From Liberal Zionist to Green Party leader: The political journey of Zack Polanski

Zack Polanski believes that claims he does not represent the “mainstream Jewish community” are actually boosting, rather than damaging, his standing as Green Party leader.

Sources close to the ambitious Jewish leader say he sees this criticism as strengthening his support among both anti-Zionist and non-Zionist voices within the Jewish community, while also bolstering his credibility with left-wing and pro-Palestine activists in the broader electorate.

This strategy was evident when, after being asked to suspend two Green councillors who “rallied against Israel” during an “inflamed” Hackney Council meeting last week, Polanski responded, “I’m proud of Green councillors who are doing everything they can to bring attention to stopping the genocide.”

It also explains his determination to assert himself as an authentic Jewish voice at every opportunity, even in speeches not directly connected to the community, to demonstrate that he speaks outside the “mainstream” communal consensus.

“Zack’s view is that after October 7th, mainstream Jewish organisations no longer represent a not insignificant number of those who are appalled by Israel’s actions in Gaza,” a former colleague explained.

“He’s convinced he can win the support of perhaps 10 to 15 percent of the Jewish community by expressing his outrage at what’s taken place in Gaza, and attract even greater backing from hardline pro-Palestine supporters nationally.

“In key areas like Hackney, where the Greens hope to perform strongly in next May’s local elections, securing even one-in-ten politically engaged Jewish voters could prove crucial for the party’s success.”

 

A former actor and hypnotist, Polanski used his recent Green Party conference speech to highlight his upbringing as a proud Jewish and gay man from north Manchester.

Speaking just days after the Heaton Park synagogue terror attack, he stressed the personal impact of the Islamist-inspired atrocity, adding, “My heart is with our community.”

He also underscored the significance of his leadership, telling the conference, “I’m one of five Jewish people who have led a British political party in the last 100 years.”

Although comparisons to figures like Benjamin Disraeli, Herbert Samuel, Michael Howard, and Ed Miliband might seem audacious, sources told Jewish News that Polanski is “perfectly at ease” making such associations and “wants to be taken seriously himself.”

But while Polanski is comfortable aligning himself with heavyweight Jewish political leaders from the Conservative, Liberal, and Labour parties, a former colleague noted he has “issues” with modern communal leadership, particularly regarding their positions on Israel.

In the same conference speech, Polanski was keen to praise Greens deputy leader Mothin’ Ali, as the “son of a steelworker, whose parents came from what is now known as Bangladesh in the 60s.”

He made no reference to Ali’s posted shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack, where he said “indigenous people have the right to fight back” and called for an end to “white supremacist European settler colonialism”.

Ali later apologised.

But as he spoke to conference, Polanski was keen only to stress the strength he now found in an alliance between Jew and Muslim at the top ranks of the Greens.

Born David Paulden in Salford, Greater Manchester, Polanski changed his name at 18.

“My stepdad was called David, and I didn’t like being a little version of my stepdad,” he told Big Issue magazine.

He chose “Zack” in tribute to the Jewish refugee character in Michelle Magorian’s Goodnight Mister Tom, and reverted to his grandfather’s surname, Polanski, which his family had changed amid rising antisemitism upon arriving in Britain.

 

Polanski began his political career with the Liberal Democrats, representing them in the 2016 Greater London Assembly elections.

Insiders say his politics then were not aligned with the party’s left, but with the centrist wing that partnered with the Conservatives under Nick Clegg.

Frustrated by the party’s direction and after missing out on selection as a parliamentary candidate, he joined the Greens in 2017.

In 2018, Polanski publicly criticised then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over his handling of antisemitism and Brexit, saying that as both “pro-European” and a “Jew,” he had “two reasons” to oppose Corbyn.

The irony is that, today, to secure his party leadership, he needs support from many ex-Labour Corbynistas who have defected to the Greens.

Polanski’s stance on Israel and Zionism has also evolved. In October 2020, writing for Bright Green, he strongly supported the party adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, arguing it was necessary “to send a clear message to Jewish communities…that we stand in solidarity with them.”

