UPDATE It appears that the paragraph was not deleted - only that the "60" was changed to a "40".

The motion, passed yesterday, is a textbook example of demonization. It starts with a classical piece of scapegoating: “Conference believes that the plight of the Palestinians is an issue that is central to the ongoing instability and violence in the Middle East”, continues with made-up facts about the Jewish National Fund, property law in Israel, and water consumption, and concludes with support for the call for Boycott Divestment Sanctions, "BDS".

Nowhere can you find in the motion a reference to the peace process (the motion was drafted during the Annapolis conference), the roles of Egypt or Hamas, terrorism, or support for grassroots collaboration; no support for the PLO either, or the peace camp in Israel: with motion C05, the Middle East is simple: Israel is evil and should be boycotted.

The campaign to exclude Israelis from the cultural and economic life of the planet is now well underway in the Green Party. It is led by a group called Green Left or “Ecosocialists”. They successfully persuaded the Spring Conference to pass a motion (C05) committing the Green Party to support BDS.

Figures of Green Left include the current “Male Speaker” of the Green Party Derek Wall, and the current International coordinator Joseph Healy. On his blog, Derek published a piece by Ecosocialist, ex-Respect, and proposer of C05, Sean Thomson, which provides the political context of the motion.

As is made clear in Sean's piece, the boycott motion is part of an "internal strategy" and "external strategy" to make the "green redder" and the "red greener", or, still in Sean's own words, a strategy to "promote debate and raise awareness among rank and file party members that chime with their level of consciousness but which move them to begin to question some of the fundamental assumptions of bourgeois ideology and which raise demands that cannot be met within the limitations of a capitalist state."

Of course, the motion was not entitled “Raising awareness among rank and file party members”, or “Questioning the fundamental assumptions of bourgeois Ideology” but “Justice for Palestinians”.

In this piece, Sean also makes it clear that he is a “one-stater”.

Interestingly, conference could not quite stomach the paragraph of C05 that reads, “For sixty years Israel has colonised Palestine while steadily ethnically cleansing the land of its indigenous population and for forty years has illegally occupied the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.” This paragraph was deleted.

But the rest of the motion passed. The full text of the motion, and the amendments (rejected) can be found here, page 17.

Asked (on an email list) whether this motion meant that the Green Party, in government, would “seek for Britain to not trade with Israel as a policy”, a boycotter replied positively. Under such leadership, Britain would join the restricted club of dictatorships who enforce a strict Boycott of Israel: Syria and Iran.

How Green and inspiring...

Raphaël, member of the Green Party, writing in personal capacity.

If you are a member of the Green Party and you want to be part of a fight-back against this kind of politics, please contact Raphael@EngageOnline.org.uk.

C05, as passed: Justice for the Palestinians

Conference believes that the plight of the Palestinians is an issue that is central to the ongoing instability and violence in the Middle East. A just and durable peace in the
Middle East is impossible without a just resolution to the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Israel is in violation of dozens of UN Resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967, calling for Israeli withdrawal from the landsoccupied in the Six Day War.

There are more than 200 settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, all of them illegal under international law. Approximately 400,000 settlers live in the West Bank, including over 220,000 in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Settlement areas, bypass roads and military areas account for more than 79% of the land in the West Bank. Israel¹s confiscation of Palestinian land and appropriation of water resources constitutes a theft without compensation for Palestinians. Settlements consume more than 80% of the renewable water resources in the West Bank and Gaza.

About one million Palestinians are citizens of a supposedly democratic Israel, but they are denied many rights of citizens, including the right to acquire land or property. 92% of the land falls under the administration of the Jewish National Fund, and cannot be sold to non-Jews. As a result the Israeli Arabs who make up 19% of the population own only 4% of the land.

Israeli law allows Palestinian areas to be designated ‘state land.¹ In all, there are 38
statutes in force enabling the Israeli state to expropriate Palestinian land.

In order to render already substantial 'facts on the ground¹ irreversible, the Apartheid Wall the Israeli Government is now building snakes deep into the West Bank to effectively annex the illegal settlement blocs into Israel. When finished, the separation zones could leave on the ‘Israeli¹ side up to 60% of the West Bank.

Therefore we resolve to:

* Work towards a just solution based on international law and an end to Israeli occupation of the Occupied Territories

* Demand that the blockade on all Occupied Palestinian Territories be lifted and freedom of movement guaranteed

* Campaign for the release all the elected Palestinian parliamentarians kidnapped by the Israeli Army

* Reiterate our call on Israel to allow Palestinians and their families to return to their former homes, or to compensate those unable or unwilling to return.

* Support the Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions made by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and community groups.