The chair of Jewish Greens Vivien Lichtenstein has told the BBC it is "quite possible" she will leave the party after Green members adopted a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism. The motion, which has divided senior party figures, also backs a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine", which includes modern-day Israel. It has been criticised by some Jewish groups and Israel's foreign ministry.
Asked by BBC Radio 4's Today programme about her future, Lichtenstein said: "I haven't decided yet...It is quite possible that I will leave the party...I'm giving it a little time and to talk with colleagues." Lichtenstein, who is a former chair of her local party, said she had opposed the motion from the first time she heard about it. "I don't think it's helpful and it doesn't make any difference whatsoever to Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered devastation, orphans left behind, it doesn't make any difference to Palestinians in the West Bank who are currently suffering, are currently being attacked and killed." Members of the Green Party of England and Wales endorsed the policy motion, which was put forward by a group of activists at the party's conference in Brighton, by 1,022 votes to 813. There are 230,000 members of the Green party overall and not everyone attended the conference.
The party's leader Zack Polanski, who is himself Jewish, had called for the motion to be amended to add in protections for Jewish members and remove language referring to a "single democratic Palestinian State". Both of these amendments were defeated. Polanski did not stay at conference to vote on either this or the substantive motion.
He left early to campaign in Holborn and St Pancras, where he is standing in a by-election to be the MP. A full list of candidates in the contest can be found here. The motion, among other statements, "supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants".
It defines Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state". The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, which criticised the motion, said "Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it". Lichtenstein said she defines herself as "both Zionist and anti-Zionist" depending on the definition, and said a problem with the motion is that there are many definitions.
She said she was not concerned about "people accusing me of supporting Israel's right to exist and therefore I'm a racist, which of course is not the case", but said the "very bad motion...crosses a line". One way in which it did that, she said, was that the proposers said they had consulted some Jews, but did not consult the Jewish Greens, who would have made some amendments to improve the motion. She said there was a "vast range" of opinions among Jewish Greens, some who supported the motion entirely, others who supported aspects, and others who were against it.
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