Arabic version: إسرائيل تدين قرار حزب الخضر البريطاني بشأن الصهيونية

According to Al Jazeera, Israel and British Jewish groups reacted angrily after the United Kingdom’s Green Party voted to define Zionism as a form of racism. The party described Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and repeated its call for the Labour government to end all arms trade with Israel.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the policy went “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate” and urged other British political parties to condemn the resolution. The ministry said on social media that the Greens had adopted “the green of Hamas” and its ideology. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the decision “a disgrace and a shame”, while opposition leader Yair Lapid said that “it is not Zionism that’s racism, it is the Green Party”.

The Movement for Progressive Judaism said the party had made “antisemitism party policy and become a racist party”. It said support for the motion from some Jewish people did not mean it could not be used to discriminate against others.

The motion passed by 1,022 votes to 813. It also reaffirmed the party’s commitment to Palestinian liberation, the right of return, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a full arms embargo against Israel, and a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is running for Parliament in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s London constituency, did not vote.

Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali told Sky News that the casualty toll in Israel’s war on Gaza and ongoing attacks formed the context for the vote. After the resolution passed, Polanski and other party members said they would oppose genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and illegal occupation, and condemn what they called the heinous crimes of the Netanyahu government. The Greens received 6 percent of the vote in the UK’s 2024 national elections and have five members in the 650-seat parliament.