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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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Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations
Fans of Argentinian soccer club All Boys marched through the streets before their match against Atlanta soccer club, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Photo: Screenshot
Argentinian authorities and soccer officials have launched investigations following antisemitic incidents by Club Atlético All Boys fans during Sunday’s local match against Atlanta.
Atlanta, a soccer team based in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has deep historical ties to Argentina’s Jewish community, which has long been a significant presence in the area.
This latest antisemitic incident took place outside the stadium before the game had even started.
All Boys fans were seen waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag, and handing out flyers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “Israel and Atlanta are the same crap.”
Before a football match today against the Argentine sports club Atlanta, which is closely associated with the Jewish community, fans of the opposing team, All Boys, waved Islamic Republic and Palestinian flags while parading a coffin draped in an Israeli flag through the streets.… pic.twitter.com/IQs4v6eoFz
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 29, 2025
Then, during the match — which ended in a 0-0 draw — a drone carrying a Palestinian flag flew over the stadium, while some fans reportedly chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Local police confirmed they have issued citations to individuals accused of inciting public disorder and related offenses.
On Monday, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) condemned the incidents as “abhorrent” and confirmed the organization has opened a formal inquiry into the events.
“This is not folklore. This is discrimination,” the statement reads.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich also announced that a criminal complaint has been filed, citing “acts of violence, expressions of racial and religious hatred, and public intimidation.”
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, condemned the incidents and called on both local authorities and the soccer officials to “take firm action against these acts of hatred.”
“We urge the authorities to take all necessary actions and apply the full force of the law,” the statement reads. “Violence and discrimination must have no place in our society.”
Repudiamos enérgicamente las expresiones antisemitas ocurridas hoy en las inmediaciones del estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
Exigimos a las autoridades correspondientes, a la AFA y al Club All Boys que actúen con firmeza ante estos hechos de odio.
La violencia y la discriminación no… pic.twitter.com/3AmY7IQscY— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 29, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Argentina has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes.
According to a recent report by DAIA, Argentina experienced a 15 percent increase in antisemitic activity last year, with 687 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded — up from 598 incidents in 2023 — marking a significant rise nationwide.
The study indicates that 66 percent of the antisemitic incidents originated in the digital realm, with a significant rise in Nazi symbols and conspiracy theories, but there was also a 34 percent increase in reported physical assaults, with such hate crimes rising in schools and neighborhoods.
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Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
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Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
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