UK Green Party Leader Polanski Blames Jews for Anti-Semitism

(UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski seated second from left)

Zack Polanski, the leader of the UK Green Party, is seeking a seat in the House of Commons vacated by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The by-election is set for October 8th.

During a candidates' forum last week in the London constituency of Holborn and St. Pancaras sponsored by the Board of Deputies for British Jews, Polanski received a deservedly cool reception when he claimed that Jews are responsible for the rise of anti-Semitism in the UK:

Many genocide scholars around the world recognise it [Israel’s war in Gaza] as a genocide and calling it that is not antisemitic.

And I think, 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.

For starters, characterizing Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza as a genocide is certainly anti-Semitic when actual genocides such as China's genocide against Uyghur Muslims or Myanmar's genocide against Rohingya Muslims are ignored. It is also anti-Semitic when the definition of genocide itself is changed for the expressed purpose of justifying such claims against Israel.

If in fact calling out anti-Semitism, be it concerning false accusations of genocide against Israel or any other act which singles out Jews, makes Jews less safe, then that says more about those who engage in anti-Semitic behavior than it does about Jews.

Basically, it's like saying, 'Don't call us anti-Semitic or we will commit violent acts of anti-Semitism against you.'

It's no different than when Elon Musk and Megyn Kelly have publicly blamed Jews for anti-Semitism.

That Polanski himself is Jewish is immaterial. After all, he presides over a party whose candidates openly refer to Jews as cockroaches, justify the October 7th attacks and other acts of violence against Jews such as the Temple Israel attack in Michigan earlier this year.

Despite Polanski's high profile, Holborn and St. Pancaras is Labour's seat to lose. Its candidate is Sagal Abdi-Wali, who is the leader of the Camden Borough Council. For her part, while Abdi-Wali does not identify as a Zionist, she has publicly rejected the notion that Zionism is racism which, of course, Polanski supports. 

But even if Polanski loses the by-election by a decisive margin, the UK Greens have institutionalized anti-Semitism under Polanski's leadership. I suspect this institutionalization is unlikely to change with his successors.