UK Green Party activist behind ‘Zionism is Racism’ vote has ties to Al Qaeda terrorist – report

Far-left British activist who spearheaded “Zionism is Racism” motion in the Green Party offered to testify on behalf of an Al Qaeda terrorist who planned a suicide bombing at Heathrow Airport.

The Green Party activist who spearheaded a successful motion declaring Zionism a form of racism was previously identified in US federal court records as a “close friend” of an Al Qaeda terrorist who trained in Yemen and planned a suicide bombing at London’s Heathrow Airport, The JC reported on Tuesday.

Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist and Green Party member, offered to testify on behalf of Minh Quang Pham after he was extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges, according to court documents dating from 2015 and 2016.

Speitan was the lead proposer of the “Zionism is Racism” motion adopted Sunday at the Green Party of England and Wales conference in Brighton by 1,022 votes to 813.

The policy declares the party anti-Zionist, defines Zionism as an “ethnonationalist political project” and backs the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian state throughout what it terms historic Palestine.

The revelation about Speitan’s relationship with Pham emerged days after the contentious vote and has prompted the Green Party to say it is taking the matter seriously.

Pham, a British citizen of Vietnamese origin, traveled from Britain to Yemen in 2010 and joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

While there, he pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization, received weapons and explosives training and worked with senior Al Qaeda figures including US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

US authorities say Pham approached al-Awlaki about carrying out a suicide attack and was personally instructed to target Heathrow Airport’s arrivals area, particularly passengers arriving from the United States or Israel.

The plan called for an explosive device concealed inside a backpack and surrounded by shrapnel, with instructions to poison the fragments to maximize casualties.

Pham returned to Britain in July 2011. British authorities stopped him at Heathrow and found a live armor-piercing rifle round in his possession, but he was initially released.

He was later arrested and extradited to the United States in 2015.

During preparations for his original trial, Pham’s lawyers sought permission to take testimony remotely from several people in Britain. A federal judge’s written ruling listed “Ms. Lubna Speitan, a close friend of the Defendant” among those proposed as defense witnesses.

Speitan said a medical condition prevented her from flying to New York to testify in person. The judge refused to authorize a deposition, finding that the defense had not sufficiently demonstrated that she was unable to travel and that the proposed testimony had not been shown to be sufficiently material to the case.

Speitan nevertheless submitted a letter supporting Pham’s character.

“Minh really is one of the few people I regard with such high respect and esteem,” she wrote, describing him as among the “kindest” and “most sincere” people she had known.

She also called him “a close friend” and wrote that those who knew him continued to miss him.

There is no evidence that Speitan knew about Pham’s involvement with Al Qaeda or his terrorist plans at the time of their friendship. The two reportedly knew one another through college.

Pham initially disputed prosecutors’ account that he intended to bomb Heathrow, even after pleading guilty in 2016 to terrorism-related offenses.

He was originally sentenced that year to 40 years in prison.

Subsequent litigation resulted in the earlier convictions being vacated, and prosecutors filed a superseding indictment. Pham ultimately pleaded guilty again in 2023 to charges including providing and attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, conspiring to receive military training from the organization and providing material support for terrorism.

In February 2025, a federal judge sentenced him to 44 years in prison.

US prosecutors said the evidence established that Pham intended to become a suicide bomber and that al-Awlaki had given him detailed instructions for attacking Heathrow.

Asked this week about her relationship with Pham, Speitan reportedly described questions about it as “insulting” and said they had “no relation to the work that I’m doing,” The Telegraph reported

She also appeared to defend her friend against the findings of the terrorism case.

“People are demonized for all sorts of things and wrongfully accused of all sorts of things,” she said when asked about his 44-year sentence.

Speitan confirmed that she continued to regard Pham as a close friend.

The disclosures come amid mounting scrutiny of Speitan following the Green Party conference.

Before the vote, video circulated of her telling demonstrators that Zionism should be eradicated internationally and saying its supporters would eventually be pursued like defeated Nazis.

“We will continue until we dismantle Zionism from the world, from every country,” she said. “They will be shunned and inshallah that time will come when they are hunted in the same way as the Nazi oppressors were.”

“It won’t happen without force,” she added.

The Green Party has sought to distance Speitan’s personal activities from its formal leadership structure, stressing that she holds no official party position beyond ordinary membership.

“Lubna Speitan holds no party positions other than being a member,” a party spokesperson said.

“The Green Party takes all allegations of this nature seriously.”

The spokesperson added that the party has “internal processes to investigate” cases in which members express views that do not conform with its values.

The controversy comes as the party faces a broader backlash over its newly adopted Zionism policy.

The motion calls for “a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine” and says Zionism should be treated “as any other form of racism.” Several senior Green figures opposed the measure, while Jewish organizations accused the party of institutionalizing discrimination against Jews who identify as Zionists.

Israel responded by barring Green Party leader Zack Polanski from entering the country and accused the party of legitimizing the destruction of Israel.

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