Green Party at Crossroads Following Adoption of Zionism Motion Defining It as Racism, Co-Leader Ramsay Suggests Focusing on Core Values

According to BBC UK, the Green Party is currently at a 'crossroads' and needs to concentrate on its 'core values,' according to Adrian Ramsay, a former party co-leader, following the adoption of a motion by members that characterized Zionism as a form of racism.

Adrian Ramsay, a former co-leader who served as co-leader of the Greens from 2021 to 2025 alongside Carla Denyer, advised the Greens that their policies must appeal to a majority of British voters if they aim to achieve necessary 'environmental changes,' and he cautioned against adopting an approach that risks being 'quite divisive.' In response, Green Party leader Zack Polanski asserted that there is 'no environmental justice without social, racial and economic justice.'

The motion, which Polanski did not participate in or vote on, defined Zionism as an ideology that supports 'an ethnonationalist Jewish state' and which has resulted in the 'disenfranchisement and destruction' of Palestinians. The motion also supported the establishment of a 'single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine,' which encompasses modern-day Israel. Members of the Green Party of England and Wales adopted this policy motion last month.

This adoption led to criticism from some Jewish groups, as well as from senior Green figures, including Ramsay and other Green MPs. Furthermore, Israel's foreign ministry stated that it had banned Polanski, who is Jewish, from entering the country. The Equality and Human Rights Commission also contacted the Green Party requesting further details about the motion, following concerns raised by numerous MPs from the Labour and Lib Dem parties, alongside Jewish campaigners.

Labour later announced that it would cease power-sharing arrangements with the Greens on local councils unless its councillors disavowed the policy. Ramsay, when asked if he considered Zionism racist, responded negatively, though he concurred with Polanski and others in viewing the events in Gaza as 'appalling.' The MP for Waveney Valley, who joined the party in 1998, expressed a belief that Israel has a right to exist, a point Polanski had not explicitly stated.

Ramsay further indicated that he has made it clear his 'deeply uncomfortable' with the motion that was adopted, and he suggested there is an 'opportunity to take some action in relation to the motion in the run-up' to the party's spring conference next year. He stated that the current issue is how Polanski and the party as a whole will react to the motion.

Ramsay elaborated that one possible course of action is to pursue this approach further, noting that this carries the risk of fostering a 'quite divisive, a quite internally focused approach to politics.' He suggested this perspective might be viewed by small groups on the hard left who attempt to influence the governance of various parties.

He emphasized that the party should concentrate on its 'core aims as a party and our core values.' This focus, according to Ramsay, should involve ensuring the party is 'consensus-building in how we approach our politics' and that 'we engage the grassroots of our membership.' He added that the party must be 'very externally focused' because the 'environmental changes that we need to have to safeguard our society for now and for the future' can only be achieved if the majority of the British public supports them.

Polanski, who missed the conference vote while campaigning for a Westminster by-election, previously mentioned his desire to see the 'imperfect' motion amended in the future, though he stated that the 'substantial part of the motion,' which asserts that 'the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology,' was 'obvious.' Israel has consistently denied that its actions in Gaza constitute genocide. Under Green Party rules, motions supported by members become official party policy but are not guaranteed to be included in the party's manifesto for the next general election.