A local branch of the Green Party is still telling voters to support one of its candidates, despite his suspension from the party over antisemitism allegations, the JC has learned.
Mark Adderley, standing in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, was suspended after he suggested that Israel was to blame for December’s Bondi Beach terror attack.
But the Croydon Green Party has urged voters to back him at the polls, saying he is “very much still our candidate”.
The local party wrote on social media that “Mark is still on the ballot, and if you are a resident of Crystal Palace you can still vote for him on 7th May,” adding a green heart emoji.
In another comment, the party branch told a voter who dismissed allegations against Adderley as “fake antisemitism charges” to back him.
Some of these messages have subsequently been deleted.
Support for the suspended candidate has also come from Greens for Palestine, the internal group behind the “Zionism is racism” motion, which told followers: “VOTE for MARK May 7th Good with animals & stressful situations!!”
Greens for Palestine told followers to support Adderley following his suspension (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]
Adderley was suspended after the JC revealed his controversial social media activity, including ranting about the “chosen people” and blaming Israel for “false flag” attacks against Jews.
It has also emerged that Adderley attended a Green Party meeting after his suspension, along with the party’s co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, who encouraged legal action against his own party over the dismissal of candidates accused of antisemitism.
In a leaked recording of a private meeting of the Greens for Palestine group, first reported by The Times, Ali said members should seek “serious legal advice” and consider putting the party “on notice”.
The deputy leader, who hailed October 7 as the end of “white supremacist settler colonialism”, also advised suspended members on how to continue campaigning for the party.
“In terms of campaigning, you are not allowed to use any Green Party logo, attend any campaigning events. So if you are going to campaign, then you campaign with maybe just a blank Green-headed leaflet, a leaflet that has a Green banner with just your name,” he said.
“Please be careful,” he went on, telling attendees of the meeting to leave public Greens for Palestine group chats.
Ali told Greens for Palestine members that he was “very worried” about the suspensions.
He said of the party, “Their attitude at the moment is that if 500 members get upset, it’s not a big deal compared to 226,000. It’s that same Labour attitude of ‘you’ve got nowhere else to go’,” Ali said.
“What we need to do is we need to get some serious legal advice. We need to make sure that we are putting the party on notice straight away, and we need to start with some class action. Because it won’t be the end. They’re coming after more and more people.”
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Croydon Greens told voters to back Adderley (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]
The deputy leader accused the national party of using a “fast track to expulsion” intended only for “extreme cases” to suspend candidates accused of antisemitism.
During the meeting, Adderly revealed that he had been suspended over his comments suggesting Israel was to blame for the Bondi terror attack, a remark he said he did not “regret” or believe it was “in any way anitsemitic”.
Adderley said: “The list of complaints simply states things as antisemitic. It doesn’t provide any sort of nuance.
“It’s a definitive list as if already tried and found guilty of antisemitism,” he added.
“None of the comments do I regret, none of the comments do I not back up and none of them are in any way antisemitic or the propagation of conspiracy theories,” Adderley went on.
The meeting was also attended by Saiqa Ali, a Lambeth candidate who posted an image on social media claiming that Donald Trump is “owned by Jews”.
She recalled being asked to apologise by the Green Party but said she had refused, stating “The comms team wanted me to put out an apology and it was like ‘I’m really sorry about what I’ve done.’
“It was so s***, right, and I was like ‘I’m not doing that. I’m sorry I’m not putting my name to that’. I’ll make an apology because there are Jewish people even in the party who might have been upset by it. So I made an apology, but I’m not apologising for that,” Ali said.
Ifhat Shaheen, a Hackney candidate, told attendees she was “bitterly disappointed” by how she had been treated by the Greens and felt she wanted to leave the party.
The controversy around Green candidates has increased pressure on Zack Polanski, who has said candidate vetting has been a “real challenge”.
The party leader was criticised following Golders Green stabbing attack after he reposted a comment on social media that suggested police were too heavy-handed with the suspect.
The post, which Polanski reshared to his 186k followers, stated: “So essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by taser.”
Also on Wednesday – the day of the stabbing in Golders Green – Polanski retweeted a claim that “a few more scattershot accusations of antisemitism from Steve Reed” might change election predictions for the May 7 elections.
On Thursday, Polanski said he had himself been the victim of antisemitic abuse, writing on Instagram: “I am the only Jewish leader of a major political party and I suffer antisemitic abuse every single day. For other politicians to use antisemitism as a political football, especially after these horrific attacks, is utterly appalling and should be beneath them.”
A Green Party spokesman said: “The comments were an appeal for people to stay in the party and continue to participate in its internal democracy, seeking legal advice about their individual circumstances, if they wished to.”
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