Sir Ed Davey has attacked Zack Polanksi for his “outrageous” comments questioning if the Jewish community was suffering “actual unsafety” or merely the “perception of unsafety” amid recent antisemitic attacks.
In an exclusive interview with the JC, the Liberal Democrat leader said he had been “shocked” by his Green Party counterpart.
Speaking during a campaigning trip to Merton, south London ahead of the May 7 elections, Davey said Jews in the UK felt less safe now than “probably in centuries”.
The MP for Kingston and Surbiton also called for the proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
But Davey – who has previously accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza – refused to roll back on his criticism of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and what he called its “appalling” behaviour.
Last week, Polanski said he was “concerned” about the recent series of arson attacks on the Jewish community but sparked outrage by adding: “There’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety.”
Davey said he was “shocked” by Polanski’s comment. “I think most people would be shocked by that, frankly, because it flies in the face of reality,” he said.
He added: “It’s a real threat. Do you not talk to people in the Jewish community? Has he not talked to the CST [Community Security Trust]?”
The usually mild-mannered Davey became increasingly animated, saying: “I was staggered. How dare he say it’s perception. It’s a reality.”
The Lib Dem leader suggested London Assembly member Polanski’s inability to comprehend the current threat from antisemitism calls into question his suitability to be an MP.
Davey said: “Anyone who seeks to stand for parliament and stand for decent British values should know that the Jewish community has never, or, probably in centuries, never felt so unsafe and insecure.”
He also attacked Polanski’s party for losing sight of its traditional environmental agenda.
Drawing on official figures from last year, he said: “Look at the top 20 councils in the country in recycling. Fourteen are Lib Dem.
“Where are the Green councils? Well, Mid Suffolk is 162nd. When they ran Brighton, it was a disaster.”
The Lib Dem leader was optimistic about his party’s prospects next week across England, Scotland and Wales.
He said: “The truth is, we’re going to make gains across the country from both Labour and the Conservatives.”
Asked whether all levels of politicians from councillors to No 10 have done enough to tackle antisemitism, Davey said: “Successive governments have done a fair bit, and I’m not going to make it party political.
“I think it’s good when the last Conservative government did more. It’s very good when Keir Starmer and Labour do more. But we can always do more.”
The former energy secretary believes that “we should sit down with the CST and the Jewish leaders and say, ‘What else needs to be done? Please give us your list of what things need to be done’, and we should step up. Everyone should step up.”
The Lib Dems had themselves to deal with antisemitism and related issues in the past, particularly with accusations levelled against Baroness Tonge and former Bradford MP David Ward.
They were criticised for failing to act sufficiently with Ward on repeated occasions before he was eventually removed by then leader Tim Farron in 2017.
Davey insists those days of stalling are over.
“If ever I see signs of antisemitism in my party, I stamp it out immediately,” he said.
“I don’t wait for it to be in the newspapers. I stamp it out straight away, because I’m not accepting it.”
Davey was forthright in restating his party’s position calling for the proscription of the IRGC, after Sir Keir Starmer exclusively told the JC last week the government will bring in legislation for the ban “as soon as we can”, when parliament returns in May.
The Lib Dem leader said: “When the IRGC are promulgating funding, pushing terrorist activity in our country, they should be proscribed as a terrorist group.”
He added that there were “no questions” about this “and it should be done straight away”.
But Davey appeared to reject any notion that he should rethink his party’s strong criticism of Israel’s military actions and foreign policy.
He said that he “can be held responsible for making it clear where we stand” on both antisemitism and Israel.
“We have been absolutely foursquare behind the British Jewish community to try to keep them as safe as possible. But when it comes to foreign policy, you have to call things out as you see them.”
Lib Dem politicians, including Davey, have often been fierce in their disagreement with the Israeli response to October 7.
Defending his party’s stance, the leader said: “We have tried to call foreign policy issues on the facts, not on divisive nastiness that we’ve seen elsewhere, and unfortunately, in politics.
“We have been very critical of the Netanyahu government. I do think the Netanyahu government has behaved quite appallingly.”
He added: “I wish I didn’t have to call out the prime minister of Israel, but I have.”
Turning his attention to Netanyahu’s controversial coalition partners, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, Davey claimed he has “never had any British Jewish person, in my party, outside the party, say they think Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are decent people. And so I have called them out, and I don’t apologise for that.”
Hammering the point home, he said: “I think I am speaking for the vast majority of, not every single British Jew, that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir do not represent the values of Israel.”
Davey revealed he is in contact with Yair Lapid, leader of centrist party Yesh Atid, the closest thing the Lib Dems have to a sister party in Israel. The pair exchange messages via WhatsApp “and we don’t always agree. Of course we won’t. But he is leader of the opposition, a former prime minister, and he has been as critical as we have of Netanyahu on so many levels.”
(The interview took place ahead of this week’s launch by Lapid and Naftali Bennett of a new centrist party Together.)
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