Jewish leaders demand newly-elected Green councillor who hailed election as a 'win for Gaza' and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' is suspended - as party officials launch probe after he claimed Palestinians had a right to 'fight back' in wake of Hamas attacks

Jewish leaders have demanded that a pro-Gaza activist who yelled 'Allahu Akbar' when he was elected as a Green councillor is suspended after claiming Hamas 'had a right to fight back' against Israel.

Mothin Ali had branded Israelis as 'white supremacists' after the Palestinian terror group killed 1,400 people in devastating cross border raids from Gaza on October 7, last year.

The 42-year-old said Israel had tried to 'erase the legitimacy of a native population' and claimed 'they [Israelis] are not victims, they are occupiers' in videos posted on social media.

The father-of-three had claimed his election victory in the Gipton and Harehills ward on Leeds City Council was a 'win for the people of Gaza' - a territory he has previously called a 'concentration camp'. 

He is now being investigated by the Green Party over his 'concerning' views, while British Jewish leaders called for him to be suspended for spreading 'extremist nonsense'.

After the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on 7 October last year, Mr Ali - who runs a gardening blog - branded Israelis as 'white supremacists' in social media videos.

He claimed Gaza was 'the biggest concentration camp the world has ever seen' and urged viewers to 'support the right of indigenous people to fight back'.

Mr Ali also said Israel would use the 'pretext of the fightback by Hamas fighters' to launch an assault on Gaza's civilian population.

The Greens' decision to investigate 'issues' in relation to Mr Ali comes after it was revealed the party is set for a showdown with the Government's independent adviser on antisemitism.

Lord Mann, the ex-Labour MP, is set to hold talks with party officials in the wake of Thursday's local elections, which saw the Greens gain nearly 75 council seats.

Along with Mr Ali, there has also been concern over the views and inflammatory social media posts of others newly-elected to represent the party last week. 

An analysis showed more than 40 councillors - including a number of Greens - were elected in England last week after making the Middle East crisis part of their campaign.

Following his election to Leeds City Council last week, Mr Ali shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and said: 'We will not be silent, we will raise the voice of Gaza, we will raise the voice of Palestine.'

Standing in front of a Palestinian flag, he also hailed his election to the council as a 'win for the people of Gaza'.

His victory was one of dozens by pro-Palestine activists in last weeks' local elections, many of whom campaigned on the issue of Gaza and openly voiced support for the territory.

However, it soon came to light that Mr Ali has been posting rants against Israel on his social media for months after the conflict ignited late last year.

In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel, he posted a video in which he said: 'Every single person, every single people have a right to fight back, every single people have a right to live free of occupiers.

'That includes people who are brown, that includes people who are Muslim, that includes people who are Arab.

'Just because they are brown and Arab doesn't mean they don't have a right to fight back.'

In another video on his TikTok account, he said: 'The latest round of hostilities started when Hamas fighters started fighting back against Israeli occupation.

'The land was ethnically cleansed by European settler colonialists - white supremacists. When people wanna talk about it you've gotta remember it is white supremacy.

'White supremacists have always done well at portraying the native population as barbarians, as some kind of bloodthirsty savage.

'That is what they did with the Native Americans, that is how they dehumanised them, that is what they did with the aboriginals, that is how they dehumanised them, that is what they did with the Africans, that is why they were able to take them as slaves.'

Leaders of Britain's Jewish community slammed the Green Party as 'breathtakingly foolish, dangerous and insensitive' for selecting Mr Ali as a candidate and demanded his immediate suspension for spreading 'extremist nonsense'.

In an open letter to co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, the chairman of Leeds Jewish Representative Council, Simon Myerson KC, wrote that Mr Ali had a 'substantial history of views which are concerning to the Jewish community'.

Accusing the Greens of 'hypocrisy' over their failure to distance themselves from him, Mr Myerson said it was 'wholly wrong' for the party to continue to associate itself with Mr Ali.

He wrote that while the newly-elected councillor was 'perfectly entitled' to express his views on Gaza, it was 'obvious that his appeal to voters was nakedly based on that, rather than the platform your party publicly espouses'.

Mr Myerson accused Mr Ali of attempting to justify 'rape, murder and kidnap' and using 'antisemitic tropes'.

He added that for the Greens to nominate him as their candidate as deputy mayor of West Yorkshire responsible for policing in last week's election given fears over the rise of antisemitic hate crime in the county was 'breathtakingly foolish, dangerous and insensitive'.

'These matters do, I suggest, call the Green Party's own integrity into question,' Mr Myerson wrote.

'The deliberate exploitation of a particular issue which is never going to be addressed by the election of a local councillor as a major factor in that councillor's election campaign is nakedly opportunistic.

'Populist policies are normally identified as being adopted by the far-right. It is a great pity that you have lowered your own party to behave in that way in my city.

'Because this matter is so serious, I am treating this correspondence as public.

'You have known about Mr Ali's views for a considerable time.

'It is 48 hours since he was elected, and your silence has now gone past the time during which - I accept - you must have been considering how exactly you cope with the disastrous effect of the video of his behaviour at his count.

'It is time for you to stop thinking about yourselves, and to think of the people directly affected by your choices.

'I look forward to hearing your explanation. Finally, I am asking you to formally suspend Mr Ali as a Green Party member.

'It is wholly wrong that your party should seek to benefit from his views and his behaviour.

'It is antithetical to the ethics of which you boast. It is nothing more than hypocrisy.

'You should act, immediately, and explain yourselves thereafter.'

Backing the concerns, Claudia Mendoza, CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: 'At a time of such division and fear, we need politicians who will work to secure community cohesion, not undermine it.

'Mr Ali's record speaks for itself and if the Green Party is serious about dealing with antisemitism rather than just paying lip service to it in meetings with community leaders, action will be taken.'

Adding to the storm of criticism, The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the Greens had 'serious questions to answer'.

'We are appalled by comments found to have been made by a newly elected Green Party councillor in Leeds, in which he appeared to celebrate and attempt to justify the October 7 mass terror attack on Israel,' a spokesman said.

'While we understand that the Greens are investigating this, the party has serious questions to answer over its utter failure of due diligence, which includes nominating Mr Ali for the role of deputy mayor for police and crime.'

According to The Telegraph, Mr Ali has not been suspended by the Greens and will continue representing the party as a councillor during the investigation.

A party spokesman said: 'The Green Party is investigating issues drawn to our attention in relation to Councillor Mothin Ali, so cannot comment further.

'However, we are clear that we never support anything that extols violence.'

Lord Mann will reportedly explore the possibility of the Green Party suspending or withdrawing the whip from some elected councillors and improving its candidate selection and vetting.

He told The Times he was meeting the Greens this week 'to discuss what they are going to do in reaction to these people and also more widely in their membership and their candidate selections'.

He suggested one response might be to copy Labour's reaction to discovering its Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali had made unacceptable remarks about Israel.

'If he had been elected he would not have been accepted into the party structures,' Lord Mann said.

The Green Party has been contacted for comment.