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Israel decided Sunday to bar Green Party of England and Wales leader Zack Polanski from entering the country after his party adopted a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism and backing a single democratic state across historic Palestine.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the entry ban in coordination with relevant Israeli authorities, the Foreign Ministry said.
The decision came after Green Party members approved the motion at their conference in Brighton earlier Sunday by a vote of 1,022 to 813.
Polanski, who is running for Parliament in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s London constituency, did not vote on the motion.
The Green Party said it views Zionism as “an ethnonationalist political project” and rejected equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
The motion described Zionism as a racist ideology and reiterated support for “the establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine” with equal rights for all.
The party also reaffirmed its support for Palestinian self-determination, the right of return, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, and a full arms embargo on Israel.
The Green Party received 6% of the vote in the U.K.’s 2024 national election and currently has five members in the 650-seat Parliament.
In an interview with Sky News, Green Party co-deputy leader Mothin Ali said the casualty toll from Israel’s war in Gaza and its continuing attacks provided the context for the vote.
Following the resolution, Polanski and other party members said in a joint statement they would “continue to stand in opposition to genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and the illegal occupation” and “call out the heinous crimes of the Netanyahu government.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the Green Party policy went “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate” and called on other British political parties, including the governing Labour Party, to condemn it.
The ministry accused the Greens of legitimizing armed resistance against Israel and denying Jewish self-determination, saying the policy amounted to antisemitism under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.
“The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle,” the ministry said on social media.
Earlier, the ministry accused the party of having become “supporters of terrorism.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the resolution “a disgrace and a shame.”
“Those who claim the antisemitic lie that ‘Zionism is racism’ deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis everywhere,” Herzog wrote on social media.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also criticized the decision, saying: “It is not Zionism that’s racism, it is the Green Party.”
The Movement for Progressive Judaism, a British group, said the Green Party had “made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party,” adding that support for the motion from some Jews did not mean it would not be used to discriminate against others.
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