Following the Green Party’s landmark vote declaring Zionism a form of racism, the media backlash has been swift and loud. Green MPs and commentators lined up to denounce the motion, while Palestinian voices — the people living the consequences of Zionism — were pushed aside.
This event brings those voices to the front.
Lubna Speitan, who introduced the motion, speaks publicly for the first time since the controversy erupted. She joins Dr Ghada Karmi, journalist Ahmed AlNaouq, Palestinian Youth Movement organiser Yara El‑Issa, and Adnan Al‑Sabah of the One Democratic State Campaign (UK). Together, they examine Zionism, the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians, and why the democratic decision of Green Party members must be respected.
Chaired by Ashok Kumar, Associate Professor of Political Economy.
Friday 16 October 2026 | 11am–12pm UK time
"For me as a Palestinian, Zionism is racism. Zionism is genocidal. Zionism is sociopathic. Zionism is all about ethnic cleansing for a group of people at the expense of another. If I were not Palestinian, if I just happened to be a Jewish person, I would have lived with all my rights granted. No one would have questioned me, no one would have come after my land, my country, to kill us. So if that is not racism, then what is? Ever since I came to the UK, I've been hearing some bizarre ideas: 'Zionism means different things to different people'. Zionism means only one thing. And it means one thing to the people that it was manifested at. Zionism means genocide and death."
–Ahmed Alnaouq, who lost almost his entire extended family in a single air-strike, including 13 children
"I don't know what the fuss is about. Zionism is of course racist. .... Zionists ... decided to establish their self-determination on the territory of another people. .... There's no way that the state of Israel could have been established without the expulsion of the people already living in the territory ... Why is this so difficult to understand?"
–Ghada Karmi, driven from Jerusalem as a child
