The Vote That Made The Greens Britain’s First Anti-Zionist Party
On Sunday 4 October, Green Party members in Brighton voted 1,022 to 813 to make the party formally anti-Zionist. Within hours, Israel had barred the party’s Jewish leader from entering the country. He had not even voted.
The decision goes far beyond the phrase dominating the headlines.
What The Green Party Zionism Is Racism Motion Actually Says
The policy defines Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and says anti-Zionism should not be equated with antisemitism. It backs Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a full arms embargo on Israel, the Palestinian right of return and one democratic state across historic Palestine.
Four Green MPs Opposed The Motion. Members Passed It Anyway.
This was not a position handed down by the leadership. Four of the party’s five MPs, Ellie Chowns, Adrian Ramsay, Siân Berry and Carla Denyer, opposed it. Former leader Caroline Lucas warned: “We risk being perceived as an anti-Semitic party.”
Leader Zack Polanski had called the motion an “unhelpful distraction” and wanted changes, including room for a two-state solution. Those changes never made it in. Members also rejected an amendment that would have stopped the policy being used to discipline members linked to synagogues or Jewish groups that describe themselves as Zionist.
Polanski missed the vote entirely. He was out campaigning in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
After the result, Polanski, the five MPs and the co-deputy leaders issued a joint statement: “We know there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people.” They pledged to “never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment.”
Jewish Greens Were Split Down The Middle
The most revealing detail is that Jewish opinion inside the party does not divide neatly into Zionist and anti-Zionist camps.
A Jewish Greens survey published two days before the vote found that 81% of the 108 people answering its Zionist identity question did not identify as Zionist. Seventy described themselves as anti-Zionist, and 71% of them said that was an important part of their Jewish identity.
Yet the motion itself split them. 53% said it could make discrimination against Jews in the party more likely, and 47% disagreed. Asked whether Jewish Greens should collectively oppose it, the average answer was 5.1 out of 10. The group took no official position.
Being anti-Zionist, in other words, did not mean backing this motion.
British Jewish Groups Call It An Antisemitic Platform
Outside the party, the response was far more uniform. The Board of Deputies, the Community Security Trust and the Jewish Leadership Council said the Greens had adopted “what appears to be an overtly antisemitic political platform.” The Board went further and called the Greens “an extremist party.” The Movement for Progressive Judaism said the party had “become a racist party.”
Labour’s Bridget Phillipson called the decision “fundamentally wrong”, and the Conservatives called the party “toxic to its core.”
Why Israel Banned Zack Polanski
Israel’s foreign ministry said the Greens had adopted “not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology.” President Isaac Herzog called the vote “a disgrace and a shame”, and opposition leader Yair Lapid said it is “not Zionism that’s racism, it is the Green Party.”
Then Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the motion “a clear antisemitic text” and announced that, “as a first step,” Polanski would be barred from entering Israel.
That is the contradiction at the centre of this story. Polanski is Jewish and anti-Zionist, and he did not cast a vote on the motion Israel punished him for.
Holborn And St Pancras By-Election: Polanski’s Biggest Test
Polanski now faces voters in Holborn and St Pancras on 8 October, in a contest described as the biggest by-election in the party’s history.
What began as an argument on a conference floor in Brighton has become a test of whether a fast-growing British party can hold an anti-Zionist position without losing Jewish members, and voters, along the way.
By Shizza Umer
Sources
Green Party: Green Party adopts anti-Zionist policy
Green Party: Joint statement from the Greens’ 5 MPs, Leader and Co-Deputy Leaders
Jewish Greens: Survey results briefing
Reuters: Britain’s Green Party votes to class Zionism as a form of racism
Al Jazeera: Israel lashes out as UK’s Green Party formally defines Zionism as racism
CNN: Britain’s Green Party votes to class Zionism as a form of racism
Euronews: Israel bars UK Green leader after party votes to define Zionism as racism
ITV News: Greens make ‘Zionism is racism’ party policy as Polanski skips vote
New Statesman: The Green Party’s Zionism reckoning
The Jewish Chronicle: Polanski barred from Israel
Jewish News: Lucas says motion risks targeting Jews
Jewish News: Polanski calls motion an “unhelpful distraction”
JTA: Britain’s Green Party adopts “Zionism is racism” motion
Times of Israel: UK’s Green Party declares “Zionism is racism”
