Green group urged members to back anti-Zionism motion, Guardian reports

Greens for Palestine has encouraged people to join the Green party to support a motion stating that “Zionism is racism”, according to an investigation by the Guardian. The motion is due to be considered at the party’s annual conference in Brighton. If adopted, it would support the creation of a single Palestinian state and could mean that members who support Zionism, defined in the report as the movement for a Jewish state, could face discipline for racism.

The motion topped a ballot of issues to be debated. Some Jewish Green members have privately expressed concern that they might find it difficult to remain in the party if the policy passes. The campaign has also raised questions about links between Greens for Palestine and the Anti-Zionist Movement, a more militant group.

The Guardian reports that the groups have collaborated on social-media posts and that GfP figure Lubna Speitan attended an AZM meeting in London. The report quotes AZM member David Miller as saying that Zionists had entered political parties and other British institutions as “infiltrators and subversives”. Miller, a former academic dismissed by Bristol University over criticisms of Israel, later won a tribunal case that found he had been discriminated against because of his anti-Zionist beliefs.

Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party in England and Wales, has declared himself anti-Zionist and supported amendments intended to soften the motion. He is under pressure to take a clearer position before a by-election in Holborn and St Pancras. A Green party spokesperson said most members joined before the specific mobilisation effort and said the party did not support AZM’s views.

GfP said anti-Zionist beliefs were protected and rejected conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. It also affirmed Palestinian self-determination and resistance under international law.