Green Party MP Ellie Chowns has challenged the party’s policymaking system after a conference motion classified Zionism as racism and endorsed a single Palestinian state rather than a two-state solution.
Chowns, the party’s leader in the House of Commons, said the vote showed that the structures used to make policy were not functioning properly. She said she did not believe the policy reflected most Green members or people across the country, and argued that the party should concentrate on criticising the Israeli government’s actions instead of disputing contested terminology.
The vote has also intensified scrutiny of Zack Polanski, who missed the debate while campaigning in a byelection and did not give a clear position beforehand. After losing the contest, Polanski said he would have opposed the motion, citing the rejection of two amendments that would have left the form of any future Palestinian state to Palestinians rather than endorsing a single-state model.
Vivien Lichtenstein, chair of the Jewish Greens, said Polanski had made a serious error by staying away and called for his resignation. Other Jewish Greens members said her view was not representative of the group’s majority, while a no-confidence motion against her was tabled. The dispute has therefore opened two connected questions for the party: how its rapidly expanded membership should shape policy and who should speak for it during the backlash.