But Jewish leaders and politicians, as well as London\u2019s top police officer and members of other parties, say Polanski has failed to act strongly enough, and some charge he is himself complicit in inflaming antisemitic sentiment as violence against British Jews surges. Even Jewish members of the Green Party \u2014 who are increasing in number \u2014 have objected to some of the party\u2019s moves against Israel.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \t Two Greens candidates in London were arrested last week on suspicion of \u201cstirring up racial hatred online,\u201d according to the Metropolitan Police. One of them, Sabine Mairey, said in a post, \u201cRamming a synagogue isn\u2019t antisemitism, it\u2019s revenge.\u201d The other, Saiqa Ali, shared an image of an armed man wearing a Hamas headband with the slogan, \u201cResistance is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n The party also recently dropped support from Tina Ion, a candidate in Newcastle who said that \u201cevery single Zionist\u201d should be killed on an account called \u201cthereal.anne.frank<\/a>.\u201d Two other Newcastle candidates lost their endorsements just days before the elections. Philip Brookes posted that it \u201ctakes serious effort not to be a tiny bit antisemitic,\u201d and Mohammed Suleman reposted a video claiming that Jews were willing to bury Soviet prisoners alive under Nazi instruction during World War II.<\/p>\n Polanski told the BBC<\/a> on Wednesday that these messages were \u201cunacceptable.\u201d He said the party was ensuring a \u201cstandardized vetting process\u201d and \u201ccompulsory training\u201d for all candidates to \u201cmake it clear that antisemitism is completely unwelcome in the Green Party, as it is in society.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIt is also important to say one case of antisemitism is one too many. This is a handful of cases and actually we have over 4,500 candidates, the vast, vast majority of which are doing amazing work in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The scandal comes with Labour predicted to lose well over half of its 2,500 seats on English local councils, especially to the Greens in London and the right-wing Reform UK in northern England. The two formerly fringe parties have framed the local elections \u2014 which select officials who manage municipal services and affairs \u2014 as a referendum on legacy politics, a weak economy, poor public services and an unpopular leader in Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n \t While polls suggested that multiple parties would benefit from the losses by Labour, Starmer\u2019s party, the Greens were being watched especially closely because of what their momentum could signal for the future of the British left.<\/p>\n The leading Jewish critic of Israel in UK politics<\/p>\n Polanski is the most prominent Jewish critic of Israel in mainstream UK politics. He has called<\/a> to end all arms sales, trade and diplomatic ties with Israel, and decried Starmer for complicity in what he says is \u201cthe very obvious genocide in Gaza.\u201d His pro-Palestinian stance has taken center stage in the Green Party\u2019s platform, alongside the environment and affordability.<\/p>\n Polanski did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.<\/p>\n Polanski frequently speaks about his pride in being Jewish, which he says led to his support for Palestinians. He said in a TikTok video<\/a> last year, \u201cWhen I speak out for Palestinians, I don\u2019t do it in spite of my Judaism. I do it because of it. Because \u2018never again\u2019 for one group of people must actually mean \u2018never again\u2019 for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Polanski is also a member of Na\u2019amod, an organization of British Jews who say they seek \u201cto end our community\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s occupation and apartheid.\u201d He told<\/a> The Guardian last year that \u201cthe most vicious\u201d criticism in his political career came from \u201cso-called mainstream Jewish communities,\u201d which felt betrayed because he was \u201ccertainly not a Zionist.\u201d (Polanski was blasted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the country\u2019s largest group representing Jews, after he said<\/a> that British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis did not speak for most British Jews and instead spoke \u201cin the interests of defending the Israeli government.\u201d)<\/p>\n These views diverge sharply from his upbringing. Polanski has described his childhood in a \u201cZionist household\u201d in Manchester, where he attended the Jewish school King David. He grew up as David Paulden with a mother who reportedly continues to identify as a Zionist.<\/p>\n At 18, he changed the anglicized name to the original name of his Jewish ancestors, who immigrated from Ukraine and dropped their name upon confronting antisemitism in the United Kingdom, he told the BBC in March. (Polanski said he changed his first name because of a negative experience with his stepfather, who was also named David.)