Green Party leader Polanski says he would discourage 'globalise the intifada' phrase but defends protest rights

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he would discourage use of the phrase "globalise the intifada" on pro-Palestine marches but insists he is not interested in policing people's language. Speaking to the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Polanski said: "It's not a phrase I would use personally and that's because I think if there's other phrases you can use or other ways to do things then why not just do them. I want people to be more effective so I wouldn't encourage people to use it because actually I think you can make your point a lot more effectively and not get into this conversation about language." He added: "Words matter, but the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, the people in Lebanon who have been killed, these people matter too, and I think if people want to protest, that it's important we defend their right to protest. Yes I do discourage, to give you a more direct answer, the use of the phrase but I'm not interested in trying to police people's language." The comments come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer threatened to ban some pro-Palestine demonstrations. On Saturday morning, Starmer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "there are instances" in which he would support stopping some pro-Palestine protests altogether. Starmer said he also wanted the language expressed on some protest marches to be subjected to "tougher action", including the chant "globalise the intifada". The Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley told BBC Breakfast earlier in the week that people using "globalise the intifada" are "likely to be arrested". "We said that before Christmas and we've already got people arrested and charged and in court for such behaviour," Rowley said. John Rees, co-founder and national officer for the Stop the War coalition, which helps organise large pro-Palestine demonstrations in central London, considered Starmer's comments a "threat" against his coalition's own protests. Speaking to Sky News, Rees said a ban would "strike at the root of free assembly and free speech in this country". Meanwhile, transport secretary Heidi Alexander described Polanski's recent retweet of a post criticizing police after the Golders Green attack as "disgusting" and "absolutely abhorrent", saying he is not fit to lead a political party. Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers were "repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head" when he was already incapacitated by a stun gun. The Green party leader has since apologised after being publicly criticised by the head of the Metropolitan Police. Polanski told Sky News: "The first thing I did was recognise that this was a horrific crime and I showed solidarity to the victims and their families. I then thanked the emergency responders for the brave work they did. I found it all very traumatic, especially as a Jewish person. And I also found the video that was circulating online traumatic too. I accept though that conversation about that video needs to be had with the commissioner rather than on X." The Israel-Gaza war has killed at least 72,610 people according to health officials in Gaza, and has been classified as a genocide by human rights groups and scholars.