How long have Jews lived in the land of Israel?

Jews have lived continuously in the land of Israel for approximately 4,000 years. Zionism is the belief that they have the same right to self-determination there as every other people has in its own homeland.

The question, answered

Is Zionism racism?

No. Zionism is the belief that Jewish people, like the French, the Irish or the Palestinians, have the right to a homeland of their own. Calling that belief racism singles out one people, the Jews, for a rule applied to no one else. That is itself a form of racism, and UK law recognises Jews as an ethnic group protected from it.

What Zionism is

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to live as a nation in the Jewish homeland, where Jews have lived continuously for approximately 4,000 years.

That is not racism. It is national self-determination, the same right every other people claims in its historic homeland. French people have the right to a homeland in France. Is that racist? No. Simple.

You can fiercely criticise any Israeli government and still be a Zionist, just as you can criticise the French government while believing France is the homeland of the French. Neither is racist.

What racism is

Racism is treating people worse because of their race, ethnicity or national origin, or holding one group to a standard that is applied to no one else.

UK law recognises Jewish people as an ethnic group protected by the Equality Act 2010.

Why calling Zionism racism is antisemitism

There are nearly 200 countries. Dozens have a majority religion and 43 have an official one. Israel was founded by a United Nations resolution and admitted to the UN in 1949; many countries have far less to show for their founding. Nobody calls any of them racist for existing.

If believing in a Jewish homeland is racist, then believing in a Palestinian homeland is racist too. Nobody says that. Only Jews are told it.

Picking out Jews, and only Jews, for a rule applied to no one else is racism. That is what the motion does. The United Nations said "Zionism is racism" in 1975 and took it back in 1991. The Green Party has brought it back.

Zionism is not racism. By singling out the Jews, the Greens have become racist.

Zionism is not colonialism, and Israel has a right to exist

The Jews had no mother country

Colonialism is a mother country planting settlers abroad. The Jews had none. Conquered and expelled from Judea by Rome, ruled there by one empire after another, persecuted wherever they were scattered, they came back to the land where they became a people and have lived for approximately 4,000 years. Half of Israel's Jews descend from the 850,000 driven out of Arab and Muslim countries after 1948. Nobody sent them. Nowhere else would have them.

"Settler colony" means "should not exist"

Israel was created by United Nations resolution 181 in 1947 and has been a member of the UN since 1949. Dozens of states were drawn in the same decade. Only this one is called a colony to be undone. One in five Israelis is Arab, votes, and sits in the Knesset and on the Supreme Court. Criticise any Israeli government, as Israelis do. Denying the state is different: it denies Jews what every other people has.

Israel has a right to exist

Nearly half the world's Jews live there. "No right to exist" means "no right to a country": stateless again, as in the 1930s, when the doors of the world were shut.

What Greens For Palestine is saying

The motion commits the party to "a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine". That is Israel's abolition. Greens For Palestine says it plainly:

It's time to build an Anti-Zionist Green Party
Greens For Palestine on Instagram, 3 July 2026, over a map in the Palestinian flag from Haifa to Beersheba that leaves no Israel at all

The settler colony in occupied Palestine ... the Western world's only major Anti-Zionist party
Greens For Palestine, 6 October 2026, after Israel barred Zack Polanski from entering the country

That is not a view about Israeli policy. It is a view about whether Jews may have a country at all.

SourcesThe map and the call to build an anti-Zionist party, 3 July 2026 The statement of 6 October 2026

What the law says

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of race, religion or belief. Jews are protected as an ethnic group, and Zionism, as a belief held by most British Jews, is capable of protection as a philosophical belief.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's 2020 guidance for political parties is plain: a party must not discriminate against, harass or victimise its members, associates, guests or those seeking membership because of a protected characteristic, including race, religion and belief. A party that declares the core belief of most British Jews to be racism, and treats those who hold it as racists, contravenes the Equality Act and the Commission's guidance. The motion is not only wrong. It is unlawful.

The terms defined

Zionism: Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to live as a nation in the Jewish homeland, where Jews have lived continuously for approximately 4,000 years.
Anti-Zionism: Opposition to the existence of a Jewish state. It differs from criticism of an Israeli government, which Zionists make too; anti-Zionism denies to Jews the national self-determination every other people is allowed.
Antisemitism: Hostility to, prejudice against or discrimination against Jews as Jews. The IHRA working definition, adopted by the UK Government, gives as one example "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor".
Racism: Racism is treating people worse because of their race, ethnicity or national origin, or holding one group to a standard that is applied to no one else.
Motion A105: "Zionism is Racism", a policy motion of the Green Party of England and Wales conference, passed on 4 October 2026. It declares the party anti-Zionist and orders that Zionism be treated as any other form of racism.

Sources

Equality Act 2010 Jews are protected as an ethnic group, and religion or belief is a protected characteristic.
Equality and Human Rights Commission, investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party (October 2020) Found unlawful harassment and discrimination against Jewish members, and set out what a political party must not do.
IHRA working definition of antisemitism Adopted by the UK Government in 2016 and by councils across the country.
UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 (1975) and Resolution 46/86 (1991) "Zionism is racism", passed in 1975 and revoked in 1991.
Motion A105, "Zionism is Racism", as circulated to Green Party conference (PDF) The motion, its supporter list and its briefing paper, in full.

What you can do

Ask them to sign. One polite email to Green Party head office and a dozen Green councillors, asking every councillor to sign the pledge: that Zionism is not racism, and that the party got Motion A105 wrong. It takes two minutes, it goes from your own email, and every one is counted. Then share this page so others can do the same.

Ask them to sign See which councillors have signed