Statement from Daniel Schuster, Simon Wiesenthal Center European Regional Director.
The British Green Party’s decision to formally classify Zionism as a form of racism is absurd, not based on any logical basis and is itself racist. And timing, just days before the third anniversary of the October 7 terrorist Hamas attacks, is designed to inflict pain on a deeply solemn occasion.
Three years ago, Israelis were murdered, kidnapped, and terrorized in the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. As Jewish communities prepare to remember those victims and the families and communities forever changed by that day, a major British political party has chosen this moment to declare that the national movement at the heart of modern Jewish self-determination is itself racist.
At its core, Zionism affirms something fundamental: the Jewish people, like other peoples, have the right to self-determination and a homeland.
The consequences of this resolution extend far beyond political theory.
At a time of heightened antisemitism, and on the eve of an anniversary when Jews around the world are remembering the consequences of October 7, political leaders should be building bridges between communities, not creating new tests for which expressions of Jewish identity are considered acceptable.
Branding Zionism itself as racism crosses a profoundly consequential line. It takes a movement for Jewish national self-determination and transforms it into something for which Jews are expected to apologize. We will not.
We support Israel. We support Jewish self-determination. And we will not accept the premise that those convictions are racist. As Jews around the world prepare to remember October 7, hear our message with absolute clarity.