There has been a virulent backlash in the British media against the Green Party of England and Wales since members at the party conference voted for a motion that brands Zionism as a racist ideology and supports the formation of a single democratic state in Palestine. As we have come to expect when British pundits and politicians are discussing Israel, nobody has seen fit to ask any Palestinians what they think about Zionism and what it has meant for them in practice.

While Palestinians who live in Britain are studiously ignored, the media extends its search for critical voices to the rest of Europe. The Guardian reported on a statement from the European Green Party (EGP) that criticized the motion — “we unequivocally distance ourselves from it” — and suggested that the English and Welsh Greens were now “facing international ostracism.”

The speed and severity of the response from the EGP contrasts sharply with its deafening silence about the shameful track record of the German Greens, the flagship of the European Green movement ever since the 1980s. The EGP never spoke out against the German party, even though its leaders campaigned against a ceasefire in Gaza, supplied weapons to Israel’s war machine, and branded Palestinian schools and hospitals as legitimate targets.