Zack Polanski has publicly described himself as an anti-Zionist during a Jewish community hustings in Holborn and St Pancras, drawing boos and angry heckles from parts of the audience.
The Green Party leader was appearing alongside candidates from Labour, the Conservatives, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats ahead of the constituency’s 8 October by-election.
All five were asked whether they considered themselves Zionists.
Polanski answered:
“I am an anti-Zionist, which I know is difficult for people to hear in this room.”
His response was immediately challenged by members of the audience, including one who asked where Jewish people would go if Israel ceased to exist as a Jewish state.
Polanski did not argue that Jewish people should be expelled from Israel. He said his opposition was to a form of national self-determination that, in his view, had depended on the displacement of Palestinians and what he described as an ongoing genocide.
The distinction did not persuade much of the room.
Polanski challenged over the meaning of Zionism
The central dispute was not simply over whether Polanski supported the present Israeli government. He has long been one of its most outspoken critics in British politics.
The argument was about Zionism itself.
Asked whether he believed Zionism was racist, Polanski said there was a problem with definitions because the term “means different things to different people”.
He argued that if Zionism was being used to describe the displacement of Palestinians and the policies pursued by the Israeli government, he considered that racist.
The answer brought further boos, with some audience members shouting “shame” and accusing him of lying.
For many Jewish people, Zionism means support for Jewish national self-determination and Israel’s continued existence as a refuge from persecution. From that perspective, describing oneself as anti-Zionist can sound like opposition to Israel existing at all.
Polanski was using the term differently. He was rejecting a political project which, he argued, had created safety for Jewish people through the dispossession and continuing subjugation of Palestinians.
That clash of definitions ran through the exchange. Polanski was speaking about the consequences of Zionism for Palestinians. Much of the audience was hearing a rejection of Jewish security and self-determination.
Other candidates back Israel’s continued existence
The other four candidates did not adopt Polanski’s position.
Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali said she supported a two-state solution, with a secure Israel alongside an independent Palestinian state.
Liberal Democrat Patrick Spillman described Zionism as the Jewish movement for a state and said he considered himself a Zionist on that basis.
Conservative candidate Ewan Cameron and Reform UK’s Peter Newman also answered yes when asked whether they identified as Zionists.
Cameron later criticised Polanski’s use of the words apartheid and genocide, arguing that politicians had a responsibility to consider how such language could be interpreted.
Polanski has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that strong criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. At the hustings, he attempted to distinguish hostility towards Jewish people from criticism of Israel’s government, its occupation of Palestinian territory and its conduct in Gaza.
The disagreement was not resolved. Other candidates spoke about Jewish families feeling unsafe and argued that antisemitism was not being confronted seriously enough.
Polanski has criticised the Green Party’s Zionism motion
The exchange comes days before Green Party members are due to debate a motion declaring that “Zionism is racism”.
Although Polanski has now personally described himself as anti-Zionist, that does not mean he supports the conference motion as submitted.
He recently called it an “unhelpful distraction” and said he wanted two significant amendments.
The first would protect Jewish Green members from being treated differently because they belong to a synagogue or community organisation that describes itself as Zionist. Polanski has argued that a member could oppose Israel’s occupation, its treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza while continuing to attend a Zionist synagogue.
His second objection concerns the motion’s demand for a single Palestinian state across all of historic Palestine. Polanski said it should not be for a British political party to prescribe the final constitutional settlement for Israelis and Palestinians.
He has instead called for justice, equality and security for both peoples, without committing himself to either a one-state or two-state outcome.
That position is narrower than the proposed policy, which would define Zionism itself as a form of racism and abandon the Greens’ previous support for two states.
Polanski has not said how he will vote if his amendments are rejected.
From a Zionist childhood to an anti-Zionist position
Polanski grew up in a Jewish household in Manchester and has previously described his upbringing as strongly Zionist.
He was involved in Habonim Dror, a socialist Zionist youth movement, and has spoken about growing up with the belief that Israel provided a necessary place of safety for Jewish people after generations of persecution.
His views changed after meeting members of Breaking the Silence, an organisation formed by former Israeli soldiers who give testimony about their service in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Polanski has said those conversations forced him to confront Palestinian experiences that had not formed part of his political education.
His declaration at the hustings was therefore not an isolated line introduced for the by-election. It was the clearest public expression of a political journey he has discussed at length elsewhere.
But it was also made in a room where many people understand Zionism not as support for Benjamin Netanyahu, the occupation or the destruction of Gaza, but as the principle that Jewish people have a right to collective security and national self-determination.
