British police have arrested two Green Party candidates standing for election in the London borough of Lambeth on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred through antisemitic comments posted online, The Telegraph reported.
Saiqa Ali, the candidate for Streatham, and Sabine Mairey, running for Clapham Town, were detained by Metropolitan Police officers on Thursday morning, the report said.
One post attributed to Ali featured an image of an armed man wearing a Hamas headband alongside the slogan “resistance is freedom.” Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization in the United Kingdom.
Mairey’s posts included a photograph of a man holding a placard stating “ramming a synagogue isn’t antisemitism, it’s revenge,” placed above an image of two children described as having been “murdered by Israel.” She also compared Israel to Nazi Germany by sharing a picture of Auschwitz with text claiming the Nazis “had to hide what they were doing.”
Another post by Ali showed a cartoon of a young girl asking her mother, “Why won’t US politicians end the Gaza Holocaust?” The mother replies, “Because Israel is blackmailing them with the Epstein files, honey.”
In additional now-deleted Facebook posts, Ali claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks were a “false-flag attack” orchestrated by Israel and alleged that the British Government was over-represented by “Zionist Jews.”
Other content included an image of the Earth being strangled by a serpent bearing the Star of David on its skin, as well as an AI-generated image of a Jewish caricature accompanied by the caption: “Don’t you know the rules? We went through the Holocaust, and now we get to kill everyone, forever!”
The two women were arrested under Section 19 of the Public Order Act and taken into custody for questioning, according to The Telegraph.
Ali has previously issued an apology for the offense and distress caused by her online comments.
In her apology, Ali stated that she “unequivocally rejects antisemitism in all its forms,” adding, “My comments were rooted in concern for the humanitarian situation in the Middle East, and I remain committed to speaking with care, responsibility and respect for everyone.”
The arrests of the two candidates occurred only hours after an antisemitic terror attack in Golders Green, north London, in which two Jewish men were stabbed. A 45-year-old British national of Somali origin was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the Wednesday morning incident.
The attack in Golders Green came amid a growing wave of antisemitic incidents in Britain since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Since March 23, Britain has seen a series of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish-linked targets. On that date, four ambulances belonging to Hatzolah in Golders Green, north London, were set on fire.
Two weeks ago, two petrol-filled bottles and a brick were thrown at the Finchley Reform Synagogue in London. Police later arrested two suspects.
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