EXCLUSIVE: hard-right Jewish Chronicle targeting Mothin Ali, anti-Zionist Jew Tony Greenstein

Notorious hard-right libel-factory the Jewish Chronicle is preparing an attack on Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali – and well-known Jewish anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein. The article had not yet been published at the time of writing.

The rag got itself into a crisis in 2024 after being caught out publishing made-up Israel articles during the Gaza genocide. Before that, it paid out huge sums of cash to a string of left-wingers for blatant libels, mostly penned by ‘doge of phone-hacking’ Lee Harpin.

Harpin has now moved on, but the paper hasn’t improved. So its ‘political editor’ wrote to Greenstein asking for comment – for an article attempting to stitch up Ali. Lorin Bell-Cross presented himself as outraged that anyone should compare banned anti-genocide group Palestine Action or victims of antisemitism smears to the famously (not so) well-mannered Suffragettes, or to civil rights campaigners. Even more outraged, too, that anyone should stand up for Jews who oppose Israel’s genocide.

Friends of genocide at the Jewish Chronicle

And to support this nonsense, Bell-Cross provided quotes from a number of appalling human beings who shamelessly support the genocidal colony, along with some other friends of Israel talking points. The Jewish Chronicle political editor wrote:

Dear Mr Greenstein,

My name is Lorin Bell-Cross and I’m the Jewish Chronicle’s political editor.

I’m getting in touch because of a story I am writing regarding comments you made at the Greens for Palestine emergency meeting on 26 April.

Some of the remarks from the meeting have already been covered by The Times.

But I have been made aware of comments you’ve made, appearing to compare Palestine Action and members suspended accused of antisemitism to the suffragettes and chartists.

During the meeting, Green Party deputy leader Motrin Ali criticised the measures used to suspend party members, saying: “These are supposed to be used for extreme cases where there is serious risk, so, like a sex offender for example. We’ve just found a sex offender in our party, therefore we have to take immediate action because that person could be a risk”.

You responded by saying that you had “already been told informally”, that “the aim is to expel people as quickly as possible, and if the fast track is intended for sexual abusers, child abusers, or what have you, then what we’re facing is an abusive process”.

The deputy leader rapidly interjected to say that the process wasn’t one intended for sex offenders, but he’d just used sex offenders “as an example”…. those facing accusations “shouldn’t hide away” and “ shouldn’t abide by the determination that we should keep silent, because in doing so we’re actually aiding those who want to get rid of us.”

Addressing Mark Adderley, who was suspended by the party as a candidate prior to the election, you said that as he was selected as a Green Party candidate he should “should ignore any attempts to make you do it differently, because that is your position, after all, it is a no-fault suspension. You are innocent until proven guilty.”

You then compared those suspended to civil rights campaigners.

“Don’t forget, every democratic advance and right in this country has been won by people who didn’t abide by the rules, from the Suffragettes to the Chartists, and of course Palestine Action itself”, you added, before claiming that the action against the direct action group amounted to rigging the system.

You also said that said pro-Palestine members faced a “battle” and accused the State of Israel of being behind the crackdown on pro-Palestine campaigners and that the Jewish state was being abetted by “Zionist” Greens

You went on: “I think we should be clear that this is being driven by the Israeli state, and in particular the Israeli embassy in this country, and I have no doubt that Zionist Greens are in contact with them constantly”.

You added that anti-Zionist Jews were being deliberately ignored across the world: “Jews are used as a moral alibi for the imperialist alliance with Israel, if we don’t fit that, then we don’t exist, and that’s especially true in Germany, where the police have actually concentrated on Jews who are not part of the raison the reasons for state affiliation with Israel. So I think we should be in my bearing that in mind”.

I am going to feature criticism of these remarks.

Including from Luke Akehurst MP: “The Chartists and Suffragettes had no choice except to protest through direct action as they were fighting for democratic rights in a society where the franchise was limited to wealthy men. In contrast Palestine Action has every opportunity to test their ideology at the ballot box, but resort to violence because the democratically elected government doesn’t support their extreme anti-Israel stance.”

And the Jewish Leadership Council: “For the deputy leader of the Green Party to criticise his own party’s disciplinary process on the occasions they appear to have actually taken action against antisemitism is deeply concerning.

They continued: “Even more troubling is his engagement with disgraced former Labour Party member Tony Greenstein at a private meeting of the Greens for Palestine group where leaked recording show Greenstein comparing the proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action to the Chartists and the Suffragettes. At a time when the Greens should be showing that they are serious about tackling antisemitism in their ranks, Mothin Ali risks sending precisely the opposite message.”

I also plan to note that you were expelled from the Labour Party

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-expels-campaigner-tony-greenstein-over-antisemitism

And that the High Court threw out a libel claim from you against the Campaign Against Antisemitism on the grounds of honest opinion.

Please get back to me within 24 hours if you intend to comment on the article.

Yours sincerely,

Lorin Bell-Cross

Mr Bell-Cross may have been trying to protect himself against libel claims and IPSO complaints, but he was also giving away his agenda.

