Welsh Greens’ former deputy leader quits over ‘Zionism is racism’ motion
Emily Price
The Green Party’s former deputy leader in Wales has resigned over a motion to declare “Zionism is racism”, after also calling for the Welsh Greens to split from the main party.
In a video posted to social media on Tuesday (October 6), Phil Davies, who had been a member of the Greens for seven years, said he felt he was being treated like “the 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”.
Davies said: “I have often felt like the token Welshman moaning at various points but have not seen enough action taken by the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) to convince me they treat us within Wales Green Party with enough respect or listen to and act on our concerns I also feel the position of Wales deputy Leaders is ignored rather than supported by GPEW.
“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.”
In his statement, the former deputy leader also branded the Green Party’s passing of a controversial motion to define Zionism as racism as “pointless”.
The motion, which was passed at the weekend, called for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.
The party’s leader, Zack Polanski, was barred from Israel after the new policy was confirmed.
Davies said: “The passing of the Zionism is Racism motion was merely the final nail in the coffin for me.”
He added: “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.”
Davies apologised for having to leave close friends within the party, adding that he had “nothing but respect” for the Green Party’s elected Senedd Members and councillors within Wales.
“I can no longer personally stay within the party whilst it remains within a GPEW context,” he added.
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Blimey. Politicians with honour.
There is no honour in supporting genocidal murder of 20000 innocent semitic Palestinian children and 60000 semitic Palestinians
There is no honour in supporting the ethnic cleansing of semitic Palestinians from their homes in West Bank.
There is no honour in supporting genocidal murder of 20000 innocent semitic Palestinian children and 60000 semitic Palestinians
There is no honour in supporting the ethnic cleansing of semitic Palestinians from their homes in West Bank.
I agree with every word you say.I would like to add that it’s Fact not Fiction that not all Jewish People are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews.
After this ridiculous claim that “zionism is racism” by the England & Wales Green Party, it is high time that Green members in Wales formed an officially constituted Wales Green Party (just like the independent Scotland Green Party). I hasten to add that although I’m not anti-Israel, I believe that the Palestinians have just as much right to an independent state of their own as the people of Israel.
That was the idea behind the two state solution and most reasonable people do agree with this (I suspect even the framers of the motion, would also agree). Unfortunately the Israeli government is enforcing a policy of Only Israeli Sovereignty… even though that’s not currently in the Likud party constitution….(it was).
It is certainly a puzzle, and a disappointment, that almost 3 decades since the people of wales voted in favour of devolution – and since greens in Scotland broke away to form a independent scottish green party – that greens in Wales are still lumbered in with the ‘England and Wales’ Green party. Was good to see Phil Davies highlight this frankly unacceptable state of affairs in his resignation post. I hope that Phil Davies, and other Greens in Wales who think like him. will now consider joining Plaid Cymru.
It is certainly a puzzle, and a disappointment, that almost 3 decades since the people of wales voted in favour of devolution – and since greens in Scotland broke away to form a independent scottish green party – that greens in Wales are still lumbered in with the ‘England and Wales’ Green party. Was good to see Phil Davies highlight this frankly unacceptable state of affairs in his resignation post. I hope that he, and other Greens in Wales who feel the way he rightly does, will now consider joining Plaid Cymru.
This is just one ‘ishoo’ that separates to urban middle class metro-centric and student campus politics of the Green Party in England with that of the more serious and engaged parts of the Green Party in Wales. The Scottish Greens are not torn apart by such matters. It indicates that an independent Wales Green Party needs to be established akin to Scotland.
I tend to agree. It was a mistake when Welsh Green party members rejected the idea of a separate independent Wales Green party. It’s a decision they will come to regret, if not already.
The problem with The Green Party in Cymru is that it has been sometimes branded as an Incomers Party.This is down to the fact that some Incomers have escaped from The English Conurbations to want a laid back lifestyle in Rural Cymru.They obviously want to be politically active in Environmental issues but at the same time show zero interest in The Cultural surroundings of their New Country.It has also been known that some of these New Age Environmentalists even deny The existence of Cymru as a separate entity to England.
Sadly, Zionism has become toxic where it began as a movement supporting a homeland for Jews, due to the displacement and genocide in Gaza and the illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank since 1948, where Israel has broken every UN charter with impunity. Do I think Zionism is racist? No. Has it become an ideology twisted by racists in the Israeli Government? Yes. It’s like Islam and ISIS: those followers who created a caliphate in Syria twisted Islam beyond all recognition to found a satellite state of hate. I see no difference with present-day Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu’s… Read more »
My view entirely, with one caveat. The people who have been doing this genocide, call it Zionism and i’m finding it harder and harder to disagree with them.
I was very pleased to hear Kemi Badenoch take a firm stance against antisemitism by…. err… making a known antisemitic conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier her “advisor” on integration. British Jews can sleep well in their beds tonight.
Polanski and Farage are two sides of the same (dangerous) coin.
The Green party had a vote on this and the “Welsh” branch decided they didn’t want to split from the English HQ so you end up with just another party in Wales run from England.
The Green Party in Wales is tiny. It’s probably another decade off getting an independent branch together.
I happen to know a thing or two about left wing political circles in Wales (conferences attended, debates had, votes counted, chairpersons sighing in resignation aplenty). I am not at all certain that the Welsh Greens would vote differently if set among themselves. They might word it slightly differently (less circular reasoning perhaps… yes I did read said motion) but I find it really hard to find any Welsh person that calls a shovel a spade. Unfortunately Zionism is completely intwined with the Israeli project, the nakba, the ongoing settler program, the ritual and systematic bombing of civilians. This is… Read more »