Open Letter to the Green Party Council and Members - The anti-Semitism smear that ruined Corbyn’s Labour now targets the Greens Polanski must not repeat Jeremy Corbyn’s mistakes
Institutional
racism in Met ‘worse now’ than after Macpherson inquiry, says former officer
Yesterday it was announced that 100 police officers were to be deployed in Jewish areas of London to prevent the non-existent anti-Semitism crisis from growing. The only benefit of this will be that there are less police officers to harass Black people in other parts of London!
Never before have police deployed to stop racist attacks on a
community. Usually they have increased the threat. It is not for nothing that
after the Stephen
Lawrence murder the Metropolitan turned their attention, not to
catching the killers but to infiltrating
the defence campaign.
After a long campaign the MacPherson Inquiry branded the
Met institutionally racist. Baroness Casey found
years later that the Met hadn’t changed in the slightest. If anything they had
become worse.
As crisis and war grow in the Middle East with Israel’s war on the
Lebanese people accompanying the Genocide in Gaza and the War on Iran, so
consent is being manufactured for British support for Israel and Zionism. It is
not enough that we have been supplying weapons to the IDF.
Almost immediately Keir Starmer held
a press conference to announce that demonstrations against genocide
in Gaza were connected with the knife attack in Golders Green. Not even the
slightest evidence was put forward to justify his naked exploitation of the
attack.
The far more likely explanation for any rise in anti-Semitism, is
the determination of the Board of Deputies to claim
that British Jews support the Genocide in
Gaza. Starmer, who as Paul Holden showed, had gained the leadership of
the Labour Party through outright
fraud, was once again demonstrating his amazing talent for being more
dishonest than Boris Johnson, which is quite an achievement.
The contrast between the attacks on Muslims and Jews is little
less than astounding. Last year twenty-seven mosques in the UK were attacked between
July and October. The Peacehaven Mosque which is just along the sea
from Brighton was burnt
to the ground. There was no press hysteria, no Starmer press
conference. A few reports, mostly local and that was it.
Brighton & Hove Reform's Halloween Poster
There
were certainly no special police units assembled, in Brighton or elsewhere.
Racism against Black and Brown people is a feature of life. The party likely to
win the most council seats is the overtly racist Reform party many of whose
members are simply fascists. Deportation is on their agenda as are the threats
of ICE-type squads.
The press
and media have descended into an orgy of confected
hysteria in their desire to exploit and manipulate Jewish fears of
attack. It is not the attacks themselves but the hysteria of the press, police
and politicians which is driving Jewish fears. Talk
of British Jews going to Israel by Zionists deliberately compounds the
stupidity. There is nowhere in the world that is more
dangerous to Jews than Israel.
Three
people are stabbed every day in London. Over one thousand
people a year, of all religions and none. None of these ever warrant a national
prime ministerial TV address. But when two Jewish people are stabbed it is as
if it is Kristallnacht
again. If it had been two Muslims instead of one who had been stabbed the
chances of Starmer going on prime time TV to condemn Zionist attacks on Muslims
are about minus zero.
Tell Mama documented 3,680
offline incidents in 2024, which includes assaults and vandalism, representing
a 72% increase compared to two years prior. Cases of physical assault against
Muslims rose
by 73% between 2023 and 2024 whereas physical assaults against Jews are
extremely low. The manipulation of ‘anti-Semitism’ incidents against Jews only
occurs because the statistics include opposition to Israel and support for
Palestine in them. They are blatantly manipulated.
In the y/e March 2025 there was a 6%
increase in race hate crimes and a 3% increase in religious hate crimes
recorded by the police (excluding the MPS). There were falls in the other 3
strands, sexual orientation (down 2%), disability (down 8%) and transgender
(down 11%)
There was a 19% increase in religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims
(excluding the MPS), with a spike in these offences seen at the time of the
Southport murders and subsequent disorder
Labour's Svengali style anti-Semitic cartoon
Abdul Wali Mamozai, a Muslim man, was murdered in
Bracknell on 27 April, a few days before a mentally ill man wounded two Jewish
people — and one Muslim man — in London. Yet we heard next to
nothing about this.
