Israel’s deputy FM: ‘Extremist’ UK Green Party leader ‘legitimizes violence against Jews’

Sharren Haskel denounces Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, after he shared criticism of London police over the arrest of terror attack suspect; his party is embroiled in multiple antisemitism scandals

UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski is an “extremist” who “legitimizes violence against Jews,” Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel charged on Saturday, after the British party leader sparked anger for his reaction to this week’s antisemitic terror stabbing in London’s Golders Green that left two Jewish men seriously wounded.

After a video of police subduing and kicking Essa Suleiman, the 45-year-old Somalia-born UK citizen who is suspected of being behind the attack on Wednesday, went viral online, Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers were “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already incapacitated after being tased.

Asked if she agrees with an Israeli embassy source that labeled Polanski as an “extremist,” Haskel told conservative British broadcaster GB News: “It is as simple as that.”

Polanski “and his party are continuing this path of conspiracy theories and hatred towards Jews and toward the Jewish community and toward British Jewish citizens,” she said.

“Sometimes an apology is too little, too late, especially when it comes to Polanski. When you choose to legitimize violence against Jews, you don’t just make a mistake – you cross a moral line that should never be crossed.”

“It normalizes hatred, emboldens others, and corrodes the standards that hold a society together. And once that line is breached, it cannot simply be undone with a few words of regret: you risk spending the rest of your life apologizing for it,” she added.

Polanski, who is Jewish, apologized on Friday, saying that: “Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologize for sharing a tweet in haste.”

Polanski has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, called for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a warrant from the International Criminal Court, and condemned Israel’s “horrendous and illegal” airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites and ballistic missile program during the June 2025 war.

While he grew up in a home he described as “very Zionist,” he has said that Israel “changed,” and that he is now “certainly not a Zionist.”

Ahead of local elections next week, Polanski’s party has been embroiled in a string of antisemitic scandals. In one incident, candidate Tina Ion was found to be posting under the social media handle “thereal.anne.frank” that “every single Zionist” should be killed.

Additionally, candidates Sabine Mairey and Saiqa Ali, who are both running for seats in the Lambeth borough of London, were detained by the Metropolitan police on Thursday “on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online,” an offense under the UK’s Public Order Act, for online posts.

The leader himself took flak for appearing to play down the danger of antisemitism, telling the Haaretz daily last month, “there’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety, but neither is acceptable.”

In contrast to Polanski’s comments, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, said in an interview published Saturday that British Jews are facing their greatest ever threat, with social media fueling an “epidemic” of antisemitism, and called for 300 armed officers to be deployed to protect the Jewish community of north London.