Green MP Challenges Party Policy Process Over Zionism Vote

Green Party MP Ellie Chowns has called for changes to her party’s internal processes after members approved a policy motion on Zionism that has triggered criticism from Jewish groups and divisions among senior figures. The motion was passed at the party conference by 1,022 votes to 813, according to BBC reporting.

Chowns, the Green Party leader in the House of Commons, said the vote showed weaknesses in how policies are created within a party that has grown significantly. She said the decision involved a policy supported by a small fraction of the party’s 230,000 members.

"I don't know if there are extremists and racists in my party. But I want to make sure that my party isn't vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists," Chowns said on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

Chowns described Zionism as a "contested concept" and argued the motion did not represent most Green Party members. She said the policy debate could distract from the party’s campaign work on Palestinian rights.

"I think it is clear that if we have policy, such significant and damaging policy, made by a vote of just 0.4% of our members, that something isn't working in our structures and our policy-making process," Chowns said.

The approved motion defines Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state" and supports a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine", according to the party policy text described by BBC and The Guardian.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council criticized the motion, saying "Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it."

Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said the party’s structures need review as membership and political influence have expanded. She said the party must remain open to Jewish members.

"Our constitution was written decades ago, well before we had MPs, before we had mayors, before we had anything like the number of that we have today," Lucas said.

"I think it is a big mistake for him to have dodged a debate about a party conference motion that declared Zionism a form of racism," Vivien Lichtenstein said.

Green Party spokespersons defended the conference process, saying members have the ability to submit and debate policy motions. They said the motion was one among many discussed at the party’s largest conference.

"Green Party membership has increased since Zack Polanksi announced his leadership bid in May 2025. Unlike other political parties, our members can bring and set policy," a Green Party spokesperson said.

"This is one motion alongside dozens of others that was discussed at our biggest-ever party conference. Every motion submitted to conference undergoes debate and no single interest group drives policy," the spokesperson said.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said he would not have supported the motion in its final form. He said parts of it, including a statement that "the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology", were "obvious".

Member Ashok Kumar, who supported the motion, said it focused on "Palestinian liberation." He said supporters believed public attention had shifted because of the violence of recent years.

"They see the violence that's (been) occurring over the last three years," Kumar said.

"So, I think the Zionist position is actually the marginal position," Kumar said.