She also said:
“Israel must be eradicated. Even if it means killing every single Zionist”, as well as describing Zionists as “vermin. And vermin must be eradicated so they can’t harm children”.
She also made numerous references to the idea that Jews are obsessed with money and use it to control the world, for example:
Ion’s Threads account referred to “Jewish Nazis”, describing them as “the money grubbing thieves have built mountains of money over centuries that they use to buy their way in the world through the lowest and most corrupt individuals in high places”.
I don’t think I need to explain that describing Jews as moneygrubbing vermin is straight-up old school racism. Her statements obviously go far beyond any valid criticism of Israel, its government or its supporters.
I know the Green party has always held an eclectic set of views but are these cases examples of existing prejudices being surfaced thanks to increased scrutiny or recent members flocking from other parties because the Greens are seen as a rising force in UK politics?
It’s a bit of both, I think. There will always have been some minority with these views (every party attracts some eccentrics, including some racists) and now that the Greens are becoming more electorally successful that’s brought the new scrutiny that’s revealed this and other individual’s views.
Unfortunately there’s also a history on the left of people who claim (or actually believe) that they’re merely criticising Israel’s policies, but do so in a way that’s plainly antisemitic. Some of those people have of course joined the Greens as the major left alternative to/replacement for Labour.
Honestly, I hadn’t seen much of this from the Greens till recently, so it’s disappointing to see it coming to the surface now. What’s even more worrying than the ever-present minority of antisemites (which, as I say, you could undoubtedly find in every party) is senior figures not taking it seriously.
It’s also possible that there are infiltrators. It’s an open system compared to the other parties, and subject to manipulation by bad actors.
Now that their membership has grown so much, they’ll have to add additional safeguards to prevent abuse of processes.
Part of the job of candidate selection is vetting them to make sure you are not making them a spokes person for your party. A random Green party member spouting off is one thing but when they are involved in an official capacity they speak for the party.
Unless you are suggesting this is some sort of dark false flag tactic by other parties to discredit the Greens which I really don’t think it is.