Britain’s Green Party voted on Sunday (October 5, 2026) to class Zionism as a form of racism, drawing criticism from British Jews and from the Israeli government which said it now viewed the party as “a body that gives legitimacy to terrorism”.
“The motion defines Zionism quite clearly. It defines it as an ethnonationalist movement. It defines it as ethnic cleansing. It defines it as genocide,” Mr.
The Green Party motion passed by a majority of 1,022 to 813 despite opposition from many senior figures.
The party — which received 6% of the vote in national elections in 2024 — said it regarded Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and repeated its call for Britain’s Labour government to end all arms trade with Israel. “The motion also restates the Green Party’s backing for the right to self-determination and calls for the establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine,” the party said in a statement. “The Green Party has made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party,” the Movement for Progressive Judaism said, adding that the support of some Jews for the motion did not mean it would not be used to discriminate against others. Ali said. Britain’s government views Israeli settlers’ actions in the West Bank as amounting to ethnic cleansing but has said courts must decide if other Israeli actions qualify as genocide. Polanski and other senior Green Party figures said they would “continue to call out the heinous crimes of the Netanyahu government” and that “there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people”.
Party leader Zack Polanski, who is seeking election to Parliament on Thursday in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s now-vacant London constituency, did not vote.
