Hold a member vote to adopt an official party position that Zionism is Racism
Your Party CEC Officer's Group
Your Party's constitution commits us to "social justice, peace and international solidarity." It commits us to opposing "all forms of prejudice, oppression, discrimination and scapegoating." It commits us to opposing "the global system of imperial domination and colonisation" and to supporting "movements for national liberation and self-determination."
This petition asks the CEC to mean it.
Zionism is not Judaism
Zionism is a political ideology, not a religion, an ethnicity, or an expression of Jewish identity. It was founded in the late 19th century by a secular European nationalist who accepted antisemitic premises and collaborated with antisemites on the basis of a shared interest in Jewish emigration from Europe. To conflate Zionism with Jewishness is not to protect Jewish people. It is to do exactly what Zionism's founder did: to treat Jewish identity as inseparable from a nationalist political project that many Jewish people themselves reject.
Opposition to Zionism is a position held by a significant and growing number of Jewish people and Jewish organisations worldwide, including Jewish Voice for Peace and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. This is not a fringe view. It is a principled tradition within Jewish political thought, and it deserves the same respect as any other.
What Zionism means in 2026
In 2026, Zionism as a living political position means active support for an ethnostate whose 2018 Nation-State Law formally subordinates non-Jewish citizens, whose government continues to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law, and whose conduct in Gaza is subject to genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Special Rapporteur have all formally classified Israel as an apartheid state.
To describe support for this political reality as merely affirming a people's right to self-determination, as at least one CEC member has done, is not a neutral position. It is a political choice, and it is one that sits in direct contradiction to every principle Your Party was founded to advance.
The standard must be consistent
Your Party applies the same standard to apartheid South Africa, to ethnic nationalism here at home, and to military occupations anywhere in the world. That standard cannot be suspended when the state responsible is Israel, and the ideology responsible is Zionism. Inconsistency is not caution. It is complicity.
Setting a precedent
The Green Party of England and Wales recently attempted to take this step, only for the democratic process to be derailed by an organised campaign of procedural disruption that prevented the motion from ever reaching a vote. That episode illustrated exactly why this question matters: those who cannot win the argument on its merits will work to prevent the argument from being heard.
Your Party has an opportunity to set the precedent the Greens were denied. We call on the CEC to take it.
Petition by
Sponsored by
To:
Your Party CEC Officer's Group
From:
[Your Name]
To the Central Executive Committee of Your Party
A PETITION CALLING ON THE CEC TO CALL AN ALL-MEMBER VOTE TO ADOPT THE POSITION THAT ZIONISM IS A FORM OF RACISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE VALUES OF YOUR PARTY
We, the undersigned members of Your Party, call on the Central Executive Committee to formally adopt the position that Zionism, as a political ideology, is incompatible with the party's commitment to universal human rights, and that its foundational and ongoing role in the dispossession, oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people constitutes racism.
THIS PETITION IS GROUNDED IN YOUR PARTY'S OWN FOUNDING PRINCIPLES:
Your Party's constitution commits us to "social justice, peace and international solidarity." It states that we "oppose all forms of prejudice, oppression, discrimination and scapegoating." It commits us to opposing "the global system of imperial domination and colonisation" and to supporting "movements for national liberation and self-determination." It affirms that we stand for "freedom from poverty, exploitation and war."
These are not aspirational statements. They are the constitutional foundations of this party. The situation facing the Palestinian people, and the ideology that sustains it, must be measured against each of them.
WE NOTE THAT:
1. Zionism is a political ideology, not a religion, ethnicity or expression of Jewish identity. It was founded in the late 19th century on premises that accepted rather than challenged antisemitic assumptions, and its conflation with Judaism does a disservice both to Jewish people and to honest political debate.
2. In 2026, Zionism as a living political position means active support for an ethnostate whose constitutional basis formally subordinates non-Jewish citizens, whose government continues to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law, and whose conduct in Gaza is subject to genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice.
3. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have formally classified Israel as an apartheid state. The United Nations Special Rapporteur has reached similar conclusions. These are not fringe positions. They are the considered findings of the most respected human rights institutions in the world.
4. Opposition to Zionism is not antisemitism. It is a position held by a significant and growing number of Jewish people and Jewish organisations worldwide, including Jewish Voice for Peace and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. To conflate criticism of a political ideology with hatred of a people is a form of bad faith that this party must refuse to participate in.
5. Your Party was founded on the principle that universal human rights cannot be applied selectively. The same standards we apply to apartheid, ethnic nationalism and military occupation everywhere in the world must apply consistently, regardless of which state or ideology is responsible. Anything less is not internationalism. It is inconsistency dressed as caution.
6. Attempts to democratically advance this position in other parties have been met with organised procedural obstruction, most notably at a recent Green Party of England and Wales conference, where a motion on this question was prevented from reaching a vote through coordinated disruption rather than open debate. Your Party has an opportunity to set a clear precedent for the British left.
WE THEREFORE CALL ON THE CEC TO HOLD AN IMMEDIATE ALL-MEMBER VOTE TO:
1. Adopt the party position that Zionism, as a political ideology, is a form of racism.
2. Affirm that this position is entirely consistent with the party's opposition to antisemitism and its solidarity with Jewish communities.
3. Commit to clear and unambiguous solidarity with the Palestinian people in all party communications and policy, in keeping with the party's constitutional commitment to opposing imperial domination and supporting national liberation.
4. Ensure that no party officer, elected member or representative acts in a manner contrary to this position in their official capacity.