Green Party Conference calls for an end to Genocide and Apartheid in Palestine.

Last weekend, the Green Party Conference was in Manchester. I wasn’t able to attend, but was delighted that the motion I co-proposed on Palestine was overwhelmingly supported.

Here is Kate Usoff proposing the motion.

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Here’s Cllr Mothin Ali seconding the motion.

The full text of the motion is as follows.

Insert the following into our Record of Policy Statements 

Recognise Israeli Regime as an “Apartheid” and Amend Policies for a Sustainable Society in the International Section following IP634: 

The Green Party recognises and condemns Israel’s policies as apartheid, based on international treaty and customary law, including, most notably, but not limited to: 

• International Convention on Apartheid (1973) and Rome Statute (1998): Israel’s practices, including extrajudicial killings, severe movement restrictions, discriminatory laws, and economic exploitation, align with apartheid definitions. 
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965): Israel’s racial segregation and discrimination violate this treaty, which Israel ratified in 1979. 

We call for an end to all forms of apartheid and equal rights for all. The term “apartheid” accurately describes the institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another, as identified by international human rights bodies and legal experts. 

• Recognise Israel’s Genocide and Use the term “Genocide”: 

The Green Party condemns genocide per the UN Genocide Convention (1948): 

• Acts qualifying as genocide: Israeli military operations causing civilian deaths, severe mental and physical harm, life conditions threatening Palestinian survival, and policies disrupting Palestinian family life and heritage. 

As of 2024, the systematic violence and restrictions on Palestinians meet the criteria for genocide. This motion ensures our positions comply with international law and our commitment to justice and human rights. 

• Affirm Green Party’s Support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement: 

The Green Party should have included its explicit support for the BDS Palestine Movement in the 2024 manifesto. We affirm our commitment to explicitly supporting BDS in our internal and external communications going forward. Supporting the BDS movement is essential to holding Israel accountable, to supporting Palestinians’ rights to equality and self-determination, and to demonstrating that our support, as a nation, is not performative. Israel should not be able to profit from its apartheid regime or its unlawful occupation of Palestinian land. If the UK Government has learned anything from its failure to support BDS during South African Apartheid, it must be that the impact of applying political pressure is nothing without an economic response. Anti-apartheid promises are hollow if nothing is done to reform the institutions that fund apartheid regimes. The UK Government must not make the same mistakes again. 

Also good news was the support for Zanes Law, the motion calling out the treatment of women in Afghanistan as a crime against humanity, and calling for a clear regulatory framework for AI and opposing Freeports in the UK.

To my dismay however, conference U-turned on HS2, and now supports the construction of HS2 along the full route. Conference really should have taken far more notice of the Wildlife Trust’s report Double Jeopardy which shows how HS2 undervalued the loss of nature and overvalued its compensation measures. We are in a nature emergency and we can’t afford to lose any more of our precious woodland. The carbon emissions reduction case for HS2 was never favourable – it will be a net contributor to emissions over its 120-year lifespan, according to its own data. Maybe if Conference had seen next Monday’s Panorama programme, the vote would have been different.

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