Board of Deputies declares Green Party 'racist' over 'Zionism is racism' motion

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish body in the UK, has voted to declare the Green Party of England and Wales a racist organisation. The decision passed by 118 votes to one, according to the Board's president, Phil Rosenberg. It is a response to a policy motion the Greens adopted at their conference earlier this month, which holds that "Zionism is racism".

Rosenberg said the vote found that the Greens had, by adopting an antisemitic platform, become a racist party. "We will treat it accordingly," he said. He argued that no political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of their identity, rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood, is racist. In his words, the policy brands much of the Jewish community, including its synagogues and communal organisations, with that slur, and gives prejudice against Jews a political licence. He said the Green leadership must now take responsibility for reversing it.

The Board's motion also reaches beyond the Greens. It urged other parties not to do deals with them unless they reject the policy. Forming coalitions with the Greens at local or national level, it said, would amount to failing to take antisemitism with the requisite seriousness, unless the local Green leadership has rejected the policy and committed to overturning it.

Labour has already moved in that direction. It has issued an ultimatum to the local Green groups it currently governs with: disown the motion or lose Labour's support.

The motion that members backed at conference describes Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/ or domination of the non-Jewish population". It drew criticism from Jewish groups, four Green MPs, two former Green leaders and opposition parties. When it passed, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council issued a joint statement saying that "Zionism is anti-racism", describing it as the creation of a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution elsewhere.

A Green Party spokesman rejected the Board's characterisation of both the motion and the party. He insisted the Greens do not discriminate against people who hold Zionist views. The spokesman added that the decision will not stop the party speaking out against what it calls the genocide in Gaza, or pushing for stronger sanctions against the Israeli government and its leaders. Israel has repeatedly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

The party's leader, Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, did not take part in the conference vote. He left early to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, held days later. He has since told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he would like to make amendments to the motion but would not overturn it. It remains party policy until 2028.

That leaves the dispute with no obvious exit. The Greens' leader will not reverse the policy, the Board has set its condition for any cooperation, and Labour's ultimatum to its local Green partners is already in force. Watch how those councils respond.