Board of Deputies votes to declare Greens a ‘racist party’

The Board of Deputies has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the Green Party of England and Wales as a “racist party” following its declaration that Zionism was racism at its conference earlier this month. At an online meeting, by a majority of 118 to one, members of the representative body said that the party “has, by adopting an antisemitic platform, become a racist party, and that the Board shall treat it as it has treated other racist parties”.

Laura Marks, who chaired Sunday's debate on the Green Party[Missing Credit] President Phil Rosenberg urged members to support the resolution, which was proposed by Ashley Hirst, a deputy for Hendon’s Ner Israel Synagogue, and Max Royston, a representative for St John’s Wood (United) Synagogue. In his opening, Hirst linked Zionism to more than two millennia of Jewish history and religious tradition. “In every age we have spoken of our bond with Zion in the language of the day,” he said.

Modern Zionism was “ a people returning to its homeland after 2,000 years of praying”, he went on. "Zionism, ancient and modern, was part of Jewish identity and who we are and our tribe was bound to Zion long before the Green Party had heard of it.” The Green Party, he felt, had “crossed a Rubicon. A major UK party has written into its platform that a core part of Jewish identity is racist. "The time for asking nicely has passed. The time for us as British Jews to stand up for ourselves with pride is now.”

South Hampstead deputy Denise Lester, condemning the Green’s policy, said: “We should call this out for what it is, antisemitism pure and simple.” The Board resolution noted that the organisation had previously named political parties as racist, citing the campaign against the National Front in the 1970s. It described the Greens’ call for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine” as meaning “the erasure of the State of Israel in its entirety”.

It called on other parties to repudiate political alliances with the Greens “unless in the case of local government the Green Party local leadership have given assurances of their rejection of the antisemitic platform and their support for overturning it”. The Board would “deem any political party which breaks that firewall in any way to be enabling racism,” it said. The Board would “engage with and support any Green Party representative who publicly repudiates the policy and commits to campaign for its reversal,” it stated.

It added that it would stand “with the Jewish members of the Green Party and with their allies who have opposed this policy”. It also called on the Greens “to rescind the policy and until it does, to confirm in writing that no member will be subject to its anti-racism procedures because of their Jewish identity or affiliation to a Jewish community institution”. Former Board senior vice-president Laura Marks, who chaired the plenary session, described the vote as “a landmark moment” for the organisation.