MPs call on city Greens to disown Zionism motion

Birmingham Labour MPs Al Carns, Jess Phillips and Preet Gill have signed a letter urging Green city council cabinet members to repudiate a motion on Zionism.

Three Birmingham Labour MPs have said the city council’s power-sharing coalition should be ended if Green Party cabinet members refuse to disown a motion that describes Zionism as a form of racism.

In a letter sent to Liberal Democrat council leader Roger Harmer, MPs Al Carns, Jess Phillips and Preet Gill call on councillors to publicly reject the policy adopted at the Green Party conference earlier this month.

Harmer told the BBC that the Lib Dems would keep working in coalition with the Greens so long as they continue to follow a partnership agreement that includes a pledge to combat antisemitism.

Birmingham Greens directed the BBC to a statement saying its councillors “stand against rising antisemitism”.

The statement, updated on 14 October, said Jewish residents had “an absolute right to feel safe and valued in a city they helped to build”.

The Green Party’s three cabinet members in Birmingham are deputy council leader councillor Julien Pritchard, councillor Kamel Hawwash and councillor Jane Baston.

Hawwash is the only one of the three listed as supporting the Green Party’s new policy on its motion document, external.

The motion, passed on 4 October, describes Zionism as an ideology backing “an ethnonationalist Jewish state”, and instead endorses a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.

It has split senior Green politicians and prompted criticism from some Jewish groups.

Since then, Labour has said it will end power-sharing arrangements with the Green Party on local councils unless councillors disown it.

In Birmingham, however, Labour is not part of the Lib Dem, Green and Better Birmingham Independent Group administration that runs the city council.

Tuesday’s letter, which is also signed by Labour peers Baroness Morris of Yardley, Lord Rooker, Lord McCabe and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, calls the adoption of the policy “an abhorrent step”.

“It has no place in British political life and will do nothing to help the Palestinian or Israeli people,” it says.

“The motion echoes anti-Jewish movements from the Soviet Union, the National Front and terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. It is in itself racist, discriminatory and extremist.”

The letter adds: “We today urge you to seek a public statement from the Greens in your cabinet that they disown the motion.

“If they are unwilling to do so, then we ask that you show moral fibre and bring your power sharing agreement with the Greens in Birmingham to an immediate end.”

In a statement on Friday, Birmingham’s Lib Dem group said it remained focused on delivering the Fairer Birmingham Partnership Agreement (FBPA) agreed between it and the other ruling parties.

“It is not a merger of political parties, and each party continues to hold and express its own national policies and positions,” it added.

The statement continued: “We strongly disagree with the motion passed by the Green Party regarding Zionism and remain firmly committed to a two-state solution.

“We have received reassurances that the Birmingham Greens also remain fully committed to the FBPA and will not seek to change any aspect of it as a result of the motion passed at their recent conference.”

Harmer also told the BBC that he did not personally agree with the Greens’ motion.

He said the local election results and the differences between the parties had made forming a council extremely difficult, and that the partnership was about trying to provide stable governance for the people of Birmingham until the next elections.

Birmingham Greens’ statement said councillors were committed to representing all the city’s faiths and local communities, as well as to the FBPA.

“We will also continue to stand in opposition to genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and the illegal occupation. We look to a future where Palestinians, Israelis – and indeed all communities – can be free, secure and prosperous,” it added.

“We do not believe these things are in conflict.”