UK Green Party Criticized for Resolution Calling Zionism Racist

The annual conference of the England and Wales Green Party drew attention on Sunday when it narrowly passed a member-proposed resolution. The resolution declares Zionism — understood in its broadest sense as the national self-determination of the Jewish people in their historic homeland — to be racism, while endorsing a "single democratic Palestinian state over all of historic Palestine."

According to analysts, the decision was not only surprising but deeply damaging. It is said to run counter to the interests of the Palestinian cause itself, erode prospects for peace, and raise questions about the Green Party's ability to be taken seriously as an emerging force in British politics.

One paradox was noted: for a party whose very reason for existing is to save the planet from the catastrophe of climate change, the closing focal points of its annual conference should have been how Britain can halt and reverse global warming, achieve net-zero emissions, and address the many issues that could unite the party rather than sharply divide it. The focus on the Israel-Palestine issue is said to bring no practical political benefit to the party's MPs before they return to Westminster.

The decision to treat Zionism as "another form of racism" is judged to reflect a lack of understanding of the movement's fundamental principles, driven by hostility toward the state of Israel and in some cases linked to antisemitism.

The Zionist movement arose in Europe as a response to widespread antisemitism, manifested in pogroms, expulsions, persecution, and systematic discrimination. It was also a reform movement, rebelling against Orthodox Judaism, seeking to change the course of Jewish history from within and to help Jews become a nation like other nations, rather than remaining an isolated minority living in the diaspora. Early Zionists saw that condition as abnormal and harmful, believing it could only be resolved through self-liberation — that is, the establishment of an independent Jewish state.

There is nothing inherently racist in the nation-building aspiration of a group sharing a common identity, history, religion, tradition, and language. Judaism is not only a religion but also a cultural identity and a sense of belonging to a people and a history. Political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson famously argued that all nations are social constructs, or "imagined communities." The Jewish aspiration for self-determination was shaped by the biblical history of independence, followed by exile and persecution, along with 19th-century European ideology about a world of nation-states.

After fierce debate within the movement, the territory most widely favored was ancient Eretz Israel. However, the movement has also been criticized for adopting a deeply problematic, colonial-tinged view that the land of Israel was a virgin territory. The slogan "a land without a people for a people without a land" embodied that profound misconception.

The immense suffering of the Palestinians caused by the Zionist movement's effort to establish a Jewish state on the land of their ancestors is undeniable: from the Nakba of 1948 to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza beginning in 1967, to the expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to the horrors visited upon Palestinians in Gaza in Israel's response to Hamas's massacre on October 7, 2023.

Yet the most fundamental document produced by Zionism — Israel's Declaration of Independence of May 14, 1948 — envisioned a state that is both Jewish and democratic, with neither principle overriding the other, in a context where the Zionist leadership accepted the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab. Is there racism in Israel? Yes. It exists in Israeli society and is especially evident under the current government. Do Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship enjoy full equality before the law and freedom from discrimination? No. Israeli society falls short on this score, and the refusal of many parties representing predominantly Jewish voters to form a government with Arab parties, regardless of their political views, is discriminatory and unacceptable in a democracy.

However, none of that makes the state of Israel, or the entire Zionist project, inherently racist. The movement has always been diverse and, regrettably, has included racist elements, but they have never represented the whole, or even necessarily the mainstream, tradition of Zionism.

In practical terms, the Green Party's call to establish a single state called Palestine replacing Israel is a shocking demand aimed at erasing an existing United Nations member state. UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 called for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab. Israel was established the following year and joined the UN in 1949. What remains unfulfilled from that partition plan is the establishment of a Palestinian state, which requires ending the occupation and enabling genuine Palestinian self-determination. That is where international efforts should focus.

Moreover, the Green Party's move could hardly have come at a worse time: amid a tense Israeli general election campaign. It directly boosts Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right partners, who thrive on the misleading narrative of "us against the world." In this case, the Green Party has handed them exactly the ammunition they need.

The Green Party has the right to take a position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, as any other political party does. There is much to criticize about the current Israeli government, about an occupation lasting nearly six decades and the expansion of settlements, all of which undermine the possibility of a two-state solution. But seeking to brand the entire Zionist movement as racist, denying the Jewish right to self-determination, and calling for a one-state solution that most Palestinians do not support ultimately reflects the Green Party's political immaturity, lack of understanding, and moral crisis more than it does anything about Zionism.

The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.