Britain’s Green Party has voted to formally define Zionism as a form of racism, adopting the policy by 1,022 votes to 813 at its annual conference.

The motion describes Zionism as an “ethnonationalist political project” and calls for a single democratic state across historic Palestine, while also urging an end to UK arms sales to Israel. 

The decision has drawn strong criticism from British Jewish groups and the Israeli government, which have described the policy as antisemitic.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, did not vote because he had left the conference to campaign in a parliamentary by-election, while several senior Green MPs opposed the motion, Reuters has reported.

The vote has intensified divisions within the party over how to balance support for Palestinian rights with concerns about antisemitism and the rights of Jewish people.