The media is using the ‘Zionism is Racism’ conference motion to attack the Green Party, members say

Green Party members have told Left Foot Forward that the media is using their Zionism is Racism motion to attack the Green Party and its leader Zack Polanski. 

On Sunday, the party will vote on the motion, which sets out to define Zionism as an ideology that maintains “a system of racial discrimination and settler‑colonial domination over the indigenous Palestinian population”.

Ex-Green Party leader Caroline Lucas told The Times that the motion is “divisive and not helpful” and has previously said the party should redirect its focus back to environmental issues.

Several media outlets have written articles scrutinising the motion, while The Telegraph ran a piece by journalist and commentator Nicole Lampert yesterday, entitled ‘Anti-Zionists are the real racists’.

Linda Walker, a Green member in High Peak, told LFF that “The media is seeing it as an opportunity to attack the Green Party and Zack Polanski.”

She added: “It’s a pity the media is making it such a big focus as there are lots of other important issues”.

Walker supports the motion, stating that “Zionism clearly is racist and the motion is not in any way antisemitic”.

The motion was first put forward at the Greens’ spring conference in March, but failed to reach a vote due to filibustering by opponents.

Walker said the motion should have passed in the Spring but “it was deliberately blocked, which made people who were for it more determined to pass it and people who were opposed more determined to block it”. 

She thinks that this time, the motion will pass “but maybe with an amendment calling for Jewish people not to be harassed which is ridiculous because the motion doesn’t call for that”. 

Andrew Blakie, a Green member in Hillingdon told this outlet that when the “Zionism is racism” motion was put forward at the Spring conference it was “very disruptive”. 

He said the focus shifted to “blocking the motion and stopping the motion from being blocked”, and prevented “lots of other important things, like discussions about the climate crisis being discussed”. 

Daniel Klein, a young Green member Leeds, said he wished the motion was “slightly better worded” but that he believes “it is racist to be Zionist, I do not see a construction of Israel that is not a form of imperial racism”.

A former Labour member, Klein said Labour’s position on Gaza was one of the main reasons he left the party. He added that he supports the motion but feels it is being weaponised by the media.

Klein said: “If it passes, I’m sure journalists from many shill publications will use it to say ‘The Green party wants to kill Jewish people’ which is not good.”

Amber Conyers-Davies, another young member in Leeds, compared the Zionism is Racism (ZiR) motion to the Abolish Landlords motion a few years ago, which she says was “clickbait” and “kind of made for the media”.

Conyers-Davies said “I’m kind of worried this motion is going to have the same but not as positive effect.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward