Green Party Antisemitism: How Conspiracy Theories Infiltrate
The rapid rise and fall of Chris Kennedy, the Green Party's short-lived Makerfield by-election candidate, is not merely a story of individual prejudice. It is a case study in how antisemitic conspiracy theories and ethno-nationalist narratives infiltrate spaces that claim to champion justice, and how institutional responses continue to prioritise reputation over genuine accountability.
What Happened: A Timeline of Complicity
Kennedy, a nurse and children's safeguarding specialist, was announced as the Green Party candidate for Makerfield on Thursday morning. Within nine hours, they had withdrawn, citing what the party described as personal and family reasons. The underlying context emerged shortly after, when The Times reported that Kennedy had shared deeply troubling social media posts.
According to the newspaper, Kennedy shared an Instagram video describing the arrests of two men over an arson attack on Jewish ambulances in Golders Green as total bullshit to keep the false flag flying. They also amplified a post by Hugh Anthony, a self-described proud ethno-nationalist, which questioned the institutional response to the March arson attack.
How does someone manage to burn 3 ambulances, get the entire country in uproar, make the government put 264 more police units into the community, make the King become a patron of a charity, and increase the terror threat level in the UK, only to be put on bail? This makes no sense.
A Green Party spokesperson stated that these posts do not reflect the views of the party, confirmed that Kennedy had deleted them, and noted that Kennedy apologises for the offence caused.
Deconstructing the False Flag: Antisemitism as Systemic Oppression
The false flag conspiracy theory is not scepticism. It is a documented instrument of antisemitic disinformation that functions to deny violence against Jewish communities and reframe those communities as architects of their own persecution. When Kennedy amplified this narrative, they were not questioning power; they were reproducing it.
The sharing of content from a proud ethno-nationalist further reveals the porous boundaries between conspiracy culture and overt white supremacy. Ethno-nationalism centres the dominance of one ethnic group over all others. It is structurally incompatible with any genuine commitment to decolonial or antiracist praxis.
For multiply marginalised Jewish people, including BIPOC Jews, LGBTQIA+ Jews, disabled Jews, and migrant Jews, these narratives are not abstract. They materialise as physical violence, institutional neglect, and social isolation. Antisemitism does not operate in isolation; it intersects with Islamophobia, racism, and other vectors of oppression to uphold the same structures of supremacy.
Institutional Failures: The Green Party's Performative Response
The Green Party's statement warrants critical deconstruction. Their insistence that these posts do not reflect the views of the party, while necessary, sidesteps a more urgent question: how was Kennedy vetted and selected as a candidate? What structural mechanisms exist to identify and exclude those who amplify oppressive narratives?
The framing of Kennedy's apology as being for the offence caused follows a familiar institutional pattern. It centres the speaker's discomfort rather than the harm inflicted upon Jewish communities. Genuine accountability demands more than deletion and contrition. It requires an understanding of why such narratives are violent and how they sustain systems of oppression.
The party's subsequent rhetoric about offering hope over hate and standing up for communities rings hollow without concrete action. Hope without structural change is merely performance.
The Polanski Context: Distinguishing Critique from Conspiracy
This incident cannot be separated from its broader political context. Just weeks earlier, Green Party leader Mr Polanski, the only current Jewish leader of a major UK political party, faced backlash for sharing criticism of police violence. The post followed footage showing two officers repeatedly kicking the alleged Golders Green attacker in the head after he had been tasered.
Polanski apologised for sharing the post hastily but maintained that police should not be above scrutiny. Here, a vital distinction must be upheld. Critiquing state violence and police brutality is a legitimate and necessary practice, particularly for those committed to abolitionist justice and the dismantling of carceral systems. Condemning how state power operates is fundamentally different from propagating conspiracy theories that deny harm to marginalised communities.
Conflating the two serves neither antiracist struggle nor Jewish safety. We must hold both truths simultaneously: police violence demands accountability, and antisemitism demands dismantling. These positions are not contradictory; they are intersectional.
A Systemic Pattern: Labour's Allegations
The crisis deepens considerably. Labour has announced it will release a document exposing what they describe as disturbing views among 25 Green Party local election candidates. These candidates stand accused of harrowing antisemitism, dangerous conspiracy theories, and appalling comments supporting Hamas and Russia.
While we must approach such revelations from rival parties with critical awareness of their political motivations, the allegations cannot be dismissed outright. When multiple instances of antisemitism surface within an organisation, we are witnessing not isolated incidents but systemic failure.
Towards Genuine Accountability and Structural Change
The Green Party has stated it will redouble its efforts and offer an alternative to division. Yet rhetoric without structural transformation is insufficient. What is required includes:
- Rigorous candidate vetting processes that identify and exclude those who amplify oppressive narratives
- Comprehensive education on how antisemitism functions, including its manifestations as conspiracy theory and its intersections with racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of systemic oppression
- A commitment to centring the voices of marginalised Jewish communities, particularly those who are multiply affected
- An understanding that solidarity is not performative but must be practised consistently
Antisemitism is not a peripheral concern. It is foundational to the architecture of white supremacy and extractive capitalism. When we fail to deconstruct it, we fail all marginalised communities. When we allow conspiracy theories to circulate unchecked in progressive spaces, we reproduce the very systems we claim to oppose.
The Green Party, and all institutions that claim to stand for justice, must move beyond statements and towards structural transformation. The communities they purport to serve deserve nothing less.
#AntisemitismIsOppression #DecolonizeEverything #IntersectionalJustice