British Green Party Passes A Horrible Resolution
The Green Party in Britain, led by a Jewish ideologue named Zack Polanski, adopted a profoundly anti-Israel resolution at its annual conference in Brighton on October 4, three days before the third anniversary of Hamas’ attack in Israel.
The stark resolution minces no words. It denies Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state and effectively embraces the position held by Iran, which calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
It is so radical that it could have been written by Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The resolution, passed by a margin of 1,022 to 813, condemns Zionism as a “form of racism,” claiming that it “privileges one ethnic group on the basis of the subjugation of others.” Calling for the right of return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, it advocates “a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine,” with Jerusalem as its capital, and equal rights for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
It also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and endorses a full arms embargo against Israel.
With this completely one-sided resolution, the British Greens have become a full-throated anti-Zionist party, while Polanski – a 43-year old former actor – has emerged as one of the most vociferous and outspoken anti-Israel voices in mainstream British politics.
The Greens’ decision to demonize Israel was deplored by Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. In a piece in the Free Press, he wrote, “Since at least two-thirds of British Jews call themselves Zionists, the party has, in effect, branded the majority of the country’s Jews racists, while declaring that doing so cannot be antisemitic.”
Strangely enough, Polanski did not participate in the vote, thereby conveying the impression that he lacked the fortitude to register a dissent. Prior to the conference, he told the BBC that he would support the motion only if it was amended to allow for the possibility of a two-state solution.
According to The Guardian, a group known as Greens for Palestine rejected Polanski’s suggestion, creating a schism in the party. “There are now two Green parties – the everyday members, and those who have joined for just one reason, Palestine, and who have no interest in anything else,” The Guardian quoted a Green member who opposed the motion.
Critics of the motion believe that Polanski could have and should have had the courage of his convictions and spoken up. He remained silent in the crunch due to his misguided belief that Zionism is a racist ideology and that Israel committed genocide during the two-year war in the Gaza Strip.
Yet, in a sop to his followers after the adoption of the motion, Polanski and his two co-deputy leaders released a joint statement assuring them that the party “will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment … We know there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people.”
Why, then, did he not push for a resolution favoring a two-state solution? Did he fear he would be deposed as leader?
In any event, the die has been cast.
The British Greens have gone so far out on a limb that the European Green Party felt compelled to issue a critique, saying that the resolution contradicts its longstanding support for a two-state solution, “with self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
The European Greens disclosed that its leadership and several member parties contacted the British Greens on the eve of the vote to express “deep concern” over the resolution, which “goes against our agreed positions.” The European Greens added, “We unequivocally distance ourselves from it.”
However, the European Greens roundly denounced Israel. It condemned “in the strongest terms the genocide against Palestinians and the human rights abuses committed by the current Israeli government.” And it proclaimed that “the fight against antisemitism and for human rights is an essential part of our political agenda.” The Jewish people, it noted, “must be able to live free from discrimination and violence.”
That Jewish organizations in Britain were disgusted by the Greens’ descent into a dark cul-de-sac was hardly surprising.
The Movement for Progressive Judaism, a major organization, said, “The motion is antisemitic in its formulation and intention. By adopting it, the Green Party has made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party. Jewish self-determination is a right. Declaring it racist is an attack on Jews. The Green Party has chosen to brand Jews who hold this belief as racists and make their equal participation in the party conditional on renouncing it.”
Accusing the party of distorting Jewish history and identity, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council excoriated the motion as antisemitic and “an attack on the Jewish community.”
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis blasted it as “poisonous antisemitism” and correctly pointed out that it resembles the infamous 1975 United Nations General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism, which was later repealed.
By most yardsticks, the motion lacks no merit, inasmuch as it mindlessly and falsely dismisses Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as a purely racist endeavor.
Lest it be forgotten, Jews have a historic right to their land. Jewish kingdoms were established in the Land of Israel, and Jews lived in their ancestral homeland centuries before the rise of Islam and long before the emergence of Palestinian nationalism.
Prior to the birth of Israel, the mainstream Zionist movement attempted to reach an accommodation with the Palestinian national movement, but to no avail. The Palestinian leadership, having failed to understand the meaning of territorial compromise and having cozied up to Nazi Germany during World War II, lost its gamble to eradicate the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. The Palestinian Arab inhabitants paid a very heavy price for their leaders’ truculence and short-sightedness.
The Green Party has now embarked on the same self-defeating path of vicious anti-Zionism. Its disgraceful motion to delegitimize Israel and the Zionist movement will likely tear the party asunder, most probably isolate it in many corners of British society, and undermine Polanski’s credibility as a leader.
The Greens, in all probability, will ultimately regret having passed this abominable motion.
In the meantime, Polanski has yet to win a parliamentary seat. On October 9, he went down to defeat to Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali in a by-election for the Holborn and St. Pancras seat in London vacated by former Labour leader and prime minister Keir Starmer. Abdi-Wali won 45 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent for Polanski.
Politically, Polanski is wallowing in the wilderness.
