Given that the Green Party has unequivocally refused to state that Zionism is racism, should Palestine activists stand as Green Party councillors? A simple, legitimate question, wouldn’t you say?
At a Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest on Saturday 17 April, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! put a similar question to Chandni Chopra – the chair of the Newcastle PSC branch who is in fact standing as a Green Party councillor. We asked her if she would remove her candidacy. We did not interrupt Chopra’s speech, we asked her a question after she had finished. Attempts to paint us as ‘shouting down a brown woman’ by her online fan base are a distraction designed to dodge the issue.
She refused to answer the question and instead defended the Green Party by insisting that there are anti-Zionist greens. This is a deliberate fudge. Her cheerleaders have rallied and are throwing about spurious attacks on FRFI to make sure that the question is not answered. They are making a mountain out of a molehill and exhibiting fake outrage in order to defend the bankrupt and backward position of the chair of Newcastle PSC. As the self appointed leader of the movement she needs to be held to account. It is not acceptable that the PSC and its allies are portraying the Green Party as a vehicle to fight for a free Palestine, when it is in fact a false friend of the Palestinian people and the movement as a whole. We have the right to argue which direction the movement should take – and you better believe we will argue against this dangerous course of action.
Let’s help these Green Party cheerleaders answer our very simple question.
The Green Party is a pro-Zionist party. It is absolutely essential that all Palestine activists and organisations resolutely expose it. To do otherwise is political cowardice and is an accommodation of Zionism within the movement.
However, the PSC, nationally and locally, are trying to pull the wool over our eyes by fully endorsing the Green Party. They want to demobilise what is left of the Palestine movement and take it down the dead end of electoral politics. The Green Party is not an anti-Zionist party, it is not an anti-imperialist party. Just recently, the Green Party expelled anti-Zionist member Tony Greenstein for criticising the filibustering of the ‘Zionism is racism’ motion. The Green Party is a distraction and a barrier to building a movement against British imperialism.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4 – Political Thinking, Zack Polanski stated, ‘Zionism means different things to different people. I don’t think the idea of a Jewish state is necessarily racist. I think what is happening though, right now, is a certain type of Zionism by Benjamin Netanyahu that I’ve said I believe is genocidal, so it’s clearly racist. The beginning of Zionism, especially the Nakba, had many racial undertones.’ This is a disingenuous downplaying of what was the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their land. This is the leader of the party these so-called anti-Zionists are standing in.
Polanski is a Zionist apologist. He supports the two state solution while condemning the armed resistance of the Palestinian people. He supported the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism which labels criticism of the Israeli state as antisemitic.
It is not just Polanski who is a threat to the Palestine movement. It is the Green Party as a whole. Let’s look at what the Green Party says about the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This can be found on the PSC’s website:
‘The Green Party calls on the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people to recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist within recognised agreed and secured borders.’
In short, the Greens trample on the national liberation aspirations of the Palestinian people. Yet the chair of Newcastle PSC wants to be a politician for them. The Greens impose a two state solution on Palestinian liberation; equate the resistance of the occupied with the violence of the occupier and refuse to recognise any government in Gaza, only the Palestinian Authority who have collaborated with the Israeli state in repressing Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. Is this position acceptable for the leadership of the PSC?
Green Party cheerleaders accuse FRFI of not opposing Rafael, an Israeli state owned weapons factory in Newcastle
It was FRFI who argued for the need for a march to Rafael in April 2024. We insisted on weekly, in person, public organising meetings; democratic, collective decision making; the demand of total sanctions on Israel and an open mic. We put in the leg work with other activists to knock on thousands of doors in the West End and put up hundreds of posters. Despite putting their logo on the march, the PSC hardly lifted a finger. But because of the efforts of FRFI, Shut Down Rafael and individual activists, a thousand people attended a very political march. This was repeated in November 2025, with FRFI again playing a leading role and ensuring 600 people attended the march.
