Green Party leader Zack Polanski: 'I'm an anti-Zionist' MEE staff on Fri, 09/25/2026 - 15:36 'We cannot hold Jewish people responsible for what happens in Israel,' Polanski tells a hustings for Holborn and St Pancras by-election Green Party leader Zack Polanski pictured in February 2026 (AFP) Off “I’m an anti-Zionist,” Zack Polanski said on Thursday night, becoming the first modern leader of a major British party to make such a declaration. Asked at a Jewish hustings for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election whether he was a Zionist, the Green Party leader said: “I’m an anti-Zionist, which I know is difficult for people in this room to hear… I think countries have always been ideas and I think things change over time.” “If you’re defining Zionism as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinians, which is how in practice Zionism has become in truth, then that is racist,” he said, when asked if Zionism is a form of racism. Polanski is his party’s candidate for the London seat, which goes to the polls on 8 October. The hustings, which was organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the London Jewish Forum, two organisations generally considered to be pro-Israel, became heated as Polanski spoke about Israel and Palestine. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “Many genocide scholars around the world recognise it as a genocide, and calling it that is not antisemitic,” Polanski said of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, according to a video of the event posted online. The Green Party leader, who is Jewish, had moments before referred to “what I would class as apartheid and genocide”, drawing boos from the audience. “Well, I know that that’s not popular in this room,” Polanski said in response to the reaction. 'If you’re defining Zionism as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinians, which is how in practice Zionism has become in truth, then that is racist' - Zack Polanski After Polanski said that calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide was not antisemitic audience members shouted: “It is, it is!” “I think as the Jewish community we need to come together to recognise when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe,” Polanski said, with one member of the audience responding by saying: “Genocide was coined for the Holocaust.” “We cannot hold Jewish people responsible for what happens in Israel,” Polanski told the hustings. “And when we conflate those things, that’s when the danger happens.” These final remarks were met with some applause. 'Are you a Zionist'? According to local journalist Richard Osley, candidates from all other parties were at the hustings and were asked, as their first question, “Yes or no - are you a Zionist?” Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali, who missed a Muslim community event earlier in the week and who is looking to succeed her ally Keir Starmer as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, replied: “I believe in a two-state solution.” Liberal Democrat Patrick Stillman said: “As I understand it, it’s for a Jewish state and a right to exist, I think that’s important, so yes I am.” Conservative candidate Ewan Cameron and Reform candidate Pete Newman, a former police officer, both said they were Zionists. Polanski makes his mark as Labour candidate fails to attend election hustings Read More » After Polanski said he was an anti-Zionist, a couple of members of the audience responded by saying, “Where do the Jews go?”, while one said: “You’re not impartial if you’re an anti-Zionist, are you?” While previous leaders of major British political parties - including Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and former prime ministers Clement Attlee and Herbert Asquith - have in different ways opposed Zionism, Polanski is the first to explicitly call himself an “anti-Zionist”. Zionism as a movement emerged in the late 19th century, at a time when Jewish populations across Europe faced often murderous antisemitism, with pogroms carried out against them. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration announced the British government’s support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire since 1516. When Britain took over in 1918, Jews made up about five or six percent of Palestine’s population, a figure that increased in the years leading up to the Second World War as the government in London actively supported the transport of Jews from Europe to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, the dream of Zionism was realised at the expense of the Palestinians, more than 750,000 of whom were displaced from their land and homes during the Nakba, meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic. UK Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0
“I’m an anti-Zionist,” Zack Polanski said on Thursday night, becoming the first modern leader of a major British party to make such a declaration.
Asked at a Jewish hustings for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election whether he was a Zionist, the Green Party leader said: “I’m an anti-Zionist, which I know is difficult for people in this room to hear… I think countries have always been ideas and I think things change over time.”
“If you’re defining Zionism as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinians, which is how in practice Zionism has become in truth, then that is racist,” he said, when asked if Zionism is a form of racism.
Polanski is his party’s candidate for the London seat, which goes to the polls on 8 October.
The hustings, which was organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the London Jewish Forum, two organisations generally considered to be pro-Israel, became heated as Polanski spoke about Israel and Palestine.
“Many genocide scholars around the world recognise it as a genocide, and calling it that is not antisemitic,” Polanski said of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, according to a video of the event posted online.
The Green Party leader, who is Jewish, had moments before referred to “what I would class as apartheid and genocide”, drawing boos from the audience. “Well, I know that that’s not popular in this room,” Polanski said in response to the reaction.
'If you’re defining Zionism as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinians, which is how in practice Zionism has become in truth, then that is racist'
After Polanski said that calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide was not antisemitic audience members shouted: “It is, it is!”
“I think as the Jewish community we need to come together to recognise when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe,” Polanski said, with one member of the audience responding by saying: “Genocide was coined for the Holocaust.”
“We cannot hold Jewish people responsible for what happens in Israel,” Polanski told the hustings. “And when we conflate those things, that’s when the danger happens.” These final remarks were met with some applause.
According to local journalist Richard Osley, candidates from all other parties were at the hustings and were asked, as their first question, “Yes or no - are you a Zionist?”
Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali, who missed a Muslim community event earlier in the week and who is looking to succeed her ally Keir Starmer as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, replied: “I believe in a two-state solution.”
Liberal Democrat Patrick Stillman said: “As I understand it, it’s for a Jewish state and a right to exist, I think that’s important, so yes I am.”
Conservative candidate Ewan Cameron and Reform candidate Pete Newman, a former police officer, both said they were Zionists.
After Polanski said he was an anti-Zionist, a couple of members of the audience responded by saying, “Where do the Jews go?”, while one said: “You’re not impartial if you’re an anti-Zionist, are you?”
While previous leaders of major British political parties - including Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and former prime ministers Clement Attlee and Herbert Asquith - have in different ways opposed Zionism, Polanski is the first to explicitly call himself an “anti-Zionist”.
Zionism as a movement emerged in the late 19th century, at a time when Jewish populations across Europe faced often murderous antisemitism, with pogroms carried out against them.
In 1917, the Balfour Declaration announced the British government’s support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire since 1516.
When Britain took over in 1918, Jews made up about five or six percent of Palestine’s population, a figure that increased in the years leading up to the Second World War as the government in London actively supported the transport of Jews from Europe to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine.
In 1948, the dream of Zionism was realised at the expense of the Palestinians, more than 750,000 of whom were displaced from their land and homes during the Nakba, meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic.
