The Greens are pushing Zack Polanski to take a stance on a potential party policy stating “Zionism is racism”, with some fearing it could alienate Jewish supporters if it was passed.
Polanski, who leads the Greens in England and Wales, has not spoken publicly about the motion, which came top of a members’ vote of policy motions to be debated at the party conference in Brighton at the start of October, and is thus almost certain to feature.
The Greens make party policy by member votes at conferences. If passed, the motion would equate Zionism – the movement for a Jewish state – with racism, would call for a single Palestinian state, and would risk members who supported Zionism being disciplined for racism.
While Polanski is believed to have reservations about the motion, some in the party believe he is wary of speaking out publicly to avoid angering left-leaning members who have joined the Greens in large numbers under his leadership, a number of whom have strong views on Gaza and Israel.
“Zack can try to be everything to everyone, and that doesn’t always work in politics,” one senior Green said. “But he is in a difficult position. Some of the supporters of the motion can be quite aggressive.”
A motion with the same title was submitted to the Greens’ spring conference but was never debated due to time constraints.
If the motion had been debated, it is understood that the party’s MPs and Polanski would have opposed it.
Polanski has not given a view yet this time but is understood to have concerns about any motion that could leave Jewish members feeling unwelcome in the party, or which could be seen as not helping a peace process.
Some in the party view the coming weeks, and whether Polanski takes a stance or not, as a test of his leadership, and whether he is willing to challenge some of the new Green members, particularly those who were formerly in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
after newsletter promotion
The motion calls for “a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants”, and says the Palestinian people have the full right to “resistance and liberation from Israeli occupation, domination and subjugation” within international law.
If passed, Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism” by the party, it adds.
Two amendments to tone down the motion have been tabled, which one Green source said Polanski appeared to support.
A Green official said that many activists loyal to the party’s leadership might not be at the autumn conference because it takes place a week before voting in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, in which Polanski hopes to take Keir Starmer’s old seat from Labour, potentially leaving more scope for others to push through the motion.
“The risk is that if it passes as it is we are alienating ourselves from the Jewish community in the UK, a lot of whom are not big fans of the current Israeli government,” a Green source said.
There was, they added, a parallel worry about internal splits, with some Green activists in leaked WhatsApp chats warning that Polanski was “struggling to overcome Zionist indoctrination”.
They said: “In the past, even highly contested policy debates in the Greens have always been conducted in a mature and sensible way, even [a] boring way. Now it’s changed.”
