He shared a post on X with a photo of Adolf Hitler with Netanyahu with the captions “it’s becoming REALLY hard to spot the difference” and the “past becomes the present”, suggesting an equivalence between the Holocaust and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
A post by Bristol East candidate Naseem Talukdar[Missing Credit]
He also liked a video clip in which anti-Israel activist David Miller said “we have to destroy Zionism [...] it’s fundamentally a racist ideology”.
Talukdar liked another post that showed a cartoon of an IDF soldier pointing a gun at an incubated baby and saying “But do you condemn Hamas?”.
Despite his controversial history, Denyer said she had zero regrets participating in an event with him.
A Green Party spokesperson told the JC : “Carla Denyer was delighted to have taken part in this non-political event which helped promote both environmental awareness and the importance of reducing plastic waste during Ramadan, an important event in the Islamic calendar.
“Naseem Talukdar was one of many people behind the initiative and the event at the House of Lords. It was an initiative that Carla was pleased to lend her support to and promote.”
After his comments were first revealed by the JC he announced his decision to step down as a candidate: “Recently, my father passed away, which was reminder that spending precious time with my family is important. Therefore, I have chosen to step aside so that a new candidate can take forward our Green message. However, I will continue to advocate for peace and the importance of environmental conservation.”
The Green Party’s disciplinary record when it comes to anti-Israel commentary by high-ranking members on social media has come under scrutiny recently.
Last month, the JC reported that the party refused to take any action against Bristol councillor Abdul Malik who – merely six days after Hamas’s atrocities on October 7, 2023 – shared a Hamas video on social media.
Malik, who is also a magistrate, was given a formal warning by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) after he had initially claimed that he didn’t share the video.
They found that Malik’s actions “amounted to serious misconduct” and that he “failed to exercise due care and diligence, both in his sharing of the post and in his initial denial of responsibility, which was publicly discredited and compounded the damage caused by the initial sharing of the post”.
In his representations, Malik said that he agreed the post was offensive, that he did not support Hamas, claiming to have been critical of the terror group in his capacity as chair of a local mosque, and that he removed the post as soon as he became aware of it.
In an interview with the JC during the general election campaign, after a number of candidates who made extreme anti-Israel posts on social media were suspended, the Green Party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, denied that the party vetting problem and said any suggestion that it had a problem with antisemitic candidates would be a “huge overstretch”.
During the General Election, former Jewish Labour MP Louise Ellman criticised Denyer and the Bristol Green Party for “stirring division” after they used an image with the Palestinian flag and destruction in Gaza to criticise her Labour opponent’s stance on the conflict in Gaza.
Lord Kamall and the Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.
