Green Party Opens Investigation Into Member Who Authored Controversial Zionism Motion

The Green Party has confirmed it has begun an internal investigation into Lubna Speitan, the party member who brought forward a contentious conference motion describing Zionism as a form of racism, following revelations about her connections to a man convicted of supporting al-Qaeda.

A party spokesperson stated that where members express views inconsistent with the party's values, internal processes exist to investigate such matters, and confirmed that an inquiry is now underway. The spokesperson also clarified that Speitan holds no formal position within the party beyond her membership.

The controversy centres on court documents from 2015 that identified Speitan as a "close friend" of Minh Quang Pham, a man who was sentenced to 40 years in a United States prison after pleading guilty to supporting al-Qaeda. According to US prosecutors, Pham had been instructed by al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki to detonate explosives in the arrivals area of Heathrow Airport following several months of training in Yemen. Pham denied planning a suicide attack.

In the 2015 court filings, Speitan was listed as someone who could offer "critical testimony regarding Pham's mental state." A subsequent letter she wrote to the presiding US District Judge described Pham as one of the few people she regarded with "such high respect and esteem." She suggested that if the judge had truly known the man she and others came to love and respect, the case might have been dismissed entirely. While acknowledging that Pham may have developed behavioural issues, she characterised him as among the kindest, most honest, sincere, trustworthy and respectful people she had ever known.

Importantly, the court documents contain no suggestion that Speitan was aware of Pham's criminal activities during the time they knew each other.

The revelations were first reported by the Jewish Chronicle on Tuesday afternoon. In response to the emerging story, Speitan posted a statement on Instagram before the party had publicly confirmed its investigation, rejecting what she described as defamatory and nonsensical claims made about her. She also rejected attempts to decontextualise past statements she has made.

In her social media post, Speitan framed the scrutiny as a distraction, insisting that she is not the conversation. She stated that racism, Zionism, and what she described as the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians are the real subjects that should be discussed.

The Green Party's initial response on Tuesday afternoon acknowledged that internal processes exist for investigating members whose views conflict with party values. By Wednesday, the party had issued an updated statement confirming that an investigation was actively under way.

The investigation stems from a broader controversy that erupted after Speitan proposed a motion at the Green Party conference defining Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state." The motion also advocated for a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine." Party members approved the motion by a margin of 1,022 votes to 813.

Under Green Party rules, motions that receive member support become official party policy, though they are not guaranteed to appear in the party's manifesto for the next general election. The motion drew sharp criticism from opposition parties and various Jewish groups, who characterised it as an attack on the Jewish community. Four of the party's five MPs also opposed the motion.

Adrian Ramsay, a former party leader and Green MP for Waveney Valley, publicly criticised the motion as an "unhelpful distraction" that was "wrong in principle." He emphasised that the Green Party has consistently supported the right to self-determination, which must apply to all peoples. When asked whether he would consider leaving the party, Ramsay told BBC Radio 5 Live that he was not ruling anything in or out at that stage. He indicated that his immediate focus was on careful discussions with colleagues, including Jewish Greens, fellow MPs, and others in leadership roles, to determine how best to get the party back on track.

The motion has also had international repercussions. It prompted Poland to ban a party event, and the controversy has continued to generate headlines in the days following the conference vote.

The timing of the investigation presents significant challenges for the Green Party, which has sought to position itself as a progressive political force in British politics. The party now faces difficult questions about how it vets members, how it handles controversial policy positions, and how it balances open democratic debate with the need to maintain relationships with affected communities.

For Jewish groups and political opponents, the investigation into Speitan may reinforce concerns about the party's direction following the conference vote. For Speitan's supporters, the scrutiny may appear as an attempt to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli government actions, particularly in light of a June UN commission of inquiry finding that Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Israel has consistently denied that its actions in Gaza constitute genocide, maintaining that its military operations are justified as self-defence.

The outcome of the Green Party's investigation remains uncertain, but the case highlights the intense internal and external pressures facing political parties as they navigate debates over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also raises questions about the limits of free expression within party membership and the consequences members may face when their past associations come under public scrutiny.