Ahead of elections, Green Party stands by Israel boycott stance

[shira]

4. England’s Green Party Has an Anti-Semitism Problem

http://forward.com/opinion/world/218737/england-s-green-party-has-an-anti-semitism-probl/

At a forum with voters in February, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett was asked what she would do to ensure that Jews feel safe in Britain. Bennett rambled on vaguely about funding inter-communal dialogue without even mentioning Jews, indicating that the problem of anti-Semitism was one she had never thought about before.

The Greens have emerged in recent years in England as a left-wing alternative to Labor and the Liberal Democrats, but increased representation has also brought closer scrutiny, including how their commitment to a society free from discrimination relates to Jews.

We’ve known for a while that the Greens have an Israel problem. Their current manifesto includes pledges to halt arms sales to Israel — equating them with Saudi Arabia as a violator of human rights — and suspend the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, which grants Israel economic benefits and closer scientific and cultural cooperation with Europe.

The Greens support either a one- or two-state solution, and call on Israel to repeal its Law of Return as “it is incompatible with the full exercise of human rights and discriminates against Palestinians because they are not Jewish.” They also favor the full implementation of U.N. Resolution 194, with all that would portend for Israel’s status as a Jewish state.

But the Greens don’t just have issues with Zionism. As early as 2010, observers noted that “too often a sympathy for the plight of Palestinians spills over into full-blown anti-Semitism.”

Internal party communications reveal that articles by the fascist British National Party and white supremacist David Duke have been circulated on party discussion forums. Other posts on these forums have referred to the Board of Deputies of British Jews as the “Zionist lobby,” adding “we must smash the Zionists.” Zionism in these discussions has been characterized as a form of racial discrimination, “incompatible with Green views,” and “an ancient theological fantasy.” During Operation Protective Edge, Israel was accused of visiting a second Holocaust upon the Palestinians.