Members of Britain’s far-left Green Party have voted in favour of the party declaring that “Zionism is racism” at its conference on Sunday, as the party continues to shift towards Islamic interests from its former focus on the environment.
After heavily courting the Islamic vote, which traditionally backed the governing left-wing Labour Party but which became disaffected during the Gaza war, the rank and file of the Green Party firmly planted their flag on the side of Islamo-populism.
At their annual conference in Brighton on Sunday, a motion proposed by the Greens for Palestine group declaring that Zionism should be “treated as any other form of racism” was passed by members by a margin of 1,022 to 813, making it official party policy, the Times of London reported.
The motion further claimed that Zionism is “based upon European settler-colonial systems of domination and oppression, which has also created racial hierarchies between Jews of different ethnicities in Palestine.”
Meanwhile, the party membership shot down an amendment to the motion that would have created a carve-out for Jewish members who attend synagogues or other institutions that espouse Zionism, meaning that Jewish members could be reported to party leadership if they practice their faith in such a manner.
Additionally, Green Party members rejected an amendment calling for the removal of the line advocating a “single Palestinian state.” Both amendments to soften the party’s anti-Israel stance were favoured by Green Party leader Zach Polanski, who is of Eastern European Jewish stock.
Despite overseeing the party’s move to embrace far-left economic policies and actively court the Muslim vote — going so far as to campaign in Urdu — Polanski refused to attend the vote on Sunday, choosing instead to campaign in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election, where he is standing for Parliament.
Nevertheless, Polanski has previously described himself as an “anti-Zionist” and expressed tacit support for the motion ahead of the vote, telling the BBC earlier this week: “I think it’s about how you define Zionism, and if your Zionism is the displacement of the Palestinian people, then that’s clearly racist, and I say that as a Jewish leader of a political party.
“What my focus is on, though, is what materially can we do to make a difference, and that’s stop selling arms to Israel, stop sharing intelligence, and boycott, divestment, sanctions.”
However, others were not convinced by the apparent wordplay being used to defend the motion, with Zionism typically being defined as supporting the right of the Jewish people to have a state in their ancestral homeland of Israel.
The London-based Campaign Against Antisemitism said that the motion would “impose a litmus test on Jewish people, the vast majority of whom identify as Zionist – and 89% of British Jews also consider anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism.”
Prominent members of the Green Party have also expressed concern over the motion, including former party leader and ex-Brighton and Hove MP Caroline Lucas, who said: “I do have serious concerns about this motion. There is no single definition of Zionism, and irrespective of the intentions of the people who put that motion forward, I think there is a real risk that it’ll be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party. I will not be supporting it for that reason.”
A Green Party spokesperson said: “This has been a serious and deeply felt debate within our membership. Our members value the ability to bring forward and decide party policy, and conference has now made its decision.
“The Green Party is an anti-racist party and has consistently opposed the illegal occupation of both Palestinian and Syrian land, called for an end to arms sales to the Israeli government and spoken out fearlessly about the devastating situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Those positions remain central to our approach. So too does our deeply held commitment to equality, justice and human rights for all and opposition to racism in all its forms.”