UK Green Party Member Faces Death Threats After Passing Anti-Zionism Motion

Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian activist and member of the Green Party of England and Wales, has received death and rape threats following the party’s approval of a motion labeling Zionism as racism. Speitan, an artist and activist, described the threats as a form of intimidation from pro-Israel agitators, emphasizing that the motion was necessary to confront what she calls “these evils.” The motion, passed at the Green Party’s national conference in Brighton, defines Zionism as an ethnonationalist settler-colonial project rooted in the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The motion, which received 1,022 votes to 813, has drawn widespread criticism from other British political parties and has caused internal turmoil within the Greens. Several left-wing MPs have expressed disapproval, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out any partnership with the party, calling the motion “wrong” and “anti-Semitic.” The motion asserts that Zionism, the belief in a historic Jewish claim to Palestine, is a form of racism, based on the displacement of Palestinians, who constituted over 90 percent of the population in 1917 when Britain supported the creation of a Jewish state.

Speitan’s position aligns with the motion’s call for a single democratic state in historic Palestine for Muslims and Jews, emphasizing that anti-Zionism should not be equated with anti-Semitism. She clarified that the motion targets an ideology—Zionism—not all Jews or all Zionists. Speitan also noted that fifty-six members of her family have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began three years ago, underscoring the human cost of the conflict.

Recent British media reports have falsely claimed that Speitan was “friends” with an “al-Qaeda terrorist,” citing her past offer to testify in defense of Minh Quang Pham, a UK citizen who had planned an attack at Heathrow Airport. Speitan dismissed these claims as a tactic of guilt by association, stating that such tactics will not be dignified with a response. The Green Party of England and Wales confirmed that Speitan holds no official party position, highlighting the independent nature of her activism.

The motion has sparked a broader debate on the definitions of Zionism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism, with critics arguing that equating Zionism with racism oversimplifies complex historical and political realities. Proponents, however, maintain that the motion seeks to address the systemic injustices faced by Palestinians. As the controversy continues, the incident underscores the polarizing nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the challenges of navigating political and religious discourse in a divided world.

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