{"id":793100,"date":"2026-10-05T22:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793100\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:54:11","slug":"green-party-of-england-and-wales-facing-international-ostracism-over-zionism-is-racism-vote-green-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793100\/","title":{"rendered":"Green party of England and Wales facing international ostracism over \u2018Zionism is racism\u2019 vote | Green party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after adopting a policy declaring Zionism as a form of racism, which has drawn dismay from the group representing European Greens.<\/p>\n

The co-leader of the German Greens separately said the policy was \u201cintolerable and unacceptable\u201d, running contrary to its belief in the right of Israel<\/a> to exist.<\/p>\n

The binding policy motion passed in a vote at the Greens\u2019 conference<\/a> in Brighton on Sunday. Four of the party\u2019s five MPs opposed it.<\/p>\n

The policy says Zionism<\/a>, the movement for a Jewish state, should be \u201ctreated as any other form of racism\u201d, and backs a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine \u201cwith equal rights for all\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Green party<\/a>, which represents 47 parties, including the Green party of England and Wales (GPEW), said it supported a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and the new motion went against this.<\/p>\n

The alliance \u201cwill immediately demand clarity from the leadership and parliamentary group of GPEW, to understand the official party policy of GPEW, how they position themselves towards the self-determination of Israelis and Jews as well as the protection of Jewish people and members in the party\u201d, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Felix Banaszak, the co-leader of the German Greens, said the policy \u2018runs counter to what the European Green party stands for\u2019. Photograph: snapshot\/Future Image\/M Behrens\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Felix Banaszak, the leader of the German Greens, known formally as Alliance 90\/the Greens, told a press conference the motion was \u201cintolerable and unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt runs counter to everything that Alliance 90\/the Greens stands for in Germany<\/a>, and it also runs counter to what the European Green party stands for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Banaszak said: \u201cThere is a widely held view within the European Green party that Israel has a right to exist and that this right must not be undermined.\u201d His party would \u201capproach our partner parties in Europe to clarify how to deal with this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sandy Ruthven, the chair of Amnesty International UK\u2019s charitable trust and a longstanding Green member, resigned over the motion and accused the party of failing to confront antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The fallout from Sunday\u2019s vote has also intensified a debate over whether the Greens\u2019 highly decentralised policymaking structures remain suitable for a party whose membership has expanded rapidly.<\/p>\n

Ellie Chowns, who opposed the motion, said the party\u2019s policymaking \u2018urgently needs to be modernised\u2019. Photograph: Ellie & Adrian 2025\/PA<\/p>\n

Policy is made at the party\u2019s two annual conferences, which generally involve a small proportion of members. The Zionism motion won just over 1,000 votes, approximately 0.4% of the total membership.<\/p>\n

Ellie Chowns, a former co-leader, said the party\u2019s governance and policymaking \u201curgently need to be modernised\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a party we pride ourselves on our democratic member-led policymaking process, but I do think we need to ask ourselves some searching questions when less than 1% of our members actually participate,\u201d Chowns, the Green MP for North Herefordshire, told the Guardian. \u201cThis is long overdue and has become even more urgent with the huge expansion of our membership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chowns said she understood the concerns of European Greens, which she shared, but stressed: \u201cThere is still much more that unites us than divides us.\u201d<\/p>\n

One source in the party said the criticism from European Greens, especially those in Germany, was understandable given their differing stances on Gaza and Israel.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cThe German Greens support arming Israel, opposed a ceasefire to Israel\u2019s onslaught on Gaza, backed the suspension of funding to Unrwa and co-sponsored a Bundestag resolution describing the arguments and methods of the peaceful, Palestinian-led BDS campaign as antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any change to internal party structures would be hard to implement. One Green insider said that to give MPs greater authority over members would undermine the party\u2019s commitment to grassroots democracy. However, they said the existing model could produce a lack of coherence and strategic direction, while giving a disproportionate influence to members with the most time to participate in policymaking.<\/p>\n

They suggested members could determine broad strategic priorities, with smaller bodies developing detailed policy while remaining accountable to the membership.<\/p>\n

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, who missed the vote himself<\/a>, earlier addressed the conference alongside the MPs Hannah Spencer, left, and Si\u00e2n Berry, right. Berry opposed the motion. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Another senior Green defended the party\u2019s model of direct democracy, arguing that allowing members to determine policy was fundamental to the party\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

Daniel Schuster, the regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center\u2019s European office, said: \u201cThe British Green party\u2019s decision to formally classify Zionism as a form of racism is absurd, not based on any logical basis and is itself racist. And timing, just days before the third anniversary of the 7 October terrorist Hamas attacks, is designed to inflict pain on a deeply solemn occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBranding Zionism itself as racism crosses a profoundly consequential line. It takes a movement for Jewish national self-determination and transforms it into something for which Jews are expected to apologise. We will not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Green party leader in England and Wales, Zack Polanski, said: \u201cAntisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are, and must always be, completely distinct \u2013 blurring the line between the two is not only wrong but antisemitic, and makes Jewish people less safe. It\u2019s our role as a movement for justice to protect both the rights of Palestinians and our Jewish communities here in the UK. As leader I will not accept any exclusion, or refusal to engage with anyone, because of the religious or communal body they are part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThrough the Green party\u2019s unified stance and dedicated pressure, we have begun to shift this government away from its complicity with the Israeli government\u2019s atrocities in Gaza, with the foreign secretary now taking the long overdue step of ending trade with illegal settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after adopting a policy declaring Zionism as a form…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}