Language matters: from anti-Zionist to Pro Palestine

JVL Introduction

In Vashti Media’s second essay on the Green Party, Joseph Finlay explores the importance of language; he looks at the motion on Zionism that was not debated at the Spring conference and will almost certainly be discussed at the Party’s Autumn conference. He is unequivocal about the reality of Zionism for Palestinians and he questions how helpful the term “anti-Zionist” is for building the movement and how things might look if, instead, we used the term “pro Palestinian”. He says:

“In such debates, proponents and critics seem to agree on the choice being put forward; it is between being Zionist or being anti-Zionist. The debate thus proceeds on familiar polemical grounds. But what if this assumption is not the case? What if there are people who reject Zionism while being queasy about identifying as anti-Zionists? Or others who reject anti-Zionism but do not consider themselves Zionist? What is the political efficacy of the anti-Zionism moniker? And what if the opposite of being Zionist is not anti-Zionism, but rather being pro-Palestine: supporting a free Palestine between the river and the sea?”

There is much more here in this thought provoking article and the issues raised are worthy of debate; how do we win more people to the pro Palestine cause? Where is the room for nuance and for people on the journey from Zionism to non or anti-Zionism and for those who still see a need for a Jewish State but abhor the Israeli State’s actions ? Where is there a danger of anti-Zionism being or becoming antisemitism and how do we distinguish between good and bad faith actors?

LL

This article was originally published by Vashti Media on Sat 2 May 2026. Read the original here.