In deeply troubling move, Jewish Greens appoint expelled Labour councillor Jo Bird as senior official
The Jewish faction of the Green Party has appointed a controversial expelled Labour Party councillor as a senior official.
Jo Bird, who re-joined the Labour Party in 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was running for the Party’s leadership, has a long history of controversy relating to Jews, including renaming ‘due process’ in the Labour Party as “Jew process”, for which she was suspended; supporting the expelled Labour activist and friend of Mr Corbyn, Marc Wadsworth, who was thrown out of the Party after a confrontation with Jewish then-MP Ruth Smeeth; and worrying about the “privileging of racism against Jews, over and above — as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism.”
Elected to Wirral Council in August 2018, Cllr Bird has been a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, and she has described Labour’s institutional antisemitism as based on mere “accusations, witch-huntery and allegations without evidence”.
Cllr Bird appears to have been expelled from Labour for her association with the proscribed antisemitism-denial group, Labour Against the Witchhunt.
Cllr Bird then joined the Green Party last year, after Campaign Against Antisemitism long warned of the danger of controversial activists who have left the Labour Party joining the Greens instead.
She has now been appointed as co-Secretary of Jewish Greens, which describes itself as the “first port of call within the Party for educational purposes and Jews and Judaism.” It also promotes antisemitism training for Green Party members.
Cllr Bird is described on the Jewish Greens’ website as “a councillor on the Wirral, coming from a long tradition of Jewish eco-socialists, passionate about equality, justice and fighting all forms of racism. Her grandfathers fought fascism in Europe as soldiers in the British army.”
Zack Polanski, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party and Treasurer of Jewish Greens, reportedly defended the appointment, telling Jewish News: “As the first Jewish Deputy Leader in British politics, I’m really proud of the work of Jewish Greens in the Green Party, working together to tackle antisemitism in society. Jewish Greens have our own internal democratic process to choose our executive and are doing important work.”
Last year, Ken Livingstone tried to join the Green Party but was prevented from doing so.
Our polling of British Jews found that the Greens were second only to Labour in how many respondents felt that the Party was too tolerant of antisemitism (43%).
Campaign Against Antisemitism has extensively documented alleged antisemitism among officers of the Green Party of England and Wales, including the Party’s former Equalities and Diversity Coordinator who now holds the International Coordinator portfolio, on which the Green Party has failed to act.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
