UK Green member behind anti-Zionism motion ‘receives death threats’

What the report says

Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist and activist and member of the Green Party of England and Wales, says she has received death and rape threats after helping to advance a party motion that described Zionism as racism. Al Jazeera reported that she told the outlet she has received dozens of threatening messages and emails since the vote and has reported them to police. Speitan said she views the messages as an attempt to intimidate her, and said she expected backlash over the motion.

The Green Party passed the resolution at its conference in Brighton by 1,022 votes to 813. The motion has drawn criticism from most other British political parties and has deepened tensions within the Greens, including among some of its left-wing MPs. According to the article, Prime Minister Andy Burnham rejected working with the party and called the motion wrong and anti-Semitic.

The motion argues that Zionism is a racist ideology linked to the dispossession of Palestinians, supports Palestinian self-determination and calls for a single democratic state in historic Palestine. It also says anti-Zionism should not be treated as anti-Semitism. Speitan told Al Jazeera that not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews, and said criticism of her in parts of the British press amounted to guilt by association.

The Green Party said it takes such allegations seriously and that an internal investigation is under way. More broadly, the dispute shows how the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to shape debate inside UK politics, especially around language used to describe Zionism and anti-Semitism.