Omdim Beyachad (Standing Together) is a Jewish-Palestinian group which is vehemently critical of the Israeli government and most opposition parties, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, organises aid convoys for Gaza and operates patrols to try and protect Palestinians in the West Bank from settler attacks. Despite this, the Jewish Chronicle has reported that the Green Party has refused to let UK Friends of Standing Together host a stall or operate a fringe event.
Last year, the Green Party faced calls from its own Greens for Palestine group to ban Sally Abed, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who co-chairs Standing Together, from speaking via video link-up at a fringe event. Lubna Speitan, the subsequent author of the “Zionism is racism” motion which is due to return to party conference this September, said that “Standing Together is an organisation explicitly boycotted under BDS guidelines due to its refusal to endorse BDS and its efforts to create partnerships between Israeli and Palestinian citizens without addressing the structures of apartheid, occupation, and colonisation that underpin their relationship.”
Speitan went on to write that “The overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society, including unions, women’s groups, and human rights organisations, have called for a cultural and institutional boycott of Israeli groups that undermine their struggle. When they say don’t platform FOST, the ethical response is not to question their motives or dismiss them as ‘narrow’ or ‘hardline.’ It is to respect the strategy Palestinians have chosen for their own liberation.”
This position was strongly supported by others in the Green Party, including councillor Hau-Yu Tam, who more recently has become Lewisham council’s Cabinet Member for “Communities, Sanctuary & Healing”.
On Tuesday it was reported that the Antisemitism Policy Trust had been unable to unable to secure an event at Green Party conference, or even advertise an event in the party’s conference fringe programme.
LONDON — Key architects of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership stint are being drafted in to advise the Greens — but not everyone’s sold on the influx.Lord grant me the confidence of Mish Rahman
As Corbyn’s post-Labour project, Your Party, has stalled due to factional infighting, a number of figures who previously worked for the Islington North MP are now focused on transforming the Greens into a significant force on the British left.
Activists say that the Greens are the only major party that champions their socialist beliefs, and can have an impact on mainstream politics. Veterans of the Corbyn era bring some experience to the Greens of organizing on a national scale, navigating the machinations of internal party politics, and broadcasting a coherent political message.
But it is difficult for some Green members to shrug off the memories of infighting and factionalism that they associate with the Corbyn project, which saw Labour in 2019 suffer its worst-ever election defeat since 1935 — the second general election in which Corbyn failed to defeat the Conservatives.
“Why would [the Greens want to] inherit people who were part of a failed project, who didn’t know how to work, and who were beefing left, right and centre,” said one senior Green local politician, granted anonymity to speak freely about internal party matters. “This isn’t just a chance for them to have a second shot.”
Operators looking for jobs should be put to use, according to Mish Rahman, a former Labour National Executive Committee member under Corbyn, who has since joined the Greens.
He told POLITICO that there is “a huge amount of talent and experience among members,” and that strengthening “messy” internal structures would aid the Green Party's political impact.
“There are people like me, and there are others who worked in the Corbyn administration. Some who even worked in the Labour Party for the early years of the Starmer administration, so these people do know how to run a big operation. They’re not there to ruin things, and they weren’t the reason why certain political projects were ruined,” he said.
- By Malcolm Armsteen
- By davidjay
- By Boiler