Zack Polanski says application of Zionism is racist and no state has right to exist
Green leader in England and Wales calls ‘debates about words’ unhelpful and denies recent motion was controversial Zack Polanski has said Zionism in its current form is racist, tha
By The Guardian
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has defended his party’s decision to define Zionism as a form of racism, saying he would not overturn the policy.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday programme with Laura Kuenssberg on 18 October, Mr Polanski said he believed the practical application of Zionism was racist. He said he did not want to become involved in what he described as debates about semantics.
The Green Party of England and Wales approved the motion at its conference in Brighton earlier this month. It describes Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” in historic Palestine, to the exclusion or domination of non-Jewish people.
The motion also supports a single democratic Palestinian state across all of historic Palestine.
Mr Polanski did not take part in the vote, as he was campaigning in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Green Party members backed the motion by 1,022 votes to 813.
Asked whether Israel had a right to exist, Mr Polanski said no country had such a right, but that people did. He said he wanted Israelis and Palestinians to live alongside one another with equal rights, freedom and security.
He also said he disagreed with the party’s current support for a single-state solution, arguing that the future of Israel and Palestine should be decided by Israelis and Palestinians rather than by the UK Government or other western governments.
Mr Polanski said he would not seek to revoke the motion but wanted to amend it at the first opportunity. He said he wanted the policy to move away from prescribing one state and towards allowing people in the region to determine their own future.
The motion has divided senior Green figures and prompted criticism from outside the party. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the Greens seeking further information about the policy.
In response, the party said the motion was a political position and would not affect membership conditions or internal disciplinary procedures. It also said it would not discriminate against or exclude people for holding Zionist views.
The policy will remain part of Green Party policy until at least 2028, although it will not necessarily appear in the party’s manifesto at the next general election.