Zionism is racism, says Green leader Zack Polanski

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said Zionism is a form of racism and declared himself an anti-Zionist, drawing boos and heckling at a Jewish community election hustings in London.

Asked whether Zionism was racist, Polanski said: “If you’re defining Zionism as a displacement genocide, which is how, in practice, Zionism has become, then that is racism.” His answer followed a qualification that people understood the term differently, Jewish News reported.

Speaking in Holborn and St Pancras on Thursday, Polanski acknowledged that his declaration of anti-Zionism would be difficult for some audience members to hear.

When challenged about where Jewish people should go, he argued that Israel’s exercise of self-determination relied on the displacement and genocide of Palestinians. The response prompted further boos.

Jewish News described his explicit identification as an anti-Zionist as a shift from his previous non-Zionist label.

The hustings were organised by pro-Israel lobby group Board of Deputies of British Jews and the London Jewish Forum ahead of the constituency’s 8 October by-election.

READ: Green Party leader accuses UK Chief Rabbi of promoting Israel’s political agenda

Polanski, who is Jewish, also argued that criticism of Israel must be distinguished from anti-Semitism. “I think we need to separate antisemitism from criticism of the Israeli state, and I think far too often those things become conflated”, Polanski said.

Commenting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Polanski said: “Many genocide scholars around the world recognise it as a genocide, and calling it that is not antisemitic. And I think as a Jewish community we need to come together to recognise that, when we call that antisemitic, we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe.”

His comments echo a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly more than five decades ago.

On 10 November 1975, the assembly passed Resolution 3379, determining that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”. The resolution was adopted by 72 votes to 35, with 32 abstentions.

The General Assembly revoked that determination on 16 December 1991 through Resolution 46/86. 

Polanski’s remarks also come amid a debate within his own party. Green members are expected to discuss a motion declaring Zionism racist at their forthcoming conference.

READ: Legal victory for scholar denied university post after calling Gaza a ‘textbook case of genocide’