Greater London Assembly votes to condemn Green Party’s ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion

The Greater London Assembly has voted to “strongly condemn” the Green Party’s decision to define Zionism as a form of racism, with Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Reform UK and Independent Assembly Members joining to “express deep concern at the harm such rhetoric risks causing to London’s Jewish community.”

The motion, which was brought by Conservative Assembly Member Susan Hall, passed by 19 votes to 3 on Thursday – with the three Green assembly members, including party leader Zack Polanski, voting against it.

The motion went on to say that “at a time of already heighted tension within the Jewish community…[the Green party’s action] risks fostering division, deepening insecurity and lending legitimacy to extreme antisemitic attitudes.”

Bringing the motion, Susan Hall AM said: “I stand here today and I say that I stand 100% with the Jewish community. I find it absolutely disgusting that something like this should be discussed at a conference and then passed. My God, doesn’t that say what the Green party stand for. It’s abhorrent, utterly abhorrent…I am not Jewish, but by God do I feel for that community.”

Labour Assembly Marina Ahmad said: “This spring someone tried to burn down Finchley Reform Synagogue. Two weeks later two people were stabbed in Golders Green, in an attack the police are treating as terrorism. In May, the Met recorded 255 antisemitic hate crimes in a single month. That’s more than eight a day in our city.

“So when a political party tells its members that Zionism is racism, it’s telling a big part of London’s Jewish community that something central to who they are makes them racist. Whatever their intention, it lands on real people…the teenager deciding whether to wear his kippah on the tube, and on the family who now think twice before walking into shul.”

Conservative AM Lord Bailey spoke about his experiences as a black man, saying: “I’ve sat in this chamber for years and taken so many lectures from the Green party about bad behaviour and racism in everybody else’s party. I want to be very, very clear – what you have done is promote racism. You are drawing lines between communities, you are forcing people to take sides with this very horrific thing you have done, to the Jewish community in particular, but to all of us in general.

“And when you go home, and in your nice middle class dinner party you reassure yourself that it’s a political, technical point – it is not. On the streets of London, your actions are promoting racism”.

Reform UK AM Alex Wilson described what he had seen during his visit to Israel last year, including the Nova festival site and Kibbutz Nir Oz, both of which were attacked by Hamas on 7 October. He went on to talk about how on 7 October 2023, he had been walking down Edgware Road, as “crowds were gathering, waving Palestinian flags, setting off fireworks. This wasn’t a protest at Israel’s response, it was a celebration of an ongoing massacre… if Zionism is the belief that the Jewish homeland should exist, then anti-Zionism, let’s be clear what means. It’s not some abstract concept – In a context where a Jewish homeland already exists – as it does – then anti-Zionism means its destruction.

“And for that to be enshrined now at the heart of a policy platform of a national party in this country is not something I ever thought we would see in 21^st century Britain, it is shameful, it is disgusting, it needs to be called out.”

Liberal Democrat AM Gareth Roberts said: “I think it’s important that we as politicians, whether at a national level, regional level, even council level, should recognise that when we stand and speak, it has consequences for communities, and they should not be considered in the abstract,  they should be considered in the reality of the day to day lives of people who have to live with the policy positions which are taken by politicians. And therefore it is with deep regret that I saw the motion which was debated at the Green party conference. I think it had no place being debated at a decent party’s national assembly.”

Responding to the criticism of his party, Zack Polanski AMP condemned Susan Hall for having what he called “the chutzpah, the audacity… to lecture the Jewish man in the chamber on antisemitism.”

He went on to state that “being Jewish, and being a Zionist, are two different things”, before describing how “Theodor Herzl, the modern founder of Zionism, said it was a colonialist project, he saw it as that. 1948, the Nakba, 750,000 Palestinians displaced and ethnically cleansed. 2026, we have just witnessed 75,000 Palestinians murdered…To the Labour group, your own Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan – I had to push him several times, but he eventually conceded that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.

“Is it now the Labour position that a genocide is not racist, that a genocide is ok, that your government can continue to arm a genocide, and those of us who call it out are apparently the racists?”

Mr Polanski would later accuse Susan Hall of “Weaponising antisemitism, weaponising a genocide against my community.”

Following on from Mr Polanski, Conservative AM Emma Best described the motion adopted by the Green party at its conference as having “called to wipe Israel off the map. And to believe that wouldn’t result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, at best is naïve and at worst is sadistically evil.

“The motion the Green party put forward was not about reparations, genocide or saving Palestinian lives. It was about wiping Israel off the map…and the leader of the Green party thinks that’s ok and has no repercussions in London.”

Following the adoption of the motion, which also called on the Mayor to reaffirm his commitment to tackling antisemitism and engage directly with Jewish community organisations and ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe, valued and able to participate fully in public life, Susan Hall AM said:

“The ‘Zionism is Racism’ policy of the Green Party risks being a harmful rhetoric in British politics that must be opposed wholeheartedly.

“I want to thank the Members of the Assembly who today have backed this motion to make clear to Britain’s Jewish community that we stand with them in face of antisemitism.”