The Green Party was forced to postpone a vote on a controversial policy equating Zionism with racism last night after its spring conference descended into farce.
The event, held online via Zoom, was marred by technical glitches as more than 1,000 people tried to take part, delaying proceedings by more than an hour and leading some to claim it was being targeted by a cyber attack.
There was then a row over a trans party member being ‘misgendered’ and a protracted factional fight over the hardline policy triggered by Israel’s war in Gaza.
The motion, if passed, would see the party formally declare itself an anti-Zionist party and calls for sanctions on Israel and support for ‘resistance and liberation from Israeli occupation’, effectively backing Hamas attacks.
It would also ignore definitions of anti-Semitism, including those that Jewish party leader Zack Polanski once tried to get the Greens to adopt, which equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
But it comes days after an alleged arson attack destroyed ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer group in London.
Critics made attempts to rule it out of order, saying it contradicted party policy backing a two-state solution. There were then repeated calls for votes of confidence in those chairing the session, which delayed proceedings further, the Telegraph reported.
While this was happening, Mr Polanski was in London attending a demonstration of 500,000 protestors against racism.
He was pictured dancing with the party’s newest MP, Hannah Spencer, before telling the crowd in Trafalgar Square ‘the tide is turning’.
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‘I know people have been scared, and we have been afraid, but days like this are here to send a message, a message to Tommy Robinson, to Nigel Farage, to those who appease them.
‘The message is, when we turn up, in our hundreds, in our thousands, in our hundreds of thousands, we are unstoppable.’
Former Green Party deputy leader Shahrar Ali tweeted that the vote had been delayed by ‘wrecking tactics’.
‘This is the ugly side of Green Party internal democracy – from a party which pretends grassroots democracy is at its core’ he wrote.
‘The reality is their hatred of debate extends to their determination to stop debate if they have the power to do so.’
