Green parliamentary candidate said Israel ‘shared blame’ for Oct 7
A Green Party candidate at the next general election blamed Israel for the Oct 7 Hamas attacks, The Telegraph can disclose.
Maddison Wheeldon, selected as the party’s candidate for Warrington North last week, said on Tuesday that both Israel and Hamas were “culpable” for the attacks.
The Greens have been mired in a growing anti-Semitism scandal since the local elections earlier this month, when a number of candidates campaigned on anti-Israel platforms described as “sectarian” by critics.
Ms Wheeldon’s remarks were condemned as “truly noxious anti-Semitism” by MPs and campaigners, who said the party was “protecting racists within” by not expelling them.
The Green Party is understood to be investigating Ms Wheeldon’s remarks. A spokesman said: “We will always take any allegations of anti-Semitism within the Green Party seriously”.
‘Both are responsible and culpable’
On Tuesday, Ms Wheeldon, who describes herself as a freelance digital marketer and social justice campaigner, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel was “also responsible” for Oct 7 because “you can’t trap and bombard people without expecting them to try to break free”.
She later added: “Both [Israel and Hamas] are responsible and culpable for Oct 7, just as I know that if I were to lock someone in a room, restricting their food, water and access to freedom, eventually they will come banging on that door ready to lash out.”
It was the latest in a series of public anti-Israel social media posts made by Ms Wheeldon before and after her selection as a parliamentary candidate.
On March 4 she wrote on Instagram: “Does Israel actually want to bring their hostages home? Or do they want to maximise the trauma to further legitimise the terrorism and mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza and record breaking murders in the West Bank?
On April 8, she said ordinary Israelis “are akin to the Germans that supported the Nazi’s [sic]”.
Earlier this month, on May 7, she wrote: “Zionism is born in white supremacy” on X as she defended Mothin Ali, the Green councillor in Leeds who is being investigated by the party after he shouted “Allahu Akbar” following his election.
Two days later, she appeared to indulge anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews being disproportionately powerful, writing: “Zionism also possesses an incredible amount of wealth and power; but we won’t back down.”
Mike Katz, the national chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), said: “These examples display some truly noxious anti-Semitism from this Green Party candidate. JLM warned the Greens last year that they needed to take the issue of Left-wing anti-Semitism seriously. Sadly, they chose to ignore us and instead seemed to double down.
“This is like a re-run of the Corbyn years – ignoring clear evidence there’s a problem and protecting racists within your ranks because it’s easier than showing political leadership and taking tough decisions.”
Nicola Richards, the Tory MP for West Bromwich East, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on anti-Semitism, said the Green Party “clearly has an anti-Semitism problem amongst its parliamentary candidates”.
She said: “They must remove those candidates immediately, apologise to the Jewish community for the hurt they have caused, and implement measures to stop these views proliferating throughout their party.”
Other Green candidates exposed
Three other Green MP candidates were exposed as having anti-Israel views by the Jewish Chronicle on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Waight, standing in Bethnal Green and Stepney, posted an Instagram video on March 27 in which a woman said: “What’s left for the Zionists [is] to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Palestinians… I think this will happen soon.”
Chris Brody, standing in Chingford and Wood Green, uploaded links to an article that suggested 9/11 and Oct 7 were “false flag operations executed to open the path toward more slaughter and mayhem”.
Naseem Talukdar, standing in Bristol East, shared comparisons between the Holocaust and the war in Gaza and liked a video in which David Miller, an anti-Israel activist, says: “We have to destroy Zionism”.
A Green Party spokesman said: “We will always take any allegations of anti-Semitism within the Green Party seriously and refer them to our internal disciplinary procedures when necessary. At this stage, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”
All the candidates named in this article were approached for comment.