Their job has been to nurture and educate the next generation. But now they are cultivating their own political ambitions by standing in the local elections – prompting alarm over their views and fears for the young people they are influencing.
A Daily Mail investigation has discovered that a primary school governor, secondary school teacher and recently retired university professor who are all Green party candidates in next week’s polls, face accusations of ‘gross anti-Semitism’.
They have posted or shared shocking images on social media variously including claims that the October 7 atrocities were either a ‘false flag’ [a covert Israeli operation] or self-defence on the part of the perpetrators and that a terrorist who stabbed two Jews to death in 2016 was a ‘martyr’.
As Kemi Badenoch warned of an ‘epidemic’ of anti-Semitic attacks after this week’s Golders Green knife rampage, major questions are being raised over the decision to select these prospective councillors in an election in which the Greens are expected to make substantial inroads.
The latest poll from Lord Hayward, the Tory peer and election expert, predicts that the Greens will gain 500 councillors next week.
Lord Polak, the peer who led Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) for 25 years, told the Daily Mail: ‘Either the Green Party has not done any due diligence on their candidates – or if they have, then the people of Britain should have no doubt about the abhorrent views of individuals who are endorsed by and are representing the Green Party.’
This comes as the Greens’ leader is criticised for retweeting a post on X, suggesting the policemen who disarmed the terror suspect in the Golders Green attack after he stabbed two Jews had been too heavy-handed – ‘repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head’.
Zack Polanski with Stoke Newington ward candidates L to R: Ifhat Shaheen, Reiner Tegtmeyer, Jacob Cable
Ms Ifhat Shaheen is a Green candidate in Stoke Newington, north London. She has pledged that if elected she will put ‘kindness at the forefront of decision making’
She shared – with an applause emoji – a post describing the unfolding atrocities in Israel as a Palestinian ‘fightback’ against ‘Zionist oppression’
A Green Party spokesman said: ‘Where there are examples brought to our attention that do not fit in with the views of the Green Party, we are looking into them.’
So who are the educators whose views will offend so many?
Primary school governor, ‘parent advocate’ and board member at her local Sure Start [a government initiative to help the development of children under five], Ms Ifhat Shaheen is a Green candidate in Stoke Newington, north London.
She has pledged that if elected she will put ‘kindness at the forefront of decision making’ and ensure ‘compassion permeates every aspect of support for residents’.
Her social media suggests a very different story. On the day of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Shaheen – using an account in the name Ifhat Smith – defended the ongoing killing of almost 1,200 people, rape of women and kidnapping of 240 civilians, as Palestinians trying to ‘defend themselves’.
She also shared – with an applause emoji – a post describing the unfolding atrocities in Israel as a Palestinian ‘fightback’ against ‘Zionist oppression’.
Months after the attack she posted the conspiracy theory that Hamas were somehow not responsible for all the killings and that some victims had been shot by Israeli helicopters.
More recently she has reposted and supported claims that no women were raped in the Hamas attacks, despite the UN finding that ‘sexual violence’ including rape and gang rape occurred in ‘multiple locations’ on October 7.
Over the last four years she has variously described the Muslim-led ‘advocacy’ group Cage as a ‘vital organisation’ that had been doing good work for ‘decades’ – and repeatedly urged her followers to donate to it.
On the day of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Shaheen – using an account in the name Ifhat Smith – defended the ongoing killing of almost 1,200 people, rape of women and kidnapping of 240 civilians, as Palestinians trying to ‘defend themselves’
More recently she has reposted and supported claims that no women were raped in the Hamas attacks, despite the UN finding that ‘sexual violence’ including rape and gang rape occurred in ‘multiple locations’ on October 7
The aftermath of the scene in Golders Green after four Hatzolah ambulances were set on fire overnight next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue, on March 23
This is despite the fact that Cage described Islamic State executioner Jihadi John – real name Mohammed Emwazi – as a ‘beautiful young man’ in 2015.
After last month’s arson attack on four Jewish ambulances, also in Golders Green – a short distance from the ward she is standing in – Shaheen initially posted a message blaming it on the mainstream media and politicians.
Soon afterwards, she reposted a message saying that ‘since Golders Green is now in the news, I want to take the opportunity to make people aware that the Jewish community in North London host IDF [Israel Defence Force] soldiers in their synagogues and raise funds for the IDF during a ‘family fun day’.’
In other posts she questioned whether ‘Zionist funding’ was behind marches organised by racist thug Tommy Robinson. She has also claimed that Jeremy Corbyn would have been a ‘great’ Prime Minister but the ‘Zionist lobby worked hard to keep him out’.
Despite her shocking claims, in a video launching the Greens’ Stoke Newington campaign the party’s London mayoral candidate Zoe Garbett described her and her two colleagues as ‘great candidates’.
Lambeth Green Party candidate Mark Bittlestone, a privately educated Cambridge graduate who now teaches history to sixth formers at a South London school, has reposted material suggesting the October 7 atrocities were a covert ‘false flag’ attack.
Bittlestone, a part-time comedian, has also shared other individuals’ posts describing Israel as a ‘colony of inbreds, rapists and thieves’.
He has also reposted claims that Israel should be invaded as it has no right to exist and that Labour’s lack of criticism for it is a ‘silence bought by donations’.
His lurch into hatred comes despite having a near-perfect middle-class upbringing. Bittlestone has previously described having a very ‘privileged’ background, a child of loving and wealthy parents who sent him to the ‘amazing’ King’s College School in Wimbledon, south London.
He then went to Cambridge University – where he was in the famous Footlights comedy troupe – and took master’s degrees in business management and film.
Lambeth Green Party candidate Mark Bittlestone, a privately educated Cambridge graduate who now teaches history to sixth formers at a South London school, has reposted material suggesting the October 7 atrocities were a covert ‘false flag’ attack
Bittlestone, a part-time comedian, has also shared other individuals’ posts describing Israel as a ‘colony of inbreds, rapists and thieves’
He said he had previously lost a job at a school after ‘pulling a sicky’ to miss a parents’ evening so he could attend a comedy gig.
His Green Party campaign profile describes how he is now back in teaching but was prompted into standing for the party after feeling ‘unabashed, unrelenting fury’ at Israel’s war in Gaza.
‘Howling about it on social media and raising funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians failed to abate his rage and, realising the interconnected nature of struggle, he decided to channel this fury into fighting local injustice.’
Recently retired Professor Kamel Hawwash spent over 36 years teaching civil engineering at Birmingham University where he says he interacted with ‘thousands of students and staff’.
Now he is standing as the Green Party’s candidate for Stirchley in Britain’s second city.
But in 2024, while still lecturing students – commenting on a news story about an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed children – he claimed on Twitter that Israel slaughtered civilians to ‘demonstrate Jewish supremacy fed by Zionism’.
At the time of the October 7 attacks he described the atrocities as an ‘operation’, adding ‘occupied people have the right to resist the occupation’.
He also claimed that Hamas’s ‘atrocities committed against civilians in the settlements’ during the October 7 terror were ‘not the objectives of the attack’ despite the mass slaughter in kibbutzes close to the Gaza border.
In 2022, Hawwash was presented with an award for his Palestinian activism by Zaher Birawi of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, who in January this year was sanctioned by the US over alleged ties to Hamas.
Recently retired Professor Kamel Hawwash is standing as the Green Party’s candidate for Stirchley in Britain’s second city
In 2016 he described Islamic Jihad terrorist Mohand Halabi, who was shot dead by police after knifing two Israeli men to death and injuring a woman and toddler, as a ‘martyr’ carrying out an ‘act of revenge’
Mr Birawi, who is originally from the West Bank, has always denied links to the terror group and described the accusations as ‘baseless’.
In 2016 he described Islamic Jihad terrorist Mohand Halabi, who was shot dead by police after knifing two Israeli men to death and injuring a woman and toddler, as a ‘martyr’ carrying out an ‘act of revenge’.
If other people found his actions ‘unacceptable… that’s up to them’, he said at a Palestine Return Centre event held in Parliament. ‘He was killed by Israeli soldier, so to us he is a martyr.
‘Actually, I consider what he did an act of revenge for what the Israeli occupation does to the Palestinians.’
At the time, Prof Hawwash told the Daily Mail he was using Halabi as an example to show that, if there was to be any way to find peace, people needed to understand the wider context and what drove him to carry out the attack.
He said he did not ‘condone or approve of actions like his, which resulted in the death of innocent civilians.’
