A controversial anti-Zionist campaigner who was dismissed from the Labour Party in 2018 has now found a new home within the Green Party.Tony Greenstein has a long history of incendiary rhetoric about Israel, most notoriously calling the Jewish state “Hitler’s b*****d offspring” at a pro-Palestinian gathering in London in 2021.As the son of a rabbi who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, Mr Greenstein has also claimed that Israel is “as obsessed with Jewish racial purity as Nazi Germany was”.He currently faces prosecution under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly encouraging support for Hamas, with a police statement claiming the charges relate to online comments made on October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas attacks on Israel.
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His trial, initially set for January 2026, has been pushed back to August, and he could face up to 14 years’ imprisonment if convicted.Former Labour figures who departed the party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership have reacted with alarm to Mr Greenstein’s admission to the Greens.Lord Austin, who left Labour in 2019 over what he described as a “culture of extremism”, demanded immediate action from the Green Party’s leader.”Is there no one Zack Polanski would not allow to join the Green Party?” he said, “It seems to be providing a home for all the people who poisoned the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. “The Green Party should kick him out immediately”.Lord Walney, who departed Labour in 2018 and subsequently served as the Government’s political violence tsar, was equally scathing.He said: “This confirms that the Green Party is now the natural home for the far-left extremists who used to bring shame to Labour in the days of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”There seems to be no one in the Greens prepared to fight back against the party’s diversion from its original focus on the environment and climate change”.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSMillionaires lose battle to block sculpture tribute to Queen Elizabeth IIChurch vandalised for SIXTH time over Easter weekend as pastor confesses his heart ‘aches’Almost 300 small boat migrants swarm across Channel in one day – with more expected in hours aheadMr Greenstein’s inflammatory language has been well documented over many years, labelling his critics “Zio idiots” and “Zionist scum” and asserting that “Zionists collaborated with the Nazis”.His Labour membership first came under scrutiny in 2016 when these remarks surfaced. He was subsequently suspended and eventually expelled for breaching party rules on “prejudicial” or “grossly detrimental” conduct.The expulsion reportedly stemmed from his use of the term “Zio”, and an article in which he accused Dame Louise Ellman, a Jewish former MP, of being a “supporter of Israeli child abuse”.The now Green Party member dismissed his suspension at the time as part of a “false antisemitism witch-hunt”.Before joining the Greens, he spent a short period as a member of Your Party, the hard-Left organisation founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He reportedly resigned after “Corbyn decided to destroy Your Party”.According to the Telegraph, the Green Party did not dispute Mr Greenstein’s newly acquired membership.A party spokesman told the Jewish Chronicle that the Greens were “open to anyone who shares our values and wants to be part of our movement working for social and environmental justice,” while declining to discuss individual members.The development comes after the party was forced to postpone a vote on declaring Zionism a “racist ideology” when its spring conference debate descended into disorder. The contentious motion, which also advocated abolishing the state of Israel, may still be considered at a future conference.Mr Greenstein, who co-founded the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the early 1980s, defended his decision to join the Greens.”I think it is important for Jewish people to make it clear that opposition to Zionism is not the same as antisemitism,” he said.
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