The Green Party of England and Wales has voted at its conference in Brighton to adopt a motion that describes Zionism as a form of racism and calls for a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine. The motion passed by 1,022 votes to 813 on Sunday, and has deepened divisions within the party and drawn sharp criticism from Jewish organisations, the Israeli government and rival parties.

The text defines Zionism, the movement for Jewish national self-determination in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, as an ideology supporting an "ethno-nationalist Jewish state". It says Zionism should be treated like any other form of racism, declares the party "anti-Zionist", and states that anti-Zionism should not be equated with antisemitism. Supporters of Israel say a single state would in effect mean the end of Israel. Under Green rules, motions backed by members become party policy, though they do not automatically enter the general election manifesto. Delegates also rejected an amendment, by 1,026 votes to 684, that would have protected Jewish members from expulsion if they belonged to synagogues that identify as Zionist.

Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, did not vote because he was campaigning ahead of a by-election on Thursday in Holborn and St Pancras, a north London constituency. Earlier amendments he backed, including one rejecting the single-state proposal, failed. Polanski has said that if Zionism means the displacement of Palestinians, it is clearly racist. Adrian Ramsay, a Green MP and former co-leader, said he was "deeply saddened" and that the motion does not reflect Green principles. Reports say four of the party's five MPs opposed it, and all five later issued a statement implicitly distancing themselves from it. Former co-leader Carla Denyer had urged members to reject it, warning it would alienate many Jews.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust had warned beforehand that passage would put the party on the "extreme margins of democratic politics". Afterwards they called the motion an attack on the Jewish community, saying Zionism created a refuge after centuries of persecution and that labelling most British Jews racist fuels hatred at a time of attacks on Jewish people and buildings. Liberal Judaism's counterpart, the Movement for Progressive Judaism, called it antisemitic in formulation and intention.

Israel's foreign ministry said the resolution went beyond legitimate political debate and would be a "stain on the history of the United Kingdom", and later said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had barred Polanski from entering Israel. President Isaac Herzog called the vote a disgrace. The Conservatives said the party was "toxic to its core", Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said it crossed a line, and the Liberal Democrats also criticised it.

The vote matters because the Greens, who have five of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons, have grown under Polanski by presenting themselves as a left-wing alternative to Labour. The row exposes tension between longstanding members and newer recruits, and some commentators suggest it could prompt scrutiny from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which previously found Labour in breach of equality law over antisemitism.