Israel has barred Green Party leader Zack Polanski from entering the country after party members voted to define Zionism as racist.
Israel accused the party of giving “legitimacy to terrorism” after a majority backed a motion at its conference in Brighton on Sunday to formally oppose Zionism.
Israel’s foreign ministry called the decision a “stain” on British history and announced that Mr Polanski would be prohibited from visiting the country.
In an update today, the ministry said: “As a first step, foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has decided this evening to declare Green Party leader Zack Polanski barred from entering Israel.”
Conference delegates also rejected a clause that would have stopped the motion being used to “pressure, proscribe or discipline” members because of their affiliation with Zionist synagogues or other Jewish organisations.
The “twisted” resolution, which opposes a Jewish state and supports establishing a Palestinian state, has already triggered divisions within the party.
Mr Polanski was not present when the vote took place and rejected its outcome, while the Greens’ five MPs released a statement distancing themselves from the party’s new position.
Former party leaders also said they were shocked that the Greens had become the UK’s “first openly anti-Semitic party”.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski speaks at a Green Party campaign event in Kings Cross, London on Sunday
In an earlier condemnation of the vote, Israel’s foreign ministry said: “The Green Party in Britain ceased to act as a political party and became a body that gives legitimacy to terrorism.
“The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology – the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle.
“This goes far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate. As long as this resolution remains in place, it will stand as a stain on the history of the UK.
“Every political party in Britain, first and foremost the governing Labour Party, must unequivocally reject this twisted resolution.”
In a statement issued with Green MPs and his deputies, Mr Polanski said there was “no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people”.
Former Greens co-leader Carla Denyer said on Sunday that the resolution risked “alienating a significant proportion of Jewish people”, including those who “vehemently disagree” with Israel.
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Her former co-leader Adrian Ramsay and Caroline Lucas, the party’s first MP, also spoke out against the resolution.
Former deputy leader Shahrar Ali told Our News Outlet: “I am deeply ashamed. Making Zionism is Racism our official party policy has made us the first openly anti-Semitic party in the UK.”
Deputy leader Rachel Millward and Mothin Ali pictured applauding at the Green Party conference
The motion, revealed by Our News Outlet, states that the party is “opposed” to Zionism, defined as a movement supporting a Jewish state in Israel.
It also effectively calls for Israel to be replaced by a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital”.
It passed after 1,022 voted in favour, with 813 voting against.
Mr Polanski instead spent Sunday campaigning in Holborn and St Pancras ahead of Thursday’s by-election.
One Jewish Green member said many may now quit the party. It comes after a ‘safe room’ was set up for Jewish Greens in Brighton.
Our News Outlet can also reveal two members had their passes revoked – a Zionist after silently protesting in a Palestine fringe meeting, and the other, a Jewish Green, for filming it.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘One look beneath the surface of Zack Polanski’s Green Party shows a party toxic to its core.’
And Labour chairman Bridget Phillipson said the policy was ‘shameful’.
There are suggestions the motion could breach the Equality Act, with Adam Wagner KC writing on LinkedIn that it may ‘discriminate against’ Jews.
Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed the policy was ‘racism in its clearest form’.
And Luciana Berger, who quit Labour in 2019 after stating it was ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’ under Jeremy Corbyn, said the Greens ‘should be shunned’.
A Green Party spokesman said it opposes ‘racism in all its forms’.
