The US will make “representations” to the British government over the Green Party’s controversial adoption of a policy branding Zionism as racism, Washington’s top adviser on antisemitism has said.
Special envoy ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun suggested the political group was “hypocritical” in singling out Israel for condemnation, while turning a blind eye to other countries.
He suggested this could amount to antisemitism under the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), signed by the UK in 2016, in applying double standards towards the Jewish State.
The motion, backed by Green conference delegates on Sunday, has sparked a fierce backlash, with Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis condemning it as “poisonous antisemitism”.
Party leader Zack Polanski has been barred from entering Israel in retaliation.
The motion declared the Greens to be an “antizionist party” and set out its official policy that Zionism will be “treated as any other form of racism”.
It also backed the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital”.
The vote in support came just days before the third anniversary of the deadly October 7 attacks, which was marked on Monday in Israel in accordance with the Jewish calendar.
Speaking in Washington DC, Rabbi Kaploun said: “First of all, we will be making some representations on the issue.
“I think a lot of countries are being hypocritical in the sense that they will only focus on Israel; they will not focus on other countries.
“If you look at the definition of the IHRA accords, which Britain signed, that the same condemnation that you want to use about Israel has to be used across the board on every country, and I don’t think they’re living up to that standard of what they signed in their agreement.”
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