Zack Polanski’s Green Party has been branded a “racist party” by one of Britain’s leading Jewish organisations, escalating a political confrontation over antisemitism, Zionism and the party’s position on Israel.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews passed a motion by 118 votes to one condemning the Green Party of England and Wales over its adoption of a controversial “Zionism is racism” motion at its conference earlier this month.
The organisation said the Greens had, “by adopting an antisemitic platform, become a racist party”, and called on other political parties to refuse coalition arrangements unless the policy was rejected.
The motion warned that forming local or national partnerships with the Greens without securing a commitment to overturn the policy would amount to “failing to take antisemitism with the requisite seriousness”.
The intervention raises the political stakes for Polanski’s party, which faces pressure to defend its position while challenging accusations that its platform legitimises prejudice against Jewish people.
Board president Phil Rosenberg said the policy crossed a fundamental line by characterising a central aspect of Jewish identity as racist.
“No political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of our identity, rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood, is racist,” he said.
Rosenberg argued that the motion branded parts of the Jewish community, including synagogues and communal organisations, with a slur and gave prejudice political legitimacy. He urged the Green leadership to reverse the policy and confront the antisemitism he said it had legitimised.
Labour has already intervened. Earlier this month, Andy Burnham issued an ultimatum to the Greens, saying Labour “cannot support a partnership with a party that holds the position” and describing the motion as antisemitic.
But the Greens rejected the Board’s characterisation of both the policy and the party.
A spokesman said the party did not discriminate against or exclude people for holding Zionist views, arguing that its conference motion represented opposition to the “ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people”.
The party also vowed to continue speaking out against what it calls genocide in Gaza and pressing for stronger sanctions against the Israeli government and its leaders.
Green activist and former parliamentary candidate Eugene McCarthy separately criticised the Board, describing it as “inherently political” and arguing that it should not be treated as the representative voice of all British Jews.
“British Jews are diverse,” he told GB News, defending the right of Jewish people to hold differing political views.
The confrontation leaves the Greens facing a wider question about whether their policy can be reconciled with the concerns of Jewish organisations and potential political partners. Rosenberg said those within the party who opposed the motion deserved to be heard and supported, while urging democratic parties to apply consistent standards against anti-Jewish racism.
For Polanski, the controversy presents a test of the party’s ability to maintain its position on Israel while addressing mounting demands for the policy to be withdrawn.
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