Board of Deputies of British Jews Declares Green Party a Racist Party Over Zionism Policy

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has passed a motion declaring the Green Party of England and Wales a racist party. The resolution was adopted at the organization's October Plenary Meeting.

The motion condemns the Greens' decision to adopt a policy that brands Zionism as racism, which the board describes as both racist and antisemitic. As a result, the board says it will now deal with the Greens in the same way it has dealt with other racist parties.

Board president Phil Rosenberg said representatives of Jewish communities across Britain had delivered a clear verdict. "By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party. We will treat it accordingly," he said.

Rosenberg argued that no political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of their identity is racist. He said that identity is rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood. In his words, the policy brands much of the Jewish community, including its synagogues and communal organizations, with that slur, and "gives prejudice against Jews a political license."

He called on the Green Party's leadership to take responsibility for reversing the policy and "confronting the antisemitism it has legitimized." Rosenberg also said the board recognizes and commends members of the party who opposed the motion, including Jewish members whose warnings were disregarded. He said those individuals deserved to be heard and supported.

The motion's proposer, Ashley Hirst, said he was proud that British Jews had "said clearly" that a party declaring this to be racist "is itself a racist party." He added that the board will give effect to the resolution in its dealings with the Green Party of England and Wales and will continue to challenge antisemitism wherever it appears in political and public life.

The board's move follows a vote at the Green Party conference in Brighton at the start of October. There, the party backed a motion declaring that Zionism is racism, making it the first mainstream party in Europe to openly declare itself anti-Zionist.

That motion describes Zionism as Israel's foundational ideology and says it has created and maintains an "apartheid regime" between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It also affirms the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and liberation, and supports the creation of a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital."