I have come to meet Green leader Natalie Bennett at her new office in Kentish Town, above a café which plays Marvin Gaye and Jackie Mittoo as customers pick up laid-out copies of the Guardian, Independent, Daily Mirror and Camden New Journal.
We meet in the week of Yom Hashoah and the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp; Ms Bennett has made no contribution to either, but tells me this is simply result of her “stupid” schedule.
She says she has no intention of ever visiting a concentration camp: “You read about those things and you see them and they are such powerful things that you do not necessarily need to actually see them on the ground to have a sense of how unbelievably horrific they are.”
But then she seems unsure of what she has just said, continuing: “Like to go… I think it… just knowing about it… just having read about it… it is whether you... to go to the place, well, it is just overwhelming to think about what some human beings did to other human beings.
“Visiting a massacre site – it is not something…”
We celebrate the contribution of migrants to Britain - gosh, the Green Party even selected a migrant as its leader!
She is, however, crystal clear in her opposition to Israel, demanding that Israeli artists, musicians and academics are boycotted . A cultural boycott, she says, will help “get the message across to the Israeli state. It needs to comply with international law and human rights”.
Ms Bennett has likewise never been to Israel or the West Bank but that does not trouble her certainty about Israel. Her party’s manifesto has also called for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement , worth more than £1 billion a year.
She says: “That agreement should be contingent on respecting human rights and international law. Until Israel is in compliance with international law, I don’t think we should have that trade deal.
“I believe we should stop arms sale to Israel. I believe that we should be using diplomatic pressure to push Israel to respect international law and UN resolutions.”
Her Green Party - the only mainstream party without a “friends of Israel” grouping - has come under fire after Twickenham candidate Tanya Williams last week described Israel as “a racist and apartheid state” , and deputy leader Shahrar Ali was filmed at an anti-Israel rally saying: “Just because you observe the niceties of Holocaust Memorial Day it does not mean you have learned the lessons of history.”
Ms Bennett says she makes no comparisons between the Holocaust and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and adds: “When I am talking about the situation between Palestine and Israel, I focus on the behaviour of the Israeli government.”
Earlier this year, Ms Bennett was reported to have called for membership of ISIS to be legal. In a BBC1 interview in which she was asked if membership of terror groups – specifically ISIS and al Qaeda - should be legal, she said: “'Exactly. What we want to do is make sure we are not punishing people for what they think or what they believe…You shouldn't be punished for what you think. And we need to balance, we do not protect freedom by destroying it.”
Now she tells me this was a “misunderstanding”. Her line now is that “Islamic State and al Qaeda are horrific and incredibly violent terrorist organisations - support of them in any way should be illegal.”
She says the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the UK should be tackled through “having an inclusive supportive community in which people do not feel pushed out or stigmatised".
“More cross-community work, interfaith work, making sure local communities mix together - getting people together to get to know each other as people is a really important thing. Making sure local communities mix together. That way, it is much harder for stereotypes and extremist views to build up.”
She describes the rise in antisemitism in Britain as a “grave concern” and says the Greens would secure more security funding for Jewish schools, both state and fee-paying.
Ms Bennett – whose party would not ban non-stun slaughter despite calls from animal rights lobby groups - appears puzzled when I tell her that, according to a JC poll, less than 2 per cent of Jewish voters would vote Green, while 69 per cent would support Conservative. “I am surprised, given that the Conservatives have pandered to UKIP on immigration issues,” she says.
Ms Bennett believes that the Greens’ welcome of migrants to the UK will appeal to Jewish voters. “We celebrate the contribution of migrants to Britain - gosh, the Green Party even selected a migrant as its leader! I am really proud of the fact that we have stood up against that UKIP rhetoric in a way that the two largest parties have not.”
Ms Bennett says the Greens have “transformed” British politics: “People are fed up with business as usual politics and are looking for something different. What the Green Party are offering is a real big change in society, to a fairer society where no one need fear putting food on the table or keeping a roof over their head.”
She adds that her least favourite outcome on 7 May would be UKIP winning seats, and that the Greens would “consider supporting a minority Labour government on a vote-by-vote basis. We want to do whatever we possibly can to stop having another Tory government.”