<\/p>\n While promising to root out antisemitism from the Green Party, Polanski has said that some allegations \u201cconflate genuine antisemitism with legitimate criticism of an Israeli government which is committing war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The Greens face mounting scrutiny amid a wave of antisemitic attacks nationally, including the stabbing<\/a> of two Jewish men in the London neighborhood of Golders Green last week and a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites. In October, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue and fatally stabbed one man.<\/p>\n Polanski criticized the police<\/a> for their use of force in detaining Essa Suleiman, the suspect charged with the Golders Green stabbings. His comments sank his approval ratings in the election campaign\u2019s days and prompted a swift rebuke from police chief Mark Rowley.<\/p>\n \u201cLondon\u2019s Jewish communities are scared. They have experienced a series of targeted attacks on the community, and they expect our officers to act, protect them. That is exactly what our officers did yesterday. Your decision to criticise these officers, using your public profile and reach will have a chilling effect,\u201d Rowley wrote<\/a> in an open letter to Polanski.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficers need to know that when they act to protect Londoners decisively, they will be supported. Officers know they must be accountable for their use of force and there are processes for this to happen,\u201d he added. \u201cYour use of your public profile to call their actions into question, hours after a terrorist incident is not the appropriate route.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharing, without comment, British newspapers\u2019 depictions of the only Jewish person currently leading a UK political party .<\/p>\n Times. Mail. Telegraph. Sun. pic.twitter.com\/F4J1kPaivQ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) May 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The episode sparked a fresh set of antisemitism allegations, this time surrounding the media treatment of Polanski. The Times of London published a cartoon on Saturday that depicted a hooked-nose Polanski kicking one of the police officers, which Polanski called a \u201cvile antisemitic caricature.\u201d Other newspapers similarly published cartoons that elicited accusations of antisemitism.\n<\/p>\n Declining Jewish support for Labour and Conservatives<\/p>\n British Jews, who number close to 300,000, are a politically diverse group that has historically voted mainly for the center-right Conservatives and the center-left Labour. But their support for the two dominant parties fell sharply in recent years to less than 60% combined, according to a report<\/a> from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, reflecting both a broad shift in public opinion in Britain and particular concerns for Jewish voters during the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n Some British Jews turned to the pro-Israel Reform, with their support for the party rising from 3% in 2024 to 11% in 2025. But a stronger contingent of disaffected Jewish voters turned to the Green Party. By June 2025, nearly one in five British Jews said they backed the Greens, nine times the rate of the population as a whole, according to JPR. However, this data, the latest on British Jewish voters, was compiled before Polanski became the party\u2019s leader in September.<\/p>\n At the same time, the way British Jews see Israel has fractured. A majority identify as Zionists, but that proportion fell from 72% in 2013 to 65% in 2024, according to Brendan McGeever, a sociologist and co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, University of London, who analyzed JPR data. Meanwhile, the proportion who identified as anti-Zionists and non-Zionists reached 28% in 2024.<\/p>\n McGeever said this polarization was reflected in the Green Party\u2019s surge with younger Jews, while many other Jews have taken deep offense at Polanski\u2019s statements about Israel and antisemitism.<\/p>\n \u201cThe communal \u2018we\u2019 that Jewish communal organizations have spoken about for the last several decades, that communal \u2018we\u2019 is now breaking down before our very eyes,\u201d McGeever told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cJews are increasingly divided politically, especially over core issues such as Zionism and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018One of the greatest threats to Jewish people in the UK\u2019<\/p>\n Polanski has fierce critics in the British Jewish establishment, such as Daniel Sugarman, deputy editor of the UK\u2019s Jewish News and former public affairs director for the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Sugarman has said the \u201cmainstream Jewish community is absolutely furious\u201d with Polanski, whom he accused<\/a> of \u201cplaying politics with the hatred that the Jewish community is regularly experiencing\u201d and \u201cgaslighting those who call it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Zac Goldsmith, a Jewish member of the House of Lords in the Conservative Party, said last week that the Green Party was \u201cone of the greatest threats to Jewish people in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n Polanski \u201coffered up his Jewishness as a tool for mass laundering of antisemitism,\u201d Goldsmith said<\/a> on X. \u201cHe\u2019s done so not because he is antisemitic, but because he is an opportunist and is tapping into a large and growing market.