As the United Kingdom prepares for local elections across 136 councils on May 7, a sitting Labour Party councillor seeking re-election has found herself at the center of a growing political firestorm over her past participation in an Israeli military training program.
Izzy Lenga, who represents London’s South Hampstead ward in Camden, holds multiple senior positions within UK Labour-linked and pro-Zionist organizations: she serves on the Labour Party’s London executive committee, and is currently one of two national vice chairs of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), an influential group officially affiliated with the Labour Party. The JLM itself operates within the structure of the World Zionist Organisation (WZO), a global group with documented ties to the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Lenga previously served as JLM’s international officer, leading engagement with the WZO and its UK affiliate, the Zionist Federation UK (ZFUK).
Pictures published of Lenga posing in an Israel Defense Forces uniform alongside an assault rifle first raised questions about her military ties back in 2021, when alternative news outlet Electronic Intifada reported the images indicated she had completed Marva, a paramilitary course overseen by the Israeli military. Two years later, Jewish News confirmed Lenga had indeed participated in basic training with the IDF.
The controversy comes at a moment of intense global scrutiny of Israeli military actions in Gaza. The Israeli military is widely identified as the primary force responsible for ongoing civilian harm in Gaza, with multiple documented accounts of war crimes ranging from deliberate killing of unarmed civilians to sexual violence against detainees. The International Court of Justice has already ruled there is a plausible case that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was Gallant who famously described Gaza civilians as “human animals” in a public statement shortly after the October 2023 outbreak of hostilities.
Recent reporting has further underscored the links between the WZO and illegal settlement activity. A September 2024 BBC documentary uncovered that the WZO’s Settlement Division, the body tasked with managing land in the occupied Palestinian territories, has repeatedly allocated state and private Palestinian land for the construction of illegal Israeli outposts. In at least four confirmed cases, unauthorised outposts were built on land allocated directly by the division, including one 2018 contract signed by Zvi Bar Yosef – an Israeli official sanctioned by both the UK and US in 2024 for organized violence and intimidation targeting Palestinian civilians. The ZFUK, the WZO’s UK affiliate that works closely with JLM, was removed from the UK’s official charities register in August 2024, just weeks before the documentary was released.
In June 2025, the UK-based International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) submitted a formal recommendation for British sanctions against the WZO’s Settlement Division, outlining a pattern of violations including the seizure of private Palestinian land for settlers without owner consent, unregulated land management with no required compensation for displaced owners, and preferential financial treatment for settlers. The ICJP also identified two UK-based organizations that facilitate the WZO’s activities: ZFUK and Mizrachi UK, a registered UK charity that receives direct funding from the WZO.
The JLM remains a highly influential force within the current Labour Party, counting sitting parliamentarians, councillors, and grassroots activists among its membership. In a January 2024 speech to a JLM conference – delivered months before Keir Starmer took office as UK prime minister – Starmer publicly thanked the movement for “saving the party”, and pledged to block what he described as antisemitism hiding behind pro-Palestinian advocacy.
For the upcoming May 7 local elections, Starmer’s Labour government faces electoral pressure on two fronts: the right-wing populist Reform UK party on one side, and left-leaning and progressive opposition groups including the Green Party and local independent campaigns on the other. More than 5,000 council seats across the country are up for election. The Green Party has made its opposition to the UK’s financial ties to Israel’s actions in Gaza a central campaign plank, with senior party officials confirming the Greens are pushing for local councils to divest pension funds that hold investments in companies profiting from the Gaza conflict, fossil fuel extraction, and arms manufacturing.
Middle East Eye, the independent outlet that broke the latest details of the controversy, attempted to contact Izzy Lenga for comment prior to publication, but received no response before the article went live.