Polanski Pressed Four Times on Whether Israel Has a Right to Exist
Asked directly on the Today programme, the Green leader answered: “I don’t believe any state has the right to oppress or to commit apartheid and certainly not genocide on another people.” Pressed for a yes or no, he said he wanted “equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians”. He says he will stay as leader. Caroline Lucas says the jury is out.
On the motion itself he has now set out where he stands: “The motion as amended, I would have voted for. The motion unamended, I wouldn’t have voted for.” His objection is to one clause — “the Green Party of England and Wales or indeed even the British government deciding that there should be a single state. I think that’s up to the Israelis and the Palestinians” — while he maintains that “the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology”. Both amendments he favoured were rejected by members, and he left before the vote. Caroline Lucas, his predecessor, called the motion “dangerous”, “divisive” and “flawed from top to bottom”, and withheld judgement on his leadership: “I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing on Sunday. I think the jury is out about whether he will do that.” Jonathan Bartley, a former co-leader, says he should “put his hands up” and apologise, and speaks of “a certain toxicity now from the Green Party”, but has not called for him to go. Vivien Lichtenstein of the Jewish Greens has: he “should resign”, and dodging the debate was a “big mistake”. Four of the party’s five MPs opposed the motion, one of two deputy leaders opposed it, the Welsh deputy leader and some councillors have resigned, and the European Green Party has distanced itself. The next scheduled leadership ballot is in the summer of 2027.