Green Party Eyes Taxpayer Cash to Fight Immigration Raids Green-led Hackney Council may use public funds for a campaign to help illegal workers resist immigration raids, as the party conference in Brighton debates radical policies. The Green Party is considering using taxpayer money to fund a campaign that would help illegal workers resist immigration raids, the Daily Mail can reveal. Several Green councils in London have already pledged to stop cooperating with Home Office officials conducting immigration raids across the capital. Green-led Hackney Council is now poised to dip into the public purse to launch an information campaign to tell illegal workers how to resist raids. At the Green Party conference in Brighton, Seema Syeda of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said the charity is working with Hackney Council to potentially do a public information campaign where the council will share information to people about their rights and how they can resist raids. The event featured Zack Polanski, alongside MPs Hannah Spencer and Sian Berry.Hackney Council Campaign and Local ElectionsGreen Brighton and Hove councillor Nadia Barton Ahmad, who spoke at the event, proposed a council motion in the summer to support migrant businesses and those targeted by raids, but it was voted down by Labour councillors. Ms Barton Ahmad said yesterday that local elections are scheduled for May, and they hope to pass something similar within a year.The conference also saw two former party leaders criticise the Greens for a controversial motion declaring that Zionism is racism. Additionally, Green members are set to vote on a policy of wiping criminal records after five years. Currently, employers or volunteer groups can request a Disclosure and Barring Service check for information on a potential hire's criminal history. But Green activists will consider plans to keep details of convictions for thieving, assault, drug possession, or similar crimes hidden after five years.Under the plans, criminals with prison sentences of fewer than two years or those with suspended sentences could have their convictions hidden from DBS checks after just five years. Shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns said the Greens appear to be criminal apologists last night. A Green Party spokesman said that any member can submit a motion, and these do not become policy until they are debated and voted on at conference.Zionism Motion Sparks Party InfightingAt the conference yesterday, former party leaders Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay hit out at a Zionism is racism motion. The motion defines Zionism as support for an ethnonationalist Jewish State and states that it will be treated as any other form of racism by the party. Ms Lucas, who was the Greens' first ever MP, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there is no single definition of Zionism, and irrespective of the intentions of the people who put that motion forward, she thinks there is a real risk that it will be divisive and could be seen as a sign that Jewish people are not welcome in the party. She said she will not be supporting it for that reason.Zionism is a movement for the creation of a country for Jewish people, which now supports the state of Israel. The motion, as first revealed by the Daily Mail, seeks to declare that the party is opposed to Zionism. It also supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Mr Ramsay, who was the Greens' co-leader until Mr Polanski took over as sole leader last year, told The Times that the Green Party has a strong position already on challenging the Government and he thinks it would just be wrong to adopt a policy that could be seen as not supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to statehood. He said he stands by the position the Green Party had in the 2024 manifesto, which made clear they want to see equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.Jewish Greens Concerned Over Outside SupportJewish Greens were horrified last night that Hamas-sympathetic group Friends of Al-Aqsa had backed the motion. The group's founder Ismail Patel said in 2009 that Hamas is no terrorist organisation and we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel. Labour was forced to remove an event run by Friends of Al-Aqsa from its own conference agenda after fierce backlash from MPs.A Jewish member of the Greens told the Daily Mail that they are deeply troubled that their party, a party with its roots in anti-discrimination and non-violence, is getting support for a divisive motion from outside groups and individuals with a problematic history of hatred towards Jews. Another said that the motion endorses a one state solution, which is Hamas policy. It goes beyond all sensible discourse for a two-state solution and calls for the Jewish State to be dismantled. Anyone recognising Israel's right to exist will be tarnished as a racist, and this is an Islamist motion.