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The Green Party is facing a test on anti-Semitism in the run-up to the local elections, with a number of candidates accused of anti-Jewish sentiment in their social media posts. “Ramming a synagogue isn’t anti-Semitism. It’s revenge,” one candidate in Lambeth shared; “Jewish Nazis” are “money-grubbing thieves”, wrote another candidate in Newcastle, who uses the alias “The Real Anne Frank”. Following yesterday’s (29 April) terrorist attack against Jews in north-west London, tolerating these candidates will only look more dangerous and irresponsible.
In a quite extraordinary development, Mothin Ali, the deputy leader of the Green Party, has encouraged some of the candidates suspended over accusations of anti-Semitism to take legal action against the party. The Times revealed this morning that, in leaked recordings, he told Greens for Palestine members that he was “very worried” about the suspensions. “We need to get some serious legal advice. We need to make sure that we are putting the party on notice straight away, and we need to start with some class action. Because it won’t be the end. They’re coming after more and more people.”
Polanski gave his first, extended interview about his Jewish identity, his political journey, and accusations of anti-Semitism towards his party in a New Statesman piece published last week. It was a difficult one to write up; he is Jewish, I am not; I know that many Jewish people find his stance on anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and where he draws the line between the two, painful. It was a show, not tell, interview, giving him the space to spell out his thinking on an issue that I could see he is wrestling with. Do read the full thing. For all of those passages about his party, its position on Israel, on complaints, I could tell he was nervous, piling on caveat after caveat, pausing to pick his words; more hesitant than on anything else we talked about that morning.
You can see why he is nervous. You only need to look at his social media to see the dozens of comments under every post, calling for the reinstatement of some of those who have been suspended from the party. His deputy leader has expressed dissent about the basis on which suspensions are made. Meanwhile Polanski is facing pressure in a different direction to go further, on candidates that he hasn’t commented on, or whom the party hasn’t distanced itself from, and about his own comments as a leading Jewish figure in public life around the safety of British Jews and his changed mind on anti-Semitism accusations against Jeremy Corbyn.
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Polanski told me that the main lesson he needs to learn from Corbyn is to navigate anti-Semitism allegations better. On that, he is absolutely correct. What he meant by that, and exactly how he will, has not yet become clear.
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here
[Further reading: We are under attack]
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