Israel Announces Entry Ban on Green Party Leader Polanski

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has decided to bar Green Party of England and Wales leader Zack Polanski from entering Israel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, linking the move to the party’s adoption of a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism. The ministry described the decision as a first step, but the announcement did not specify when or how an entry restriction would take effect, or establish that it had been implemented. The Green Party adopted the motion at its conference in Brighton by 1,022 votes to 813. It defines Zionism as an ethnonationalist political project and supports a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine. The ministry characterized the motion as antisemitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and said it legitimized armed struggle against Israel and denied Jewish self-determination. Those are the ministry’s assessments; the supplied accounts do not establish a legal finding about the motion. Polanski did not take part in the vote. He had left the conference to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, according to reports.