Greens investigate party member behind Zionism motion

The Green Party has launched an investigation into party member Lubna Speitan, after it emerged she was listed in court documents as a "close friend" of a man later jailed for supporting al-Qaeda.

Speitan was behind a controversial Green Party conference motion which described Zionism as a form of racism.

A Green Party spokesperson said: "Where members have expressed views that do not fit in with the party's values, we have internal processes to investigate and an investigation is underway."

In a post on Instagram, before the Green Party had confirmed its investigation to the BBC, Speitan said: "I reject all defamatory and nonsense claims made about me."

She added: "I reject all attempts to decontextualise past statements I have made."

"This is a classic distraction. I am not the conversation," she said, adding: "Racism is. Zionism is. The ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians is. Let's talk about that."

In June, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has repeatedly denied its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as a means of self-defence.