Green member behind Zionism motion linked to al-Qaeda supporter
Lubna Speitan, the British-Palestinian artist behind the Green Party motion defining Zionism as racism, was named in 2015 court documents as a close friend of Minh Quang Pham.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Lubna Speitan, who proposed the Zionism-is-racism motion, was named in court papers as a close friend of Minh Quang Pham.
- Minh Quang Pham was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the US in 2016 for supporting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
- The Green Party conference motion called for a single democratic Palestinian state across all of historic Palestine.
- The controversial vote has triggered internal division, leading to local councillor resignations and the departure of the Welsh Green deputy leader.
The Green Party in the United Kingdom is facing a major internal crisis after legal documents revealed that the party member behind a motion declaring Zionism to be racism maintained a close personal relationship with a man convicted of terrorism offenses linked to al-Qaeda.
The motion was proposed by Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist who argued that Zionism supports an ethnonationalist Jewish state. It was passed by the party conference on Sunday to become official policy, calling for a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, including present-day Israel.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
However, court documents from 2015 subsequently emerged showing that Speitan offered to act as a defense witness for Minh Quang Pham, a Vietnamese-born British national. Pham was arrested at Heathrow Airport in July 2011 after spending seven months in Yemen, and was later extradited to the US where a federal court sentenced him to 40 years in prison in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to supporting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The legal papers highlighted a 2016 letter written by Speitan to a US district judge, in which she described Pham as one of the kindest, most honest, and sincere people she had ever known. The documents contained no suggestion that Speitan was aware of Pham's criminal activities during the period they knew each other.
"One of the few people I regard with such high respect and esteem."
Lubna Speitan (written in a letter to the US District Judge regarding Minh Quang Pham)
The revelation has intensified fractures within the Green leadership as figureheads grapple with fierce internal dissent. Several local councillors have resigned following the vote, while Phil Davies, the Green deputy leader in Wales, resigned and cancelled his party membership on Tuesday, describing the motion as the final nail in the coffin.
This controversy underscores the intense structural political pressures UK minor parties face when complex international geopolitical stances intersect with domestic party unity. The party leader's subsequent public balancing act regarding antisemitism and state criticism highlights the ongoing fragility of managing ideological divergence among members.
Source: BBC Politics
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