Today is the day that people vote in the local elections. Reform
are tipped to win the most seats, Labour is heading towards a meltdown, the
Tories will also lose out and the Greens are expected
to win 500 seats.
Daily Mail's anti-Semitic caricature
That is why the Tory press has been going hell for leather on the
theme that the Green Party is anti-Semitic and in the words of the paper that
loved Hitler, Polanski’s
Greens Are A ‘Party Of Poison’. The Daily Mail, like all the papers,
is seriously worried about ‘anti-Semitism’.
Times' Antisemitic cartoon
Of course that hasn’t stopped The
Times, Mail,
Sun
& Telegraph
from publishing anti-Semitic caricatures of Zack Polanski with all the
features of typical Nazi style cartoons. All of this is quite understandable
because anti-Semites have always been the main supporters of Zionism and at the
root of all the concern about anti-Semitism is support for Israel, i.e. British
foreign policy in the Middle East.
Times' Antisemitic cartoon
Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who
is supposed to be a civil servant, couldn’t resist joining in the fray with an Open
Letter to Polanski because the latter had condemned the fact that
the Police had kicked in the head 10 times the person who is alleged to have
stabbed people.
The Police had previously not
disclosed in their public relations that the person who had stabbed
two Jewish people had also stabbed a Muslim man earlier in the morning. The guy
had mental
health problems too which casts doubt over whether anti-Semitism was
the main motive.
"Any comment on the man who
raped a Sikh woman solely because he thought she was Muslim?" one social media user said
in reply to Starmer on social media, referring to a case which was concluded in
April, with the attacker receiving a life sentence.
Similar questions were put to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who, in a recent interview with LBC host Nick Ferrari, appeared to imply that attacks on Black communities attract greater attention than those on the Jewish community. Badenoch at the same time as advocating the banning of pro-Palestine marches was all in favour of Tommy Robinson’s fash fest.
This aspect didn’t feature strongly in the newspaper
coverage either because it was one of those inconvenient facts.
What we are seeing is a rerun of the Corbyn playbook with
false anti-Semitism smears now being directed at the Green Party. Unfortunately
the Green Party and Polanski show every sign of following in the footsteps of
Jeremy Corbyn and treating in good faith the allegations of bad faith actors.
That is why I wrote an article for Al Jazeera on The
anti-Semitism smear that ruined Corbyn’s Labour now targets the Greens
warning that ‘Zack Polanski must not
repeat Jeremy Corbyn’s mistakes’. As people will know I was suspended on vague allegations of
‘documented’ anti-Semitism on April 16. Well known film producer Mark Adderley
has been suspended as have about 30 other Council
candidates. Instead of defending its candidates the Green Party is showing
every sign of following Corbyn into the wilderness.
In the article I describe the
genesis of the false anti-Semitism smears now being directed at the Green
Party. Why now? Because the Green Party
has gone from being a fringe party that no one took seriously to a major
player. It also has radical policy on the genocide in Palestine and the threat
of an overt ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion was enough to trigger the fury of
Israel’s defenders in the British press.
I have also written an Open Letter to the Green Party Council
calling out their suspension of myself and the Green Party’s Council
Candidates. I suspect that the sudden attacks on the Green Party will not have
a great effect today. That was also what happened with Corbyn. Despite the
initial ‘anti-Semitism’ attacks Corbyn went on to win the largest swing to
Labour in 2017 that Labour had achieved since 1945.
However the Zionists and their
establishment allies didn’t give up. They simply doubled down and faced with a
compliant Corbyn who soon began to sing from the same hymn sheet as them the anti-Semitism
attack did the trick in 2019 coupled with sabotage from the likes of Brexit
Secretary Starmer.
