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ADL CEO: The British Green Party is looking like the next hub of antisemitism in British politics
LONDON (JTA) — The head of the Anti-Defamation League praised the British Labour Party for its efforts to combat antisemitism among its membership but warned that those expelled from the party could seek to coalesce under other banners, including the Green Party.
Jonathan Greenblatt, who recently visited Britain to address the United Kingdom government’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism, said in an interview that “there is now a political cost to being antisemitic in British politics.” He applauded party leader Keir Starmer, who since succeeding Jeremy Corbyn in 2020 has focused on earning back the trust of Jewish voters after years of antisemitism controversy that watchdogs have said Corbyn allowed to fester.
But Greenblatt is not the first to point to the Green Party as the next possible hub of antisemitism controversy in British politics. Multiple deputy party leaders have been at the center of antisemitism allegations in recent years. In March, the Jewish Labour Movement wrote to the party’s co-leaders expressing concern about a Green Party councillor in Norwich accused of posting material that “promotes antisemitic tropes.”
And earlier this month, the party’s main representative body for Jewish members gave a senior role to a councillor previously expelled from Labour over her support for a group that denied and downplayed claims of antisemitism.
Zack Polanski, who is now the party’s deputy leader and is Jewish, reacted to the JLM letter by saying that he had not experienced “any personal issues with antisemitism” within the Green Party. He added: “I want to judge people on their actions and what they say right now and in the future, as opposed to fighting old internal battles in other parties.”
Polanski, who grew up in northern England and is currently a member of the London Assembly, is the first Jewish deputy leader of the Green Party. He was born with the last name Paulden, but at 18 he decided to adopt his family’s original surname that had been anglicized after they arrived in Britain.
Under Corbyn, a veteran left-wing figure, Jewish Labour members and politicians were hit with a wave of online antisemitism, leading many to leave the party. Corbyn was criticized for not sufficiently addressing the problem and was over the past few years suspended and barred from rejoining the party.
“It is no longer OK even for marginal people to express these kinds of sentiments,” Greenblatt said. “That’s a big win.”
Greenblatt, however, expressed concern about whether enough work had been done to “dismantle the ideas” that contributed towards antisemitism. “You can remove the people without necessarily eradicating those thoughts,” he said.
In 2021, the Green Party adopted both the International Holocaust Remembrance Authority’s definition of antisemitism and the Jerusalem Declaration, which was created in an attempt to address concerns that have been raised with the IHRA definition, including what some say is a stifling of free speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
“All those people with those [antisemitic] views, they didn’t go away, they were just pushed out,” Greenblatt added. “The question is where are they and what would it take for them to come back or coalesce into a different form.”
Greenblatt said that he hoped to meet with Starmer during his next visit to Britain in the autumn. He met with Jewish communal groups, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and John Mann, the U.K. government’s advisor on antisemitism, during his brief visit to London.
His visit to Europe followed the publication of the ADL Global 100, which through a survey of 10 European countries found Britons to hold the second-lowest rate of antisemitic attitudes in Europe after the Netherlands.
While the survey found that some 34% of Britons agreed that Jews were more loyal to Israel than to the United Kingdom, the finding was the lowest in Europe. Greenblatt said that relative to elsewhere on the continent “things are trending in a better direction here.”
“You don’t have the same threat of the extreme-right which we see in France, in Germany, and in much of central and eastern Europe, and which we certainly see in America,” Greenblatt said.
He added that Britain had been able to integrate its Jewish community to a degree that made it stand out.
“The sense that I have is that there is a strong sense that you can be British, and you can be Jewish, and that these identities are not at odds and in fact you can proudly and openly be both.”
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The post ADL CEO: The British Green Party is looking like the next hub of antisemitism in British politics appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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