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A statement in solidarity with Hastings Green Party
The following statement was sent to Hastings Green Party Councillors and members on Tuesday 13 October 2026
Hastings Jews for Justice stands in full solidarity with local Green Party councillors and members who have come under attack for a courageous decision at the Green Party conference. We note the Green Party of England and Wales has been at the forefront of confronting the moral aberration of the Israeli State for many years, having previously voted to support the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and to recognise Israel as both apartheid in nature and as committing a genocide in Gaza. A genocide that is today ongoing.
We object to the weaponisation of antisemitism and do not accept that criticism of the Israeli State or of Zionism – the ideology on which it was based – amounts to an affront to Jews. Israel has been recognised as an apartheid state by most human rights organisations – including the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israeli organisation B’Tselem. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, found Israel responsible for committing the crime of apartheid: a crime against humanity. Apartheid is premised on racism. We do not live in a world where there is an alternative Zionist state. There is only one and it is thoroughly racist.
Most members of our group are descended either from Holocaust survivors or from those escaping persecution and pogroms of earlier times, so we understand that the original appeal of the ‘Jewish State’ was to offer the safety and acceptance that had been so lacking over centuries in Europe. However, this state was built and maintained at the expense of the indigenous population, which has suffered displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement, death and destruction for eight decades. Increasingly, Jewish people around the world are seeing Zionism as a failed experiment, one that has resulted in apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Our group stands for justice for Palestinians and affirms the rights for all people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea to live in safety, dignity, with full and equal rights on their own land. We are proud to stand with others in Hastings who run stalls, fundraisers and who maintain regular contact with the besieged Palestinian community in Al Mawasi, many of whom have been displaced countless times, are living in tents with inadequate food, warmth, sanitation, health care and education and who are being prevented from rebuilding after the devastation of the last three years.
We want people to know that those claiming to speak for Jews as ‘proud supporters of Israel’ do not represent us or the growing numbers of Jewish people across the UK and the world campaigning for an end to the genocide in Gaza, an end to the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and an end to the occupation. We remind the town that, like Hastings, which is one town with many voices, there are many different opinions and at least two Jewish groups here.
We are, of course, concerned about rising antisemitism and rising Islamophobia and all forms of racism. We are disturbed by the rise of the far right who, despite their historic antisemitism, appear to be accepted by the Jewish Establishment because of their unquestioning support of Israel. While we understand that calling out the racism of the Israeli State and its foundational ideology is not comfortable, we must stand for justice and peace, and against dehumanisation and murder. And that means setting aside feelings of comfort to stop the wanton destruction of Palestinian life which is happening every single day in Gaza and across all Palestinian land.
We hold to the principle that all life is precious. Every human life is infinite, absolute and carries the weight of the entire universe. We look forward to a day when all life between the river and sea is treated in this way, with equal worth and value, and when all peoples can live in freedom, safely and in peace.
Hastings Jews for Justice
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