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Caroline Lucas: Passing Zionism is racism motion would be sign Jews aren’t welcome in Green Party
Senior Greens voice opposition to the motion, which is set to be debated on Sunday at the party's conference
Senior members of the Green Party have voiced strong opposition to a motion set to be debated at the party’s conference this weekend which seeks to define Zionism as racism.
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s first-ever MP, stated she could not support the motion, arguing it “could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party.”
Lucas, who led the party between 2003 and 2006, expressed her concerns on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, emphasising the divisive nature of the motion ,set to be debated at the conference on Sunday, and the lack of a single, universally accepted definition of Zionism.
The former Brighton MP and Lucas said: “I do have serious concerns about this motion. There is no single definition of Zionism, and irrespective of the intentions of the people who put that motion forward, I think there is a real risk that it’ll be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party. I will not be supporting it for that reason.”
Former Green Party leader Adrian Ramsay also confirmed to The Times that he would vote against the motion, calling it “not needed” and “not helpful.”
Ramsay added, “The Green Party has a strong position already on challenging the government and I think it would just be wrong to adopt a policy that could be seen as not supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to statehood. I stand by the position the Green Party had in the 2024 manifesto, on which I was elected, which made clear we want to see equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.”
The controversial motion, led by the Greens 4 Palestine group, proposes that the Green Party of England and Wales become the first mainstream UK political party to adopt an explicitly anti-Zionist stance.
The motion defines Zionism as “a political ideology which called for the creation – and, now it exists, the continuity – of an ethno nationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/or domination of the non-Jewish population.”
It further argues that Zionism has resulted in “the historic and ongoing dehumanisation, displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of Palestinians,” and claims it is rooted in “European settler-colonial systems of domination and oppression,” including the creation of “racial hierarchies between Jews of different ethnicities in Palestine.”
This proposal would go significantly further than the Green Party’s current policy on Israel, which is already highly critical of Israeli government actions.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has attempted to take a nuanced position, declaring himself an anti-Zionist but also calling for two amendments to the motion.
Polanski said, “One amendment is around safeguarding Jewish people… I would hope that our Green Party conference shows solidarity with Jewish people. And actually, within that motion, if you can say very clearly and explicitly, this motion safeguards Jewish people… This should definitely not be about finding Jewish people and creating a barrier and bar to be a member of the Green Party.”
Joshua Alston, policy officer for the Jewish Greens group and a self-described “committed anti-Zionist,” has also warned that the motion could have discriminatory impacts.
Alston expressed concern that Jews who attend synagogues identifying as Zionist could be excluded from the party, telling the Left Foot Forward news site, “It would certainly put Jews who are members of a synagogue in a position where they are assumed to be Zionist and have to then prove otherwise, which would be different to how non-Jewish members of the party are treated.”
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