Green Party leader Zack Polanski alleges Israeli military staged false-flag attacks

Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, asserted on his Bold Politics podcast that the Israeli military has employed false-flag attacks, citing historical examples such as the Hannibal Directive, a policy that permitted shooting at captured soldiers until its revocation in 2016. He emphasized the difficulty of navigating anti-Semitism on the left, stressing that accusations must be grounded in proof to avoid undermining anti-racism efforts.

Polanski cautioned that speculative claims could distract from genuine anti-Jewish hate and urged the movement to balance accountability with factual rigor. His comments surface as the party debates a motion to treat Zionism as a form of racism, a proposal that would also call for the abolition of the Israeli state in favor of a single democratic Palestinian state. While Polanski, who is Jewish, declined to state his personal stance on Israel’s right to exist, he affirmed that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to exist. The internal controversy has drawn criticism from Green MP Caroline Lucas, who warned the motion could alienate Jewish members.