Supporters of the original motion declaring “Zionism is racism” have been encouraging backers to join the Green Party in time to vote on Saturday, sparking concerns of a block vote.
A briefing document attached to the antizionist motion calls on the party to recognise Palestinians’ right to “resistance” by “all available means, including armed struggle”, and demands the creation of a “single democratic Palestinian State”.
Speaking at the pro-Iran Al Quds rally earlier this month, the proposer of the motion, Green member Lubna Speitan, said the party had to “resist the racist clutches of Zionism”.
Motion proposer, Lubna Speitan, addressed the Al Quds Day rally on March 15 (Instagram)[Missing Credit]
“We curse those who continue to strip us of our rights to resist,” she added, reiterating that the motion calls for the right to resist ‘by all available means.
Speitan also used her address to claim that antisemitism has been “weaponised”.
An online discussion meeting about the motion organised by the Greens for Palestine last month included speaker Franck Magennis, a defence barrister who represented Hamas in the terror group’s bid for de-proscription.
The party’s Jewish Greens back the emergency counter-motion, which cites rising antisemitism, including the attack on Hatzola ambulances on Monday and 1,766 incidents recorded last year by the Community Security Trust with an “antizionist motivation”.
That motion seeks to limit the use of the terms “Zionist” and “antizionist”, warning that they risk “ambiguity or misunderstanding”.
If adopted, it would instruct members to refer in party communications to the “Israeli government, Israeli nationalism, or specific policies, institutions or actions”.
It would affirm the rights of “Jews, Palestinians and Israelis” to live in peace and call for political debate to remain “precise” and “non-discriminatory”.
Elisa Benjamin, a founder of Jewish Greens, is encouraging party members to back the emergency motion, which must secure 50 co-proposers to be debated on Saturday afternoon following the main motions.
She is hopeful that the antizionist motion will not pass.
But a pre-conference workshop held online on Tuesday attracted some 120 people, which Benjamin said was “worrying because there could be block voting going on.
“But even if [the antizionist motion] doesn’t get through, I hope it’s a wake-up call. Some of us have been trying to warn the party for two years now about this shift,” she said.
Benjamin, who joined the Green Party in 1988, said: “I have put my life into this party and these people are not Greens.”
The antizionist motion “dehumanises” her and undermines the party’s values of non-violence and equality, she went on. “It shouldn’t even be on the conference floor.
“We are fighting for our identity,” she added, stating that she was “disgusted” by claims from some party members that opposition to the antizionist motion was driven by an “Israel lobby”.
Benjamin, who served for 15 years as a Green councillor in Oxford, helped develop antisemitism guidance within the party’s anti-racism strategy.
She said her time in the party had been shaped by a philosophy “that heavily focuses on peace and human rights and a code of conduct that talks about how members treat each other with respect”.
When she helped establish the Jewish Greens group in 2018, she said, “We were absolutely welcomed within the party.”
However, “things really began to change in 2024,” during the “populist” shift under Zack Polanski’s leadership, she went on.
Polanski has indicated he might support the motion if it referred specifically to the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu, but Benjamin dismissed this as “a cop-out”.
“This is the inevitable bit about populism – something will come up that will challenge you, and you’re on a tightrope trying to please different sides.
“It feels very hollow – almost like a bereavement,” she said, referring to the party’s recent surge in the polls.
“They never talk about climate change any more – they never talk about everything else [other than Israel], it is like nothing else matters,” she added.
The JC understands that the conference will take place on Microsoft Teams, which itself is a target of the BDS campaign.
The second day of the conference will include training sessions on writing Green Party policy, safeguarding and creating “welcoming spaces”, as well as a session on antisemitism.
Benjamin suggested it was unfortunate that such training would follow, rather than precede, the debates on the motions.
