The Greens have been branded ‘the UK’s most antisemitic party’ after members voted through a highly controversial ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion. The Mail has more.
In a move set to send shockwaves through the divided hard-Left party’s ranks, members backed a conference proposal that calls for Israel to be treated like apartheid South Africa by 1,022 votes to 813.
It also supports the “establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital” – branded a plan to destroy Israel itself.
The motion triggered a major internal row, with deputy Green leader Mothin Ali saying he would vote in favour.
But three former party leaders: Caroline Lucas, Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer, warned it was divisive and would alienate Jews in the party.
Current leader Zack Polanski, however, missed the vote in Brighton – he is the Green candidate in next week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election and spent Sunday campaigning in London.
He tried to head off criticism by attaching himself and Mr Ali to a statement issued by the party’s five MPs after the vote, saying they “will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment”.
But former Green deputy leader Shahrar Ali told the Daily Mail today: “This is a very sad day for the Green Party. I am deeply ashamed and horrified at what the party has become.
“Making Zionism is Racism our official party policy has made us the first openly antisemitic party in the UK. That conclusion is inescapable.
“The motion calling for the creation of a single state of Palestine requires the extinction of the state of Israel.
“We’re not talking about 1967 borders here as a baseline for a two state solution but the total obliteration of the state of Israel as a political entity.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry also tore into the decision, saying: “Today, the Green Party in Britain ceased to act as a political party and became a body that gives legitimacy to terrorism.
“The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle.”
The motion’s passing now makes the Greens the only British political party to be formally against Zionism.
And it comes after a long fight from pro-Palestine groups within the Greens to declare Israel an “apartheid state”. …
The motion culminates a tense few days at the conference, with a ‘safe room’ being set up for Jewish members and a steady police presence outside the conference centre to separate pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups.
The Daily Mail can also reveal that two Green members had their passes revoked on Saturday – one after silently protesting in a Palestine fringe meeting, and the other, a Jewish Green, on filming the interaction.
Worth reading in full.
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Broadly sympathetic I am to Israel, I am totally fed up of English politics being coloured by this ridiculous debate, obviously the motion is absurd and deeply unpleasant, but par for the course for the modern greens.
My concerns regard saving the English homeland for the English.
Middle East religious bigotry? That’s their problem. We have our own to worry about.
I’m anti-Zionist but have no sympathy with the Green Party. Zionism is a political philosophy and I have every right to criticise both it and the policies of the state of Israel without being called “anti-Semitic” or racist.
The problem the madleft has with Israel (the real problem) is that it’s a functioning democracy. And like all functioning democracies, the great majority of voters refuse to vote madleft. The madleft’s solution to this is to replace the voters with another people who, the madleft hopes, will be more amenable. Thus the vile Green Party seeks to replace our people with an imported people. So of course the vile Green Party adopts the anti-semitism of the imports. What a degrading and shameful descent!
This is what evil looks like.
It ought to be truly shocking, but I cant even raise an eyebrow.