Green Party Opens Investigation Into Member Behind Controversial Zionism Motion

The Green Party has confirmed it has launched an internal investigation into one of its members, Lubna Speitan, following revelations that she was identified in United States court documents as a "close friend" of a man who was later imprisoned for providing support to al-Qaeda. The party stated that its internal processes are designed to examine instances where members express views that conflict with its stated values, and that such a process is now formally underway.

The development places renewed scrutiny on Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist who was the architect of a highly contentious motion passed at the party's recent conference. That motion formally characterised Zionism as a form of racism, describing it as an ideology that supports an ethnonationalist Jewish state. The proposal also advocated for a single democratic Palestinian state across all of historic Palestine.

The motion was ultimately approved by party members, albeit by a relatively narrow margin of 1,022 votes in favour to 813 against. Under the Green Party's internal rules, motions that receive member support become official party policy, though they are not automatically guaranteed inclusion in the party's manifesto for the next general election. The vote has proven deeply divisive, drawing criticism from rival political parties and from several Jewish organisations, which described the motion as an attack on the Jewish community.

The controversy deepened earlier this week when the Jewish Chronicle reported on the existence of a 2015 letter authored by Speitan. In that correspondence, she offered to appear as a defence witness in the trial of Minh Quang Pham. According to US prosecutors, Pham had been directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior al-Qaeda figure, to detonate explosives in the arrivals area of Heathrow Airport after undergoing several months of training in Yemen. Pham, who denied plotting a suicide attack, ultimately pleaded guilty to supporting al-Qaeda and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the United States.

Court documents from 2015 reportedly list Speitan as a "close friend" of Pham who could offer what was described as critical testimony regarding his mental state. In a subsequent letter addressed to the presiding US District Judge, Speitan expressed that Pham was among the few people she regarded with the highest respect and esteem. She suggested that if the judge had truly known the man she and others had grown to love and respect, the case might have been dismissed entirely.

While acknowledging that Pham may have developed some behavioural issues, Speitan described him as one of the kindest, most honest, most sincere, trustworthy and respectful people she had ever known. The source material contains no suggestion that Speitan was aware of Pham's criminal activities at the time of their acquaintance. The emergence of these documents has nonetheless intensified political pressure on the Green Party, which has been grappling with the fallout from the conference motion.

In response to the revelations, Speitan issued a statement on Instagram before the party had publicly confirmed its investigation. She rejected what she described as defamatory and nonsensical claims made about her, and also rejected attempts to decontextualise past statements she has made. She characterised the situation as a classic distraction, insisting that she is not the conversation, and redirecting attention to what she described as racism, Zionism, and the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.

Her remarks referenced a June finding by a United Nations commission of inquiry, which concluded that Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Israel has consistently rejected such characterisations, maintaining that its military operations in Gaza are justified as acts of self-defence and denying that they amount to genocide. The UN finding has become a focal point in the broader international debate over the conflict.

The internal party backlash has been significant. Four out of five Green MPs opposed the Zionism motion. Adrian Ramsay, a former party leader and the Green MP for Waveney Valley, publicly criticised the motion as an unhelpful distraction and wrong in principle. He argued that the Green Party has always supported the right to self-determination, and that this principle must apply to all peoples without exception.

When asked during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live whether he would consider leaving the party, Ramsay said he was not ruling anything in or out at this stage. He emphasised that, just days after the motion's passage, his priority was to engage in careful discussions with colleagues, including Jewish Green members, fellow MPs and others in leadership roles, to determine how best to get the party back on track.

The Green Party's response has evolved over the course of the week. Following the initial report on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson said the party has internal processes to investigate members who express views inconsistent with its values. By Wednesday, the party issued an updated statement confirming that an investigation was actively under way. The spokesperson also clarified that Speitan holds no party positions beyond her ordinary membership.

The episode raises broader questions about how political parties manage internal dissent and ideological disputes, particularly when external events and historical associations intersect with contemporary policy debates. For the Greens, the challenge is twofold: addressing the concerns raised by the court documents while also managing the deep divisions exposed by the conference vote. The outcome of the investigation, and the party's handling of its aftermath, could have lasting implications for its unity and public standing.