Jewish Greens chair could quit party over Zionism motion

Head of Jewish Greens' response to 'Zionism is racism' motion

Vivien Lichtenstein has told the BBC it is "quite possible" she will leave the Green Party.

Lichtenstein shared her thoughts on the backed motion declaring Zionism a form of racism at the party's conference in Brighton.

The vote passed 1,022 to 813, out of a membership of about 230,000.

The motion defines Zionism as support for an "ethnonationalist Jewish state," which Israel's foreign ministry and British Jewish groups have both condemned.

What Lichtenstein has said about leaving

The Jewish Greens chair told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I haven't decided yet... It is quite possible that I will leave the party.

"I'm giving it a little time and to talk with colleagues."

Lichtenstein said that she opposed the motion "from the first time" she heard about it.

The policy, she argued, "doesn't make any difference whatsoever" to Palestinians suffering in Gaza or the West Bank.

The chair of the Jewish Greens also called herself "both Zionist and anti-Zionist," depending on the definition used.

Why the row matters beyond Brighton

A minority faction's own chair publicly weighing resignation is a sharper test of a party than any poll.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council pushed back hard, insisting "Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it."

Lichtenstein said she wasn't worried about being branded a racist for backing Israel's right to exist.

However, competing definitions of Zionism, she shared, are themselves the problem behind such a divisive vote.

What does the Green Party motion actually say?

The motion defines Zionism in what it calls "a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants."

It also defines Zionism as support for an "ethnonationalist Jewish state."