Is it possible to belong to the Green party and be – ahem – Jewish? (Sorry, it feels like a dirty word these days.) I only ask because members risk being reported to the party for racism if they belong to ‘Zionist’ synagogues, under plans being voted on at the party conference this weekend. After amendments to protect Jews were rejected, the party is voting at their conference in Brighton this weekend on a motion to declare all expressions of Zionism – the Jewish desire for self-determination – a form of racism.

This flows directly from Cold War propaganda produced by the Kremlin. In 1975, after a decade of Soviet and Arab lobbying, the United Nations voted to adopt resolution 3379, which likewise determined that ‘Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination’. Writing for The Spectator at the time, the journalist Goronwy Rees despairingly reflected:

The fundamental thesis… was that to be a Jew, and to be proud of it, and to be determined to preserve the right to be a Jew, is to be an enemy of the human race.

The fundamental thesis… was that to be a Jew, and to be proud of it, and to be determined to preserve the right to be a Jew, is to be an enemy of the human race.

The resolution, which prompted British Students’........

© The Spectator