Leaked UK Green Party chats reveal talk of ‘killing Zionists,’ wiping Israel off map

Leaked messages from Britain’s Green Party internal chat reveals members casually discussed mass murder of “Zionists,” mulling extermination of Israel.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Leaked messages from a private WhatsApp group used by British Green Party activists have revealed discussions about “killing Zionists,” eliminating Israel and portraying hostility toward Jews as understandable, deepening an already-running controversy over antisemitism within the party.

The group, called Greens Against Imperialism, was created by Sophus Magill, a Green Party parish councillor in Wootton Bridge on the Isle of Wight, and was used by members and activists to discuss campaigning, foreign policy and motions for party conferences.

In one exchange, Magill argued that “Zionism has to go” and said that “the only solution is one equal state.”

Another participant then asked whether he was advocating having Israel “wiped off the map, in essence?”

“Yes, I would like that,” Magill replied.

Magill subsequently argued that he was calling for Israel to cease existing as a state rather than advocating violence against its population.

He compared Israel to Rhodesia and said Israelis who were not war criminals and were prepared to coexist peacefully with Palestinians should be able to remain in the territory.

The messages went well beyond the future of Israel.

One participant argued that British Jews were useful to Israel because accusations of antisemitism could be deployed to defend the Jewish state politically in Britain, describing British Jews as a “brilliant weapon for the Israeli state.”

In another discussion, a participant considered what extreme anti-Zionism could entail, writing that it could mean supporting “killing Zionists,” while arguing such a view was “wrong but not necessarily racist.”

The same participant described hostility that lumps Jews together with Israel as wrong but “understandable.”

Another member suggested that someone whose village and family had been destroyed by a state acting in the name of an ethnic group might understandably want to attack members of that group.

Other messages showed sympathy for the Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

A participant identified in the chat by the initials “AT” described the IRGC as part of a “national liberation movement” and characterized Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as the country’s liberation from the US-backed Shah. The participant also claimed that anti-government protests in Iran earlier this year had been instigated and armed by Americans and Zionists.

The comments were made before Britain formally designated the IRGC as a state threat under new national-security powers in July.

The leaked conversations also raise questions about how closely the unofficial group interacted with formal Green Party structures.

Animah Kosai, membership officer of Global Majority Greens — an official Green Party special-interest group — invited members of Greens Against Imperialism to participate in a review of motions ahead of the party conference.

Kosai told the WhatsApp group that because Global Majority Greens was an official party organization, it could provide “cover” for members taking part in the review. She also promoted a proposed “Zionism is Racism” motion and at one point referred to it as “our motion.”

Global Majority Greens includes Green deputy leader Mothin Ali among its members.

At least one participant ultimately left the WhatsApp group because of its tone, saying they could no longer cope with the intensity and anger of the discussions.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski was not a participant in the group. Polanski, who is Jewish, has become one of Britain’s most outspoken political critics of Israel and has repeatedly rejected suggestions that opposition to Israeli government policy or Zionism should automatically be treated as antisemitic.

But the leaked messages arrive amid a much broader dispute over antisemitism inside the Greens.

More than 30 Green candidates faced allegations involving anti-Jewish or extreme anti-Israel comments during this year’s local-election campaign, while nearly a dozen were suspended and two candidates were arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.

Former Green leader Caroline Lucas publicly called on the party to take action against candidates who had crossed the line, saying there was “no place for antisemitism or any hate speech in the party.”

Jewish Greens, the party’s internal Jewish organization, has also acknowledged problems, saying earlier this year that antisemitism had affected the Green Party and opposing an internal motion equating Zionism with racism.

Polanski has pushed back against claims that the Greens have a distinctive antisemitism problem, saying the party should confront genuine anti-Jewish hatred while also resisting what he views as attempts to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The latest messages prompted fresh demands for expulsions.

Labour MP David Taylor described the comments as “sickening” and called on the Greens to identify the members involved, remove them from the party and refer potentially criminal conduct to police.

Lord Walney, a former government adviser on political extremism, said the conversations showed a willingness among some activists to justify political violence and warned that rhetoric of that kind placed British Jews at greater risk. He called the revelations evidence of “virulent antisemitism” on sections of the progressive left.

The Green Party declined to address the individual discussions, distancing itself from the WhatsApp group.

“We do not comment on internal party forums or discussions on WhatsApp groups that are not official party group channels,” a spokesperson said.

The controversy comes as the Greens have dramatically expanded their electoral reach under Polanski, capitalizing on frustration with Labour and winning increased support among younger voters.