Polanski ‘not fit to lead a party’ after Golders Green tweet, says minister – UK politics live | Politics
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In his interview, Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips asked transport minister Heidi Alexander about the signal that Keir Starmer might want to ban repeated pro-Palestinian marches, and asked her whether chanting “globalise the intifada” or “river to sea” should be made illegal.
“We changed the law this week to give the police more powers to deal with protests,” Alexander said, adding that home secretary Shabana Mahmood had instructed Lord Ken Macdonald to review the protests and that he would be notified. He will not hesitate to say whether the law should be changed to make it specifically illegal to chant “Globalize the Intifada” at marches.
At the beginning of the week, Starmer called on the police to file a lawsuit against people who chanted “globalize the intifada” during the demonstrations, despite criticism that freedom of expression would be violated.
Intifada is an Arabic word meaning uprising or “convulsion.” As my colleague noted in this story, while many people used the phrase as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people resisting Israeli occupation, some Jewish groups and leaders described it as a call to violence.
The phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” refers to the region between the Jordan River on Israel’s eastern border and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Critics say the slogan is a call for the destruction of the state of Israel, while others say it refers to the right of all Palestinians to freedom and justice in their homeland as equal citizens.
Israel’s war on Gaza, which killed at least 72,610 people according to health officials, has been classified as genocide by human rights groups and academics. The attack was launched after the attack led by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
Minister says Polanski’s ‘disgusting’ reaction to Golders Green attack shows he is unfit ‘to lead a political party’
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said it was “disgusting” and “absolutely disgusting” that Zack Polanski retweeted a post claiming police used excessive force when arresting the suspect in the Golders Green shooting last week as Polanski was “unfit to lead a political party”.
Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post claiming that X “repeatedly and violently kicked a mentally ill man in the head” while already incapacitated by a stun gun.
The Green party leader has apologized after being publicly criticized by the Metropolitan Police chief, who said his actions had undermined the confidence of officers to deal with dangerous people.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Alexander said:
I thought what he did was disgusting and absolutely disgusting. These officers ran towards the danger, armed only with the stun gun they had previously fired. The man still had the knife in his hand. They were armed with their courage and training.
And I think what happens is when a political party leader jumps on Twitter and starts retweeting content criticizing police officers who responded with incredible courage in a very difficult situation. I think this shows that the man is unfit to lead a political party.
Essa Suleiman, 45, was charged with attempted murder following the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, on Wednesday. He is also charged with attempted murder for an attack on a man during a personal dispute in south London the same day. The UK’s terrorism threat level was raised to serious on Thursday.
Following the attack, the government announced more money to protect Jewish communities and vowed to increase powers to target anti-Semitic preachers, but prime minister Keir Starmer was accused of not doing enough after a series of anti-Semitic attacks.
