In a message to the group, first reported by the Telegraph, Khawaja – who previously encouraged people to join the Green Party and vote on a motion naming “Zionism is racism” – said an “emergency response” had been established, including a support network and efforts to phone up candidates and assist them in “combat[ing] smears”.
The party’s deputy leader, Mothin Ali, also voiced support for those facing scrutiny.
In a message to the group, he said “know you are not alone,” adding that those “attacked in the media” were making “the right type of noise” and “put[ting] fear into the heart of the establishment”.
Ali once targeted an Israeli rabbi in Leeds, whom he claimed “went from Leeds to Israel to kill children and women” after discovering that he was an IDF reservist. Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch was forced to flee the country with his family after a campaign of hate against him.
Tony Greenstein, a former Labour Party member who the JC revealed as a new Green member, said in the group chat: “I have had 2 attacks, which you’ve probably seen, from the Jewish Chronicle and The Telegraph. However I’m used to such smears and rest assured it doesn’t faze me.”
Ali, who also defended the right of “indigenous people to fight back” following the October 7 attacks (later apologising) and described his 2024 Leeds local election victory as “for the people of Gaza”, asked in a separate Greens for Palestine group chat whether anyone had contact details for Mark Adderley, a Green candidate in south London.
The JC first reported that Adderley has used social media videos to rant about the “chosen people,” blame Benjamin Netanyahu for the antisemitic arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green and claim allegations of antisemitism against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were fabricated.
Adderley claims that Israel is a threat to the UK (Instagram)[Missing Credit]
Some of these videos were deleted following the report.
Controversy has surrounded several other Green Party candidates standing in next month’s local elections. Aziz Hakimi, a candidate in Camden, has shared posts alleging “Zionist” involvement in the 9/11 attacks and describing the Hatzola arson incident as a “false flag”.
In Hackney, Stoke Newington candidate Ifhat Shaheen reposted claims after the arson attack about the Jewish community in north London hosting Israeli Defence Forces.
The Spectator revealed the candidate reposted a message saying that “since Golders Green is now in the news, I want to take the opportunity to make people aware that the Jewish community in North London host IDF soldiers in their synagogues and raise funds for the IDF during a ‘family fun day’”.
She also allegedly asked whether “Zionist funding” was behind the Tommy Robinson marches, and that “the Zionist lobby” worked to keep Corbyn out of power.
Meanwhile, Hau-Yu Tam, a Green councillor in Lewisham, has drawn criticism for saying students “were correct to defend the Hamas book” after protestors picketed the launch of Understanding Hamas: And Why That Matters at the London School of Economics.
In a post still live on X, she wrote: “Resistance to occupation is permitted in international law.”
According to The Times, in April last year Tam also expressed support for a barrister representing Hamas in a legal effort to overturn its proscription as a terrorist organisation.
The party last week dropped Barnard Mani as its candidate in Forest Hill after footage of him removing balloons for Israeli hostages at a solidarity event in Hove, Sussex, emerged, as well as a social media post that appeared to show he supported claims that Israel was responsible for killing its own citizens on October 7.
Another London candidate, Tope Olawoyin, is reported to have withdrawn from the election after sharing a conspiracy theory about arrests linked to the Hatzola attack.
She allegedly wrote: “I can say with almost absolute certainty that the men arrested are white, probably even Jewish, because we all know for a fact that if they weren't their names and pictures would be EVERYWHERE."
Five people have now been arrested in connection with the arson attack, which police are treating as an antisemitic hate crime.
In a statement, a Green Party spokesman defended Ali’s support for candidates, saying he had been carrying out “welfare checks” on members facing intense media scrutiny.
“As a duty of care, Mothin has conducted welfare checks on members who have been subject to intense media scrutiny. Clearly, this does not mean that he – or the Green Party – supports everything that they have said in the past,” they said.
“The goal of this level of media coverage is to intimidate people and stifle legitimate criticism of Israel’s illegal and genocidal actions. We stand against all forms of hatred, and will continue to argue that it is dangerous and wrong for the media to conflate Israel’s actions with antisemitism.”
