Mick Hartley

The Greens – it’s even worse than we thought. Noa Hoffman in the Spectator:

As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is a fight for the future of the Green party between its various official ‘Special Interest Groups’ and its leader, Zack Polanski. What are they fighting about? Why, Palestine and racial politics of course.

On one side, Polanski and his officials are at least trying to appear to be dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism and extremism within the party. On the other, a powerful affiliate group, the Global Majority Greens (GMG), is accusing its leader of creating a ‘hierarchy of racism’, with allegations of anti-Semitism taken more seriously than other complaints. Polanski, it claims, has failed to be truly anti-racist because he has not backed the ethnic-minority Greens who have been suspended over alleged anti-Jewish rhetoric. Most extraordinarily of all, it believes the Greens – yes, the Greens – are too pro-Zionist….

Crucially, the group is formally backed by Mothin Ali, who serves both as deputy leader of the party and GMG treasurer. Ali, a devout Muslim who cried ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being elected as a Leeds councillor, has endorsed official reports compiled by the GMG accusing Polanski of a litany of crimes against racial justice. In private WhatsApp groups, documents and Zoom calls leaked to The Spectator, Ali’s disdain for his boss’s conduct is plain.

A devout Muslim no doubt, but Mothin Ali is also, clearly, an Islamist – and this looks like nothing less than an Islamist take-over of the Greens, aided and abetted by idiot anti-Zionist obsessives on the left who don’t see what’s happening in front of their noses.

Polanski’s supposed offence? He suspended some Greens when their antisemitism became too extreme.

Among those suspended in recent months include council candidate Saiqa Ali, who called Starmer a ‘Jewish Zionist’ in an English government ‘over-represented with Zionists Jews [sic]… [who] care more for Israel than England’. Another suspended candidate, Sabine Mairey, shared a post saying: ‘Ramming a synagogue isn’t anti-Semitism. It’s revenge.’ Another, Aziz Rahman Hakimi, shared posts blaming Israel for arson attacks on Jewish volunteer ambulances in Golders Green. Last month, more than 30 local election candidates were accused of making anti-Jewish comments on social media. Almost a dozen were suspended and two were arrested….

The tensions highlighted by this report are only going to get worse in the coming months. At the Greens’ last party conference, a controversial ‘Zionism is racism’ motion failed to be heard owing to timing and ‘procedural’ issues. But at this October’s event, it will probably be back on the agenda. The GMG and its members will be itching to test their leader’s true commitment to anti-Zionist politics.

Few of Polanski’s critics from outside Green politics would accuse him of being overactive when it comes to dealing with anti-Semitism in his party. Yet if extremists within GMG either force him to bend to their will or eventually topple him as leader, the Greens could be pulled even further into the left-wing fringes. There are currently no plans formally to trigger such a process, but the GMG report is a warning shot to Polanski: change course or face the consequences.

Pulled even further into left-wing fringes? Well yes, but also pulled even further into Islamist fringes.

The Greens control 18 councils and hold 1,346 town hall seats. At a local level there are already signs that their obsession with Palestine and racial politics means they are neglecting the day job. Green-run Bristol Council has seen pothole complaints rise by 700 per cent in nine months. The party is easy to mock or to brush aside as a collection of oddballs, but if it keeps up its momentum in the polls, it could find itself acting as a power broker after the next general election. Much of the public is infuriated by Labour’s infighting, uselessness and out-of-touch zealotry. But what comes next on the left may be even worse.