Stay updated with the latest news.
This article covers key details about Green Party MP wants to make sure it is ‘not vulnerable to extremists’ .
Brought to you by our news desk, this report covers the ground reality.
Dive into the detailed report.
A Green Party MP has statedher party needs to make sure it is not “vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists” after members voted for a motion that claimed Zionism was racism.
The motion put forward by activists, which became formal policy after it was approved at the Green’s conference earlier this month, has divided senior party figures and been criticised by Jewish groups.
Westminster leader Ellie Chowns told the The Mediait was a “significant and damaging policy” and she would work to reform the Green Party.
It comes after ex-leader Caroline Lucas statedit was not being protected from entryism – where people sign up to a party to try to change it.
Speaking to The MediaRadio 4’s Today Programme on Saturday, Chowns said: “I don’t k currentlyif 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.”
The MP described Zionism as a “contested concept” and statedthe motion did not represent the views of the large majority of Green Party members, “nor of people in the country”.
Chowns statedthe motion would be a “distraction from the very important work” the party has been doing campaigning for Palestinian rights.
She added: “I think it is clear that if we have policy, such significant and damaging policy, made by a ballotof just 0.4% of our members, that something isn’t working in our structures and our policy-making process.”
Members of the Green Party of England and Wales endorsed the policy motion by 1,022 votes to 813.
There are 230,000 members of the Green party overall and not everyone attended the conference.
The policy also backs a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, which includes modern-day Israel.
It defines Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, which criticised the motion, said: “Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it.”
Disclaimer: This content is automatically syndicated from external news feeds for informational purposes.
The views held in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.