{"id":32341,"date":"2026-05-09T19:21:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32341\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:21:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:21:40","slug":"uk-jews-worry-as-green-party-rise-sees-election-of-candidates-accused-of-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32341\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Jews’ worry as Green Party rise sees election of candidates accused of antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some British Jews voiced anxiety as parties on opposite ends of the political spectrum made major gains in local elections across the United Kingdom in results announced Friday and Saturday, bringing into office several candidates who have espoused antisemitic hate speech and anti-Israel conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n

A particular focus of concern was East London\u2019s Borough of Hackney, where the far-left, anti-Israel Greens won both the mayoralty and control of the council. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews live in Hackney\u2019s Stamford Hill area \u2014 the largest concentration of Haredi Jews in Europe.<\/p>\n

Both anti-immigrant Reform UK and the Greens surged in Thursday\u2019s election, largely at the expense of the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party, at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat.<\/p>\n

The Green Party\u2019s Jewish leader, Zack Polanski, focused a substantial part of his campaign on opposition to Israel and liked<\/a> a post suggesting Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on a Zionist payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalestine is one of the elements on the ballot,\u201d Polanski told the BBC on election day. Pressed on whether he believes Israel has a right to exist, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t believe any country has a right to exist. People have a right to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also claimed that discussing whether Israel has a right to exist \u201cactually just ends up in gatekeeping, which is partly how we ended up in this mess in the first place of the Balfour Declaration,\u201d referring to the 1917 British government declaration in support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.<\/p>\n

Polanski\u2019s party has been embroiled<\/a> in a string of antisemitic scandals, with many Green candidates posting antisemitic and anti-Israel screeds on social media. Heading into the election, the Greens were reportedly investigating<\/a> 30 of their own candidates for antisemitism.<\/p>\n

British Jews have faced a wave of terrorist and antisemitic attacks nationally, including the stabbing of two Jewish men in the London neighborhood of Golders Green last week and a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites. In October, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue and fatally stabbed one man.<\/p>\n

Polanski criticized the police for their use of force in detaining Essa Suleiman, the suspect charged with the Golders Green terror attack. His comments prompted a swift rebuke from London police chief Mark Rowley.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tGreen Party leader Zack Polanski (R) congratulates the party\u2019s newly elected Mayor of Lewisham, Liam Shrivastava, outside the count centre in Lewisham, south London on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Brook Mitchell \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

The populist Reform UK party of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage garnered 1,442 council seats and control of 14 councils, the BBC reported. The Green Party gained 374 seats and control of 4 councils, and also won 2 mayoral elections.<\/p>\n

Labour and Conservatives lost 1,406 and 557 seats, respectively.<\/p>\n

Hackney results<\/p>\n

In the mayoral race for the northern London borough of Hackney, which has some 30,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents, Green Party candidate Zoe Garbett won the seat after 24 years of Labour running the council, the Jewish Chronicle<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tNew Mayor of Hackney, Green Party\u2019s Zoe Garbett, poses for a photo after the declaration the morning after local elections, in Hackney, north London on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Brook Mitchell \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Thanking her voters during her victory speech, Garbett said they were \u201csick of politicians\u2026 supporting genocide,\u201d a reference to widespread accusations that Israel has committed genocide in the war against Hamas in Gaza sparked by the terror group\u2019s invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

