The Green Party has said it will stand by a councillor who shared a Hamas video on social media, after initially denying that he did so.
Abdul Malik, a councillor in Ashley Ward in the Bristol Central consitutency who previously campaigned with local MP and Green co-leader Carla Denyer, was given a formal warning for his actions by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO), which investigated him thanks to his other role as a magistrate.
The video contained a Hamas press conference in which a spokesman for the terror group described the October 7 massacre as a “supremely defensive act” that “targeted only Israeli military bases and compounds”, and said that Israel was an “an animal state… a cancer that should be eradicated”.
At the time, when the JC reported the incident and Malik was a Green candidate, the content of the video was raised directly with the party and a spokesperson apologised and claimed that Malik was “unwittingly tagged into an offensive post” and that “he assures us he did not himself publish [it]”, despite being shown screenshot indicating that he had, in fact, done so.
The link to the Hamas video apparently shared by Green candidate Abdul Malik[Missing Credit]
After his election victory, and following criticism from Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Denyer told the Guardian that “the post [wasn’t] in line with Green party values … We’ve always been really clear to condemn the Hamas attacks” and that she was “satisfied it’s dealt with” but took no disciplinary action against Malik.
However, the JCIO said that Malik’s “denial of responsibility was challenged in the press and, following this … had discovered he must have shared the post himself”.
They further 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”.
The JCIO went on to say that Malik’s “actions had a detrimental effect upon the dignity, standing and good reputation of the magistracy”.
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.
A spokesperson for the Green Party said that they stood by Malik despite his admission that he did, in fact, share the Hamas post.
They told the JC: "Cllr Malik has consistently shown remorse for the deeply offensive post he shared in October 2023. He has made abundantly clear that he does not endorse its content. Indeed, he has a long history of condemning Hamas in his role in his local mosque. Crucially he has shown learning from the incident and understood the offence and hurt it caused.
They continued: “We are pleased that the investigation also highlighted Cllr Malik's ‘unblemished conduct record and good standing within the community’. Cllr Malik has the party's full backing as an effective and hard-working councillor in Bristol and hopes that this will draw a line under this serious ill-judged action."
Lord Mann, however, told the JC that he thought Malik “should be expelled by the Green Party and resign as a councillor”.
A spokesperson for the Jewish Labour Movement said that the Green Party’s response “simply isn't good enough”.
"It seems that, not only did the Green Party fail to investigate this issue properly and get to the bottom of what Cllr Malik said, they now want to ignore the facts of the case.”
They also demanded that Carla Denyer take “real action” against Malik.
“Being a progressive party means taking action when you find it in your own ranks, however politically inconvenient it is. Green co-leader and Bristol MP Carla Denyer must take real action now”, the said.
Meanwhile, 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.
Denyer used her maiden speech to call for a cessation of arms sales to Israel.
