Britain’s top Jewish group votes 118-1 to declare Green Party antisemitic, racist

The Board of Deputies of British Jews votes nearly unanimously to back a measure condemning the Green Party as racist, as the Board’s president slams the party’s “antisemitic platform.”

By World Israel News Staff

Britain’s largest representative Jewish organization has formally designated the Green Party of England and Wales a racist party after it adopted a policy equating Zionism with racism and advocating the replacement of Israel with a single Palestinian state.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews overwhelmingly approved the declaration on Sunday, October 25, with 118 representatives voting in favor and just one opposing the resolution.

The decision followed an October 4 vote at the Green Party’s annual conference in Brighton, where members adopted an anti-Zionist platform by 1,022 votes to 813.

The policy defines Zionism as a racist ideology and calls for the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian state throughout historic Palestine, including the territory of present-day Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital.

It also declares that Zionism should be “treated as any other form of racism,” placing the party at odds with Jewish organizations that regard support for Israel’s existence as an integral part of Jewish identity.

Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said the organization would no longer treat the Greens as an ordinary democratic political party.

“By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party,” Rosenberg declared. “We will treat it accordingly.”

The Board accused the Greens of stigmatizing British Jews whose religious, cultural and historical identities include a connection to Israel, warning that the policy could encourage discrimination against Jewish communities and institutions.

The organization, which represents hundreds of synagogues and communal bodies throughout Britain, also called on the Greens to reverse the policy and confront antisemitism within their ranks.

Ashley Hirst, who introduced the resolution, said the dispute extended beyond disagreements over the Israeli government’s policies and concerned the Jewish people’s historical and religious connections to their ancestral homeland.

Max Royston, who seconded the motion, argued that denying Jews the national rights afforded to other peoples constituted discrimination.

The Green Party’s original decision generated substantial opposition within its own leadership.

Four of its five members of Parliament publicly rejected the motion, while former party leader Caroline Lucas spoke against it during the conference debate.

Lucas warned that the proposal risked leaving Jewish members feeling intimidated and unwelcome within their own political party.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, did not participate in the conference vote, having left to campaign in a parliamentary by-election in London.

He had previously expressed reservations about the motion’s wording and advocated amendments to protect Jewish members affiliated with Zionist synagogues.

Those amendments were rejected.

Polanski also objected to the proposed single-state solution, arguing that British political parties should not determine the terms of an eventual Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

Nevertheless, he defended criticism of Zionism when the term was associated with Palestinian displacement and supported the broader Palestinian rights agenda of the party.

Following the conference vote, Polanski and the Greens’ parliamentary leadership issued a joint statement asserting that there was “no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people.”

The party has rejected allegations that it discriminates against Jews and maintains that members who identify as Zionists or attend Zionist synagogues will not face persecution.

The controversy also provoked a diplomatic confrontation with Israel, whose Foreign Ministry condemned the Green Party’s resolution as antisemitic and announced that Polanski would be barred from entering the country.

Israeli officials argued that the motion went beyond criticism of government policy by denying Jewish national self-determination and advocating the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.

Britain’s Labour Party and Conservative opposition also condemned the Green Party’s position, while senior figures in the European Green movement expressed concern about its implications.

AntisemitismBoard of Deputies of British JewsBritainGreen Party