Zack Polanski says no country has right to exist when asked about Israel
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has faced fresh controversy after questioning Israel’s right to exist as a nation.
Mr Polanski told ITV’s Robert Peston: “I don’t believe any country has the right to exist. People have the right to exist.”
He claimed that the main reason for the “mess” of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “the semantics of whether a country has the right to exist.”
The shift comes after Mr Polanski’s poll ratings fell after he posted criticizing police officers’ treatment of a suspect accused of stabbing two Jewish men in Golders Green last week and admitted falsely claiming to have once been a “spokesperson” for the British Red Cross.
He was challenged over his stance on Israel in an interview with ITV. peston He described Israel as a “genocidal apartheid state” for its war on Gaza.
Mr. Peston asked him: “Does Israel have the right to exist? Yes or no?”
Mr. Polanski responded: “I don’t believe any country has the right to exist. People have the right to exist. Israelis have the right to exist, Palestinians have the right to exist.”
“I think it is our role as a third country to ensure that there is justice, transparency and accountability regarding the peace process (in the Gaza conflict).
“I think this semantics of whether a country has a right to exist has always resulted in gatekeeping, which is how we first got into this mess with the Balfour Declaration.”
Mr Peston replied: “What that means is that Britain has no right to exist, which carries some pretty heavy connotations.”
Mr. Polanski’s reference to the Balfour Declaration links to a statement by the British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, in 1917 promising a “national home” for the Jewish people.
This appears to have paved the way for the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the removal of large numbers of Palestinians from their homes.
Mr. Polanski’s reference to gatekeeping relates to the concept of “colonial gatekeeping,” in which the fate and borders of postcolonial states are determined by former colonial rulers.
The Balfour Declaration led to the creation of the so-called “British Mandate” in Palestine, which was established in 1923 by the League of Nations (the forerunner of the UN) and resulted in the control of Jewish immigration by British authorities before the establishment of Israel after the Second World War.
The mandate has been criticized for sowing the seeds of the ongoing bitter conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
