No notion has been so cynically exploited and distorted by both its supporters and its detractors as Zionism. Just when you think you have seen enough in politics to stop being genuinely surprised, let alone shocked, the Green Party of England and Wales has managed to do exactly that. The decision at its annual party conference on Sunday to vote, albeit by a small majority, in favour of a members’ motion declaring Zionism – which, at its broadest, asserts the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination in their historic homeland – to be racist, while supporting a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, was not only unexpected but deeply damaging: to the Palestinian cause, to the prospects for peace, and, to be completely honest, to the Green Party’s claim to be taken seriously as an emerging force in British politics.
Even before addressing the decision itself, one has to ask why, for a party whose raison d’être has always been saving the planet from the cataclysmic threat of climate change, the headlines at the end of its annual conference were about Israel-Palestine. They should have been about how best the UK could contain and reverse global warming, reach net zero, and address the many other issues that could unite the party rather than bitterly divide it. Such a focus might at least have given its MPs some spring in their step before returning to Westminster next week.
Recommended Stories
list of 1 itemend of list
The decision itself to treat Zionism as “any other form of racism” is, in my view, a sad reflection of the sheer ignorance of those who supported it regarding the fundamental principles of Zionism, fuelled by hostility towards the state of Israel and, in some cases, intertwined with antisemitism.
The Zionist movement emerged in Europe as a reaction to rampant antisemitism, which in some places manifested itself through pogroms, displacement, persecution and systematic discrimination. It was also a reformist movement that rebelled against Jewish orthodoxy, seeking to change the course of Jewish history from within and enable Jews to become a nation like other nations, rather than remain a secluded and isolated minority living in the diaspora. Early Zionists regarded this condition as unnatural and ultimately disastrous, believing that it could be resolved not through emancipation alone but through self-emancipation – in other words, by establishing an independent Jewish state.
There is nothing inherently racist in the desire of a group of people who share a common identity, history, religion, traditions and language to achieve statehood. Judaism is not merely a religion; it is also a cultural identity and a sense of national and historical belonging. As the political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson famously argued, all nations are social constructs, or “imagined communities”. The Jewish people’s longing for self-determination was shaped by their biblical history of independence, followed by exile and persecution, as well as by the European ideology of a world composed of nation-states that took hold in the nineteenth century.
After much and bitter deliberation within the Zionist movement, it became apparent that the territory that appealed most to those who embraced the idea was the ancient Eretz Israel. This is not to exonerate the Zionist movement from internalising the deeply problematic notion, with strong colonial undertones, that the land of Israel was somehow a virgin territory. The slogan “a land without a people for a people without a land” encapsulated that profoundly mistaken perception.
The immense suffering of Palestinians as a result of the Zionist movement’s drive to establish a Jewish state in the land of their forefathers is indisputable: from the 1948 Nakba to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza that began in 1967, to the expanding settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to the horrors inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza in Israel’s response to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023.
Yet the most fundamental document produced by Zionism – Israel’s Declaration of Independence of 14 May 1948 – envisaged a state that was both Jewish and democratic, without one principle taking precedence over the other, at a time when the Zionist leadership accepted the partition of Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Is there racism in Israel? Yes. It exists within Israeli society and has become particularly pronounced under the current government. Do Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy complete equality before the law and freedom from discrimination? No. Israeli society falls short in this respect, and the refusal by many parties representing predominantly Jewish voters to sit in government with Arab parties, regardless of their political positions, is discriminatory and unacceptable in a democracy.
None of this, however, makes the state of Israel, or the entire Zionist project, inherently racist. The Zionist movement has always been diverse and has unfortunately included racist elements, but they have never represented the totality, or even necessarily the dominant tradition, of Zionism.
Practically speaking, the Green Party’s call for a single state called Palestine to be established in place of Israel is a shocking call for the elimination of an existing UN member state. UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 called for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Israel was established the following year and admitted to the United Nations in 1949. What remains unrealised from that partition plan is the establishment of a Palestinian state, which requires ending the occupation and creating the conditions for genuine Palestinian self-determination. That is where international efforts should be focused.
Moreover, this intervention by the Green Party could hardly have come at a worse time: in the midst of a bitterly fought Israeli general election campaign. It plays directly into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right partners, who thrive on the false narrative of “us against the world”. In this case, the Green Party has handed them precisely the ammunition they need.
The Green Party is entitled to its opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as is any other political party. There is much to criticise about the current Israeli government, the occupation of nearly six decades and the expansion of settlements, all of which obstruct the possibility of a two-state solution. But attempting to smear the entire Zionist movement as racist, denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and calling for a one-state solution that does not enjoy the support of most Palestinians ultimately reflects more on the Green Party’s political immaturity, ignorance and moral bankruptcy than it does on Zionism.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.