Britain's Green Party Faces Severe Backlash After Voting to Classify Zionism as Racism

A pro-Israel demonstration took place during Day Two of the Green Party Conference at Brighton Centre in Brighton, England, on October 3, 2026. Britain’s Green Party voted on Sunday to classify Zionism as a form of racism, drawing intense criticism from British Jews and the Israeli government, which stated it now views the party as “a body that gives legitimacy to terrorism.”

The party—which received six percent of the vote in national elections in 2024—stated it regards Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and reiterated its demand for Britain’s Labour government to halt all arms trade with Israel. “The motion also restates the Green Party’s backing for the right to self-determination and calls for the establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine,” the party announced in an official statement.

The definition of Zionism, which inspired the foundation of the modern state of Israel in the 20th century, remains deeply contentious regarding what it implies for the rights of non-Jews in Israel and neighbouring territories. While Jewish groups sometimes define it as the right to Jewish self-determination, the Green Party motion successfully passed by a majority of 1,022 to 813 despite strong opposition from numerous senior figures. Party leader Zack Polanski, who is seeking election to Parliament on Thursday in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s now-vacant London constituency, abstained from voting.

The election result faced immediate condemnation from British Jewish organizations. “The Green Party has made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party,” declared the Movement for Progressive Judaism, adding that the support of some individual Jews for the motion did not negate its potential to discriminate against others. Meanwhile, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar decided to bar Polanski from entering Israel, according to a statement posted by the foreign ministry on X on Sunday. The ministry asserted that the Green Party motion “constitutes a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.”

Mothin Ali, deputy leader of the Green Party and a vocal supporter of the motion, told Sky News on Saturday that the high Palestinian death toll in Israel’s conflict with Hamas—which followed the Palestinian militant group’s deadly 2023 attack on an Israeli music festival—served as essential context for the vote. “The motion defines Zionism quite clearly. It defines it as an ethnonationalist movement. It defines it as ethnic cleansing. It defines it as genocide,” Ali stated.

Britain’s government currently views Israeli settlers’ actions in the West Bank as amounting to ethnic cleansing, though it maintains that courts must determine whether other Israeli actions qualify as genocide. Israel, which rejects all allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, urged other British political parties on Sunday to condemn the Green Party's vote. “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 Israeli statement read.

In response, Polanski and other senior Green Party figures affirmed they would “continue to call out the heinous crimes of the Netanyahu government,” emphasizing that “there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people.”