Israel Bars Green Leader Polanski After Party Brands Zionism Racist

Israel barred Zack Polanski after his party adopted an anti-Zionist motion, triggering criticism from Jewish organizations and a dispute over what the policy means for members.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced on October 4 that British Green Party leader Zack Polanski would be barred from Israel, after the party adopted a resolution defining Zionism as racism and supporting a Palestinian state in place of Israel.

Polanski did not participate in the vote. The Israeli response nevertheless targeted the party leader, turning an internal conference decision into a diplomatic dispute over Jewish self-determination and the place of Israel in the party's proposed political settlement.

What delegates voted for

Delegates in Brighton approved the motion by 1,022 votes to 813, ITV News reported. It makes the party explicitly anti-Zionist and advocates a single Palestinian state across historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.

That proposal goes beyond criticism of a particular Israeli government. Its stated territorial formula would replace Israel's existing state framework, which explains why the dispute centers on the legitimacy of Jewish national self-determination as well as on current Israeli policies.

According to Reuters, the party also renewed its call for Britain to end all arms trade with Israel. The Israeli government condemned the resolution as legitimizing terrorism. That was the government's political assessment, not a reported legal designation of the Green Party as a terrorist organization.

A rejected safeguard sharpened the dispute

The argument inside the conference was not limited to the final motion. Jewish News reported that delegates rejected an amendment intended to protect members affiliated with synagogues and other Jewish organizations that describe themselves as Zionist. The amendment received 684 votes in favor and 1,026 against.

Its defeat heightened concerns about how the new position might affect ordinary religious and community participation. Jewish News reported that some Jewish Greens were considering resignation, and that attempts to soften the motion's commitment to one state also failed.

Those concerns should be distinguished from a demonstrated disciplinary outcome. The evidence reported on Sunday establishes a policy vote and a rejected protection, not that every member associated with a Zionist synagogue has been expelled or threatened with expulsion.

That difference is central to the next test of the policy. Members will encounter it through decisions about speech, participation and complaints, not only through the wording of the conference resolution.

Jewish leaders challenge the premise

Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, who lead the Movement for Progressive Judaism, told The Jerusalem Post that the motion attacked Jewish self-determination and made equal participation conditional on rejecting it. They described the resolution as antisemitic in its formulation and intention.

Their objection is to treating a Jewish connection to Israel as a basis for exclusion. It is a different argument from demanding agreement with every Israeli policy, and it helps explain why communal affiliation became such a contentious part of the conference debate.

The Jerusalem Post also reported disagreement within Jewish Greens themselves. The group's survey produced an almost evenly divided average response on whether it should collectively oppose the motion, and it consequently declined to adopt an official position. Jewish opinion within the party was therefore not uniform, even as major communal leaders condemned the outcome.

The party offers assurances

A party spokesperson told ITV that the motion would not materially change governance or disciplinary procedures. Supporter Salma Yaqoob likewise said expressing a belief in Zionism would not itself lead to suspension or removal.

Polanski and senior colleagues said support for Palestinian rights could coexist with support for Jewish rights. Four of the party's five MPs publicly rejected the motion, ITV reported, underscoring the distance between the conference majority and much of the parliamentary party.

The next immediate political test is the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on Thursday, October 8, for which Polanski was campaigning instead of attending Sunday's vote. Beyond that contest, the party will have to show how its assurances to Jewish members operate alongside the policy its delegates approved.