The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel announced this Sunday that it has decided to prevent the entry into the country of the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski. The measure is adopted as retaliation for the recent approval of a motion in which the party supports the creation of a Palestinian state and qualifies Zionism as racist.
The congress of the Greens, held in Brighton without the presence of Polanski, who was participating in an electoral campaign event, gave the green light to the proposal despite the opposition of four of the five MPs that the environmental party has in the House of Commons.
The motion was passed with 1,022 votes in favor and 813 against. The text states that Zionism must be "treated like any other form of racism" and advocates for replacing Israel with a single Palestinian state with "equal rights for all."
After the result was known, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, announced that Polanski's access to Israel would be denied. "The Greens have not only adopted the green of Hamas but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle," said the head of Israeli diplomacy.
According to Saar, the party "has ceased to act as a political party and has become an organization that legitimizes terrorism." In his opinion, the approved resolution "calls for a Palestinian state 'from the river to the sea,' which implies the destruction of the State of Israel, and considers the aspirations of the Jewish people for self-determination as 'racism.'
The minister argues that "this goes beyond legitimate political debate. As long as this resolution is in effect, it will be a stain on the history of the United Kingdom. All political parties in the United Kingdom, first and foremost the governing Labour Party, must unequivocally reject this twisted motion."
The proposal approved by the Greens defends that Zionism is intrinsically racist because it "places one ethnic group above subjugating the others." It also specifies that "this motion is against the political ideology and practice of Zionism as defined and not against anyone who identifies as a Zionist by their religion or ethnicity. Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews."
The text concludes that "Zionism, as defined above, will be treated only as another form of racism and this motion will be applied by the anti-racist policy working group in accordance with its ordinary work."