The Green leader in the London Assembly denied her party was antisemitic in response to tough questions from JC readers in a debate hours after the Golders Green attack.
Carolne Russell took part in the Face the Voters event on Wednesday evening alongside representatives from all other mainstream political parties.
Lord Katz, former chair of the Jewish Labour Movement and government whip in the House of Lords represented the Labour Party, shadow transport minister Greg Smith, who is also chair of Conservative Friends of Israel in the House of Commons, represented the Tories.
Also present were Reform UK’s 2028 London Mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham and the Liberal Democrats’ women and equalities spokesperson Marie Goldman, with all panellists responding to questions submitted by JC readers.
Islington councillor Russell was challenged about the remarks of Saiqa Ali, a Green candidate in Lambeth, who said in a post on social media that Donald Trump was “owned by Jews”.
Asked if she was embarrassed by such posts, Russell said that while she abhorred the language used, her party was not antisemitic.
She told the panel: “I think the Green Party has grown at an extraordinary rate over the last sort of nine months. And our party is kind of creaking at the seams.
“Our systems and processes are creaking at the seams. And I do understand that there have been some cases of people who have been nominated to stand for the Green Party who have expressed views that do not fit with the values of the Green Party.
Russell continued: “The Green Party has very clear processes that are underway governance processes that are underway at the moment,” adding that she was confident there is “a very thorough and very fair process to look into those cases”.
Lord Katz, however, said that while he was chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, he had written to the previous leadership of the Green Party to express concern about some of their candidates, but that he did not receive a response.
The former Camden councillor accused the Greens of not taking antisemitism within the party’s ranks seriously.
“I think the Green Party has long been in denial on this. And frankly, since Keir Starmer took over as party leader and actually, you know, properly dealt with antisemitism in the Labour Party and it's excluded lots of lots of members – lots of Momentum-minded members, Corbyn-supporting members – they went in large stock and barrel over to the Green Party”.
Cunningham said that her party would proscribe both the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and attacked the Green Party’s deputy leader for his attendance at a rally where flags of the Iranian regime were waved.
“We do have, sadly, politicians in this country who pander to the IRGC and to Islamists. And until that stops, until they are stopped… I don't know how it's allowed personally… I do fear that the Jewish community will not only not feel safe” adding that there should be a “zero tolerance approach”.
Responding, Russell said that all three Green members of the London Assembly had backed a motion to proscribe the IRGC.
“We have a situation where Jewish Londoners are understandably feeling increasingly frightened in our city. And that is completely unacceptable”, she said.
Despite the Golders Green terror attack happening on the morning of the hustings, the JC decided against cancelling the event.
The debate also featured contributions from the panel on the topics of BDS in local government, Palestine Action and favourite bagel fillings.
It can be viewed in full on the JC YouTube channel:
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