Greens pass Israel ‘genocide’ motion at annual conference backed by hardline councillor

The Greens have passed a motion at their annual conference describing Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” which was proposed by a pro-Palestine grouping within the party.

Meanwhile deputy leader Zack Polanski has called for an arms ban on sales to Israel, claiming the UK government is complicit in violence in the Middle East.

A motion, which was passed at the party’s annual conference on Sunday afternoon, branded Israel’s assault on Gaza a “genocide” – and declared support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

It said: “We affirm our commitment to explicitly supporting BDS in our internal and external communications going forward.

“Supporting the BDS movement is essential to holding Israel accountable, to supporting Palestinians’ rights to equality and self-determination, and to demonstrating that our support, as a nation, is not performative.”

Later Mothin Ali, a Green councillor in Leeds, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” and declared his May election victory to the people of Gaza, told Middle East Eye that the Greens had “shown leadership on the issue of the Gaza genocide” by passing the motion.

Ali spoke as a member of the Greens For Palestine group who proposed the motion.

“It’s a very positive step that party policy is in alignment with the view of the membership, along with the wider public,” he claimed.

Ali also posted on X:”We made history today, the first UK political party to officially recognise what’s happening in Gaza as Genocide, what’s happening in Palestine as Apartheid and continued support for BDS.

“We made sure the party followed through on it’s commitment made during the elections.”

In a speech last Friday party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP claimed the Labour government’s partial suspension on arms sales to Israel was “half-hearted”.

Polanski, who is Jewish, said in his speech:”We recognise peace just can’t happen until we end our own government’s complicity in violence.

“We must end further arms sales to Israel – and to all countries breaking international law.”

The Greens were rocked with multiple allegations of antisemitism in the run-up to the general election.