Zack Polanski, the leader of the UK’s Green Party, has been barred from entering Israel after members of his party voted to define Zionism as racist.
Polanski did not take part in the vote on the motion, having left the party conference after his speech on Friday to campaign in a London by-election.
Israel accused the Green Party of legitimizing “the destruction of the State of Israel” with a “clear anti-Semitic text”.
In an update on Sunday evening, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Greens’ resolution “constitutes a clear anti-Semitic text according to the IHRA definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.”
Opponents of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism say it conflates anti-Zionism with being anti-Jewish and is used by Israel to label critics as anti-Semitic.
“Today, the Green Party in Britain adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, legitimising armed struggle against Israel, and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” – meaning the destruction of the State of Israel,” the Israeli ministry added.
In a statement with Green MPs and his deputies, Polanski said there is “no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people”.
Members in Brighton backed the motion with 1,022 votes in favour and 813 against.
It declares the Greens to be an “anti-Zionist party” and sets into its policy that Zionism, the movement to develop and protect a Jewish state in Israel, will be “treated as any other form of racism”.
It also supports the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Supporters chanted “say it loud, say it clear, Zionists are not welcome here” as the campaigners behind the motion, Greens for Palestine, gathered to speak to the media.