The Green Party’s only chance
will be to fight back and resist the attempts to paint them as anti-Semites
because of their support for the Palestinians. Whether they will do so remains
to be seen.
Tony Greenstein
Open Letter to the Green Party Council
and Members
Thursday 6 May 2026
Dear Friends,
Later today voters will be going to the polls. We shall see
whether or not the vile anti-Semitic attacks of the media has had any effect on
the forecast of 500 Green gains.
Of one thing we can be sure. The ‘anti-Semitism’ attacks on
the Green Party will continue until they are challenged. If Jeremy Corbyn’s
electoral success in 2017 is anything to go by, these same bad faith actors
will redouble their efforts.
Although the pretext for their attacks is ‘anti-Semitism’
we can be sure that this is merely a pretext for other concerns such as their
wealth and power. It is important that the Green Party learns the lessons of
Corbyn’s period as Leader. That was why I wrote an article for Al Jazeera, which was published yesterday. I wrote:
Corbyn never once questioned the good faith of his Zionist
accusers. Instead, he acted as their messenger, repeatedly apologised, promised
to do better, and threw friends under the bus, eventually echoing his
opponents’ narrative.... he even said that anyone who denied the anti-Semitism
“problem” in Labour was “contributing to the problem”.
Corbyn’s strategy of appeasement... was a disaster. His
opponents simply demanded more and more concessions. Eventually, Corbyn became
a victim of the witch-hunt... and he, too, was expelled.
I have been suspended on the basis of 11 words: ‘Documented
history of antisemitism, including court decisions and recent terrorism
charges.’ Despite repeatedly writing asking for clarification, none has
been forthcoming. As the Public Interest Law Centre wrote on 1 May:
There are serious concerns regarding the lack of due
process, failures to adhere to the Party’s own internal policies and
procedures, and the failure to properly particularise the allegations made
against him. In particular, the complaints have not been set out with
sufficient clarity or supported by evidence. Mr Greenstein is therefore clearly
being prevented from a fair and informed opportunity to respond.
No evidence has been forthcoming, I have not been given a
copy of the complaint nor the identity of the complainant, still less the
documentation referred to. In short the process is Kafkaesque.
What is also clear is that the complaint is not based on
anything I have done. It is purely political and that is why it is
inappropriate to keep it confidential. That protects my accusers not me.
The same goes for the Council candidates who have been
suspended and thrown to the wolves. I referred in particular to the case
against Mark Adderley in my Open
Letter to Zack Polanski.
The allegations against Mark are based on the IHRA
Definition of Anti-Semitism rather
than the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism, even though both are Green Party policy. The IHRA
conflates anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Its principal author, American
academic Kenneth Stern, in testimony to Congress in November 2017, wrote that
The definition was not drafted, and was never intended, as
a tool to target or chill speech on a college campus. In fact, at a conference
in 2010 ..., I highlighted this misuse, and the damage it could do....
A Holocaust survivor was required to change the title of a
campus talk, and the university mandated it be recorded, after an Israeli
diplomat complained that the title violated the definition.
Perhaps most egregious, an off-campus group citing the
definition called on a university to conduct an inquiry of a professor (who
received her PhD from Columbia) for antisemitism, based on an article she had
written years before. The university then conducted the inquiry. And while it
ultimately found no basis to discipline the professor, the exercise itself was
chilling and McCarthy-like.
What the Green Party has done, with the suspension Mark
Adderly, myself and others, is to embark on a McCarthyite exercise whose
purpose is to chill free speech. Mark is charged with having ‘Made antisemitic comments comparing
Israel to Nazi Germany.’
This is the 10th of the
11 ‘illustrations’ of anti-Semitism in the IHRA. By way of contrast the JDA
does NOT state that comparisons with Nazi Germany are anti-Semitic. What it
does state is that
Thus, even if contentious, it is not antisemitic, in and of
itself, to compare Israel with other historical cases, including
settler-colonialism or apartheid.
