Mick Hartley

That Green Party councillor in Leeds, – not alone among the new breed of Green councillors, it seems, in being more concerned with promoting a hatred of Jews and of Israel than with saving whales – has prompted concern from the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism:

The Green Party faces a showdown with Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, over the conduct of councillors newly elected under its banner.

One who shouted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and described getting a seat on Leeds city council as a “win for the people of Gaza” had previously been involved in the harassment of a Jewish university chaplain driven from his home.

Two who won seats in Bristol had been involved in social media posts which led the city’s Labour Party to fear that the Greens were becoming a haven for antisemitism.

A Peterborough Green councillor has also been shown by the Jewish press to have made insulting anti-Israel comments….

The new face of the Green Party, which has traditionally been involved in campaigning to save hedgerows and improve air quality, came as a surprise to observers of last week’s local elections.

Three of the four councillors whose activities have raised cause for concern were previously Labour supporters or activists, raising the likelihood that Jeremy Corbyn fans have been migrating to the Greens and changing their culture.

Mothin Ali, wearing a keffiyeh, the scarf symbolic of Palestinian resistance, celebrated his victory in Leeds by raising his arm in the air and saying: “We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu akbar!”

Ali was known for stirring up hostility to Rabbi Zacheria Deutsch, the Jewish chaplain at Leeds University, who was advised by police to go into hiding with his wife and two children after death and rape threats. Deutsch, a citizen of Israel, was called up as a reservist with the Israeli Defence Forces after the Hamas massacres of October 7 last year.

Ali, a prolific YouTuber, ranted on social media: “This creep, that’s the only way I can describe him, is someone who went from Leeds to Israel to kill children and women and everyone else over there”.

He told Leeds University: “You should be protecting students from this kind of animal, because if he’s willing to kill people over there, how do you know he’s not going to kill your students over here?”…

Ali, a former Labour supporter, has been photographed with Corbyn, who he described as a “great guy”. Mann wrote to the Greens last month about social media activity by some of their candidates in Bristol.

The Green Party has long been a haven for cranks, and that kind of vacuous credulity is now clearly being exploited by those with an entirely different agenda. 

David Rose at the Jewish Chronicle has more.