The third march to Rafael in March 2026 was organised by the PSC behind closed doors, excluding local organisations and members of the community, so that they could control the narrative. They did minimal publicity work because they have no interest in putting in the hard work necessary to build a movement. They dropped the demand for sanctions because they have always insisted on reducing solidarity with Palestine to a humanitarian concern. With this, they could barely mobilise 200 people to attend. Hardly a leadership we should look to.
The PSC has killed off the potential that existed.
We supported the drive to collect petitions to Newcastle council against Rafael. Again we were knocking on doors and holding street stalls to collect signatures. This is the kind of essential work being rubbished by online comments. It is absurd to make the comment that FRFI is not active on the question of Palestine.
Green Party cheerleaders talk big on direct action but refuse to defend those targeted for arrest
One of the PSC’s own members has been arrested, tried and found guilty of taking direct action. The PSC did not bother itself with building a defence campaign to support her. We met with the PSC to discuss organising a march to defend democratic rights on Palestine and to demand all charges against Palestine activists, including their own member, were dropped. The PSC said they weren’t interested. Instead they organised a march on ‘the theme of hunger’ – completely devoid of any political demands.
So, FRFI called a protest with other activists in September 2025 to challenge state repression of Palestine solidarity. The PSC member spoke at the event, as well as Francesca Nadin of Prisoners For Palestine and Sarah from the SOAS 2 – an FRFI comrade who is facing charges under the Terrorism Act. See here for lessons on how to conduct a serious defence campaign: Defend the SOAS 2. The PSC however refused to collaborate on the event.
We turn up at the courts to support the court cases and at the police stations when Defend Our Juries arrestees have had to sign bail. Two of our comrades were arrested on the very first PSC march in Newcastle following the Al Aqsa Flood operation. They had bail conditions imposed banning them from the city centre. We successfully challenged this and after the success of a public, defence campaign the charges were dropped.
Green Party cheerleaders attack the distribution of political literature
Our newspaper, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! has included interviews with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Samidoun, Masir Badil, Palestinian doctors studying in Cuba and Prisoners for Palestine. Speaking to FRFI in an interview published in our newspaper, Sean ‘Shibby’ Middlesbrough reminded us of the importance of organising in solidarity with political prisoners: ‘Support for our prisoners and for those who escape capture is a blow to the state’.
Our newspaper is sent into prisons for free and has been received by many Palestine activists who have been imprisoned for taking direct action. Most issues of our paper over the last two years have included letters and interviews with these prisoners who have commented on how important it was for them to receive the paper. So yes, you will ALWAYS find us on the streets selling our newspaper and getting those voices and politics out to as many people as possible. To attack us for this is to argue these voices should not be heard, it is completely reactionary. You can subscribe to our newspaper here:
Green Party cheerleaders attack any debate or criticism as ‘white privilege’
This is a deflection from the issue at hand. No amount of hand waving by shouting about us attacking ‘a brown woman’ or demonstrating our ‘white privilege’ makes defending the pro-Zionist Green Party any less reactionary. Far from us demonstrating our privilege, it is those who insist on defending a party that supports the two-state solution, equates the violence of the oppressor and the oppressed, rejecting the right of Palestinians to armed struggle, and supports the Palestinian Authority, which has played a key role in suppressing Palestinian resistance, who are demonstrating their privilege. They are perfectly comfortable betraying the interests of the Palestinian people for their electoral ambitions, backing a party that defends the existence of the racist Zionist state. FRFI are anti-imperialists, we will never capitulate to these reactionary politics. We will continue to argue the anti-imperialist position in Britain.
We’ll end by asking the question again. We are sure that the response of these cheerleaders will be illuminating. Judge for yourself.
Given that the Green Party has unequivocally refused to state that Zionism is racism, given its defence of the existence of the Zionist state and rejection of the Palestinian struggle, should Palestine activists stand as Green Party councillors?
Should elected members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign stand as Green Party candidates, subordinating the demands of the Palestine movement to what is acceptable to a parliamentary party? Yes or no?
