Andy Burnham's No10 hits out at 'shameful' Green vote labelling Zionism as racism
Downing Street has hit out at the Green Party's "Zionism is racism" vote, blasting the decision as "shameful".
Zack Polanski's party voted in favour of the motion at the party’s 2026 conference in Brighton yesterday afternoon.
The vote was passed by 1,022 votes to 813 and was adopted without substantive amendment.
It defines Zionism as an "ethnonationalist political project" and states opposition to Zionism, the belief in Jewish self-determination and statehood, should not be equated with antisemitism.
Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, refused to explicitly outline his personal views and did not vote on the motion.
Speaking today in response to the controversial motion, a No10 spokesman said it was a "shameful vote against a two-state solution".
A Green Party spokesman said the debate had been "serious and deeply felt" and members had exercised their right to determine party policy.
The reaction to the motion has been unequivocal.
The leader of the Jewish Greens yesterday threatened to leave the party, slamming the vote as "unhelpful" and declaring it "does not make any difference whatsoever to Palestinians".
Vivien Lichtenstein told the BBC she is "concerned that this is a very bad motion".
She explained: "What concerns me is that the party might accuse UK organisations, Jewish organisations, and also Israeli-Jewish and joint Arab-Jewish organisations, of being Zionist and therefore racist.
"I support an awful lot of those sorts of organisations that are working against the occupation, and even go out on the ground to assist Palestinians."
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Unsurprisingly, Israel condemned the decision, accusing the party of giving "legitimacy to terrorism".
The country's foreign minister confirmed Mr Polanski has been barred from entering Israel altogether, describing the motion as "shocking".
"The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle," an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said.
"The shocking resolution adopted today legitimises armed struggle, calls for a Palestinian state 'from the river to the sea' – meaning the destruction of the State of Israel – and labels as 'racist' the aspiration of the Jewish people for self-determination.
"This goes far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate. As long as this resolution remains in place, it will stand as a stain on the history of the United Kingdom.
"Every political party in Britain, first and foremost the governing Labour Party, must unequivocally reject this twisted resolution."
There has been a growing divide between the Green Party and the Jewish community.
When attending a hustings held last month ahead of the Holborn & St Pancras by-election, in which he is standing, Mr Polanski was heckled by audience members after appearing to suggest British Jews are responsible for rising antisemitism in the UK.
The 43-year-old party leader told the crowd they must "separate antisemitism from criticism of the Israeli state" and they shouldn't "pit our Jewish safety against the safety of the Palestinians".
"Many genocide scholars around the world recognise it [Israel’s war in Gaza] as a genocide and calling it that is not antisemitic," he said.
"And I think, as a Jewish community, we need to come together to recognise that when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe."
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