The UK Green Party is set to vote on whether "Zionism is Racism" at the upcoming Spring Conference.
Motion A105 Zionism is Racism defines Zionism as racism, recognises its "continued harm to Palestinians," and would position the stance of the Green Party as anti-Zionist.
It recognizes Zionism as Israel's foundational ideology that has created and maintains an apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It further affirms the right to self-determination and liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a "single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital." This effectively would eradicate the State of Israel.
The motion also calls for steps such as de-proscribing Palestine Action and the release of Palestinian political prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti.
When pressed on whether he would vote for the motion, party leader Zack Polanski told Times Radio: “I’ll wait to hear the debate, but absolutely, if the definition of Zionism is what is happening right now by the Israeli government, then yes, absolutely, that’s racist and I’ll vote for it.” Polanski consistently declares that Israel is committing genocide.
The motion proposers – in a response to a question from Jewish Greens – have also made it clear that they will expect the motion to proscribe Zionists.
British-Palestinian party member pushes anti-Zionist motion
The motion was proposed by British-Palestinian woman Lubna Speitan, a member of the Greens for Palestine Steering Group and the Greenwich Palestine Alliance.
Speitan released a statement on Tuesday saying that "Zionism is the ideological underpinning of an ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine, to the exclusion and domination of the non-Jewish population. By contrast, Motion A105 calls a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine...with equal rights for all."
She alleged that the motion was written alongside Jewish colleagues, and rejected all attempts to smear the motion's proposers as “terrorists."
"A record-breaking number of members co-proposed our motion, including Jewish members, due to one simple fact: Zionism is indeed racism."
Jewish Greens urge members to vote against motion
The Jewish Greens, however, released a statement urging party members to vote against the motion.
"This is not your run-of-the-mill motion opposing Israel’s actions (something that Jewish Greens would have no problem with), but something much more problematic that is likely to make Jews feel unwelcome in the Green Party," the statement said.
The Jewish Greens urged Green Party members to listen to their Jewish comrades and consider whether the motion is appropriate.
The group called the motion "especially worrying," given "the rather authoritarian implication to not only condemn Zionism, but to actively proscribe members who consider themselves (or who others accuse of being) Zionists."
It added that Zionism is defined in different ways, and that many may consider themselves Zionists while also rejecting the current state's actions. To define Zionism as racism would be like "accepting the EDL’s definition of Englishness" or "banning all forms of USA nationalism based on the horrendous crimes of the Trump administration."
The Jewish Greens also stressed that many Jews feel Zionism is about Jews having a place that they call home, where they are no longer a persecuted minority, and therefore, "an unbridled attack on Zionism would – for many Jews – come across as an attack on that very basic right of aspiring to lead a safe and secure life."
As mentioned, the potential to proscribe Zionists if the motion passes would give the party the option to expel almost any Jew involved in organised communal life or who has ever been, including the party leader, Polanski.
"Jewish members will be uniquely exposed to being accused of an offence which other party members will not be," the group said, adding, "it will send a message to Jewish members that they need to choose between their party membership and being a member of their Jewish community."
Interestingly, the motion, if passed, could mean that Green leader Zack Polanski would have to brand his own mother, who has previously expressed support for Israel, as a racist.
The Embassy of Israel in the UK vehemently condemned the "Zionism is Racism" motion, calling it "so extreme, so hostile, and so intellectually bankrupt that its very inclusion on the agenda raises urgent questions about the direction of the party."
"By seeking to categorise Zionism as a form of racism, this motion attempts to revive the long-discredited and hateful equation once promoted by UN Resolution 3379. That resolution was a moral stain on the international community and was decisively revoked by the UN General Assembly in 1991. To attempt to resurrect this falsehood in 2026 is a regressive and dangerous step."
Furthermore, the embassy said that the motion’s explicit support for "armed struggle" is "nothing less than approval of terrorism."
"To suggest that 'all available means' should be supported is to provide a blank cheque for the same atrocities witnessed on October 7th, 2023: mass murder, torture, rape, and the kidnapping of civilians. To endorse this is to abandon every moral and humanitarian principle the Green Party once claimed to uphold."
At the beginning of February, the Green Party was reported to counter-terror police by an internal whistleblower over extremism fears.
The whistleblower, speaking to The Daily Mail, reported the party to the Metropolitan police’s anti-terror hotline for “failing to protect its members” by allowing extremist sentiment to spread.