Exclusive: Greens Say They Will Not Be 'Bullied' After Israel Bans Zack Polanski

The Green Party says it will not be “bullied” by the Israeli government after Zack Polanski was banned from entering the country.

It comes after the Greens’ annual conference voted on Sunday to back a motion stating “Zionism is racism”.

Zionism is the belief that Jewish people should have their own state.

Critics of the motion said it risked sending out a message that Jews are not welcome in the Greens.

Polanski himself did not take part in the conference vote, choosing instead to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, which takes place on Thursday.

Nevertheless, Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs announced that the party leader would not be allowed to enter the country.

In a statement, they said the conference motion “constitutes a clear antisemitic text ... as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination”.

“Therefore, as a first step, foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has decided this evening to declare Green Party leader Zack Polanski barred from entering Israel,” the statement said.

“Today, the Green Party in Britain adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, legitimising armed struggle against Israel, and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” – meaning the destruction of the State of Israel,” it added.

But a senior Green source told HuffPost UK: “We will not be bullied into silence by the Israeli government.

“We are proud that Zack and our party are standing up for Palestinian rights and demanding an end to British complicity in genocide and apartheid.”

The conference motion, which was passed by 1,022 votes to 813, highlighted deep splits in the Green Party, with most of its five MPs opposing it.

Former co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer, as well as their prdecessor Caroline Lucas, all voted against the motion.

An amendment to the motion stating that Green Party members would not be targeted for attending Zionist synagogues was also defeated.

Chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the motion was “poisonous antisemitism, a threat to British Jews and to Britain”.

A Green Party spokesman said: “The Green Party is an anti-racist party and has consistently opposed the illegal occupation of both Palestinian and Syrian land, called for an end to arms sales to the Israeli government and spoken out fearlessly about the devastating situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Those positions remain central to our approach. So too does our deeply-held commitment to equality, justice and human rights for all, and opposition to racism in all its forms.”

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