Zack Polanski says Zionism is 'a form of racism' at by-election hustings
Green Party leader Zack Polanski told a synagogue hustings that 'Zionism is a form of racism' and repeatedly refused to say whether Israel has the right to exist, ahead of the 8 October Holborn & St Pancras by-election.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said “Zionism is a form of racism” because “in truth” it involved the “displacement and genocide” of Palestinians, and repeatedly refused to say whether he believes Israel has the right to exist, The Times reported on Thursday.
Polanski, who is Jewish and is the Green candidate in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election on 8 October, made the remarks at a hustings in a synagogue in the constituency hosted by the London Jewish Forum and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Asked what his party would do to confront antisemitism, he said: “Far too often, criticism of the Israeli government and the occupation, what I would call apartheid and genocide … many genocide scholars recognise it as a genocide [and] calling it that is not antisemitic.” He added: “I am an anti-Zionist, which I know is difficult for people to hear in this room, but it’s the truth.”
He also said Jewish people who describe criticism of the Israeli state as antisemitic were making themselves “less safe”.
The remarks come days before the Green Party’s conference in Brighton next weekend, where a motion to declare Zionism a form of racism in official party policy is top of the priority list for a vote. The by-election was triggered by Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation as an MP.
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