The Greens were branded ‘the most anti-Semitic party in the UK’ today after passing a highly controversial ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion.
In a move set to send shockwaves through the divided hard Left party’s ranks, members backed a conference proposal that calls for Israel to be treated like apartheid South Africa by 1,022 votes to 813.
It also supports the ‘establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital’, branded a plan to destroy Israel itself.
The motion triggered a major internal row, with deputy Green leader Mothin Ali saying he would vote in favour.
But three former party leaders: Caroline Lucas, Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer, warned it was divisive and would alienate Jews in the party.
Current leader Zack Polanski, however, missed the vote in Brighton – he is the Green candidate in next week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election and spent Sunday campaigning in London.
Former Green deputy leader Shahrar Ali told the Daily Mail today: ‘This is a very sad day for the Green Party. I am deeply ashamed and horrified at what the party has become.
‘Making Zionism is Racism our official party policy has made us the first openly anti-Semitic party in the UK. That conclusion is inescapable.
In a move set to send shockwaves through the divided hard Left party’s ranks, members backed a conference proposal that calls for Israel to be treated like apartheid South Africa by 1,022 votes to 813. Mothin Ali (pictured) saidhe would back it
Carla Denyer last night said she would not support a plan that could ‘set us back’ in terms of helping Palestinians
Current leader Zack Polanski, however, missed the vote in Brighton – he is the Green candidate in next week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election and spent Sunday campaigning in London
‘The motion calling for the creation of a single state of Palestine requires the extinction of the state of Israel.
‘We’re not talking about 1967 borders here as a baseline for a two state solution but the total obliteration of the state of Israel as a political entity.’
The motion’s passing now makes the Greens the only British political party to be formally against Zionism.
And it comes after a long fight from pro-Palestine groups within the Greens to declare Israel an ‘apartheid state’.
Activists last tried to pass the motion at the party’s Spring conference, but strict time rules saw members unable to vote on the motion after technical difficulties and filibustering from opposition groups.
But the motion passed today with just one minute left of the ‘plenary’ session Green members told the Daily Mail, with all amendments to water down its text failing to pass.
This is despite multiple Green Party figures voicing opposition to the motion in recent days, with former co-leader Carla Denyer last night saying that it ‘risks alienating a significant proportion of Jewish people, including those who vehemently disagree with the Israeli government’.
She said: ‘I do not think that trying to pin down a definition for something that has been a point of contention among scholars for decades helps us in our efforts to support the people of Palestine or end the genocide.’
Both Adrian Ramsay, Ms Denyer’s former co-leader, and Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s first ever MP, also voiced their opposition this weekend.
A Jewish Green member said the motion ‘endorses a one state solution’.
They added: ‘This is Hamas policy. It goes beyond all sensible discourse for a two-state solution, it goes beyond the Palestinian Authority position and calls for the Jewish State to be dismantled.
‘Anyone recognising Israel’s right to exist will be tarnished as a racist. Worse than that, the Party rejected an amendment that clarified it would keep Jews safe. This is now an Islamist party.’
While Mr Polanski has previously called the proposal an ‘unhelpful distraction’, he pointedly refused on Friday to declare that Israel had a right to exist.
The party leader dodged the question multiple times, instead saying that the role of political parties is to ‘defend the rights of people not defend the rights of nations’, and that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to exist.
The Green leader has used similar reasoning to justify his stance on Israel in the past.
When asked earlier this month whether Israel had a right to exist at a Jewish hustings for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, he said that ‘countries have always been ideas, and ideas change over time.’
And in May he said: ‘I don’t believe any country has a right to exist. People have a right to exist.’
A Green Party spokesman said: ‘This has been a serious and deeply felt debate within our membership. Our members value the ability to bring forward and decide party policy, and conference has now made its decision.
‘The Green Party is an anti-racist party and has consistently opposed the illegal occupation of both Palestinian and Syrian land, called for an end to arms sales to the Israeli government and spoken out fearlessly about the devastating situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
‘Those positions remain central to our approach. So too does our deeply held commitment to equality, justice and human rights for all and opposition to racism in all its forms.’
The motion culminates a tense few days at the conference, with a ‘safe room’ being set up for Jewish members and a steady police presence outside the conference centre to separate pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups.
The Daily Mail can also reveal that two Green members had their passes revoked on Saturday – one after silently protesting in a Palestine fringe meeting, and the other, a Jewish Green, on filming the interaction.
The protester stood at the front of a fringe called, ‘Palestine: The Golden Thread that Unravelled Britain’, wearing a t-shirt reading ‘Some people are Zionist—Get over it!’
He was removed from the meeting for ‘disruption’ and told to hand in his pass. The other member who filmed the interaction was also asked to leave conference and not return.
The member told the Daily Mail: ‘I stepped outside the conference after a Zionist Party Member had been asked to leave after standing up in a Zionist t shirt.
‘I was there independent of him but was told not only could I not return but that I would not be able to attend the rest of Conference and more importantly not allowed to vote on the motion. The organisers were aware I am a Zionist Jewish Green. I am appalled at this discrimination.’
Mr Ali last night became the highest-ranking figure to say he would back it, linking Zionism to the Israeli assault on Gaza that left tens of thousands dead.
‘The ultimate form of racism is genocide, so anyone that believes in genociding people just so they can live free, that is racism,’ he told Sky News.
Ms Lucas, who became the Green Party’s first MP in 2010, said there was ‘a real risk that it will be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party’
Ms Lucas, who became the Green Party’s first MP in 2010, earlier said she would not be supporting the motion, and told the BBC there was ‘a real risk that it will be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party’.
Adrian Ramsay, a former Green co-leader, also voiced concerns about the motion to the Times newspaper.
Green peer Jenny Jones, who will chair the session this afternoon, told Sky News today they had to ‘keep it real’ by listening to members.
‘It’s going to be a long session. It could be quite, you know, argumentative,’ she said.
‘But that’s how we, that’s how we run things. And I think a lot of things come up from the grassroots that are more radical than the things that perhaps the leadership want.
‘But we have to listen.’