It is noteworthy that the person(s) who
formulated the charges against Mark chose to rely on a Zionist definition of
anti-Semitism rather than one emanating from hundreds of scholars
of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies, most of
whom are Jewish.
In other words the witchhunt in the
Green Party is being driven by Zionist members of the GPC, people who subscribe
to a racist ideology. Of course we have not been given a clue as to the
identity of those who drew up the charges. Clearly they prefer to work in the
shadows.
As I mentioned in my Open Letter comparisons
between Israel and Nazi Germany are legion, especially among holocaust
survivors. To give but one example, Shlomo Shmelzman, a survivor of the
Warsaw Ghetto, stated that:
In my childhood I have suffered fear, hunger and
humiliation when I passed from the Warsaw Ghetto, through labor camps, to
Buchenwald. Today, as a citizen of Israel, I cannot accept the systematic
destruction of cities, towns, and refugee camps… I hear too many familiar
sounds today…. I hear “dirty Arabs” and I remember “dirty Jews.” I hear about
“closed areas” and I remember ghettos and camps. I hear “two-legged beasts” and
I remember “Untermenschen.”… Too many things in Israel remind me of too many
things from my childhood.
Israel claims its legitimacy from the Nazi holocaust. That
is why comparisons between their behaviour and the Nazis are appropriate.
When 60% of
Israelis want to exterminate every Palestinian in Gaza and when 57% want to
deport every Arab citizen of Israel, then the comparison with Nazi Germany is
highly relevant.
For those with doubts I suggest watching Owen Jones’
podcast Israel’s
VILEST Crime Yet - The Evidence Is Overwhelming about Israel training dogs to rape people. The last
time this occurred was in Pinochet’s Chile under Ingrid Olderöck, who was a proud Nazi.
The Green Party can go down the road that Corbyn took or it
can fight back against the accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’. It is an argument
that can be won. The Times, Mail and other papers use anti-Semitic caricatures because
for them anti-Semitism is not hostility to Jews but hostility to Zionism.
So many people believe Iran backed propaganda. They need to read this. https://t.co/SJbIMFJuKk
— Elise Benjamin 🇺🇦 (@EliseDB) April 30, 2026
It's not 'Iranian backed propaganda' @elisebenjamin it's what Palestinians say. And @CptAllenHistory is lying. Here's what Wikipedia says about the Lausanne Conference:https://t.co/XTl2ljlqqx
Israel's positions have been described as follows:
"the two main bones of… https://t.co/6YFsmFBml2 pic.twitter.com/9EZxqqgGxh
— Tony Greenstein tonygreenstein.com (@TonyGreenstein) May 7, 2026
It's not 'Iranian backed propaganda' @elisebenjamin it's what Palestinians say. And @CptAllenHistory is lying. Here's what Wikipedia says about the Lausanne Conference:https://t.co/XTl2ljlqqx
Israel's positions have been described as follows:
"the two main bones of… https://t.co/6YFsmFBml2 pic.twitter.com/9EZxqqgGxh
Black and Muslim members, who are 75% of those suspended,
now find that their membership of the Green Party is in doubt whereas it should
be those who have made these malicious complaints whose membership is in
jeopardy. Elise Benjamin, who is the driving force behind the ‘anti-Semitism’
attacks is on record as saying that ‘the
party’s recent surge in the polls.... feels very hollow – almost like a
bereavement.” Clearly her loyalties lie elsewhere.
Whether I am expelled on a trumped up charge is neither
here nor there. What matters is whether the Green Party, having adopted a
popular set of policies is going to be thwarted by the same forces who
fraudulently contrived to impose upon the Labour Party a leader for whom truth
and lies are mere matters of convenience. I refer of course to Keir Starmer.
Solidarity,
Tony Greenstein
