Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist and activist, reported receiving dozens of threatening social media messages and emails after the Green Party of England and Wales voted to pass a motion defining Zionism as racism. The motion was approved by a vote of 1,022 to 813 at the party’s conference in Brighton earlier this month. Speitan told Al Jazeera that she anticipated such threats and characterized them as intimidation tactics from pro-Israel advocates, while maintaining that confronting what she views as evils remains necessary despite the personal risks involved.
The motion has generated significant controversy across the British political spectrum. Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Thursday rejected the possibility of partnering with the party, describing the motion as “wrong” and “anti-Semitic.” Several of the Green Party’s own left-wing MPs have also criticized the decision. The resolution defines Zionism as a settler-colonial and ethnonationalist ideology predicated on the dispossession of Palestinians, and it contends that opposition to Zionism should not be equated with antisemitism. The motion further advocates for Palestinian self-determination and the establishment of a single democratic state in historic Palestine for both Muslims and Jews.
Speitan has also faced media scrutiny and what she characterizes as personal smears. Reports have drawn attention to her association with Minh Quang Pham, a UK citizen who faced legal proceedings related to planning an attack at Heathrow Airport, after Speitan reportedly offered to provide testimony in his defense. She declined to substantively address these reports, describing the tactic as guilt by association. The Green Party stated that Speitan holds no party positions beyond her membership status and confirmed that an investigation into matters related to the motion is underway.
The Green Party’s action parallels earlier international precedent. In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution classifying Zionism as racist ideology, with 72 countries voting in favor, 35 opposed, and 32 abstaining. That UN resolution was later repealed in 1991. A media analysis by watchdog NewsCord found that opponents of the Green Party’s motion received approximately 10 times more media coverage than its supporters.
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