Greens' Polanski says marches don't make Jews 'actively unsafe'

Brendan Scott, Bloomberg News on May 3, 2026

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Zack Polanski rejected calls to curb pro-Palestine marches in response to a wave of antisemitic attacks in the UK, days ahead of what’s expected to be a breakthrough election for his Green Party.

Polanski said on Sunday that ensuring the freedom of speech of those protesting against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza was more important than perceived threats to personal safety by some Jews.

The Greens’ leader for England and Wales, who is Jewish, cited antisemitic incidents against himself to draw a line between actions that make people “actively unsafe” and those that make them feel unsafe.

“There are times when Jewish people, including myself, are actively unsafe,” Polanski said on Sky News. “There’s also times where we hear marches, Palestinian marches that I, as a Jewish person, walk on, where Jewish people say that makes them feel unsafe. Now, I don’t think that actually makes them unsafe, clearly, because I’m a Jewish person who is on that march.”

Polanski, 43, has overseen a dramatic expansion of the Greens, challenging the governing Labour Party’s status as the standard-bearer for Britain’s political left, in part because of voter dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies toward Israel. Pollsters predict that the Greens will make historic gains in local elections on Thursday.

The Green leader has come under criticism for his response to the stabbing of two Jewish men in north London earlier this week, including sharing a social media post critical of police treatment of the suspect in the attack. Polanski has since apologized for sharing the post, something Starmer had said shows he is “not fit to lead any political party.”

Polanski cited his own experience with antisemitism as evidence that he understood the issue.

“If people are stabbed, then that is clearly unsafe,” Polanski said. “It’s beyond unsafe. It’s outrageous and it’s horrific. The attack that happened, we should not and must not pit people facing physical violence against people’s freedom of speech and ability to march in relation to a genocide in Palestine.”

The Israeli government has rejected as false and outrageous efforts to characterize its actions in Gaza and against its Hamas leadership as genocide, a claim that is subject to proceedings before the International Court of Justice. More than 70,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the war after attacks by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed or abducted more than 1,400.

Polanski’s description of what constitutes a hate crime differs from the government’s definition of “any criminal offense which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on” a person’s race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.

Polanski declined to call for the withdrawal of Green Party candidates in the upcoming election who have been accused of airing antisemitic views, saying he didn’t want to interfere in the disciplinary process. He denounced as “unacceptable” comments blaming Israel for the Bondi Beach attack in Australia, but disputed claims that the Green Party had a problem with antisemitism.

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