The more than 265-year-old Board of Deputies of British Jews voted 118-1 on Sunday to call the Green Party “racist,” after the Greens adopted a policy stating that Zionism is racism.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Jewish umbrella group, called the vote outcome a “clear verdict.”
“By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party,” he stated. “We will treat it accordingly.”
At our October Plenary Meeting, The Board of Deputies of British Jews has overwhelmingly voted to declare that the Green Party of England and Wales, by having adopted an antisemitic platform, has become a racist party.https://t.co/ruxi07H4We pic.twitter.com/tBoaxDq4tS
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 25, 2026
“No political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of our identity, rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood, is racist,” he added. “The Green Party’s policy brands much of our community, including our synagogues and communal organizations, with that slur. It gives prejudice against Jews a political license.”
The Greens adopted the motion by 1,022 votes to 813 at their party conference in Brighton earlier this month. Proposed by the internal pressure group Greens 4 Palestine, it states that Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism” under the party’s anti-racism policy;
Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, did not attend the vote but endorsed the motion in a BBC interview. “In the motion, it is defined as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people. I think that is clearly racism,” he said.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the resolution, saying it went “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog also rejected it, describing Zionism as “the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.”
