A Green party candidate who suggested Israel may have paid Hamas to commit the October 7 attack has been suspended by the party and prevented from standing for parliament, the JC can reveal.

Joe Belcher, who was running in the West Midlands seat of Aldridge-Brownhills, questioned on X/Twitter last November why Palestinian terror leaders would have “sold their people down the river” by attacking Israel.

"Why would Hamas commanders order Oct 7 to then have their territory destroyed and their people killed or displaced from Gaza?” he asked.

"For money? If so, who offered them this money? The Israel government?”

Belcher continued: “It's certainly convenient now that Israel can attempt to justify wiping out Palestinians from Gaza and to claim Gaza as Israel.

“Why would they do that? To claim rights over the oil and gas reserves in Gazan waters and to clear the way to create the Ben Gurion Canal through Gaza?”

The suggestion that a canal could be dug between the Gulf of Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea to serve as an alternative to the Suez Canal was suggested in a policy paper produced for the US Department of Energy in 1963.

There are currently no plans to launch the monumental infrastructure project, which would require hundreds of nuclear blasts to construct.

In a separate message posted last year, Belcher wrote: “My hunch is that the Oct 7 attack was paid for by Netanyahu and/or the West. In order to wipe out Gaza to claim Gaza along with Gazan waters as Israel's.

“Gazan waters hold billions of dollars worth of oil and gas. Then, once the resources are plundered, to build the Ben Gurion canal to rival the Suez canal. Look it up.”

In a further post he added: “My hunch is the leaders of Israel, and Gaza conspired to carry out what happened on Oct 7 for financial gain. But I don't have any proof. This is why it remains a hunch and nothing more.”

In a separate post, uncovered by the Mail, Belcher shared a post claiming that Isis had been run by a Mossad agent named “Simon Elliot".

In another X/Twitter post, the ousted Green Party candidate shared a video titled, “Louis Farrakhan Exposes Rothschild Bankers".

Farrakhan, the leader of Muslim sect, The Nation of Islam, has repeatedly expressed virulent antisemitism.

The Green Party’s decision to drop Belcher came after three other candidates were blocked over what the party’s co-leader called “inappropriate comments”.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kunessberg, Adam Ramsay was questioned over how his party had dealt with “antisemitic comments” made by a number of candidates.
Ramsey replied that the party “takes any suggestions of antisemitism, or indeed any form of racism, very seriously” and that “any suggestions that have been made of inappropriate comments in recent weeks are being investigated by the relevant people.”

He added that “in the last couple of weeks, there were three candidates who had been selected who are no longer going forward” and “a small number more who are still being looked at.”

One candidate prevented from standing was Naseem Talukdar, who was dumped by the party after an internal investigation into social media posts revealed by the JC.

The Bristol East candidate had circulated photographs comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hiter.

The images were captioned, “it’s becoming REALLY hard to spot the difference” and, “the past becomes the present”.

He also liked a video clip in which anti-Israel activist David Miller declared, “we have to destroy Zionism... it’s fundamentally a racist ideology.”

In a statement, Talukdar said he had chosen not to run for Parliament following the death of his father because he wished to spend more time with his family.

A Green Party spokesperson said: “We respect Naseem Talukdar's decision and wish him well with his ongoing work in the community, especially around providing support for those experiencing homelessness."

Belcher was contacted for comment.