UK Green Party adopts policy defining Zionism as racism

Members of the Green Party of England and Wales voted at their annual conference in Brighton to adopt a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism and supporting a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine” with equal rights for all.

The motion passed by a narrow majority on Sunday and prompted criticism from Jewish groups, party members and political opponents. Vivien Lichtenstein, head of the Jewish Greens, said she was considering leaving the party, while other Jewish members were also reassessing their place in it, according to The Guardian.

Four of the party’s five MPs opposed the policy. The organization representing European Green parties also expressed dismay, noting that the position conflicts with its support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called the motion “poisonous antisemitism.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry described it as “a stain on the history of the United Kingdom,” and Israel barred Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, from entering the country.

The vote also entered campaigning for Thursday’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election, where Polanski is standing. Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali criticized the policy as divisive and said it was worrying for supporters of a two-state solution.