By David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline
12:39 29 May 2024, updated 12:43 29 May 2024
A Green Party election candidate is mired in an anti-Semitism row today over social media posts blasting ‘Jew lovers’ and claiming the Islamic State terrorist group was run by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.Joe Belcher, who is standing in the Aldridge-Brownhills seat in the West Midlands, also denied a controversial mural showing ‘hooked-nosed Jewish bankers’ playing monopoly off the backs of the poor was ‘anti-Semitic’.Mr Belcher, the treasurer of the local party branch in Walsall, shared a link to an article by ‘the real Syrian Free Press’ – a pro-Assad website – suggesting ISIS was run by ‘Simon Elliott, a Mossad agent’.He also posted other links to pages about ‘Rothschild bankers’ and shared a link to a video by controversialist David Icke, suggesting Jeremy Corbyn might be a ‘savior [who is] going to turn the country around to a more fair and just society’ before he became leader of the Labour Party.The Green Party told MailOnline that ‘allegations of anti-Semitism will always be carefully considered using our robust internal disciplinary procedures’.But a spokesman declined to say whether Mr Belcher was facing disciplinary proceedings after we presented him with our dossier. Joe Belcher, who is standing in the Aldridge-Brownhills seat in the West Midlands, denied a controversial mural showing ‘hooked-nosed Jewish bankers’ playing monopoly off the backs of the poor (below) was ‘anti-Semitic’. He also branded someone a ‘Jew Mr Belcher, whose website brands him a ‘gardening supervisor and proud father’ is running in the seat held in 2019 by Tory former chief whip Wendy Morton.She held it in 2019 with a majority of 19,836 from Labour. The Greens only won 771 seats and it is not among the four seats the party has set its sights on winning on July 4. He is the latest party candidate to express extreme views. Earlier this morning MailOnline revealed a councillor who made a series of inflammatory social media comments about Israel and Jews had been made a mayor.Martin Butcher was confirmed in the ceremonial post in the town of Ware, in Hertfordshire, having been elected by the Green-controlled council. Mr Belcher, the treasurer of the local party branch in Walsall, also shared a link to an article by ‘the real Syrian Free Press’ – a pro-Assad website – suggesting ISIS was run by ‘Simon Elliott, a Mossad agent’. The article it linked to has since been removed but the website currently hosts links to Syrian Regime social media ‘the USA does not want the public to support’. But his appointment comes little more than six months after he resigned as chairman of East Herts Council to sit as an independent following complaints about series of X posts he made following Hamas’s terror attack on October 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza.In Twitter posts seen by Mailonline Mr Belcher discussed a mural painted on a wall in east London that provoked a wave of criticism. The mural, by international graffiti artist Mear One, was removed in 2012 following complaints that it resembled the anti-Semitic propaganda of Nazi Germany.The provocative painting appeared on a wall in the predominantly Muslim area of Brick Lane in East London, once a thriving Jewish community.It showed moustachioed and hooked-nosed bankers huddled around a Monopoly board supported on the backs of the working class, with a local councillor saying it was ‘horribly similar to the propaganda used by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany’.Jeremy Corbyn was among those who opposed attempts to remove it, before later apologising for doing so. Discussing his stance in 2018, Mr Belcher tweeted: ‘I didn’t think it was anti-Semitic when l saw the artwork. ‘From what I know, it’s artwork depicting an interpretation of the destructiveness and the inequality of capitalism. But Corbyn said out of his own mouth, he regretted sharing it. I’m assuming based on the fact that some people claimed it to be or interpreted it to be anti-Semitic and he didn’t want to offend those people. ‘Art is art. Creators often leave it up to interpretation of the viewer of the art. Some artists attach their own meaning to their work. People have no doubt fell for the scam. Not everyone did. But some people did.’Four years prior to that he shared a link to the ‘the real Syrian Free Press’, a website supportive of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which proclaimed ‘ISIS is run by Simon Elliott, a Mossad agent’. The article it linked to has since been removed.When a fellow Twitter user questioned the content he was sharing, including a post linking to a page entitled ‘Louis Farrakhan exposes Rothschild bankers’, he replied: ‘Nothing anti-Semitic there. Just sharing content. What is it about the content that you have a problem with to such an extent you would call it anti-Semitic?’A Green Party spokesman said: ‘The Green Party utterly condemns and is committed to confronting anti-Semitism. ‘Allegations of anti-Semitism will always be carefully considered using our robust internal disciplinary procedures. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the examples raised.’ Mothin Ali (pictured), a Green Party councillor who sparked outrage by shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being elected to a city council, has repeated the declaration of faith, boasting it had made him ‘infamous’ Last week a controversial Green Party councillor who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being elected to a city council repeated the declaration of faith, boasting it had made him ‘infamous’.Mothin Ali, who has previously claimed Hamas ‘had a right to fight back’ against Israel, claimed he was being made a ‘scapegoat’ to distract from ‘war crimes’ being committed in Gaza.His unapologetic appearance at a small rally in his native Leeds – shared on his social media channels – comes after British Jewish leaders accused the Green Party of ‘hypocrisy’ for not suspending him over his ‘extremist nonsense’.Amid fears of a rise in sectarian politics fuelled by the crisis in the Middle East, former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson accused the Greens of becoming a ‘dustbin’ for ‘disgruntled hard-leftists’.
