Board of Deputies declares Green Party 'racist' over anti-Zionist policy

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has branded Zack Polanski’s Green Party "racist" after voting on a new motion.

Condemnation from the leading organisation follows the "Zionism is racism" motion approved at the Green Party of England and Wales conference earlier this month.

A resolution passed by 118 votes to one on Sunday declared that the Greens "by adopting an antisemitic platform become a racist party".

However, the Green Party maintained that it does not discriminate against people who hold Zionist views.

Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg said: “By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party. We will treat it accordingly.

“No political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of our identity, rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood, is racist.

“The Green Party’s policy brands much of our community, including our synagogues and communal organisations, with that slur. It gives prejudice against Jews a political licence.

“The Green Party’s leadership must now take responsibility for reversing this policy and confronting the antisemitism it has legitimised.”

The motion passed by the Board of Deputies urged other parties not to do deals with the Greens unless they rejected the policy.

It said forming coalition deals with Greens at local or national level would be “failing to take antisemitism with the requisite seriousness” unless the party’s local leadership have rejected the policy and committed to overturn it.

Labour has already issued an ultimatum to local Green groups it is currently in coalition with, telling them to disown the motion or lose the party’s support.

Mr Rosenberg said: “We recognise and commend those within the party who have opposed it, including Jewish members whose warnings were disregarded. They deserve to be heard and supported.

“We call on democratic parties and wider civil society to apply the same standards to anti-Jewish racism that they would to any other form of racism.”

A Green Party spokesman said: “The Green Party does not discriminate against or exclude people for holding Zionist views.

“The motion passed at our conference sets out political opposition to the ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people.

“We reject the Board of Deputies’ characterisation of this motion and our party, which will not stop us from speaking out against the genocide in Gaza and pushing for stronger sanctions against the Israeli government and its leaders.”