During her time as a city councillor, Garbett supported a motion calling to cut ties with Israel, saying, \u201cI want to be really clear what we are talking about\u2026 a genocide, apartheid, a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people.\u201d A motion to change party policy<\/a> to equate Zionism with racism did not pass at the Greens\u2019 spring conference in March. Israel has repeatedly and vociferously denied allegations of genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Several Green Party councillor candidates who have posted extremist social media posts were also elected in Hackney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of those elected, Ifhat Shaheen, described Hamas atrocities on October 7, 2023, as Palestinians trying to \u201cdefend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. The trouble with the Green party\u2019s Ifhat Shaheen | The Spectator https:\/\/t.co\/TTJtZN5S8n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Badger (@badger617873) April 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Zehava, a Jewish resident of Hackney, told the Jewish Chronicle: \u201cI worry a lot about what happens next. Most people around me sadly have their heads in the sand. I do feel we are in for a rough few years now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She noted that Hackney\u2019s incoming mayor \u201cGarbett has said she\u2019s not happy with the way the police have dealt with the right to protest about \u2018genocide in Gaza\u2019,\u201d and said she feared inflamed antisemitism. \u201cI am very concerned. Their idea of Zionism equalling racism is going to make hate crimes much worse in my opinion,\u201d she said of the Greens. \u201cThe whole Gaza manifesto to me means that there will be a lot more protests in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ultra-Orthodox Hackney resident told the Chronicle of concerns that local politics are being dominated by \u201cdivisive debates about the Middle East,\u201d that bring international conflicts into the community.<\/p>\n

Green Party candidate Mohammed Suleman, who was suspended from the party in the run-up to the election, was nevertheless elected in Newcastle. Suleman was sanctioned after he reposted claims that \u201cIsrael kills babies as a hobby\u201d and a TikTok video claiming Jewish prisoners of war during World War Two were willing to bury Soviet prisoners alive under Nazi orders.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tA Green Party poster displayed in a window in London on April 29, 2026. (Carl Court\/Getty Images via JTA)<\/p>\n

In the council race for the northern London suburb of Barnet, Charli Thompson won the Greens\u2019 only seat, while the Conservatives and Labour won 31 seats each.<\/p>\n

According to Jewish News, <\/a>Charli Thompson called the outlet \u201cvile\u201d after it asked her to clarify her social media posts regarding antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Two other Green candidates, Sabine Mairey and Saiqa Ali, running for seats in the Lambeth borough of London, were arrested<\/a> by the Metropolitan police last month \u201con suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online,\u201d an offense under the UK\u2019s Public Order Act, for online posts.<\/p>\n

Mairey had posted<\/a>, \u201cRamming a synagogue isn\u2019t antisemitism, it\u2019s revenge,\u201d and Saiqa Ali shared an image of an armed man wearing a Hamas headband with the slogan, \u201cResistance is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali was elected to the council. Mairey\u2019s seat was the subject of a recount at time of writing.<\/p>\n

Reform Holocaust denier<\/p>\n

Concerns were also raised regarding some of the candidates elected from the Reform party, who have been accused of antisemitism and racism.<\/p>\n

In Merseyside, northwest England, Reform UK candidate Jay Leslie Cooper, a Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist, won a seat in the Bootle West ward of Sefton council, Jewish News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Cooper is reported<\/a> to have said on Facebook last year that \u201cthe Hallocaust [sic] is a hoax. There wasn\u2019t [sic] even 6 million Jews in Europe at the time. Propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tReform UK leader Nigel Farage posing for a picture with Reform UK members outside Havering Town Hall a day after local elections in east London on May 8, 2026. (Toby Shepheard\/AFP)<\/p>\n

In Essex, east England. Reform UK candidate Stuart Prior won a seat on Rochford council. Last month, Rochford was accused<\/a> of praising the rape of Sikh women, calling Muslims \u201crats\u201d and posting about \u201cthe master race,\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n

Farage, 61, and his populist party have long been accused of flirting with racism, something which he and the party have denied. Former classmates have alleged that Farage made a Nazi salute, joked about gas chambers and said, \u201cHitler was right,\u201d among other expressions of support for Nazism. He has denied<\/a> this.<\/p>\n

The head of London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said Sunday that British Jews are facing their greatest-ever threat, which he called an \u201cepidemic\u201d of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

In recent months, in addition to the stabbing, two synagogues and one former synagogue have been targeted by arson, and four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were burned, amid other incidents.<\/p>\n

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