Zack Polanski said 'the Board of Deputies should be focusing on keeping Jewish communities safe'

Green Party Conference has been taking place this weekend in Manchester. Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza has loomed large at the event, with fringe meetings and motions on the issue taking up substantial time in the conference agenda.

The party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski has been one of the most prominent Green Party voices speaking out against Israel’s actions, and used his conference speech and contributions to fringe meetings to lay out the party’s position.

Left Foot Forward spoke to Polanski about the situation in Gaza and the Labour government’s policy on it at the conference in Manchester.

The UK’s position has recently shifted, with the government having recently agreed to suspend a small proportion of arms licenses to Israel. Polanski began by describing this move as ‘welcome’, before nevertheless suggesting suspending only some licenses was ‘tokenistic’. He went on to say that this was a ‘cynical’ move from the government.

“If you accept the moral argument for not providing arms for what has been described as a plausible genocide, then you either accept the argument or you don’t,” Polanski said, adding that Labour has “ended up in this strange middle ground place where you’re expressing a moral argument but you won’t take the action that is necessary to stop it.”

While the Green Party has called for a total ban on arms sales to Israel, Board of Deputies of British Jews has been highly critical of the government’s position, describing the decision to suspend some arms licenses as giving ‘succour to Hamas’. Polanski, who is himself Jewish, dismisses this criticism, telling Left Foot Forward: “I think on so many things, the Board of Deputies should be focusing on keeping Jewish communities safe, and on focussing on issues that affect Jewish people, including myself in the UK.

“To keep continually commenting on the Israeli government in this very defensive way risks the further conflation of antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government.

“And I also think that it’s really important – again I’ve said this several times – that the media understand the diversity of Jewish community voices, of which I do not claim to be the person speaking for the Jewish community. My argument has always been that there are Jewish voices like myself who are saying things that are very different to the Board of Deputies and we are rarely hearing them in the mainstream media.”

Given this criticism, Left Foot Forward asked Polanski whether he believed the Board of Deputies currently effectively represents British Jews. He said: “No, they’re not effectively representing British Jews – because even if a British Jew is very supportive of the Israeli government, and even Benjamin Netanyahu, that is still not the role of the Board of Deputies. And so again, I think it’s the conflation that becomes really dangerous and really unhelpful – no matter where any Jewish person stands on Israel. We need voices who can bring people together, who will stand in solidarity with our Muslim siblings – and, ultimately, as I said in my speech, we’re stronger when we stand together.”

The Board of Deputies describes itself as “the only democratically elected, cross-communal, representative body in the Jewish community.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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