In an interview he gave to the Guardian in May this year, Polanski lashed out at the “vicious” criticism he said he’d received from “so-called mainstream Jewish communities”.
He went on: “I very much identify as Jewish, I’m very proud to be Jewish, I’m very much involved in Jewish cultures, but I’m certainly not a Zionist, and that’s seen as the ultimate betrayal.”
Katz urged Polanski to make his own views on Israel and Zionism clearer: “If Polanski doesn't believe in a Jewish state, presumably he rejects the two-state solution, which most people – Jews and non-Jews alike – wish to see too. Is this now Green Party policy?”
Labour Peer Lord Katz (Image: Parliament TV)[Missing Credit]
Responding to Katz’s comments, Polanski told the JC: "I'm saddened that Mike Katz thinks there is only one way to be a 'good Jew'. That feeds into the historic antisemitism that he and I deplore, and he should know better than to make such derogatory remarks.
"Unlike this Israeli government, which has embarked on a genocidal war in Gaza and annexation of the West Bank, I do believe that Palestinians and Jews can live together in peace and security.
"As the Green Party has always made clear, whether that is in the form of one state or two is up to them working together.
"What we need now is for the UK government to end its complicity in the genocide and end its arms sales to the Israeli government."
On Tuesday, the London Assembly member won a landslide victory, with 85 per cent of the vote, to become the Green Party’s first Jewish leader, and the first Jewish leader of any major UK political party since Ed Miliband resigned the Labour leadership in 2015.
Polanski has been outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli government. In July, he objected to the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
“Our government are the extremists here – they're the ones arming a genocide and trying to crush peaceful dissent”, he said in a post on X.
Earlier this year, he also objected to the Metropolitan Police’s decision to prevent a pro-Palestine march from protesting outside the BBC to prevent disruption to worshippers at a central London synagogue close by.
In a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, he wrote that he was disturbed by the suggestion that there “was an intention to disrupt a synagogue”.
“Many Jewish participants, including myself, find this accusation offensive. The goal was to protest the BBC's failure to report the genocide accurately, and this was planned quite some distance from the synagogue and way after services had ended.”
Despite saying in 2018 that his identity as a “pro-European Jew” constituted “two reasons I couldn't vote for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn”, during the Green leadership campaign, he denied that the Labour Party was “rife with antisemitism” under Corbyn’s leadership.
In 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that “there were unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour Party is responsible” and Corbyn was blocked from standing for Labour at last year’s general election for claiming that the scale of antisemitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
In an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News shortly after his election victory on Tuesday, Polanski refused to rule out future cooperation with Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party, but said his priority was securing electoral victories for the Greens.
He also praised Corbyn’s “inquiry” into British involvement in the war in Gaza.
“The government has said no, but actually Jeremy is taking the bold and courageous steps of doing an inquiry anyway and making sure that people give evidence about what's happening in the region and the outrageous atrocities that are going on.
“This is the exact kind of example where even if someone is from a different party, but I'm absolutely aligned with what they're doing, then I'll always call out what I think is good for this country and good for our global politics”, he said.
The “Gaza Tribunal”, which began this morning, was set up by Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project after his bill calling for a real public inquiry was rejected by the Commons.
In an interview ahead of last year’s general election, Polanksi told the JC he grew up as a Zionist in the mainstream Jewish community in Manchester, attending King David school and Habonim Dror youth group.
He added that his position on Israel changed because “Israel has changed”, especially since October 7.
