Zack Polanski defends leadership after row over Zionism motion
8 days ago by mannycalavera to c/uk_politics
I think I agree. He handles himself well. It's a shame the rest of the party isn't more politically savvy. It's a case of having a star player but the rest of the side letting the whole team down. No doubt the latest motion at their conference hit them in the polls. It's upsetting that the Greens have so few MPs but they aren't helping themselves sometimes.
No doubt the latest motion at their conference hit them in the polls.
There's plenty of doubt about that. More likely this will further strengthen their support, which will rise even further as Burnham fails to live up to the hype.
Those aren't the only options, there are plenty of ways of doing both, but the Zionism is Racism motion was very badly done. The whole thing is an argument in semantics which does nothing to help Palestinians while painting the green party as anti-Semitic (even if the wording of the motion is talking about a political ideology, it will be viewed that way). The fact that the motion's promoters repeatedly said that the wording for the motion will not be used to discipline Jewish members who are associated with Zionist institutions (i.e. pretty much any British synagogue), and then fought and defeated a motion which made that explicit just strengthens that allegation.
There would have been plenty of ways to pass a motion saying that Israel is committing a genocide and that Palestinians have a right of return and to reparations for the harm caused in the nakba, but the motion passed is the party handing a stick to it's opponents to beat it with.
I believe Zionism is Racism and I am not afraid of saying it, even if that means getting beaten with a stick.
If you think this paints the Greens as antisemitic then the real problem is people associating anti-Zionism with antisemitism (which is itself antisemitic, btw), and that's the thing we need to fight against. Refraining from saying the truth isn't going to help.
If he resigned
I don't think he has any option but resign at this stage.
If it was close he might've been okay but Abdi-Wali won with a 3k majority. And this is exactly the type of seat the Greens should be winning.
Looking at it in isolation, I can understand how it might not seem close, but this is a seat that Labour have held forever (i.e., since 1983) and 3k is the closest margin there has ever been. 2 years ago the margin was 11k (>14k between Labour/Green). These are big gains in a safe Labour seat.
The Greens came within 13% of winning one of the safest of Labour seats.
It's a super safe seat for Labour. Look at this survey:
Keir Starmer still has a net positive rating in the constituency.
Maybe the Greens should prioritise the environmental aspects of their politics and TACTICALLY place social domestic issues second to those (though work to show how social policies link with environmental ones). The right-wing media has been able to hijack Green foreign policies and use the anti-semitism strategy they refined against Corbyn's Labour. Green's haven't pushed back hard enough on the "populists" label they've been given and the idea they're a mirror image of the far-right.
The electorate isn't the same as intellingent, aware politically interested people. Half of the electorate are half-asleep at the best of times and just want someone to tell them who to vote for. They expect Greens to be "Green" and, the Green Party does need to take this into account. At a time when the climate crisis is the worst we've experienced where are all the protests? It's like there's been a decision not to make a big deal of this and channel protest into electoral work instead. I'd be interested to know if this was actually the case.
Its his third own goal as leader.
He totally abrogated responsibility as leader, making no public statement for or against and even bravely running away instead of voting either way. Gaza was a major issue in the byelection and he cocked it up.
Very much agreed. And TBH I think he shouldn't have run in this by-election, which overlapped with the Party conference where an incredibly heated motion will be voted on, to begin with. Especially shouldn't have told members to not attend the conference to campaign for him.
He was selected as leader partly with the promise he wouldn’t seek a seat, so I think his previous career as a hustler may be bleeding back into his new life.
the fact that the entire british media is out to destroy the only jewish leader of a political party just shows how antisemitic the british media is.
Media calls out antisemitic motion adopted by the Green Party. Criticises Polanski for lack of leadership on the issue.
Green Party fans call out media for being antisemitic for calling a motion antisemitic 🤨.
Actual Green Party fringe supporter logic right there.
except calling out genocide and zionism (a political movement) is not antisemitic.
Proposing a one state solution where Israel is dismantled and all citizens become Palestinian is racist.
The Green motion describes Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state", and supports instead a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr4yx9663q6o
We can robustly denounce Zionism and Genocide and the illegal occupation of land by the current Israeli government, but the answer isn't reverse racism.
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I mean, I think he's handled it pretty well. He srill comes across as extremely genuine in his interviews. If he resigned, I think it would be a loss for the Greens and a big win for everyone else.
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