On October 4, in Brighton, the Green Party of England and Wales voted by 1,022 to 813 that Zionism is to be “treated as any other form of racism”. It declared itself an antizionist party and committed to a single state in all of historic Palestine. The same conference rejected an amendment that would have stopped the policy being used to “pressure, proscribe or discipline” members because of their affiliation with synagogues and other Jewish community institutions.
The first vote defined as racism a belief that most British Jews hold. The second refuses to protect Jewish members from the consequences. The policy is to be implemented through the party’s anti-racism procedures.
A Jewish Green who belongs to a synagogue that prays for the State of Israel, as most British synagogues do, belongs to an institution her own party now treats as racist.
I am a Zionist. This is a statement that many people, Jews and non-Jews, use to mean many things. Underlying these different meanings though, is that Zionism is not a position on the West Bank, or a verdict on any Israeli government. It is the belief that the Jewish people, like every other people, have the right to self-determination, and that after the 20th century we need one place where that right is secure.
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