Israel Condemns UK Green Party Resolution Defining Zionism as Racism

Britain's Green Party leader Zack Polanski and lawmakers Hannah Spencer and Sian Berry attended the party's conference on October 2, 2026. 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 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 6 percent of the vote in the UK’s national elections in 2024, stated 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 ministry wrote on social media that the Greens adopted the ideology of the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle. Israeli President Isaac Herzog labelled the move “a disgrace and a shame”, adding that those who claim the antisemitic lie that “Zionism is racism” deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis everywhere. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid stated that it is not Zionism that is racism, but the Green Party.

The Movement for Progressive Judaism, a British group, stated that the Green Party has made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party, noting that the support of some Jews for the motion would not prevent it from being 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, while reiterating support for the establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine.

The motion passed with a majority of 1,022 to 813. 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 cited the heavy casualty toll during the conflict in Gaza as the context for the vote. The Green Party currently holds five sitting members in the UK’s 650-seat parliament. Following the passage of the resolution, Polanski and other Green Party members released a joint statement affirming their continued opposition to genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and the illegal occupation.