Ex-Green leaders Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay have both criticised the party’s conference motion to define Zionism as a form of racism. Polanski himself claimed last week he was an “anti-Zionist” because “in practice” Zionism acts as “displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people”…
Lucas said on the Today programme this morning:
“I do have serious concerns about this motion. There is no single definition of Zionism, and irrespective of the intentions of the people who put that motion forward, I think there is a real risk that it’ll be divisive, and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party. I will not be supporting it for that reason.”
Adrian Ramsay added the motion was “not helpful” . The Greens’ conference starts today in Brighton, with Polanski onstage this afternoon. Funny how the Greens have so much to say about this issue, but when it comes to bin strikes in their own patch, well…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”