Ex-Greens co-leader Adrian Ramsay urges councillors to reject “Zionism is racism” motion

Adrian Ramsay, the former co-leader of the Greens, has urged the party’s councillors to reject the newly adopted “Zionism is racism” motion if doing so would help them stay in power in local government. His statement, given to the Guardian, marks a fresh sign of internal dissent over the policy. The motion was adopted at the party’s conference and also calls for a single Palestinian state in place of Israel.

Ramsay, one of the Greens’ five MPs, said he was pleased that a number of Green council groups had already condemned the policy. He had opposed the motion before the vote at the conference earlier this month but had not commented publicly afterward. Ramsay co-led the Greens in England and Wales for four years, until Zack Polanski took over last year.

The debate has been shaped by pressure from Labour. Last week, Labour ordered its local parties that share power on councils with Greens to end those arrangements if the local Greens did not disown the motion. Ramsay said he understood why Green groups might not want to be “bullied” into action by Labour. Even so, he said it was important for them to be clear about the motion and to maintain coalitions where possible. He told councillors that making their opposition clear would “reassure a lot of people in your communities” and let them keep making a difference for residents (Proverbs 18:17).

Several Green councillors and council groups that share power with Labour have already rejected the motion, including those in Lewes, Warwick and Rother. The Greens in Southwark also disowned the policy, which the source says they did in order to maintain a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Ramsay said these groups “have been brave in speaking out about such a contentious motion.”

Ramsay’s remarks put him at odds with the party’s leadership. Polanski has said he will not seek to overturn the motion, and the official party line states that the Greens will “not take lectures” from a Labour government that supplies arms to Israel. Ramsay said he believed the party’s position on calling out the ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Gaza should be combined with upholding the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to statehood and self-determination. He said that “calling out a genocide is more important than debating definitions of Zionism.” He also said it would be “incredibly sad” to see joint council administrations collapse, arguing that the alternative would often be a rightwing coalition that could put services at risk. He added that the motion “is a distraction from this work, and which I am confident is not supported by most party members.”

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Polanski defended the motion. He said it would stand for at least two years under party rules, but that he wanted to amend it to remove the call for a single Palestinian state. “I’m not going to try and overturn it,” he said. “At the first available opportunity, I do want to amend it.”

Source: Read the original report