UK Green Party activists have been accused of sharing anti-Semitic messages in WhatsApp groups and on social media, including comments describing Jewish people as “an abomination to this planet”.
Members of Greens for Palestine, a left-wing faction within the party, were also reported to have posted messages claiming that Jews “murder, bomb and starve” children.
Some activists also suggested that the March 23 arson attack on Jewish community ambulances in London’s Golders Green was a “false flag” operation and may have been carried out by Jewish people themselves.
Green council candidate, Tope Olawoyin, who was due to stand in Havering in the May 7 local elections, shared posts on X claiming there was “proof” that the attack was an inside job. She also reposted content describing the arson as a false flag and calling it a “monumental disaster”.
After two British nationals were arrested in connection with the incident, she wrote that she was “almost certain” the men were white and possibly Jewish, arguing that their names and pictures would have been widely shared if they were not.
Olawoyin has since withdrawn from the council elections.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, the Liberal Democrat Mayor of Bath, also shared posts on X falsely claiming that the arson attack was insurance fraud and an “Israeli false flag operation”.
The Liberal Democrats suspended him from the party three days later, saying they reject anti-Semitism and stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.
The controversy has caused concern among Jewish groups and local community members. Evan Rudowski, from the Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation in Bath, said the language used by trusted figures of authority was shocking.
The messages also revealed an exchange in which one activist defended describing protesters in Golders Green as Jews rather than Zionists, saying they were “Jewish supremacists”. Another member added that people should stop worrying about offending them, while a third described Jews as “an abomination to this planet”.
A briefing document shared with Green activists by leader Zac Polanski in March had warned members not to post anti-Semitic comments online. It urged supporters to avoid reacting emotionally and to consider how their words would appear on the front page of a newspaper.
The Greens have grown rapidly in the polls since Zack Polanski became leader in September, with 42 per cent of Britons expecting the party to gain more councillors on May 7, according to the latest Ipsos poll.
