Key facts
- UK Green Party members adopted a motion equating Zionism with racism.
- The motion passed with 1,022 votes in favor and 813 against at the party's conference.
- The new policy defines Zionism as an ideology supporting an ethnonationalist Jewish state.
- It advocates for a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.
- Amendments to protect Jewish members and alter the proposed settlement were rejected.
- Party leader Zack Polanski stated the motion's definition of Zionism as racism is based on displacement and genocide.
Members of the UK Green Party have adopted a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism, a decision that has caused internal division and drawn criticism from some Jewish groups. The policy, passed by a vote of 1,022 to 813 at the party's conference in Brighton, defines Zionism as an ideology in support of "an ethnonationalist Jewish state" and backs a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine."
The motion, put forward by a group called Greens for Palestine, states that the "material manifestation of Zionism has been the historic and ongoing dehumanisation, displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of Palestinians." It has attracted criticism from organisations such as the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, which argued that Zionism is an anti-racist movement formed in response to antisemitism and raised concerns about the safety of Jewish members.
Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, stated that the motion's definition of Zionism as racism is based on the "displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people." However, he expressed a desire for the reference to a single Palestinian state to be changed and for the motion not to be used to discipline Jewish members attending Zionist synagogues. Both amendments favoured by Polanski were rejected by party members. Three of the party's five MPs also opposed the motion, citing risks of alienating Jewish people and fuelling division.