Green members chat about ‘killing Zionists’ in leaked WhatsApp messages

The Green Party has been hit by a fresh anti-Semitism row after leaked WhatsApp messages showed members discussing the "killing of Zionists" and describing violence against Jewish people as "understandable". The messages, shared in a private group called Greens Against Imperialism, also included a claim that British Jews were a "weapon" of Israel and a description of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a proscribed terror group in the UK, as part of a "national liberation movement". The revelations have drawn strong condemnation from politicians and prompted calls for the party to expel those involved and refer them to police.

The group was set up by Sophus Magill, a Green parish councillor on the Isle of Wight, who wrote that "Zionism has to go" and said he would like to see Israel "wiped off the map". Labour MP David Taylor called the messages "sickening", while Lord Walney, the government's former extremism tsar, said the comments endangered British Jews and reflected wider anti-Semitism on the progressive left. The Green Party said it does not comment on discussions in unofficial WhatsApp groups, and Mr Magill did not respond to requests for comment.