Council passes motion condemning Green Party view on Zionism

All but one of the councillors at last week’s meeting backed the critical stance reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Hendon Town Hall and (inset) leader Barry Rawlings

Barnet Council has passed a motion condemning The Green Party’s “Zionism is racism” policy – despite allegations of “highly inaccurate” claims.

The motion “Antisemitism is racism”, which criticised the Greens’ policy, was passed at a full council meeting on Tuesday (20th).

It comes in response to The Green Party of England and Wales adopting a motion titled “Zionism is racism” at its annual conference in Brighton on Sunday, 4th October.

The new policy formally established the Green as “an anti-Zionist party” while also calling for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, which includes present-day Israel.

Both the UK government and United Nations (UN) advocate for a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestine conflict.

Responding to the controversial Green policy at last week’s meeting, council leader Barry Rawlings put forward his “Antisemitism is racism” motion.

Cllr Rawlings 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.

Speaking from the public gallery was Beau Sebastian, a member of Barnet Greens and Jewish Greens, who described himself as “an observant, anti-Zionist Jew”.

Sebastian told members how 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”.

The Barnet Green then criticised the claim, made by Cllr Rawlings’, that his party’s stance had “alarmed the majority of members of the Jewish community” in the borough.

This, Sebastian said, was “a big claim” with “no evidence” presented to support it.

The Labour leader responded, saying both Labour and the 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. However, as usual, the borough’s only Green representative received no cross-party support.

The council’s legal officer also defended Cllr Rawlings’ 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 favour and one vote against.

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