Second London council passes motion decrying Green Party’s ‘Zionism is racism’ stance

Detailed summary

The council passed a bipartisan show of support for Jews living and working in the borough who have been troubled by the Greens’ stance

A second London council has refused to pass the Green Party‘s ‘Zionism is racism’ motion in the same week.

Greenwich Council members on Wednesday (November 11) unanimously passed a submission recognising “the deep concern this motion has caused within Jewish communities” after hearing from local Jews who described their experiences of antisemitism.

Lubna Speitan, the proposer of the divisive Green Party motion, was at the meeting to see her proposal robustly rejected.

During a public question, she said: “Whatever motion Labour tables will not change the fact that Zionism is racist or that Green Party members passed this policy democratically.”

The council’s motion was proposed by council leader Anthony Okereke and seconded by Conservative group leader Charlie Davis in a bipartisan show of support for Greenwich Jews troubled by the Green Party’s actions.

This came on the same night Labour and Tory rivals did the same thing at Westminster City Council.

The motion agreed with a statement from the Greenwich Multi-Faith Forum that said, in part: “We do not agree with this [Green Party] motion and are concerned that it risks deepening division and undermining the sense of safety and belonging of Jewish people.”

Michelle Brooks-Evans, treasurer of the forum and chair of Bromley Reform Synagogue, spoke in support of the council’s motion as she described recent acts of antisemitism experienced by her family.

Michelle revealed one of her daughters recently had swastikas drawn on her school books, and her son had been called a “baby-killer who should have died in a gas chamber” while at university.

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