"Zionism is Racism" is a policy motion adopted by the Green Party of England and Wales on 4 October 2026 that designates Zionism as a form of racism.

Background In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which stated that Zionism was a form of racism and racial discrimination. The resolution was revoked in 1991 after the US applied political pressure. The First World Conference on Women, held in 1975, issued a declaration that characterised Zionism as a form of racial discrimination. Jewish Voice for Peace has said that Zionism has established a "racist hierarchy with European Jews at the top".

Motion In October 2026, the Greens adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, and calling for Israel to be replaced by a single, democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all. The motion describes Zionism as racist because it "privileges one ethnic group on the basis of the subjugation of others". The party voted down a resolution that would have prevented party members from being pressured, proscribed or disciplined "based on affiliation with Jewish community institutions" taking a Zionist stance, including synagogues, which human rights lawyer Adam Wagner described as potentially unlawful and antisemitic discrimination against Jewish members.

The motion was proposed by Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist, who was described in court documents as a "close friend" of an al-Qaeda member who was convicted in the US for planning a suicide attack at Heathrow Airport. Speitan, who has suggested that Zionists be "hunted in the same way as the Nazi aggressors were," stated that Zionism should be "treated as any other form of racism".Mitib, Ali; Eastlake, Daisy; and Coen, Susie. "Green member behind Zionism motion is friends with al-Qaeda terrorist", The Times, 6 October 2026. Accessed 7 October 2026. "A Green Party member who proposed the 'Zionism is racism' motion has admitted to remaining close friends with an al-Qaeda terrorist who plotted a suicide bomb attack at Heathrow airport on passengers arriving from Israel. Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist and activist, wrote the motion that said Zionism, the movement that led to the creation of Israel as a Jewish state, would be 'treated as any other form of racism' by the party.... Speitan, who had previously called for Zionists to be 'hunted in the same way as the Nazi aggressors were' and criticised the proscription of Hamas, joined the Greens after leaving Your Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana."

The motion was opposed by four out of five of the party's MPs, and it passed with a total of about 1,000 votes, about 0.4% of the total membership of the party.

Reception Domestic Sandy Ruthven, Green candidate for the directly elected mayor of Bristol in 2021 and chair of Amnesty International UK's charitable trust, resigned from the party following the vote, and accused the party of not fighting antisemitism. Two Green councillors resigned in protest.

Several MPs have reported the Greens to law enforcement agencies, asking them to investigate if the resolution violated "possible antisemitic offences." The Greens responded that nobody will be unwelcome in the party "because of the religious or communal body they are part of."

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis condemned the motion as "poisonous antisemitism" and a "threat to British Jews and to Britain" and the Board of Deputies of British Jews said that the Green party has become "an extremist party".

International The motion attracted an unusual level of international attention for a party conference motion.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the Greens turned themselves into a body that supports terror. Israel's Foreign Ministry banned Zack Polanski from entering Israel, although Polanski had not taken part in the vote. The United States' Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism said that the US would be "making some representations on the issue". Felix Banaszak, leader of the German Green Party, called the resolution "intolerable and unacceptable." A Green Party source said the stance of the German Green Party was not surprising given it had "support[ed] arming Israel, opposed a ceasefire to Israel's onslaught on Gaza, backed the suspension of funding to Unrwa and co-sponsored a Bundestag resolution describing the arguments and methods of the peaceful, Palestinian-led BDS campaign as antisemitic".

See also Antisemitism in the Green Party of England and Wales David Miller Greens For Palestine

References Notes

Citations

External links Motion A105: Zionism is Racism at Greens for Palestine