Following a vote to adopt a policy that equates Zionism with racism, and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state “with equal rights for all”, some Jewish members say they are considering whether they are welcome in the party. While Green members celebrated, or mourned, the motion passing, some have questioned its purpose, arguing it will distract from what’s important – keeping eyes on Gaza and holding the Israeli government to account – instead igniting a divisive discussion about ideology that will only harm the party. Today, I spoke to Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, to understand how the vote has been received by many Jewish people beyond the Greens, and senior political correspondent Peter Walker, who reported on the fallout of the vote at the party conference in Brighton at the weekend.
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Yesterday, the head of the Jewish Greens Vivien Lichtenstein confirmed that she is considering leaving the party after Sunday’s vote. Many other Jewish Greens – a significant majority of whom described themselves as anti-Zionists when polled – are similarly taking stock. Much of the fallout was predictable.
The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, described the motion as “poisonous antisemitism” and Israel immediately barred Zack Polanski, the Green party’s Jewish leader, from entering the country. The Israeli foreign ministry denounced the motion as “a stain on the history of the United Kingdom”. With four of the Green’s five MPs opposing the new policy, yesterday evening the group representing European Green parties expressed dismay at the move which runs counter to their support for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
There is now growing anger internally with Polanski, who avoided the debate to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, where he is running for former prime minister Keir Starmer’s seat. What is the motion about – and who supports it? Zionism isn’t a clearly defined, singular ideology.
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