Green Party co-leader and mayoral candidate Sian Berry expresses “frustration” that her party still hasn’t adopted International Definition of Antisemitism
The Green Party co-leader and mayoral candidate, Sian Berry, has expressed her “frustration” that her Party has still not adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
Speaking at a campaign briefing for the Jewish community, Ms Berry observed that motions to adopt the Definition have been placed before the Party’s conference twice, but blamed the failure to adopt it on other priorities for the membership. She also noted that she sponsored another motion for the Party’s Spring conference this month but that it was ruled “out of order”. She said: “That’s really frustrating to me because we didn’t get another chance to rewrite it to be in order. So it isn’t going to the current conference that we’re about to have in March.”
(The Green Party’s Spring conference has now been cancelled due to concerns over COVID-19.)
Ms Berry noted that she supported the adoption of the Definition by Camden’s local authority, where she is a councillor, and hopes the Greens will eventually do the same, as the Definition “gives you clarity on what is prejudice and where the line is”. She rejected the criticisms of the Definition on free speech, declaring them to be “unfounded”. “There is quite a lot of clarity in the definition,” she said.
Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes Ms Berry’s remarks, her support for the adoption of the Definition in Camden and her continued efforts to secure adoption of the Definition in her Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.