The United Kingdom’s Green Party finds itself roiled in a bitter national controversy this weekend, centered around a groundbreaking motion that would officially label Zionism as a form of racism. The motion was drafted by Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian party member, who is set to see her proposal put to a vote of the party’s conference delegates on Sunday.
The debate has already spilled beyond conference walls, igniting heated demonstrations on the streets of Brighton, where the annual Green Party gathering is being held. On Saturday, dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators gathered outside the venue, jeering and shouting at delegates as they entered the building. Protesters chanted slogans including “Terrorist supporters off our streets” and “There’s no Palestine,” with many holding aloft Israeli flags. Signs held by demonstrators read “Stand up to racist Greens,” “Anti Zionism = terrorism” and “More trees less Hamas.” One attendee, a self-identified Indian Jew, waved a combined Indian-Israeli flag, while a small number of protesters also displayed Union Jacks.
Speaking to Middle East Eye amid the demonstrations, Speitan pushed back against the opposition, emphasizing that the motion does not target Jewish people. “There’ll always be opposition… but we have to stand strong and firm and steadfast in the face of injustice. We should confront all forms of racism, discrimination, genocide and the Holocaust. We’ve made explicitly clear in the motion that not all Jews are Zionist and not all Zionists are Jewish,” she said.
Many protesters expressed deep fears over what the motion would mean for the future of the UK. An Iranian protester outside the conference argued the motion showed the Greens were aligned with radical Islamists, saying “I’ve seen what’s happened in Iran with the radical Islamists, and I’m terrified it will happen to the UK.” A middle-aged white Christian protester called the party antisemitic, and labeled Green Party leader Zack Polanski — who is Jewish — a “self-hating Jew,” adding that “We did the Holocaust. Now, Jewish people are being persecuted by Islam.” A French attendee, who danced during the demonstration, claimed the Greens were Hamas sympathizers, saying “Have you seen what happened in France with the Islamists and the left? I don’t want that to happen here.”
Separated from the pro-Israel demonstrators by a cordon of police, a group of counter-protesters — most of them Green Party members — held their own peaceful demonstration nearby. Many waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for an end to what they describe as genocide in Gaza. One prominent banner declared “Jews against Zionism.” Ori, a young Jewish counter-protester, told MEE his group was there to support the motion. “I think it will be a good thing for there to be a mainstream political party in parliament that says that Zionism is racism, and that can hopefully lead to sanctions against Israel,” he explained. Ori rejected claims that passing the motion would make Jewish members feel unwelcome, adding “Often oppressors see themselves as victims of the people they are oppressing. Zionists think they are victims of the Palestinian liberation struggle. It’s completely untrue.”
If delegates approve the motion on Sunday, the Green Party will become the first major UK political party to formally adopt the position that Zionism is racism, an unprecedented step in British politics that will embed the position as official party policy. The proposal has already secured high-profile backing from prominent Holocaust survivor and activist Stephen Kapos, who stated that “Zionism both as an ideology and practice is harmful and has no legitimacy and must be rejected.”
However, the motion has also drawn sharp criticism from senior figures within the party. Former Green leader Caroline Lucas publicly condemned the proposal as divisive on Friday, saying she held “serious concerns” over its impact on the inclusivity of the party. “There is no single definition of Zionism, and irrespective of the intentions of the people who put that motion forward, I think there is a real risk that it’ll be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party,” Lucas said. Prior to the conference, widespread reports claimed that Jewish members who attended Zionist-aligned synagogues would face internal disciplinary action if the motion passed, but Speitan has dismissed these claims entirely. She explained that the motion is classified as an “E-Motion,” meaning it addresses external policy matters and has no impact on internal party disciplinary processes.
Polanski, who is Jewish, has said the motion needs amending to explicitly protect the position of Jewish members who hold Zionist views. He argued that even if a member “stands against the occupation, stands against apartheid, stands against the genocide, but happens to be a member of a synagogue that calls itself a Zionist synagogue, they should not be treated any differently within the Green Party.” But Speitan argued that such an amendment would undermine the core purpose of the motion. “We shouldn’t need as Palestinians to have a disclaimer before we speak for the liberation of our people every time that we’re not antisemites, or to legitimise our cause by saying it’s not an attack against Jews, which indeed it’s not. My grandfather lived next to his Jewish neighbor in Palestine, playing cards every morning and never had a problem,” she said.
Kieran Andrieu, a British Palestinian political economist and Green Party member, supported the motion, arguing that it was necessary to confront the ideological foundation of Palestinian displacement. “If you acknowledge that what has been done to the Palestinians over the past 100 years or more is a long process of colonisation, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, you have to ask yourself, how can that happen? It was underpinned by an ideology, Zionism. It’s a racist ideology that dehumanises Palestinians,” he explained. Hamza Egal, chair of the internal party group Global Majority Greens, also backed the proposal, noting that “It’s only the Green Party that’s ever come up and said: ‘let’s give the Palestinians their voice, let them speak for themselves.’ And the motion that they created is what we’ve gone with as global majority Greens. We’ve supported the motion because it’s come from our Palestinian members.”