UK Jews ‘appalled’ as Green Party brands Zionism as racism, calls to erase Israel

Jewish organizations in the UK responded furiously to a resolution passed Sunday by the Green Party of England and Wales on Sunday equating Zionism with racism and effectively calling for the erasure of Israel.

The move, which called for Zionism to be “treated as any other form of racism,” and for “a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine… with equal rights for all,” passed at the party’s annual convention in Brighton by a vote of 1,022 to 813.

In a scathing letter following the motion, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council called the motion “an attack on the Jewish community.”

The organizations said the motion was “an antisemitic platform, based on a grossly offensive distortion and erasure of Jewish experience and identity.”

They said the motion distorted Jewish history and identity, arguing that Zionism represents an anti-racist movement that established a refuge for Jews in their historic homeland after centuries of persecution.

“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,” the groups wrote. “With this motion the Green Party has departed far from international consensus and exposed itself as an extremist party.”

The organizations also criticized Green Party leader Zack Polanski for neither speaking against the motion nor voting on it. Polanski, who is Jewish, is the most prominent Jewish critic of Israel in mainstream UK politics.

“These are not the actions of a leader, but a bystander,” they said.

They urged Green politicians who opposed the motion to challenge it publicly and called on wider civil society “to recognize the Green Party for what it has become: an extremist party with a platform of anti-Jewish racism.”

Meanwhile, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis posted on X that he was “appalled” to hear about the motion as he emerged from the festival of Simchat Torah Sunday night.

“It was the Soviet Union which first promoted the dangerous lie that Zionism is racism,” Mirvis wrote, noting that the UN originally adopted the idea but then later revoked it. “All decent people will see this for what it is: poisonous antisemitism, a threat to British Jews and to Britain.”

Separately, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Executive Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban called the motion “a disturbing inversion of values,” and said it should alarm anyone who claims to stand against racism.

“The Green Party voted to define Zionism as racism and formally establish itself as an anti-Zionist party,” Seban said. “This goes far beyond a debate about the Israeli government or a particular policy. It brands the very notion of Jewish national self-determination as racist.”

Another organization, Campaign Against Antisemitism, issued a similar statement.

“The Green Party Conference’s intentions could scarcely have been clearer,” CAA’s spokesperson said. “They have adopted the Soviet doctrine that Zionism is racism, meaning that Green Party policy is that all peoples of the world have the right to self-determination except for Jews.”

CAA said that, under the definition of racism set out by the party, Jews belonging to pretty much any synagogue in the UK would be defined as racists. According to its polls, only 6% of British Jews do not identify as Zionists, and 89% consider anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism.

The motion adopted Sunday claims that Zionism “privileges one ethnic group on the basis of the subjugation of others.”

According to the motion’s text, Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism, and this motion will be implemented by the anti-racism policy working group as appropriate and in accordance with its ordinary practice.”

The motion also said that the “Green Party supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants.” PJC