\u201d<\/p>\n Even within the Greens, some Jews have balked at the strength of the party\u2019s anti-Zionist sentiment. Polanski gave qualified support<\/a> earlier this year to a party motion called \u201cZionism is racism,\u201d saying he would back the resolution if its definition of \u201cZionism\u201d was linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government and its actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n The Jewish Greens group urged their colleagues to vote against the motion. \u201cThis is not your run-of-the-mill motion opposing Israel\u2019s actions (something that Jewish Greens would have no problem with), but something much more problematic that is likely to make Jews feel unwelcome in the Green Party,\u201d they said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n \t Questions about defining antisemitism and opposition to Israel have plagued politicians across the spectrum, not least in the Labour government, which fought an antisemitism scandal of its own under former leader Jeremy Corbyn. Starmer has said<\/a> there are \u201cinstances\u201d when pro-Palestinian demonstrations could be banned, suggesting that protests and pro-Palestinian chants had a \u201ccumulative effect\u201d on British Jews.<\/p>\n The Greens have split from mainstream UK parties by adopting multiple definitions of antisemitism, including both the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s definition and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. The former, which most parties use exclusively, has received backlash from the left for classifying some forms of Israel criticism as antisemitic.<\/p>\n Mixed response within the party<\/p>\n Reactions to antisemitism allegations within the Green Party are mixed. Deputy leader Mothin Ali privately told the Greens for Palestine group that candidates who faced dismissal over antisemitism should seek \u201cserious legal advice\u201d to take action against their own party, The Times of London reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other members have loudly condemned the incidents. Former party leader Caroline Lucas, the first elected Green MP, said<\/a> on X that the recently resurfaced statements from Green candidates were \u201ctotally unacceptable & require immediate action.\u201d<\/p>\n \t \u201cThere\u2019s no place for antisemitism or any hate speech in the party. This is a society-wide problem & needs to be rooted out wherever it\u2019s found,\u201d said Lucas.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, online discourse about antisemitism continued to escalate as the election neared. After the academic Harriet Bradley shared one of Polanski\u2019s videos urging Brits to the polls this week, a Jewish member of the Labour Party tweeted that he recognized her.<\/p>\n Bradley was suspended from a Labour Party local seat in 2019 following antisemitism allegations over her social media posts and subsequently left the party. She was investigated by police over another post two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I organised @JewishLabour\u2019s conference in 2024, we had to report this woman to the Police for threatening to bomb the venue,\u201d wrote Jack Lubner, referring to an incident that was widely reported<\/a> at the time. He added, \u201cWhy are these people attracted to the Green Party? Why does Polanski welcome their support?\u201d<\/p>\n Times of Israel staff contributed to this article.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP26030420481672-e1778163213431-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tGreen Party leader Zack Polanski speaks in Manchester, England, January 30, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP26127249661428-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tBritain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria leave a polling station in central London, on May 7, 2026 after casting their votes in the local elections. (AP Photo\/Kirsty Wigglesworth)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP26119589477667-e1777483737990-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tForensic officers search the area after two people were stabbed in north London\u2019s Golders Green neighborhood on April 29, 2026.(AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/000_8VE8YU-e1605708074323-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIn this file photo from December 6, 2019 former opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (R) speaks with his former Brexit secretary Keir Starmer during a press conference in London. (Ben Stansall\/AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP_553450217126-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tThen leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett, left, puts her hand on the back of Caroline Lucas, a lawmaker for the Green Party, during the party\u2019s 2015 general election manifesto launch in London, April 14, 2015. (AP Photo\/Alastair Grant)<\/p>\n