Polanski: do UK Jews have ‘perception of unsafety or actual unsafety’
Disbelief as comments made after Shuls firebombed. Green Party leader also suggests antisemitism claims against his party’s local candidates have been 'weaponised'
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has sparked fury after wondering whether there is a “perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety” among the Jewish community, following a wave of antisemitic attacks in the UK.
Speaking to an Israeli journalist, Polanski did express concern over rising antisemitism, including the recent arson attacks on Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green.
However, he then added: “Now, there’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety, but neither are acceptable.
“As a politician, as a leader of a political party, it’s really important that we do everything we can to make sure people are both physically safe and have a perception of safety. And it’s unacceptable for anyone in this country to be feeling unsafe if they’re just going about their daily business.”
In further comments to journalist Hagar Shezaf, who writes for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Polanski also claimed Labour had “weaponised” antisemitism claims against some Green Party local election candidates. He argued that Labour waited until after candidate names were announced to “start accusing candidates of being antisemitic.”
Later in the same interview, he appeared to suggest that, as a Jewish politician, he had a responsibility to speak out against what he claimed was the “genocide” being committed by Israel in Gaza.
He said this was to ensure that, “my Jewish identity is not weaponised by other people in the community who claim that all Jewish people support the Israeli government, or all Jewish people support the genocide, because that’s absolutely not true.”
Spectator journalist Noa Hoffman responded to online video footage of the interview, saying: “This is quite incredible… Zack Polanski here tells a journalist there is a ‘conversation to be had’ about whether fears in the Jewish community amid an onslaught of firebomb attacks on community buildings are just imaginary and are actually unfounded.”
When pressed by the journalist about the Green Party’s response to antisemitism, given the recent wave of attacks, Polanski said: “I am concerned about the rising antisemitic attacks. We saw arson attacks on ambulances for instance, and we know that increasingly Jewish communities are feeling unsafe.
“Now, there’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety, but neither are acceptable. As a politician, as a leader of a political party, it’s really important that we do everything we can to make sure people are both physically safe and have a perception of safety. And it’s unacceptable for anyone in this country to be feeling unsafe if they’re just going about their daily business.”
Polanski then added: “More widely, I would say that the perception of antisemitism, though, I know I’ve answered several times today, but I see is an increasingly weaponised, cynical political attack from the Labour Party.
“Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t take antisemitism seriously. In fact, the opposite – I do take antisemitism seriously, and part of taking it seriously is recognising it needs to be dealt with compassion and care and nuance, and we need to be level-headed about these conversations.
“For the Labour Party to wait until the daily election started, to start accusing candidates of being antisemitic shows me the opposite of that; that’s a deeply unserious commitment to actually dealing with a serious issue, and instead, the weaponisation of a political attack, which I think is really, really unhelpful and unhealthy.”
However, Polanski’s criticism of Labour and attacks on his party’s candidates over alleged antisemitism has raised eyebrows, as the names of Green Party candidates only became public once nominations for the local elections were published.
Elsewhere in the interview, Polanski said he recognised he did not speak for all Jews in the UK, comparing this to organisations like the Board of Deputies.
He also claimed that polls showed increased Jewish support for both his party and Reform UK.
Jewish News contacted the Greens for further comment on Polanski’s remarks.
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