UK Greens vote to classify Zionism as racism

Britain’s Green Party conference voted 1,022 to 813 on Sunday, October 4, to classify Zionism as a form of racism, approving a motion that also backs Palestinian self-determination and a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine. The vote has drawn criticism from Jewish groups and the Israeli government, while the motion’s precise policy consequences remain unclear from the available account of its text. The Green Party said the motion supports Palestinian self-determination and calls for a democratic state across historic Palestine. The measure describes Zionism as an ethnonationalist political project, according to the party’s account. The full adopted wording was not provided, and it is not clear how the party intends to implement the motion. Green Party leader Zack Polanski did not vote. He and other senior party figures said they would continue to criticize the actions of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while also supporting the rights of Palestinians and Jewish people. The reports say Polanski was campaigning in north London ahead of a byelection; they do not establish that his absence reflected a position on the motion.