Polanski refuses to scrap Greens’ Zionism is racism motion

Zack Polanski has said he will not overturn the Green Party’s “Zionism is racism” motion, leaving the policy locked in until at least 2028 under party rules.

The Green leader told the BBC this morning he wants to amend the text “at the first available opportunity”, yet he ruled out killing the decision his members just took. The motion passed at the party conference in Brighton earlier this month by 1,022 votes to 813. It brands Zionism an “ethnonationalist political project” and insists opposition to Zionism, the belief in Jewish self-determination and statehood, should not be equated with antisemitism.

Polanski himself refused to vote on the motion. He has said before that he would not have backed it without changes. Asked on Sunday whether he would intervene as leader, he was blunt: “I’m not going to try to overturn it. At the first available opportunity, I do want to amend it – I want to move away from one state, towards saying that Israelis and Palestinians should decide that future for themselves.”

He pointed to the rulebook. When members vote something through at conference, it stays policy for two years. “I think if members have made a decision, then I respect the democratic will of our members.” That means the wording sits there through the next stretch of British politics, whatever damage it does.

Britain’s parties are judged on whether they stand for the country or for slogans that treat a people’s right to a homeland as a slur. A motion that equates Jewish national self-determination with racism is not a footnote. It is a statement of intent, and a leader who will not scrap it owns the consequences.

The Greens are already sliding. An Ipsos survey in October found 52 per cent of the public hold an unfavourable view of Polanski, up six points since September and the first time more than half the country has turned against him. Only 16 per cent view him positively. His net rating has dropped to minus 36, the worst of any national party leader. Keiran Pedley, UK director of politics at Ipsos, said voters had noticed a “bruising month” for the London Assembly member.

Backlash inside and out

Pressure is coming from every side. The leader of the Jewish Greens threatened to leave, calling the vote “unhelpful” and saying it “does not make any difference whatsoever to Palestinians”. A No10 spokesman branded it a “shameful vote against a two-state solution”. Israel condemned the decision and accused the party of giving “legitimacy to terrorism”. The country’s foreign minister confirmed Polanski is barred from entering Israel, calling the motion “shocking”. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said: “The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle.”

The Independent reported that Polanski insists the motion “isn’t controversial” and that he would not seek to overturn the decision. That line will not wash with voters who watch a party double down while its leader’s ratings collapse. The Evening Standard noted he had slumped to his worst poll rating as Green leader amid the row. Politics.co.uk reported Andy Burnham ruling out a future deal with the Greens over the same conference text after being pressed at prime minister’s questions.

What happens next is already written into the Greens’ own timetable. Amendments cannot land before 2028. Until then the motion stands as party policy, Polanski stays barred from Israel, Jewish members remain alienated, and the public keeps registering its verdict in the polls. The leader who would not vote for the motion without changes now refuses to overturn it. That is the record, and it is the one he will carry.

Original source: BBC Politics