Israel bans Zack Polanski after Green Party backs 'Zionism is racism' motion - Middle East Eye
Israel has banned Green Party leader Zack Polanski from entering the country after the party approved a motion at its conference declaring "Zionism is racism".
In a statement on Sunday, Israel accused the Green Party of England and Wales of legitimising "the destruction of the State of Israel".
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the resolution, which also advocates for a one-state solution in historic Palestine, “constitutes a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination”.
“Therefore, as a first step, foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has decided this evening to declare Green Party leader Zack Polanski barred from entering Israel,” it said.
According to Israel's Law of Return, persons with at least one Jewish grandparent, and their spouses, have a legal right to enter, reside in, and acquire citizenship of, the State of Israel.
However, Israel has occasionally banned certain Jewish people from entering the country if it deems them a security risk, or they question Israel's legitimacy. In practice, this has often meant political opponents of the state.
The vote by party members on Sunday makes the Green Party the first major party in the UK to recognise Zionism as a form of racism - and to back a single democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups, rather than a two-state solution.
At the conference in Brighton this weekend, 1,022 members voted for the motion while 813 voted against it.
Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali told Middle East Eye on Sunday that he was strongly in favour of the motion, unlike Green MPs Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, who criticised it.
"As defined in the motion," Ali said, "Zionism is an ethno-nationalist state. Zionism is resulting in ethnic cleansing, in the belief that one group of people is superior to another."
Green members voted against an amendment to the motion saying it "shall not be used to pressure, proscribe or discipline members based on affiliation with Jewish community institutions, such as synagogues, community centres or denominational groups, that describe themselves as Zionist or used to discipline or sanction Jewish members for expressing views that would be non sanctionable if expressed by non Jewish members (such as support for a binational state, or two state solution)."
But members voted for an amendment supporting the "inalienable right to self-determination" for Palestinians, party insiders told MEE.
Party spokespeople on Sunday morning would not say whether Polanski would support the motion without amendments.
After the vote, the five Green MPs published a joint statement saying: "We will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment".
They added that "there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people."
