[UK] Green Motion That Turns ‘Zionism’ into a Judgement on Jews, by Dan Jacobs – 2 February 2026

From Socialists Against Antisemitism

A Green Party [of England and Wales] conference motion, described as declaring “Zionism is racism” and rejecting both IHRA and JDA, risks turning a debate about Israeli policy into a moral judgement on Jews. This piece argues that collapsing “Zionism” into one condemned meaning repeats the same conflation pattern people criticise on the other side, and proposes a more precise, policy-focused way to support Palestinians without laundering antisemitism.

The Green Party of England and Wales has accepted Motion A105 for debate at its Spring Conference in late March 2026. Public descriptions of the motion say it declares that ‘Zionism is racism’, commits the party to an explicitly anti-Zionist stance, endorses BDS-style pressure, and backs a ‘single democratic Palestinian state’ across historic Palestine with equal rights and the right of return. Those descriptions also say it rejects both the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, and calls for steps such as de-proscribing Palestine Action and the release of Palestinian political prisoners including Marwan Barghouti.

Even if you agree with its underlying anger, this is a bad way to write politics. The result is a word that holds a whole range of Jewish self-understandings is treated as if it has one fixed, damning meaning.

And then we act shocked when it plays out as a judgement on Jews.

Start with the obvious descriptive problem. Zionism has never been one thing. It has included: a refuge project after European catastrophe; a language-and-culture revival; socialist nation-building; liberal nationalism that imagined partition; religious messianism; and, in its ugliest strands, a politics of permanent hierarchy, oppression, occupation and supremacy politics. Treating all of that as ‘racism’ is like treating ‘anti-colonialism’ as an ideology responsible for every atrocity committed by anyone who ever invoked it, including people cheering on Assad or Putin.

You can say: the Israeli state has built and maintained systems that discriminate, dispossess, and entrench domination. You can argue that these systems are racist in effect, and often in design. Plenty of serious human rights reporting uses that kind of framework. The motion doesn’t do that. Instead of naming policies and structures, it condemns the organising idea and makes every Zionism answerable for its worst expression.

In Britain, ‘Zionist’ is not used like ‘Gaullist’ or ‘Fabian’. It’s used as a social category. In practice, it often means ‘the Jews I don’t like’, or simply ‘the Jews’, full stop. That slippage is part of how antisemitism adapts in public settings where explicit Jew-hatred is disreputable.

The motion isn’t targeting a tiny sect. A very large share of British Jews report emotional attachment to Israel, and many self-identify as Zionist, including plenty who despise Netanyahu and oppose settlement expansion, occupation and support Palestinian rights.

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Dan Jacobs is a London-based writer and organiser. His work moves between Jewish history, memory, and the lived reality of antisemitism in contemporary political culture. He writes about how antisemitism shows up in ordinary language and social habits, how it mutates to fit new moral fashions, and how people who would never call themselves prejudiced end up repeating familiar patterns when the stakes feel tribal. Dan co-founded Socialists Against Antisemitism (SAAS) in 2018. Through SAAS he has helped create and deliver talks on antisemitism, and has met with a wide range of political figures in an attempt to improve how the left understands and responds to antisemitism in its own spaces. The organisation includes both Jewish and non-Jewish members, and spans a range of views on Israel and Palestine, united by a focus on reducing antisemitism rather than policing identity. Alongside his writing and activism, Dan is Director of Engineering at CDP, where he leads teams building digital systems that support global climate disclosure. His first book, ‘A Brief History of Antisemitism’, is due out this summer.

[UK] Green Motion That Turns ‘Zionism’ into a Judgement on Jews, by Dan Jacobs – 2 February 2026

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