The leader of the UK’s Green Party will reportedly skip the vote on the controversial “Zionism is racism” motion that effectively calls for Israel to be erased as a Jewish state.
The vote is set to take place today during the party’s conference in Brighton and will define the party’s official policy on Israel.
According to The Telegraph, Green Party leader Zack Polanski is set to skip the vote and will instead be campaigning in London ahead of Thursday’s local election for the seat in parliament vacated by former Labour prime minister Keir Starmer.
The measure describes Zionism, which is broadly defined as support for Jewish national self-determination in the land of Israel, as support for “an ethnonationalist Jewish State” and proposes that the party should commit to supporting a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.”
Polanski — who is Jewish — said Friday he was “calling for an amendment” when asked whether the motion was calling for the eradication of Israel.
The motion has exposed divisions within the faction, with a number of former party leaders calling it “divisive” and “wrong.”
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