“I think there is a strong risk that the motion as passed contravenes the Equality Act 2010, which applies to political parties, as it will discriminate against and harass people who hold Zionist beliefs and Jewish people more generally,” he said.

Zionism when defined in the broad sense of supporting a Jewish nation state “is likely to be a protected belief” under the act, he said.

Hi, stupid American here, and, uhh, the fuck did I just read?

Is there really a law in the UK that says political parties aren't allowed to "discriminate" against members based on their political beliefs? And that treats adopting a policy position as "discrimination?" You literally couldn't adopt any policy ever, like, "I think we should hire more dogcatchers, but the party adopted a policy position of hiring fewer dogcatchers, therefore I'm being discriminated against for my belief." What?

I'm guessing this is one of those cases where Zionists get special, extremely arbitrary treatment. Looking into this Equality Act, it specifically lists "gender reassignment" as a protected category and I'm pretty sure there's no legal requirement for every party in the UK to support trans rights. But like, even more directly, are parties required to uphold any other forms of ethnonationalism? If a party condemns white nationalism as racist, by this logic, wouldn't that violate the Equality Act?? Is this barrister just talking nonsense, or is that real?

Zionists are nuts, man.