Voted 1,022 to 813 by members in Brighton, the Green Party of England and Wales defined Zionism as a form of racism at its annual conference. The binding resolution drew immediate condemnation from the Israeli government, which barred party leader Zack Polanski from entering the country as internal dissent and police complaints mounted across Britain.
The Green Party’s annual conference in Brighton over the weekend culminated in a contentious binding vote where members voted 1,022 to 813 to declare Zionism a form of racism. The resolution went beyond criticizing Israeli government policy, committing the party to seek a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, while supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and a total arms embargo against Israel. The text states that Zionism is a political ideology that called for the creation and continuity of an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine to the exclusion or domination of the non-Jewish population. Conference participants also rejected an amendment proposed by Sam Alston, a Jewish member of Oxford Greens, which aimed to protect members from complaints arising from belonging to or attending a synagogue or prayer group with links to Zionism. Three-quarters of those at the workshop voted the proposal down, and a subsequent amendment protecting Jewish members was defeated on the day of the main vote by more than 1,000 members.
Israel Bars Zack Polanski Following Conference Vote
Within hours of the conference vote, the Israeli Foreign Ministry responded by barring Green Party leader Zack Polanski from entering Israel. The ministry released a statement on social media, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog posted that those claiming Zionism is racism deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis globally. Opposition leader Yair Lapid added that the party had chosen to side with terrorists and antisemites as Israel prepared to mark three years since the October 7 attack. Daniel Schuster, the European regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, stated that the classification was absurd and timed just days before the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks to inflict pain on a solemn occasion.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis issued a sharp condemnation, calling the resolution poisonous antisemitism and a threat to British Jews. He noted that it was the Soviet Union that first promoted the dangerous lie that Zionism is racism, which the UN adopted before later revoking it. Leaders of Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy, stated that the motion made antisemitism official party policy and constituted an attack on Jewish self-determination, a sentiment echoed by the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, who called the outcome an antisemitic platform based on a grossly offensive distortion and erasure of Jewish experience and identity.
Police Investigate Sussex Conference Delegates Over Public Order Act
The fallout inside the United Kingdom was swift. More than a dozen Labour MPs, led by former Home Office minister Mike Tapp and Labour Friends of Israel chair Mark Sewards, reported the Green Party to Sussex Police and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The politicians asked police to investigate whether conference delegates chanting slogans like say it loud, say it clear, Zionists are not welcome here
breached the Public Order Act by using the term as a proxy for Jewish people. The complaint was signed by 18 Labour MPs, including Mike Tapp, Mark Sewards, David Taylor, Steve Yemm, Rachel Blake, Sam Carling, Mike Reader, Mary Creagh, Jess Asato, Luke Akehurst, Jon Pearce, Peter Swallow, Jim Dickson, Preet Kaur Gill, Anna Gelderd, Sharon Hodgson, Damien Egan, and Claire Hazelgrove, drawing in both parliamentarians who served during the EHRC investigation under Jeremy Corbyn and members newly elected in 2024.
The complaint to the EHRC focuses on whether the party’s rejection of protections for members affiliated with synagogues and Jewish communal organizations violates the Equality Act 2010 by unlawfully discriminating against and harassing members who hold Zionist beliefs. Legal counsel Adam Wagner argued that there is a strong risk the motion contravenes the legislation by discriminating against and harassing people holding Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally. Backlash also emerged among Labour members calling on party leader Andy Burnham to rule out forming a coalition with the Greens.
High-profile figures also abandoned the party. Regional defections followed, with Green deputy leader in Wales Phil Davies resigning and canceling his membership, calling the motion the final nail in the coffin
as reported by the BBC. Waterloo Green councillor Kieran Dams also resigned as coordinator of his local party after speaking out against the motion, stating he received hundreds of abusive and threatening messages that he would report to the police.
Green Party Leadership Splits Over Brighton Motion
The vote exposed stark fractures among the party’s leadership, four of its five MPs, and its deputy leaders. Co-deputy leader Rachel Millward stated on social media that while the party remains committed to stopping genocide, the term Zionism carries varied meanings and personally did not help advance the work members wanted to achieve. Adrian Ramsay argued that the party must remain a welcome place for Zionists, though he did not resign.
Where members have expressed views that do not fit in with the party’s values, we have internal processes to investigate.
A Green Party spokesperson, via BBC
Party leader Zack Polanski released a statement insisting that the Green Party will not accept the exclusion of anyone based on religion or community. Polanski, who is Jewish, maintained that antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are completely distinct. However, critics noted his absence from the conference floor during the vote, while European Green affiliates expressed concerns over the motion.
