Hounslow Green Party stands rabid anti-Semite and Holocaust denier Damian James Read as its candidate in Hanworth Village ward

The Green Party’s candidate for the Hanworth Village ward in the Hounslow Borough Council Election of 5 May 2022 was Damian James Read. Of the seven candidates standing, he came last with 595 out of 3,358 votes – 17.7%. He is featured on the Hounslow Green Party’s website and in its list of candidates. They tell us ‘In his spare-time Damian grows “high carbon capture” trees, and other trees, from seed that he intends to plant around Hanworth to create an “Urban Arboretum”.’

However Read, who previously supported Labour and Jeremy Corbyn and has tweeted under the names @damianjread and @cockneyactivist, has more controversial views. He has a long history of viciously anti-Semitic statements, including Holocaust denial. Under his own name, he shared a link entitled ’21 things about the Holocaust that Zionists don’t want world to know.’

The link took you to a page entitled ‘Holocaust or Holohoax ?’ on a white-supremacist website, which speaks of ‘the alleged murder of 6 million jews by the Germans during World War Two. This is commonly referred to as “The Holocaust”. This alleged historical event is also thrown at anyone objecting to mass immigration in to White Nations as proof of the absolute evil of White Nationalism. The alleged holocaust was also the official reason for setting up the Sate of Israel...’.

When UK prime minister David Cameron tweeted about the ‘millions murdered in the Holocaust, Read tweeted back at him ‘I think you mean 300,000. An horrific event I agree. But not 6 million is it’, and ‘No missing 6 million’.

Some other statements Read has either tweeted or ‘liked’ include:

‘the Rothschilds came to control our economy’

‘Zionist controlled media’ (in reference to the international media)

‘Is it true that the BBC is in fact a dept of the Israel Embassy ? Is that why so many Zionist [sic] seem to have been given top jobs ?’

‘Fuck the Zionist Jewish Apartheid state’ 

‘6 million figure seems to have been repeated ad nauseum throught 20thC. Nazis blamed’

‘it’s God chosen [sic] people. God told they [sic] could commit genocide with impunity just like the Nazis’ (in reference to Israel)

‘I didn’t sell my soul to the Devil, He sold his soul to me #Evil #Israel #Zionist’ (in reference to Netanyahu, whom he depicts with fangs and blood dripping from his mouth, above a dead or injured baby – a version of the traditional ‘blood libel‘ anti-Semitic trope).

(most of these tweets were subsequently deleted; screenshots are below)

All this could have been learned through a minute’s googling. I have written about Read and his anti-Semitic circle before, for Engage – a website devoted to the struggle against anti-Semitism. It raises the question of how carefully the Green Party vets its candidates ?