Polanski refuses to declare Zionism 'racist' in break from Green Party activists
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has refused to say whether he thinks Zionism is racist in a break from members of his own party.
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After being pressed by LBC's Iain Dale during an exclusive phone-in, Mr Polanski distanced himself from Green activists who declared Zionism a racist ideology and called for a single Palestinian state in the Middle East.
The leader, who has overseen the party's rise to their best-ever poll positions, told Iain: The first thing to talk about again is the Green Party democratic process: so any member can submit a policy to our conference and we have 195,000 of them. So I have to be a little bit careful about commenting on every motion ever that arrives.
"But I'll take the substantive points of what you're saying... as a Jewish person, I think it's really important that I speak out against antisemitism.
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"I also think as a political leader, it's important to talk about the genocide that's happening in Gaza and to talk about my solidarity with the Palestinian people.
"You can do both of those things. And I think far too often in our national discourse, antisemitism gets conflated."
When pressed by Iain on whether he supports the idea of a single Palestinian state, Mr Polanski said: "No. I think it's important that it's up to the Palestinian and Israeli people ultimately what their self-sovereignty looks like.
"The reason why I said no initially is because I don't think it's for political leaders from other countries to wade in and decide what that looks like."
After laying out his Jewish heritage, Mr Polanski elaborated: "I think clearly when the idea of Zionism was created, that was about making sure there was a peaceful place for people to live."
He added: "I think the version of Zionism that [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government put forward, I would say, is racist. It clearly involves the extermination of the Palestinian people.
"So I find the kind of conversation about the term less helpful because actually lots of people define it differently. I think the important thing is what can we do about it?"