The United Kingdom’s Green Party has voted to define Zionism as a form of racism, drawing condemnation from the Israeli government. In a binding vote held at the party’s conference over the weekend, members voted to usher in the new definition as well as a series of other strongly pro-Palestine policies. However, just as the resolution has drawn international criticism, it has also proved internally controversial with four of the party’s five members in parliament opposing it.
Israel on Monday banned party leader Zack Polanski from the country just a day before the politician faces a by-election as he runs in the London constituency that former Prime Minister Keir Starmer represented. Zionism emerged as a political ideology in the late 19th century. It called for the creation of a Jewish homeland at a time of rising anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews in Europe.
Theodore Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist considered the father of political Zionism, originally proposed an independent and colonial Jewish state in either Palestine or Argentina. Here’s what we know about what the Greens have said: The Greens endorsed the motion to equate Zionism with racism by a vote of 1,022 to 813. In addition, the party restated its “commitment to Palestinian liberation” and called for the “establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine”.
The party also recommitted to its support of Palestinians’ right of return as well as to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel. A significant number of party members, including four of its five MPs, were against parts of the resolution, exposing divisions within the party. Codeputy leader Rachel Millward said in a post on X that while the party is committed to “stop the genocide”, the term Zionism means “different things to different people, … so I personally do not think the policy helps us do the work we all want to”.
Meanwhile, Polanski, who is Jewish and was away campaigning during the vote, told journalists afterwards that if Zionism equates to the displacement of Palestinians, “that is clearly racist.” Polanski said he, however, did not support the reference to a single Palestinian state and external entities should not decide what a future state would look like. Israel has accused the party of legitimising “terrorism”, and senior officials equated it to anti-Semitism. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it would “deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis everywhere”.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the party was “racist”. The Green Party has rejected equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and reiterated its stance against “any form of discrimination or harassment”. In 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that “determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”.
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