Polanski acknowledged that his answer would be difficult for them to hear. The audience’s response confirmed it.
The relevant facts are straightforward. Polanski called himself an anti-Zionist and connected that position to Palestinian displacement and Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Members of the audience believed his answer threatened Jewish self-determination and reacted angrily.
5 responses to “Zack Polanski declares himself anti-Zionist during heated Jewish community hustings”
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There is only one consistent and just solution to this problem and I would hope that Zack Polanski and all fair-minded people will agree on it.
It is for the settlers to put down their guns and let the people back to their homes. Its the only solution acceptable to the Palestinian people and the only solution we should accept.
If this solution can be enforced on Germany (racist evictions in the 1930s are still being reversed today even such ethnic cleansing was legal everywhere at the time) then it can most certainly be enforced on Israel today.
The new law was already in place when Israel (represented by Abba Eban in May 1949) pleaded to be allowed to join the UN, promising to be subject to the new Charter and the new International law.
And promising to comply with UNGA resolutions 181 (borders) and UNGA 194 (refugees) – this was written into the UNGA Resolution 273 enabling Israel to join the UN.-
Isreal are commuting Genocide and need to be stopped. Plain and simple
Well said Zak you have my vote.
This debate is about Genocide it’s not about being Jewish. Its about empathy and acknowledging that isreal cannot continue to kill Palestinians and steal their land.
Isreal has become Nazi Germany and is breaking international law. Considering their history they should know better.
Isreal have a rouge leader who needs to be stopped NOW and sent to the haige.
Zak is right and would get my vote. Its time UK and World wide politics were separated and Friends of Isreal banned from every political party. No state has the right to commit Genocide regardless of who they are.
If people cannot see the difference it’s them who are on the wrong side of history and have the problem.
Wake up world and smell the coffee.
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At last a honest politician. Makes a refreshing change from the usual politicians who spout whatever pleases the audience simply for votes⁹8
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The 1948 agreement was brokered by the UK which had claimed the area they called Palestine as a British protectorate- our usual Colonial theft of foreign land !!
The holocaust occurred in Europe, led by Germany. The people living in the area now known as Palestine had had no part in the massacre of Jewish people.However in 1948 it was decided, with no negotiation with the occupants of the region ( for more than 2000 years) , that these peoples homeland should be handed to Israel as a Jewish state.
Palestinians were to have rights to leadership in areas determined by the UK and Zionist movement , and the new Israeli govt had sole control of a specific area but the whole area was to be known as Israel – a Jewish homeland.
Prior to the signing of the Balfour agreement there had been physical conflicts between Palestinians, surrounding Arab countries and Zionist forces attempting to drive the British out.Zionist leaders had declared that the creation of Israel would necessitate the removal of thousands of existing Palestinian inhabitants.
Yes, when Israel was declared a state there were attacks by surrounding Arab countries and indigenous Palestinians who had occupied the land for 2000 yrs.What on earth did anyone expect? It would be like another country claiming England and trying to push English inhabitants into Wales Scotland and Cornwall!!!
Would we stand for that?People now claim that Arab states have unacceptable laws and customs/ religion.
That is their choice. They do not dictate to other states how we should live.
I do not understand how anyone can think Palestinians have been treated fairly . The Jewish religious texts say Jews cannot claim a country until God sends his son to Earth ( they recognise Jesus as just a prophet) and their only claim to the land is that their God has made them the chosen people to run that area!! Hardly convincing to ANY non Jewish people.Meanwhile the Palestinians are paying for Germanys evils. And Germany’s elections show it is returning to fascism !!
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Isreal are commuting Genocide and need to be stopped. Plain and simple
Well said Zak you have my vote.
This debate is about Genocide it’s not about being Jewish. Its about empathy and acknowledging that isreal cannot continue to kill Palestinians and steal their land.
Isreal has become Nazi Germany and is breaking international law. Considering their history they should know better.
Isreal have a rouge leader who needs to be stopped NOW and sent to the haige.
Zak is right and would get my vote. Its time UK and World wide politics were separated and Friends of Isreal banned from every political party. No state has the right to commit Genocide regardless of who they are.
If people cannot see the difference it’s them who are on the wrong side of history and have the problem.
Wake up world and smell the coffee.Well said no state regardless of who they are, has the right to commit Genocide. This needs to be stopped Now before more Palestinians are murdered and their land is stolen by Isreal. Please wake up world and smell the coffee.
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