Israel bans British Green Party leader Zac Polanski from entering after resolution equating Zionism with racism

Israel's Foreign Ministry has banned British Green Party leader Zac Polanski from entering the country after the political force adopted a resolution at a party conference declaring Zionism a form of racism.

At a party conference on Sunday, the Greens called Zionism - the movement to create a state for Jews in their historic homeland - an ideology in support of an "ethno-nationalist Jewish state".

The adopted resolution also proclaims the party's commitment to the creation of “a single democratic Palestinian state throughout the entire territory of historical Palestine,” which includes the territory of modern Israel.

“The Green Party of Great Britain adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, legitimizing the armed struggle against Israel and calling for the creation of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” which means the destruction of the State of Israel,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in this regard.

The department called the text of the document “openly anti-Semitic” and going “beyond the scope of acceptable political discussion.” According to Israeli authorities, the resolution essentially denies the “right of the Jewish people to self-determination.”

“As a first step, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has therefore decided today to ban Green Party leader Zac Polanski from entering Israel,” the statement said.

Polanski himself, an ethnic Jew, did not participate in Sunday's vote. Immediately after speaking at the conference, he left for another event related to the by-election.

Previously, he also called on his fellow party members to make several mitigating amendments to the text of the resolution, but his call was rejected. However, it was Polanski, as the head of the party, who was considered responsible for what happened in Israel.

Polanski became head of the Green Party in September 2025, and in the elections held in May 2026, this political force more than doubled its representation in local councils.

Disagreement among the Greens

The resolution, proposed by a group of activists and supported by 1,022 votes to 813, became one of the main topics of the party conference.

It marked the emergence of serious divisions in the party between rank-and-file activists, who had grown significantly under Polanski, and the deputies elected to parliament in the last elections.

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Four of the five Greens MPs - Ellie Chowns, Shan Berry, and former party leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer - publicly opposed the resolution.

Chauns wrote on social media that she believes the resolution "risks deepening division and undermining the party's ability to effectively advocate for justice and peace."

Disagreements also arose between the two current deputy leaders of the Greens. Motin Ali supported the resolution, while Rachel Millward called its language "problematic".

For example, the document states that “the real, practical manifestation of Zionism has been and remains the dehumanization, displacement, dispossession, dispossession, and extermination of Palestinians.” Some members of the party leadership considered such assessments to be excessive, but their opinion was not supported.

After the vote, one of the resolution's sponsors, Green Party member Lubna Speytan, said her supporters were committed to speaking out against "racist systems of oppression." “We are united in the fight against all forms of racism and discrimination – no exceptions,” she said.

Polanski himself tried to balance on this issue between radical and moderate forces in his own party.

“If your Zionism involves displacing the Palestinian people, then this is certainly racist. And I say this as a Jew who heads a British political party,” he said on the eve of the party conference, when information about the impending resolution had already hit the press.

At the same time, he advocated changing the provision for the creation of a unified Palestinian state. “I don’t believe that we, the Green Party of England and Wales, or even the British government, should decide what the future political settlement will be,” he said.

Polanski also proposed that the resolution be supplemented with a provision that it should not be used for disciplinary measures against party members of Jewish origin who attend synagogues that identify themselves as Zionist organizations. Both amendments he proposed were rejected by a majority vote.

Supporters of the resolution said that even without the amendment, the party would protect its Jewish members and that they would not be persecuted for attending synagogues.

However, after the adoption of the document, the chairman of the Jewish Greens organization, Vivien Lichtenstein, told the BBC that she was now thinking about her future in the party.

Following Zac Polanski's vote, he joined a joint statement by five Green Party MPs, vowing to ensure the party "remains anti-racist in all respects" and emphasizing that "there is no contradiction between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people."

"Attack on British Jews"

Meanwhile, the UK Jewish community called the resolution "a direct attack on British Jews."

“Declaring the majority of British Jews and Jewish organizations as 'racists' fuels hatred of Jews, and we have already lived through a year of British Jews being killed while attending synagogues, attacked with knives in the streets and Jewish community buildings set on fire,” the Jewish organizations said in a joint statement.

“Zionism is anti-racism: it created a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution beyond its borders,” the statement emphasizes.

Zac Polanski himself was particularly criticized in the document for the fact that he “did not oppose the resolution and did not vote on it.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the Green Party had become an "extremist party."

Two senior rabbis also called the resolution "anti-Semitic in its wording and intent."

What other parties say

Labor Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson called the Greens' decision "disgraceful and fundamentally flawed."

“It is disgraceful to vote against a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and label the vast majority of British Jews and Jews around the world racist for supporting Israel’s right to exist,” she said.

Labour's Communities Minister Angela Rayner said the resolution on Zionism "crosses the line and is rightly condemned by people across the political spectrum".

Conservatives said the incident showed the Green Party was "rotten to the core".

“British Jews should not give up their belief in the Jewish people's right to self-determination and the existence of Israel in order to be accepted by a British political party,” said Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.

Analysis: Green resolution a headache for Burnham?

BBC political correspondent Henry Zeffman:

It is unlikely that Polanski or many other members of the Green Party will be particularly concerned about Israel's condemnation of the resolution. One of the main factors in the Greens’ electoral success over the past year—an extremely successful period for the party—has been their clear and open criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza and its actions in the region as a whole.

However, for the party itself, this story may be a more serious problem, since it has highlighted the peculiarities of its internal structure.

Many Greens are proud of the internal party democracy: the resolution was put forward by ordinary party members, and they voted for it. But as a result, leading elected Green politicians now have to answer questions about party policies that the vast majority of them opposed.

Burnham did not specify which system he preferred, but said that at the next parliamentary election Labor intends to advocate for a new model in which "every voice matters and everyone's voice is heard." (Currently in Britain there is a system in which all MPs are elected in majoritarian constituencies, as a result of which votes cast for losing candidates are essentially not counted - Ed.)

A move to any more proportional electoral system, given current political trends, would likely increase the number of Green Party MPs. If the election results in a hung parliament in which no party has a majority, the Greens would be one of Labour's natural potential partners within the progressive bloc.

The Labor Party has long been divided over electoral reform. Now its leader is clearly in favor of change. However, the Greens' resolution may have the unintended consequence of increasing resistance within the Labor Party to this part of the Prime Minister's agenda.