A Green Party parliamentary candidate suggested that the Israeli government may have paid Hamas to commit the October 7 attack so they could build a canal through Gaza.
The conspiracy theory posts have come to light after Naseem Talukdar, who was standing for the left-wing party in Bristol East, was forced to step down after the JC revealed that shared a post comparing Israelis to Nazis.
Joe Belcher, who is standing in the West Midlands seat of Aldridge-Brownhills, questioned on X/Twitter last November why Palestinian terror leaders would have “sold their people down the river” by attacking Israel.
"Why would Hamas commanders order Oct 7 to then have their territory destroyed and their people killed or displaced from Gaza?” he asked.
"For money? If so, who offered them this money? The Israel government?”
Belcher continued: “It's certainly convenient now that Israel can attempt to justify wiping out Palestinians from Gaza and to claim Gaza as Israel.
“Why would they do that? To claim rights over the oil and gas reserves in Gazan waters and to clear the way to create the Ben Gurion Canal through Gaza?”
However offensive the idea may be, he argued, the theory must be investigated.
The suggestion that a canal could be dug between the Gulf of Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea to serve as an alternative to the Suez Canal was suggested in a policy paper produced for the US Department of Energy in 1963.
There are currently no plans to launch the monumental infastructure project.
According to the policy’s creator, Howard David MacCabee, hundreds of nuclear blasts would have been required to excavate a channel deep enough to construct the waterway, rendering it wildly impractical.
In a separate message posted last year, Belcher wrote: “My hunch is that [the] Oct 7 attack was paid for by Netanyahu and/or the West. In order to wipe out Gaza to claim Gaza along with Gazan waters as Israel's.
“Gazan waters hold billions of dollars worth of oil and gas. Then, once the resources are plundered, to build the Ben Goriun canal to rival the Suez canal. Look it up.”
In a further X post, Belcher said that he condemned the October 7 attack, which saw hundreds of Israeli civilians killed, with others seized and held as hostages.
The parliamentary candidate added: “I'm not convinced Hamas leaders are acting in the interests of Palestinians.
“My hunch is the leaders of Israel, and Gaza conspired to carry out what happened on Oct 7 for financial gain. But I don't have any proof. This is why it remains a hunch and nothing more.”
Belcher’s social media musings are the latest in a series of embarrassing posts made by Green candidates.
Earlier this month, Naseem Talukdar was dumped by the party after an internal investigation into social media posts revealed by the JC.
The Bristol East candidate had circulated photographs comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hiter.
The images were captioned, “it’s becoming REALLY hard to spot the difference” and, “the past becomes the present”.
He also liked a video clip in which anti-Israel activist David Miller declared, “we have to destroy Zionism... it’s fundamentally a racist ideology.”
In a statement, Talukdar said he had chosen not to run for Parliament following the death of his father because he wished to spend more time with his family.
A Green Party spokesperson said: “We respect Naseem Talukdar's decision and wish him well with his ongoing work in the community, especially around providing support for those experiencing homelessness."
Elizabeth Waight, who is standing for the Greens in Bethnal Green and Stepney, meanwhile posted a video on Instagram on March 27 in which a woman said: “What’s left for the Zionists [is] to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Palestinians… I think this will happen soon.”
The party’s Chingford and Wood Green candidate Chris Brody has uploaded links to an article that suggested that the 9/11 and October 7 terror attacks were “false flag operations executed to open the path toward more slaughter and mayhem”.
Labour peer Dame Louise Ellman said that Waight and Brody’s social media posts were deeply disturbing.
“The mounting evidence of antisemitism in the Green Party is a wake-up call,” she told the JC.
“It is shocking to see the Green Party become a safe home for antisemitic and anti-Israel extremists. They must take immediate action.”
The Green Party has also been accused of ignoring warnings over inflammatory remarks and posts by council candidates.
Mothin Ali, 42, who celebrated election to Leeds city council by shouting “Allahu akbar”, is said to have been reported to the party in February.
He is accused of appearing in a video posted on October 7 in which he implied the atrocities were justified because Palestinians have the “right to fight back against occupiers”.
Abdul Malik – who won a seat on Bristol council – shared an 18-minute video of a Hamas press conference in which a spokesman for the terror group said Israel was an “an animal state… a cancer that should be eradicated”.
A Green Party spokesperson said regarding Belcher: "The Green Party utterly condemns and is committed to confronting antisemitism.
"Allegations of antisemitism will always be carefully considered using our robust internal disciplinary procedures. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the examples raised."
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