Barnet Council has passed a motion condemning The Green Party's “Zionism is racism” policy, despite allegations of “highly inaccurate” claims. The motion, titled “Antisemitism is racism”, was approved at a full council meeting on Tuesday, October 20th, with 58 votes in favour and one against.
Background to the motion
The motion was a response to The Green Party of England and Wales adopting a motion titled “Zionism is racism” at its annual conference in Brighton on Sunday, October 4th. That policy formally established the Greens as “an anti-Zionist party” and called for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, which includes present-day Israel.
Both the UK government and the United Nations (UN) advocate for a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestine conflict.
Council leader's response
Council leader Barry Rawlings put forward the “Antisemitism is racism” motion at last week's meeting. He said the move was necessary to “condemn” the Greens' “Zionism is racism” vote and reaffirm the local authority's “commitment to ensuring that Jewish residents feel safe, welcome, respected and able to participate fully in community and civic life”.
Despite near-universal support from councillors, not everyone in Hendon Town Hall agreed with many of the claims put forward by Barnet's Labour leader.
Green Party objections
Speaking from the public gallery, Beau Sebastian, a member of Barnet Greens and Jewish Greens, described himself as “an observant, anti-Zionist Jew”. Sebastian told members he had recently returned from the illegally occupied West Bank, where he had witnessed “horrific settler and state violence”, adding: “I have formed my view of Zionism from that experience and a lot of reading – not from a slogan.”
He continued: “Jewish people are not a monolith. Some of us are Zionists, some are not and we don't always feel safe.” The Green Party's motion, he said, was about protecting Palestinians – not undermining the rights of Jewish people, adding: “We shouldn't have discrimination in any form – and antisemitism is a part of that”.
Sebastian criticised the claim, made by Cllr Rawlings, that the party's stance had “alarmed the majority of members of the Jewish community” in the borough. This, he said, was “a big claim” with “no evidence” presented to support it.
Final vote and outcome
The Labour leader responded, saying both Labour and Conservative councillors could gauge concern through “many emails” and in-person conversations with Jewish residents and leaders of Jewish organisations. Cllr Rawlings also claimed that support for the Green Party policy essentially amounted to telling Jewish people to “disown their communities to participate in British politics”.
Before the final vote, Barnet's sole Green councillor, Charli Thompson, said there was “highly inaccurate” information in Cllr Rawlings' claims, adding: “I would argue that we need to be voting on motions with accurate information in them – not falsehoods”. Cllr Thompson called for the inaccuracies to be removed from the motion, but received no cross-party support.
The council's legal officer defended the motion, saying she and the mayor, councillor Zahra Beg, had “looked at the motion and don't think it's improper”. The motion was eventually approved by councillors, with 58 votes in favour and one against.
