Green Party rejects conference participation from left-wing Israeli group
Despite the fact that Omdim Beyachad refers to the war in Gaza as genocide and the situation in the West Bank as apartheid - they have been refused a stall or fringe event
The Green Party has repeated its 2025 decision not to let supporters of a left-wing Israeli group, which refers to the war in Gaza as genocide and the situation in the West Bank as apartheid, participate at an event at its annual conference, due to its embrace of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) policies.
Omdim Beyachad (Standing Together) is a Jewish-Palestinian group which is vehemently critical of the Israeli government and most opposition parties, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, organises aid convoys for Gaza and operates patrols to try and protect Palestinians in the West Bank from settler attacks. Despite this, the Jewish Chronicle has reported that the Green Party has refused to let UK Friends of Standing Together host a stall or operate a fringe event.
Last year, the Green Party faced calls from its own Greens for Palestine group to ban Sally Abed, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who co-chairs Standing Together, from speaking via video link-up at a fringe event. Lubna Speitan, the subsequent author of the “Zionism is racism” motion which is due to return to party conference this September, said that “Standing Together is an organisation explicitly boycotted under BDS guidelines due to its refusal to endorse BDS and its efforts to create partnerships between Israeli and Palestinian citizens without addressing the structures of apartheid, occupation, and colonisation that underpin their relationship.”
Speitan went on to write that “The overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society, including unions, women’s groups, and human rights organisations, have called for a cultural and institutional boycott of Israeli groups that undermine their struggle. When they say don’t platform FOST, the ethical response is not to question their motives or dismiss them as ‘narrow’ or ‘hardline.’ It is to respect the strategy Palestinians have chosen for their own liberation.”
This position was strongly supported by others in the Green Party, including councillor Hau-Yu Tam, who more recently has become Lewisham council’s Cabinet Member for “Communities, Sanctuary & Healing”.
On Tuesday it was reported that the Antisemitism Policy Trust had been unable to unable to secure an event at Green Party conference, or even advertise an event in the party’s conference fringe programme.
Danny Stone, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, stated: “Zack Polanski’s Green Party professes to be a democratic, anti-racist and inclusive organisation, yet it has effectively banned our charity from running an educational fringe event at its conference. The contradiction speaks for itself.”
The Green Party responded saying that there was “not a ban of any kind… We simply didn’t reach a mutually acceptable agreement.”