He defended the IHRA against claims it stifled free speech on Israel, stating that it protected criticism of states like Israel and the USA as “settler colonial,” but not antisemitic arguments about Israel’s Jewish origins.

This position now seems far removed from his current stance.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the October 7th attacks appears to have driven this shift.

In a May interview with the Guardian, Polanski described growing up in a “very Zionist household” but said, “That’s very different from my politics now.”

He emphasised, “I very much identify as Jewish… but I’m certainly not a Zionist.” In another interview, he said his view changed because “Israel has changed.”

Polanski is not alone in this shift, which many attribute to Netanyahu’s Gaza policy and the Israeli government’s rightward drift.

Once a liberal Zionist who used his Jewish identity to build support within the Greens, Polanski now presents himself as a non- or anti-Zionist appalled by Netanyahu’s war in Gaza.

Meanwhile survey by the respected Institute for Jewish Policy Research published last October, one year after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel, included the finding that about two in three British Jews (65%) still identify as Zionist. This was up slightly compared to before October 7th, 2023.

The same poll showed 10% of UK Jews now identify as anti-Zionist – also up slightly on previous studies.

Some political observers describe this change as further evidence of Polanski’s political opportunism.

Just a few years ago, he was an enthusiastic advocate of the London Jewish Assembly, an offshoot of the Board of Deputies. Now, he calls the same body “the Board of Deputies for the Israeli Government.”

Critics on both left and right note Polanski’s significant political journey over the past decade. “I hate to use the term chameleon, but it is apt in this case,” said one senior communal source.

There are now concerns that, having shifted so significantly already, Polanski might adopt an even more radical anti-Zionist position on Israel and Palestine.

Last week Michael Desmond, a Hackney Labour councillor, along with Hackney and East London Synagogue wardens Stephen Brook and Ronnie Barden, wrote to Polanski to express their anger at the conduct of two Green councillors at an emergency meeting last week.Jewish Labour councillor accuses Hackney Greens of promoting ‘hate’ with anti-Israel motion

 

The meeting was called after a joint motion, advanced by the Greens and the Socialist Party, to cut the borough’s ties with what they called a “genocidal” Israel.

Green councillor Alastair  Binnie-Lubbock at one point became so enraged as he condemned Israel, he shouted ‘f***ing’ twice, leading to a reprimand from the Speaker.

Councillor Zoe Garbett, who had seconded the motion, was spotted giving  her party coleague Binnie-Lubbock a pat on the back seemingly to congratulate him on his incendiary rant

In their letter to Polanski, Desmond, Brook and Barden suggested the tone of last week’s meeting was “akin to being at an East End meeting of Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts in the 1930’s, wholly inappropriate for a Hackney Council meeting.”

Polanski responded on social media, posting on X:”I’m proud of Green councillors who are doing everything they can to bring attention to stopping the genocide.”

 

But after a troubled attempt to launch the left-wing Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana is now attacking Polanski’s stance on Israel as too moderate.

Seeking to win over supporters from the Polanski-led Greens, Sultana has declared in recent interviews and speeches that only Your Party stands for “the politics of anti-Zionism.”Sultana sparks ‘anti-Zionism’ row with Polanski’s Greens

Once a supporter of the IHRA definition herself, Sultana now claims: “We are the only anti-Zionist party in the UK. The Greens are not an anti-Zionist party; they want to continue diplomatic relations with a genocide and apartheid state. The majority of people in this country who have been demonstrating for Palestine, who’ve been boycotting, who’ve been divesting, find that completely unacceptable.”

Ironically, Polanski’s views on Israel and Palestine may now be closer to those of Your Party leader Corbyn, while Sultana’s rhetoric moves ever closer to more extreme, sectarian positions.

One communal source even suggested the Your Party “omnishambles” had benefited Polanski as the Greens “one and only” leader who had been “transparently elected on a very large mandate” and with the support of Jewish members.