In a symbolic development, this past week Jennie Formby, the General Secretary of the Labour Party who refused to investigate our first complaint against Mr Corbyn, which led us to refer Labour to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, defected to the Green Party.
Meanwhile, Mothin Ali, the Party’s Deputy Leader, has reportedly told members of the radical Greens for Palestine faction who are accused of inflammatory conduct that they are in fact making “the right type of noise”, adding: “Know you are not alone.”
The number of Green Party candidates whose social media activity has come to our attention far exceeds all of the other major parties put together. That activity includes:
- Material that is reasonably interpreted as supportive of Hamas, a banned antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation;
- Support for Palestine Action, also a banned group;
- Ugly cartoons depicting supposed Jewish power, such as a picture of the Earth being constricted by a giant snake emblazoned with the star of David and flag of Israel;
- Pejorative claims that Sir Keir Starmer is a “Jewish Zionist”;
- Claims that President Trump is “owned by Jews”;
- Conspiracies about Israel and 9/11, Israel and the 7th October 2023 atrocity and the Golders Green ambulance arson; and
- References to “Jewish cockroaches”.
The list goes on.
One or two individuals have apologised. The Party has taken action against a number, and there are daily developments. But far too many, from our information, have not been sanctioned at all.
Unlike Labour or the Conservatives, and more akin to Reform UK in the previous election, the Green Party has limited infrastructure for vetting and disciplinary procedures. But even so, the scale of the hatred is unmistakable, and we must see urgent and robust action from the Party.
But if its leaders see this as “the right type noise” or a “weaponisation“ of antisemitism, then the direction of the Green Party is extremely concerning.
It raises serious questions about the regulatory system if the Green Party is able to repeat the patterns that the EHRC condemned under Labour with impunity.
Revealed: how Iran recruits arsonists
“It’s quite something now, to see it in black and white.”
So said CAA Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, as he spoke to LBC about how Iran is recruiting would-be arsonists over Telegram.
Watch the short segment here and learn the full story of the first steps in Iran’s process for identifying malleable potential recruits.
Ambulance arson suspects in court
The Golders Green ambulance arson suspects have appeared in court.
Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, both from Leyton in East London, and Judex Atshatshi, 18, from Dagenham and a 17-year-old boy of dual British-Pakistani nationality from Walthamstow, appeared at the Old Bailey today charged with criminal damage.
According to the charge, “without lawful excuse”, they destroyed four ambulances belonging to the Jewish Hatzola charity, which provides medical care and saves lives in the areas in which it operates.
A plea hearing has been set for August and a provisional four-week trial at the Old Bailey from January next year. The suspects have been remanded into custody.
Meanwhile, another arrest has been made in connection with the incident. A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, near Barnstaple in Devon, bringing the total of arrests made since the arson attack on Hatzola ambulances to 26, according to the Metropolitan Police. So far, eight people have been charged with arson-related offences, one of whom has been convicted.
We are grateful to the police for their decisive response to this urgent situation. Networks must be disrupted and any and all perpetrators must be brought to justice.
We also hit the streets to ask British Jews how they are feeling about the spate of arson attacks. Watch this to see what they told us.
Prime Minister announces IRGC ban to come in next Parliament – but does he mean it?
The Prime Minister has announced that the Government will move to ban the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the next Parliament, which will be opened in a few weeks.
The Prime Minister made the announcement while visiting the synagogue in Kenton that was recently firebombed, to express his solidarity with the Jewish community.
The Government has repeatedly pledged to proscribe the IRGC and then u-turned on this issue. Barely ten days ago, the Government opposed an amendment in the House of Lords that would ben the organisation.
We hope that this time the Prime Minister finally means it.
To keep the pressure up, you can sign the petition at antisemitism.org/BanTheIRGC.
Finally, some real sentencing
Four Palestine activists have now been jailed after being convicted of criminal damage.
Julian Gao, 22, of Manchester, Najam Shah, 53, of Burnley and Daniel Jones, 30, of Crosby, have each been jailed for twenty months at Bradford Crown Court after a jury previously convicted them on charges of criminal damage and possessing articles with intent to cause crimping damage.
A fourth defendant, Ruby Hamill, 21, of London, was also convicted of the same offences in her absence and she is now wanted on a warrant.
You can read more about the case here.
This sentence sends a message to Palestine activists who insist not only on disrupting everyone’s lives but causing damage and destruction as they go.
Another horrifying incident occurred in Slough earlier in the week, where a violent assault was captured on video by a visibly Orthodox Jewish man who was going about his work.
In the video, he calls the the man a “dirty motherf***ing Jew” and threatens to break his jaw.
No mention of “Zionists” here. This is Jew-hatred without its disguise.
Thames Valley Police swiftly announced an arrest, and Shafiq Rahman, 48, admitted racially aggravated assault at Reading Magistrates’ Court.
This fortunately means that the victim does not have to re-live the intimidating incident in court. We await sentencing, which must send a message about this sort of outrageous conduct.
In another case, a trial is currently underway for a man who allegedly attempted to gain access to the Israeli embassy in London whilst carrying two knives.
Abdullah Albadri, 34, had arrived in the UK from France by boat first in 2021 and again in April last year. Less than two weeks after his arrival in the UK he was allegedly searching for the Israeli embassy on his phone and looking up religious law about suicide.
He was arrested last April outside the Israeli embassy after allegedly trying to scale the eight-foot-high security fence. A few hours before the attack, he reportedly messaged his mother the words: “I chose the path of martyrdom”, according to the prosecution
At the scene, he allegedly said to police officers: “I wanna make a crime inside there, why are you stopping me? Why are you stopping from making crimes?”
On the morning of the alleged incident, he was still in touch with the charities who help asylum seekers about his asylum application.
He denies the charges of preparing terrorist acts and possession of two knives, for which he is standing trial at the Old Bailey.
The trial is ongoing.
Do you want to work on cases like these?
We are seeking a paralegal who can support our legal team in a broad range of innovative strategic litigation, as well as provide general in-house legal advice.
For more information or to apply, please visit: antisemitism.org/jobs/paralegal.
More disturbing scenes from the London Underground
A paid advertising space in one of TfL’s Underground train carriages has again been hijacked by activists posting unauthorised, incendiary images.
In this twisted version of the ‘Hangman’ game, an image of a stick man hanging from a noose is captioned “Israel” and surrounded by barbed wire.
We are grateful to TfL for quickly removing it.
It cannot escape notice that Palestine activism is saturated with violent motifs.
In this instance, it’s an image of a man being hanged. But elsewhere it’s exterminatory language, annihilationist and genocidal chanting, calls to “put Zios in the ground”, throat-slitting gestures, blood and murder themes, signs showing Zionism being put in the garbage, and so on.
This is not the rhetoric of ‘peace’ activists: it is violent, racist hatred.
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