Desperate campaign seeks to smear Greens for opposing Zionism

The political and media establishment are clearly desperate to put a spanner in the Green Party’s massive surge since the election of current leader Zack Polanski. The part’s firm stance against Zionism has become central to this. And the establishment’s latest scramble to smear Greens for opposing Israel’s genocidal settler-colonial project in Palestine seems unlikely to be successful.

Green Party “Zionism is Racism” motion attracts smears

There have historically been different strains of Zionism — the Jewish nationalist movement behind the colonisation of Israel. But the dominant form today is a supremacist extremism that empowers racism, apartheid, and genocide. Zionism is not Judaism, no matter how much Israel’s leaders and cheerleaders want to blur the line.

Now, Green members are campaigning for a spring conference motion that seeks to acknowledge that “Zionism is Racism” and declare the party as “an Anti-Zionist Party.” They also seek a rejection of cynical attempts to “equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism” in order “to silence legitimate criticism” of Israel.

The motion is fundamentally about equality, freedom, and democracy. And if it passes, author Matt Kennard says:

This will be a watershed moment in British politics.

Israel’s genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza has fuelled a growing movement to end the apartheid state’s crimes once and for all. And pro-Israel shills know full well that the Greens, under the leadership of a Jewish leader who stands in solidarity with Palestine, are helping to mainstream criticism of Israeli colonialism.

As a result, the smears are intensifying:

Thanks to strong progressive positions, the Green Party has quickly grown to over 190,000 members in recent months. And it has taken clear positions in support of Palestine under Polanski, like calling for the proscription of Israel’s occupation forces as a terrorist group.

But the party was previously more timid on Palestinian rights. And clearly there are some members still sympathetic to Israeli colonialism. Because one member has now told the historically racist Daily Mail (of all papers) that they reported fellow members to “counter-terrorism police” over the new motion on Zionism.

Green councillor Andrée Frieze, meanwhile, joined with others to criticise the “tone of, and language in, the motion“. But while pro-Israel voices might dislike it, it represents pretty basic progressive positions on Israeli colonialism:

Some observers believe this will be a real test for the Greens. But recent positions suggest that the majority of members will indeed lean into even stronger positions that meaningfully challenge Israeli war criminals and their cheerleaders.

Smears feed off timidity

Today, there are still attempts from pro-Israel propagandists to smear anti-genocide campaigners as antisemites. And such voices routinely claim that seeking accountability and consequences for Israel’s genocidal mass extermination of Gaza’s population is somehow “hateful”.

But the widespread pro-Israel smears against the left during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party were a learning moment. If you give propagandists an inch, they’ll take a mile. So the best way to challenge them is to call out their bullshit clearly and immediately.

No religious discrimination is ever acceptable. But that’s not what criticism of Israel is about. It’s political, not religious. And the vast majority of Green members have already shown their awareness of that, moving the party to strong positions on the Palestinian people’s right to existence, freedom, and democracy.

The smears will not end. But as long as Greens lean into unapologetic support for human rights and opposition to Zionist racism, the smears will fail. And when the smears fail, the chances of finally holding Israeli war criminals and their cheerleaders to account will increase.

Featured image via the Canary