Uncompromising response

True to his long and usual form, Greenstein pulled no punches in his reply. In principle, the Jewish Chronicle should print it, but it will be interesting to see how much of it makes the cut (emphases added):

Dear Mr Bell-Cross,

I am happy to speak to you in relation to your article, which of course I haven’t yet seen. But if you want my reactions to the above then my comments are as follows:

i. No evidence has been produced of any anti-Semitism in the Green Party. These are the same false accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ which were used to undermine Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party and which resulted in the election of Keir Starmer. Although there was a pretence that this wasn’t about Israel or Zionism it became clear early on that opposition to Zionism was the key concern of the Jewish Labour Movement and the BOD as it is in the Green Party. That is still the case. The only concern is the Zionism is Racism motion at the Green Conference.

ii. We know that Zionists and Zionism aren’t interested in genuine anti-Semitism, i.e. hostility or hatred of Jews as Jews but hostility to Israel as a ‘Jewish’ state.The evidence for this is plentiful. From Herzl’s admittance in his Diaries on June 12, 1895 that ‘the antisemites will be our most dependable friends, the antisemitic countries our allies’ to the actions of Israel and Zionists e.g. Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli inviting some of the world’s leading anti-Semites to his fighting antisemitism conference. This included Jordan Bardella of the French National Rally (formerly the National Front). Although I have to agree that there is a certain logic in inviting anti-semites to a conference on anti-Semitism as they probably know best about what is and is not anti-Semitism!!

iii. Or the invitation of the Board of Deputies to Nigel Farage, who as a school boy went around telling Jewish pupils that Hitler was right and shouting ‘gas them’, to address their recent anti-Semitism demonstration, whereas Zack Polanski, the Jewish leader of the Green Party was not invited.

iv. In other words the ‘anti-Semitism’ allegations are totally contrived and bogus. I have, after all, written a 500+ page book on the history of Zionist relations with anti-Semites, including the Nazis and it doesn’t make pretty reading.

v. As far as the other allegations are concerned. I reject the idea that Palestine Action is a violent or terrorist group. The fact that they have been proscribed as such is simply an indication of the abuse of the law. Luke Akehurst and the JLC may object to the comparison with the Suffragettes but that was precisely the comparison that the Court of Appeal, in their recent abysmal decision on proscription of Palestine Action made when comparing what they termed the non-violent Suffragettes to Palestine Action. In fact the Suffragettes between 1912 and 1914 engaged in a campaign of bombing, physical assaults and arson that puts Palestine Action in the shade.

vi. I also reject Luke Akehurst’s arguments that there is now universal suffrage unlike previous periods so we shouldn’t engage in direct action. The question of allowing Israeli arms factory Elbit to produce drones for use in a genocide has never been put to the electorate and we cannot wait 5 years when thousands of civilians, not least children have already been murdered. The number of people, mainly pensioners, who are prepared to defy the ban on Palestine Action and the use of terrorism against direct action groups testifies to the depths of opposition to the use of police state powers to outlaw what is termed ‘terrorism’.

vii. However much the Jewish Chronicle tries to defend and whitewash the record of the Israeli state it will not succeed in hiding the truth of a state bent on ethnic cleansing to achieve racial purity and genocide. The recent UN Commission of Inquiry into the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children, the violence and sexual abuse and all the other crimes, makes sombre reading. Blanket denials won’t erase the truth. The fact that Israel refuses access to its prisons to the Red Cross says everything one needs to know about the kind of state Israel has become and the JC has become a propaganda paper not a paper of record as it used to be.

viii. I fully support the objectives of Palestine Action. Genocide is the supreme crime against humanity and that overrides any secondary legislation. Aiding Genocide is also a crime as per the International Criminal Court Act 2001 but this law seems to have been left on the shelf. If opposition to Elbit is a crime then I’m happy to let history be the judge of who is right. Our unelected judges in their decisions are simply demonstrating their own immorality.

ix. Yes I was the first Jewish person to be expelled from the Labour Party as part of the antisemitism smear campaign. However I wasn’t the last Jewish person to be expelled. At least 60 other anti-racist, anti-Zionist Jews were subsequently expelled. No evidence of anti-Semitism on my part was ever produced or even alleged.

x. For some reason you quote my failed libel action against the Campaign Against Antisemitism. The CAA called me a notorious antisemite and I sued them. They had two defences under the Defamation Act 2013. One was that the allegation was true. The second defence was that even if it was untrue it was an opinion that could be held by an honest person and that meant the burden of proof was reversed. I had to prove they were malicious and it was too high a hurdle. However if the Courts had known then what is now known, viz. that the CAA behaved dishonestly in trying to get Reginald Hunter cancelled then I suspect the decision would have been very different. Judge Michael Snow ruled (paragraph 21) that:

‘The CAA have demonstrated by the misleading and partial way in which it summarised its’ application and its’ wilful, repeated, failure to meet its’ disclosure obligations, that its’ true and sole motive in seeking to prosecute RH is to have him cancelled. I have no doubt that the prosecution is abusive.

xi. One thing is for certain. No one, not the CAA or JC have ever been able to quote one single thing that I have said that is anti-Semitic. That is not surprising since I have been an anti-fascist activist all my life. I helped organise the recent demonstration in Brighton which stopped the fascists marching. There were no Zionists to be seen anywhere. On the contrary these days fascist marches aren’t complete without the mandatory Israeli flags because there is no state that anti-Semites love so much as Israel. And what is there not to love about Israel when it has Jewish neo-Nazis like Ben Gvir, Smotrich, Chikli Vaturi etc. in its government.

If you wish to speak to me then my no. is [redacted].

Kind regards,

Tony Greenstein

The UK Israel lobby has continuously targeted the Green party – the only Jewish-led major UK political party – because of leader Zack Polanski’s stand against Israel’s genocide, and the similar stand of his deputies. Much of the infowar it is waging against Mothin Ali is deeply Islamophobic and puts Ali’s life and health in danger.

The Jewish Chronicle has rightly been described as publishing a [very costly] “litany of lies”. The Greens are its target now more than Labour, but the methodology of the antisemitism scam is unchanged.

Featured image via the Canary