Rev’d Robin Arthur Hanford

Firstly, the Zionism is Racism motion is NOT antisemitic. Secondly, you are one of the bullies I am hearing about attacking anyone inside your own party who tries to raise legitimate concerns with the direction Labour has gone with regards to this particular matter. Thirdly, the decision to terminate agreements that permit the functioning of 11 local authorities in the UK demonstrates a complete lack of political maturity, intellectual honesty, and an abandonment of the local residents that councillors are elected to serve. Now, in these 11 councils, we shall witness the devastating results of this despicable decision by the national Labour leadership and the NEC. Forcing an ultimatum on Green Party councillors to disavow the Zionism is Racism motion threatens puts these joint administrations at significant risk of collapse. Fourth, the interference in the internal policies of another political party and the decision to place in jeopardy the functionality of local councils over this issue is going to do immense harm to the wellbeing of local residents. This country is still facing a cost-of-living crisis and public services remain under immense pressure. Forcing the collapse of a functioning local government over a foreign policy issue—which has no bearing on how bins are collected, how social care is delivered, or how our schools are run—is a failure of duty for elected representatives. Fifth, I am left asking why is it that the Labour Party - the party of working class people - has decided that its priority is shielding Israel and Zionism from criticism as opposed to prioritising the smooth, professional delivery of services for local residents? Sixth, this ultimatum forces a narrow, dogmatic framing onto a complex historical and human reality that seeks to completely insulate Zionism from systemic critique. By forcing this issue into a local governance crisis, you and your cronies risk doing immense damage to various communities. It is divisive, threatens cohesion, and is extremely detrimental to intercommunal relations. Forcing a division between Labour and the Greens on this basis risks fracturing local cohesion and, dangerously, fomenting the very antisemitism that you claim that you want to defeat. When a local council stops functioning smoothly, when political agreements on power-sharing break down, and when services suffer, people look for someone to blame. By hyper-focusing local politics on Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you have happily assisted the creation of an environment ripe for the scapegoating and targeting of Jews. By conflating Jews with Israel & Zionism, pretending as though the decision to withdraw from coalitions with the Greens is about them, you are complicit in the antisemitic redirection of anger pointing it straight at the Jewish community. Activist and author April Rosenblum has profoundly warned, the ruling classes have historically exploited the vulnerability of Jewish people, using them as a shield to make their own harmful political decisions invisible. By displacing political failures onto a debate about Jewish identity and Zionism, the establishment risks shifting public anger onto the Jewish community, making them the target of resentment when local services fail. It also risks fomenting anti-Palestinian racism and islamophobia as local residents could also be redirected down the route of targeted hatred towards Palestinians, Arabs and even Muslims. It is an outrage that the Labour Party, threatened as it is by the surge in support for the Green Party, has chosen to manipulate these issues in such a manner. Shame on you and everyone who is part of this decision.