George Galloway’s party drops candidate over anti-Semitic remarks

George Galloway’s party has been forced to deselect a candidate after The Telegraph revealed he promoted anti-Semitic material online.

Hassan Chahine shared a video that included claims that a “coven of Jews” had “seized” control of America and that Jews have been punished throughout history for “killing Jesus Christ”.

Mr Chahine, who had been due to represent the Workers Party of Britain in Putney, also lavished praise on the leader of Hezbollah and shared a picture describing Zionism as a “combination of filth selected from different countries”.

Other candidates for the party have shared controversial material online, including equating Israel with the Nazis and referring to Israelis as “human vermin”.

After returning to Parliament at the Rochdale by-election in February, Mr Galloway has unveiled hundreds of Workers Party candidates to contest seats across the country.

Earlier this month, Mr Chahine posted a picture of himself on X sporting a Workers Party rosette and shaking hands with a smiling Mr Galloway outside Parliament.

The Workers Party X account shared the picture on May 8 with the comment: “Hassan is our brilliant candidate in Putney!”

On May 12, Mr Chahine posted a link on X to a TikTok video along with the words: “American People with a strong message to the ‘American Jews’... Enough is enough, stop weeping on your Holocaust to gain power in the Senate and Congress.”

The video in question is an anti-Semitic monologue which states that Jews are involved in “mischief, menace and influence peddling from positions of high power and influence” and that “Jews often use nepotism, buying, bribing, and blackmail to attain and hold power”.

“We have a coven of Jews who have seized government and the centres of power,” it says.

Highlighting individuals such as Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, it goes on: “Look at all these characters. They’re Jews. They’re everywhere in government.

“They dominate government, Hollywood, the mainstream media, big tech owners, higher academia, big finance, and they own or control all the big corporations that count.”
It goes on to say that Jews have been expelled from countries throughout history “because their hosts woke up to what we’ve just pointed out.”

It says “no Jewish power centre has endured more than 70 years in all of history”, claiming this is a “curse for killing Jesus Christ and turning on God”.

“Jews are six years overdue for their curse,” it says. “We all know it’s coming. They’re cooked once again, and they know it.”

Left out

When The Telegraph contacted the Workers Party, a spokesman said the video was “sickening” and that he was “not an approved WPB candidate”.

Mr Chahine told The Telegraph that he had been informed that he had been dropped by the Workers Party on Thursday, after The Telegraph had contacted the party about his posts.

He said: “I posted a video of an American complaining about how they feel about how the Jews or Zionists controlling their politicians using the terrible Holocaust crimes against the Jews as an excuse, not my views and my relations with the Jewish community here is great.”

On another occasion, Mr Chahine shared a picture which had the words: “Zionism is not a religion, it’s a combination of filth selected from different countries and different religions”. In an accompanying comment, he wrote: “Share if you agree.”

He also tweeted a picture of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, describing him as “King of Hearts”, “Leader Of The Free World” and “Defender Of The Oppressed”, and suggesting people post an emoji of a yellow heart “If You Support Sayed Hassan Nasrallah”.

Hezbollah is a proscribed terrorist group within the UK and it is illegal to invite support for them.

When asked about the image, Mr Chahine told The Telegraph that “Zionism is not a religion, and millions of Jews oppose it and call it terrorism”.

He added: “Regarding what you labelled as me praising Hezbollah which is considered as a terrorist organisation in the UK, you have to understand that I come from the south of Lebanon, witnessed the brutal invasion of Israel in 1982, lived eight years under occupation, imprisoned and tortured and still carry my scars, and if it wasn’t for the resistance my country would not have been liberated,” he said.

He pointed out that Hezbollah had representatives in the Lebanese parliament and had previously had ministers in its government.

Comments from other candidates

Other candidates for the Workers Party include Natalie Potter in Stockton West, who has previously posted comments saying that “Zionist Jews are evil” and claimed that pro-Israeli Jewish students at an American university were “Zionists, not real Jews”.

Earlier this month, Ms Potter responded to a picture of the Israeli Eurovision entry with the words “human vermin”. On another occasion, she responded to a post on X showing images of what was supposedly a “Roman silver amulet of a grotesque face”, but which bore striking similarities to grotesque anti-Semitic caricatures of the modern period.

The original poster commented: “My God, they didn’t even try to hide it. You can even see the kippah.”

Ms Potter replied: “They are literally the most ugly people inside and out.”

Another candidate, Phil Bimpson for Wallasey, meanwhile responded to a tweet asking “what would you like brought back”, with a comment saying: “Hanging for Treason. Starmer and Sunak have sold our country to NA ZI’ONISTS, it’s Treason.”

On another occasion, he posted a picture showing the swastika and Israeli flag alongside each other, with the words: “Nazis are still around. They call themselves Zionists Now!”

A spokeswoman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The sheer number of cases of rhetoric within the Workers Party that breaches the international definition of anti-Semitism is astounding.

“The Workers Party would do well to heed the findings of the EHRC’s report into anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, which sets out the legal standard that political parties are expected to adhere to. Clearly, the Workers Party must reconsider its support for any candidates with histories of sharing anti-Semitic content, but we will not be holding our breath.”