Green Party leader Zack Polanski refused to say that Israel has a right to exist, while describing Zionism as a “racist ideology” that he said has contributed to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Mr Polanski said the ideology supporting a Jewish homeland was, in its application in Gaza and the West Bank, synonymous with “basic colonialism and racism”.
He made the comments during his first televised interview since a major antisemitism row engulfed the Green Party.
The Green leader has faced criticism from inside and outside the party since its conference in Brighton backed a motion describing Zionism as “racism”. Mr Polanski did not take part in the vote.
The policy called for Israel to be treated in the same way as apartheid-era South Africa and ultimately replaced by a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Polanski said he did not support the policy. However, he said he would not seek to change the party’s rules to amend it before 2028, when it can next be put to a vote.
Asked whether he believed Israel had a right to exist, he replied: “I don’t think any country has a right to exist.”
He added: “There is no right to exist for any country … people have a right to exist.”
The Green Party leader said the ideology supporting a Jewish homeland was synonymous with “basic colonialism and racism” in Gaza and the West Bank.
Asked whether he believed Zionism was racist, Mr Polanski referred to the thousands of deaths in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). He said: “When you take that into account, the fact that they are being murdered because they are Palestinian, that is very obviously a racist ideology.”
Discussing his broader views on Zionism, Mr Polanski, who is Jewish and was raised in a Zionist family, said the debate had become a matter of “semantics”.
When it was suggested that some people understood Zionism as an ideology seeking a safe homeland for Jews, he said: “I think that is what people think it means, but actually in practical application, which is what we are talking about here, that homeland has come at the cost of the Palestinian people.”
He added: “I want equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. The practical application of Zionism has not resulted in that.”
The conference decision prompted Vivien Lichtenstein, leader of the Jewish Greens, to call for Mr Polanski’s resignation. She also said she was considering leaving the party.
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Labour has also issued an ultimatum to local Green groups with which it is currently in coalition, telling them to disown the motion or risk losing the party’s support.
Days after the conference vote, Mr Polanski suffered another setback when he was defeated in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
The defeat came as a new poll showed Mr Polanski’s approval rating had fallen to its lowest level since he became Green Party leader amid the controversy.
An Ipsos survey conducted in October found that 52 per cent of the public held an unfavourable view of the Green leader. That was a six-point increase from September and marked the first time more than half of the population had expressed a negative opinion of him.
Only 16 per cent said they viewed Mr Polanski positively, leaving him with an overall rating of minus 36 — the lowest score recorded for any national party leader.
The poll suggested that opposition to Mr Polanski was particularly concentrated among older age groups.
But he has also lost ground among under-35s, falling from a net score of plus 16 in April to just plus two.
His support among people who voted Labour in 2024 has also plummeted, from a net favourability of plus seven in April to minus 24 in October.
Keiran Pedley, UK director of politics at Ipsos, said the public had noticed that it had been a ‘bruising month’ for Mr Polanski.
The Ipsos poll, conducted in the immediate wake of that by-election, found Andy Burnham remained the only senior UK politician with an overall positive favourability score.
The Prime Minister enjoys a net favourability score of plus eight, while Kemi Badenoch’s score is minus 12 and Sir Ed Davey’s is minus 15.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s overall score is minus 31, with some 56 per cent of people saying they have an unfavourable view of him.
Mr Pedley added: ‘Andy Burnham appears to be in the ascendancy for the battle for hearts and minds on the left, with 2024 Green voters almost as positive towards him as the leader of the Green Party itself.’
The Ipsos poll surveyed 2,257 British adults online between October 9 and 13.
