Former Welsh Green deputy leader says online backlash shows why ‘broader left’ has failed
Emily Price
The Green Party’s former deputy leader in Wales has said the public reaction to his resignation shows why the “broader left” in the UK “has never been successful”.
Phil Davies announced on Tuesday night (October 6) he had quit the Greens after seven years as a member.
He said his decision was partly due to a motion to define “Zionism is racism”, but also indicated he wanted the Welsh Greens to split from the main party.
The Green Party voted for a motion at their conference in Brighton on Sunday which established as policy that Zionism, the movement to develop and protect a Jewish state in Israel, will be “treated as any other form of racism”.
It also supports the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of its historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital”.
The party’s leader, Zack Polanski, was barred from Israel after the new policy was confirmed.
Davies branded the Green Party’s passing of the controversial motion as “pointless”.
After news of his resignation broke, some social media users posted abusive comments beneath news articles about Davies.
The former deputy leader of the Welsh Greens shared one such article with the headline “Deputy leader of Welsh Green Party resigns over Zionism, is racism row” to his Facebook page.
The post included responses from online commentators such as, “one fine way to weed out the Zionists” and “another Zionist bastard bites the dust”.
Sharing the post, Davies said: “I know I shouldn’t really be reading them but the comments section on this from people who don’t even know me or everything I have done for the party over the last seven years really does show why the broader left in the UK has never been successful.
“Until more people start to live in the real world and engage with others like normal human beings any hope of genuine positive change from the status quo in the UK is non existent.”
In his resignation video posted to social media Davies said he felt the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) had treated him like a “token Welshman moaning at various points”.
He called for the Welsh Greens to become independent from the wider party, saying his position was not being treated with “respect” and that he felt he was not being listened to.
Davies said: “I feel like I have been banging my head against a wall for the past 2 years on this issue. It is firmly my position that we must split from GPEW and stand on our own two feet as a Welsh party.”
He added that the passing of the Zionism is Racism motion was “the final nail in the coffin” for him.
Davies said: “We as a party have always supported Palestinian rights and been clear in our position that the Israeli state is committing a Genocide of the Palestinian people.
“This motion to me achieves nothing materially to help people in Palestine and by committing us to a single state solution act against one of our four pillars of Green Politics of Grassroots Democracy.
“It feels very imperialistic to me for us in the UK to be telling people in the middle east what their futures should look like. Much in the same way that as a proud Welshman I wouldn’t want people in England telling me what Wales future should look like.”
Davies also raised concerns about the Greens’ “lack of long-term strategy for gaining power”.
He said: “It too often feels like within GPEW we rush for election or by-election without any long term planning for how we actually gain power within a UK context.
“As somebody who has travelled around Wales and England helping to try to get elected and the expense of my own time and money, I feel exhausted and fed up with doing this when I can’t see what the long-term plan is supposed to be.
“The whole party feels reactive rather than proactive to me.”
In the comments section beneath the video Green Party Member of the Senedd for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf Paul Rock said he was “sorry” to see Davies go, adding that his support during the party’s Senedd election campaign had been “invaluable”.
Some social media users left abusive comments on Davies’ resignation video. The former deputy leader of the Welsh Greens later switched off commenting.
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Considering how quickly my comments got removed on here by being voted down, any criticism of the evil of zionism seems to be taken as personal abuse. But, what about the 80000 dead semitic Palestinians, 20000 of them children. What about Netanyahu doing nothing to prevent October 7th despite a warning of imminent attack. Why let a festival take place so close to the border. Why not station extra troops on the border? Why not move people to a place of relative safety? Why keep funding Hamas when they were deemed terrorists?
You seem to be saying it was israel’s own fault that over 1000 of its citizens were slaughtered by Hamas’ terrorists on October 7th – rather than the hamas terrorists themselves being responsible? Sorry Atif but what youre saying is as wrong – and callous – as the statements from far right ministers in the netanyahu govt who have shamefully tried to justify the slaughter of palestinian civilans in gaza. Why cant you just find it within yourself to condemn what happened in Israel on october 7th 2023? Trust me to do so wouldnt compromise your support for the palestinians… Read more »
I already did. Several times in nation.cymru. happy to do so again. I condemn the terrorist attack on October 7th by hamas.
Why won’t you condemn the genocide of 80000 semetic Palestinians including 20,000 innocent children.
Why won’t you condemn the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the semitic Palestinians from their homes in the west bank and Ghazza?
Well if you’d taken the trouble to read my comment fully Atif you’d have seen i explicitly do both those things ie. my reference to “far right ministers in the netanyahu govt who have shamefully tried to justify the slaughter of palestinian civilians in gaza” and my reference to my decades of support for the Palestinians and opposition to their appalling treatment by successive israeli govt’s.
Just condemn it then. Please don’t beat around the bush.
It has now been disclosed that the Intelligence services of Egypt, Jordan and UAE warmed Mileikowski( Netantahu is his Colonizer Name) that Hamas were planning something major yet he chose to ignore it.
As I have said previously I thought that the Israel Gaza border was the most fortified in the World yet there seemed to be no IDF presence on the Border on October 7th until it was too late.
True. Strangely though leigh seems to have gone silent. Maybe waiting for the hate bots to down vote my post and get it deleted.
I’ve been engaged in palestinian solidarity since the massacres of palestinian refugees in lebanon in 1982, when i was in my teens, and ive supported the campaign for a full independent Palestinian state ever since. But this week ive found myself being denounced as a ‘zionist shill’ because i condemned the massacres of israeli civilians by hamas terrorists on October 7th 2023. Something is going seriously awry with regards to online discourse and this should concern all of us who believe in a democratic society and value open, reasoned and safe discussion and debate..