A terror attack on a synagogue was “not anti-semitism” but was “revenge” for Israel “murdering people,” according to a video promoted by a Green Party council candidate.
Sabine Mairey, a Green candidate for Clapham Town ward in Lambeth, south London, posted the video, by David Spevak, an American Jewish anti-Zionist, on her Facebook page last month. It’s still there at the time of writing.
As so often with the Greens, one community appears to be left out of the care and inclusion offer
Mairey was used by the Lambeth Green Party to launch its election manifesto this week, and is quoted in the party’s press release. The video on her Facebook page is posted with the caption “Ramming a synagogue isn’t anti-semitism. It’s revenge.” She cannot claim that she posted it without knowing what it says.
Mairey is the third Green council candidate – and the second in Lambeth – to be exposed by The Spectator for sharing extremist views in the past five days. On Sunday, we revealed that Ifhat Shaheen, a Green council candidate in Hackney, defended the 7/10 attacks, suggested that Israel is harvesting organs from Palestinians “to help alter [the] DNA of Zionists to claim land,” and asked whether “Zionist funding” was behind the racist Tommy Robinson marches.
On Wednesday, we revealed that Saiqa Ali, a Green candidate in Streatham, part of Lambeth, posted a picture of the Earth encircled and choked by a giant serpent with the Star of David printed on its skin; wrote “Long live the resistance” next to a picture of a masked fighter with a rifle, a string of bullets and what looks like a Hamas headband; said that Britain’s government includes too many “Zionists Jews;” and opined that Donald Trump is “owned by Jews.”
The Communities Secretary, Steve Reed, who is Streatham’s MP, has said that the Green leader, Zack Polanski, “must act now and remove [Ali]. There is a synagogue in the ward. Streatham deserves better.” The council leader, Claire Holland, made the same call and noted that the Greens had refused to condemn Ali’s views. Later yesterday, after offering a no-comment response to our enquiry about Shaheen, and completely ignoring our enquiry about Ali, the Greens did start telling other journalists that Ali’s posts “are not the views of the Green Party.” Still no actual condemnation, though, and as of Thursday night, though, she is still their official candidate.
The video posted by Mairey refers to a terrorist shooting and vehicle attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, last month. The assailant, Ayman Ghazali, drove his pickup truck, loaded with £1,500-worth of commercial-grade fireworks and 35 gallons of petrol, deep inside the building, where 100 children were attending school. He hit and injured a security officer before becoming wedged in a hallway, then opened fire. He subsequently committed suicide, the only fatality of the incident. It later emerged that two of Ghazali’s Lebanese brothers had been killed by Israel, which said one of them was a Hezbollah commander.
In the video posted by Mairey, Spevak says: “This man [Ghazali] lost his entire family. They were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. So what he did, crashing into a synagogue, yes it was horrific. But it was not an act of anti-semitism, it was an act of revenge. And pretending that this violence came out of nowhere is a lie. And now, of course, the immediate response, a woman crying on the news that we need more security at synagogues? No! What we need is for Israel to stop murdering people…This man was pushed to the edge because of Israel’s complete disregard for human life.”
The obvious problem with this argument is that trying to blow up 100 Jewish children in another country in retaliation for the acts of Israel is a textbook example of anti-semitism. Readers may also remember that some acts of violence against Jews actually preceded the creation of Israel. Mairey does in fact mention the Holocaust on her Facebook page, complete with a picture of Auschwitz-Birkenau, but only in order to suggest that modern-day Israel is worse than the Nazis. At least they “had to hide what they were doing,” she claims.
The Lambeth Green Party website prattles that Sabine Mairey is “passionate about communities – the heartbeat of a caring and inclusive Lambeth.” But as so often with the Greens, one community appears to be left out of the care and inclusion offer.
As with the other candidates who have been exposed by The Spectator for sharing extremist views, Mairey and the Green Party were approached for comment, but declined to respond.
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