Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the United Kingdom’s Green Party after it passed a motion equating Zionism with racism at its party conference in Brighton on Sunday.
“Today, the Green Party in Britain ceased to act as a political party and became a body that gives legitimacy to terrorism,” the ministry tweeted. “The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle.”
Describing it as a “shocking resolution” that calls for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” code for Israel’s destruction, and “labels as ‘racist’” the Jewish longing for self-determination, the Foreign Ministry said the motion goes “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate.
“As long as this resolution remains in place, it will be a stain on the history of the United Kingdom. Every political party in Britain, first and foremost the governing Labour Party, must unequivocally reject this twisted resolution,” the ministry said.
The resolution, passed by 1,022 votes to 813, says that Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism, and this motion will be implemented by the anti-racism policy working group as appropriate and in accordance with its ordinary practice,” The Guardian reported.
The motion was proposed by “Greens 4 Palestine,” a pressure group inside the Green Party “fighting to make sure our party stands firmly with Palestine.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, missed the vote as he was on the campaign trail, The Guardian reported. But he endorsed the text in response to a question from the BBC on Saturday as to whether he thought Zionism was racist. He said, “In the motion, it is defined as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people. I think that is clearly racism.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, referring to his father, who as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations famously tore up a U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism in 1975, said, “Even 50 years later, the words of my father, Chaim Herzog z"l, resonate powerfully against anyone who spreads the absolute lie that Zionism is racism. The decision adopted today by the British Green Party, which states that Zionism is racism, is a disgrace and a shame. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, and it forms the basis for the Jewish people’s right to a state and a national home in the Land of Israel.”
Israel’s chargé d’affaires in London Christian Cantor posted to X: “The Green Party debated the shameful ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution behind closed doors. But, no closed doors can hide what this resolution represents and the greens can’t hide the antisemitism embedded in this resolution, or the disgrace of a British political party embracing it.”
