Zack Polanski with Mothin Ali and Baroness Natalie Bennett

THE Greens are ready to make Israel and Palestine a by-election issue after sending out leaflets that accuse Labour councillors of showing no solidarity over Gaza. Labour council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali, who is the party’s candidate for the October 8 poll in Holborn and St Pancras, said this week that it was not true that local councillors did not care about the issue.

On Saturday, Green Party leaflets appeared in the Somers Town area telling residents that no Labour councillor had taken up an invitation to sign a statement of solidarity with Palestine earlier this year. The messages were translated into Somali, Bengali and Arabic.

Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader who is challenging for the seat after being confirmed as the candidate last week told the New Journal at his campaign launch on Friday: “Voting Green is not going to stop this destruction but what it is going to do is send a very clear message to this Labour government that this is not in our name and that what can stop the destruction is putting that influence and power on the Israeli government.”

The nation has its eyes peeled on the race for parliament unfolding in the south of the borough after Sir Keir Starmer stepped down from the House of Commons earlier this month, triggering this by-election. It has immediately been billed as the first big test for Mr Starmer’s successor in Downing Street, Andy Burnham. There has even been speculation that if the new prime minister sees left-wing voters come back to Labour in Camden then he could take the plunge and call a general election.

Green Party leaflets in Somers Town

On the issue of Gaza, Labour figures have said the Greens are risking whipping up community tension on the issue to win votes and that the contest should be rooted in local issues. But it was back in the news last week as Mr Burnham and Ed Miliband announced sanctions on illegal settlers on the West Bank.

Mr Polanski said on Friday: “I welcome the announcements – they’re necessary but not sufficient. I think most people would be surprised to know that we’re trading with illegal settlements at all. “We’re still exporting arms licences to Israel. If you accept in Ed Miliband’s words that there’s ethnic cleansing going on or mass atrocities or what I think and many genocide scholars think is a genocide, then why would you reduce arms sales? You would stop them altogether, and so I don’t think people are going to accept or be distracted by kind of small tinkerings around the edges, as welcome as they are.”

Sagal Abdi-Wali meeting new prime minister Andy Burnham

Asked about the Green Party leaflets at her own launch on Saturday, Ms Abdi-Wali said that it was “obviously inaccurate” to say the Labour council group didn’t feel strongly, adding: “It’s obviously an issue that has been really emotional. It’s been really harrowing to watch over the past three years and I know how deeply all of our councillors care about that. I think using that type of issue as a reason to try to divide communities is really not what I want to see.

“I want to focus on making sure that we’re able to put the message of what Ed Miliband is now doing with the government and on Palestine and Israel and Gaza and the West Bank to the community. I think it’s a real positive.”

She added:“We’re going in the right direction and I want to make sure the community is aware of that rather than point at anyone else.”

Protests as arms motion goes unheard

GAZA campaigners began shouting at Sagal Abdi-Wali and her Labour councillors at the end of Monday’s full council meeting. A Green Party motion on council pension fund divestment in arms companies had been scheduled for the session but, at 10pm, the Mayor of Camden Tricia Leman declared the meeting over with no time left to debate it.

At this point, the heckling began. Sceptics said “filibustering” had delayed the meeting but Labour supporters said the council leader had been unreasonably targeted because she was running in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election and that it was common for full council meetings to run out of time before motions are heard.