Burnham urges Greens to reverse Zionism motion

Andy Burnham has urged Green Party leader Zack Polanski to reverse a party conference motion defining Zionism as racism and backing a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine. Burnham said the decision was completely wrong and called on Green leaders to ensure it would not become party policy. Green Party members passed the motion at their conference in Brighton on Sunday by 1,022 votes to 813. It describes Zionism as an ideology supporting an ethnonationalist Jewish state and backs a single democratic state across historic Palestine, which includes present-day Israel. The vote puts the party’s position at odds with the two-state solution Burnham said UK political parties should support. Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Thursday, Burnham said the motion showed poor judgment and should not be supported. He called on Polanski and the party leadership to reverse it. Burnham declined to say whether Labour would rule out a future coalition with the Greens, saying he would not discuss what might happen in the future. Polanski did not vote on the motion. Reports said he had left the conference to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.