Israel lashes out as UK’s Green Party formally defines Zionism as ‘racism’

Israel’s president declared that the ‘antisemitic lie’ deliberately endangers Jews and Israelis.

Israel has reacted with anger after the United Kingdom’s Green Party voted to define Zionism as a form of racism.

Israel, as well as British Jewish groups, lashed out on Sunday following the vote by the small political party. The Israeli government declared that it now views the left-leaning Greens as giving “legitimacy to terrorism”.

The Green Party, which received ۶ percent of the vote in the UK’s national elections in ۲۰۲۴, 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.

In a swift response, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the policy went “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate” and called on other British political parties to condemn the resolution.

“The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle,” the ministry wrote on social media.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog labelled the move “a disgrace and a shame”. Writing on social media, he said: “Those who claim the antisemitic lie that ‘Zionism is racism’ deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis everywhere.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said it is “not Zionism that’s racism, it is the Green Party”.

The Movement for Progressive Judaism, a British group, said: “The Green Party has made ⁠antisemitism party policy and become a racist party”.

It added that the support of some Jews for the motion did not mean it would not be used to discriminate against others.

During the vote, the Green Party also reaffirmed its “commitment to Palestinian liberation, the right of return, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and a full arms embargo against Israel”.

It also reiterated support for “the establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine”, the party said in a statement.

The motion was backed by a majority of ۱,۰۲۲ to ۸۱۳. Party leader Zack Polanski, who is running for Parliament in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s London constituency, did not vote.

In an interview with UK media outlet Sky News, the Greens’ co-deputy leader Mothin Ali said that the heavy casualty toll during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its ongoing attacks were the context for the vote.

The Green Party has five sitting members in the UK’s ۶۵۰-seat parliament.

Following the passage of the resolution, Polanski and other Green Party members said in a joint statement they would “continue to stand in opposition to genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and the illegal occupation” and “call out the heinous crimes of the Netanyahu government”.