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Green Party members have adopted a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism, in a move that has divided senior figures at the top of the party.<\/b><\/p>\n
The party’s joint deputy leaders have been at odds over the subject, with Mothin Ali backing the move, and Rachel Millward describing the wording as “problematic”.<\/p>\n
Activists endorsed the policy motion, which was put forward by a group of members at the party’s conference in Brighton, by 1022 votes to 813.<\/p>\n
Discussion about the vote has dominated the conference, and exposed divisions between the party’s newly enlarged membership base under leader Zack Polanski and its MPs elected at the last election. <\/p>\n
The motion adopted by Green members defines Zionism as an ideology in support of “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and backs a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.<\/p>\n
“The real, material, manifestation of Zionism has been the historic and ongoing dehumanisation, displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of Palestinians,” it says. <\/p>\n
It has attracted criticism from some Jewish groups, including the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council who wrote a letter to the party ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Sunday evening, the organisations called the motion an “attack on the Jewish community”.<\/p>\n
“Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it,” it said.<\/p>\n
“Branding most British Jews and Jewish institutions ‘racist’ stokes anti-Jewish hatred after a year in which British Jews have been murdered attending their synagogue, stabbed in the streets, and seen their community buildings firebombed.”<\/p>\n
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the motion went beyond “the boundaries of legitimate political debate” and was “a stain on the history of the United Kingdom”.<\/p>\n
Debate about the motion, as well as the conflict in Gaza, has featured heavily during the conference, which is taking place after a surge in its membership in the wake of Polanski’s election as leader in September last year. <\/p>\n
Speaking after the vote, Lubna Speitan, the Green member behind the motion, argued its backers wanted to voice opposition to “racist systems of oppression”.<\/p>\n
“We stand united against all forms of racism and discrimination – no exemptions,” she added. <\/p>\n
Polanski himself did not vote in the debate, having left the conference early to campaign in Holborn and St Pancras, where he is standing to be the MP. A full list of candidates in the contest can be found here.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n