Israel Condemns British Green Party Resolution and Bars Member Zack Polonsky From Entry

The Green Party of England and Wales, a British party, held its conference and adopted a resolution supporting a single Palestinian state from the sea to the river, with Jerusalem as its capital. According to a report from emess.co.il, the conference is the party’s highest policy-making body. Four of the party’s five members of Parliament opposed the resolution.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded with strong condemnation. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that the ministry had declared Zack Polonsky, described in the report as a UK Greens Party member, banned from entering Israel. The report says Sa’ar presented the ban as a first step in response to the Greens’ decision and that the move was coordinated with relevant authorities. The emess.co.il headline calls Polonsky the Greens’ chairman, but the body of the same report identifies him as a member, and the reports do not clarify his position.

The ministry said the resolution denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination and aligns with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. It also said the decision was a direct threat to the existence of the State of Israel. According to srugim.co.il, the ministry accused the party of embracing a pro-terrorism stance by legitimizing armed struggle against Israel. The ministry further claimed that the decision equates Zionism with racism, that the party adopted the green color of Hamas, and that it adopted Hamas’s ideological sub-constitution, which calls for the elimination of Israel through armed struggle. The ministry described the decision as a stain on the United Kingdom’s history.

Both reports present these claims as Israeli positions. Srugim.co.il attributes the accusations to Israel, and emess.co.il attributes them to the Foreign Ministry. Neither report includes a response from the Green Party in the material provided.

Reaction from the British side, as reported by srugim.co.il, came from the British Foreign Office, which called on the UK government to take immediate action. The Foreign Office also urged all political parties, particularly the Labour Party, to unequivocally disavow what it called the distorted text. The srugim.co.il report says the controversy highlights deepening tensions between Israel and certain political factions in the West.