Zack Polanski Zionism Remarks: Leader Says Application of Zionism Is Racist
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said in a BBC interview on Sunday that Zionism in its current form is racist and that no state has a right to exist under international law.
Zack Polanski Zionism Remarks: Leader Says Application of Zionism Is Racist
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said Zionism in its current form is racist and that no country has a right to exist, in a BBC interview broadcast on Sunday. The Zack Polanski Zionism remarks came on Laura Kuenssberg's programme, two weeks after his party's conference approved a motion equating Zionism with racism.
What Polanski said on Zionism
Asked directly by Kuenssberg whether Zionism was racist, Polanski said the question was not controversial and pointed to the toll of the conflict, saying 75,000 Palestinians had been murdered in the last few years, including more child amputees than ever in modern history. He said Palestinians were being killed because they are Palestinian, and argued that racism is what Zionism amounts to once put into practice.
Israel's right to exist and the two-state solution
Pressed on whether Israel had a right to exist, Polanski answered that, in his view, no state enjoys such a right under international law.
He also dismissed the idea of a two-state solution, calling it "for the birds" given Israel's opposition to it.
The conference motion and criticism
The interview landed two weeks after the Green Party conference voted through the motion equating Zionism with racism. Polanski was absent for that vote, which prompted accusations of a lack of leadership. On Sunday he said he thought it unhelpful to hold what he called a debate about semantics, while agreeing with the broad thrust of the motion.
- Polanski said he had no regrets about his handling of the controversy.
- He faced criticism from prominent Jewish Green members, including Vivien Lichtenstein, the head of the Jewish Greens.
- He said that when the Jewish Greens were surveyed about the motion, a majority supported it.
- Polanski, who is Jewish, said he has had and still has respect for Lichtenstein, and that they partly co-founded the Jewish Greens together.
A difficult stretch for his leadership
The interview came at the end of the most difficult two weeks of Polanski's leadership since he took over in September 2025. That stretch included the fallout from the conference vote and defeat in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.
His strategy of shifting the party left, with economically populist ideas and emphasis on Palestine and Gaza, had lifted the party from about 10% in the polls to 18% earlier this year. It has since declined amid questions over his tax affairs, a public spat with the police after the Golders Green attack, and the Zionism row.
He insisted voters would come back, saying: "People more and more will see from Andy Burnham a change in rhetoric, but not a change in action". Polanski said he had no regrets about his handling of the controversy.
