The would-be leader of the Green Party proudly wore a t-shirt loudly proclaiming ‘We are all Palestine Action’ at Glastonbury, days before it was due to be proscribed as a terrorist group.
Zack Polanski posted pictures on his social media showing his backing for the organisation accused of breaking into an RAF base and vandalising aircraft.
While support for Palestine Action, and criticism of the plan to outlaw membership is not uncommon in Green ranks, Mr Polanski, 42, shared the picture on Sunday as the festival was mired in a storm over anti-Israeli performances.
On Saturday Sir Keir Starmer led criticism of pro-Palestinian rap duo Bob Vylan after they shouted ‘Death, death to the IDF’, the Israeli Defence Forces, in a performance livestreamed by the BBC.
The timing of the post is unlikely to be accidental as Mr Polanski, 42, vies to become the next leader and use its recent electoral success to turn it into the main left wing party in the UK.
The current deputy leader has called for the UK to quit Nato because of Donald Trump and wooed disenchanted current and former Labour MPs to join his party – including Jeremy Corbyn.
The London Assembly member has been nicknamed ‘the boob whisperer’ by online wags over a 2013 interview with the Sun when, while working as a Harley Street hypnotherapist, he purported to help women increase the size of their bust.
He has also been a small-time actor, an Extinction Rebellion activist and a member of the Liberal Democrats.
Born in 1982, Mr Polanski didn’t even join the Greens until he was in his mid-30s, according to his own campaign website.
He was born David Paulden in Salford but changed his name aged 18. He told the Big Issue in June that he chose Zack because of the Jewish refugee character in Goodnight Mr Tom.
Polanski was his Jewish grandfather’s name before he changed it to evade anti-Semitism after moving to the UK.
He unsuccessfully stood as a Lib Dem London council candidate in 2015 and 2016, but then switched to the Greens, winning election to the London Assembly in 2021 and again in 2024.
While a Green candidate in 2019 he was among the first Extinction Rebellion activists to be arrested for blocking Waterloo Bridge in London, as part of a six-day protest bringing roads to a halt across London.
Writing about it for the Huffington Post he said he was ‘proud to have played my part’.
Mr Polanski is running to replace Carla Denyer, the Bristol MP who is not seeking a new two-year term as co-leader.
He is up against two of the party’s other three MPs, Ellie Chowns and the current co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who are running on a joint ticket.
They want the party to ‘focus on turning growing public trust into real political power – grounded in credibility, experience and a clear vision for change’.
While their campaign is about making steady progress on their record haul of seats at the last election, Mr Polanski’s has been more focused on making waves.
He announced his candidacy with an interview in May in which he said he wanted the Green Party to drop its support for the UK staying in Nato.
‘Clearly NATO has got a lot more complex since Donald Trump has become president, and I don’t think anyone should consider him a reliable ally,’ he told the Byline Times website.
‘I think the age of NATO is now fully over. We voted at the last conference to maintain a relationship with NATO and reform it from within but I think we have reached a point where Donald Trump has made being in an alliance with America very, very difficult while he’s talking about annexing Greenland.
‘We clearly need to be making sure that our policy is meeting the moment, and I think the world is changing quickly, and the idea that we can reform NATO by working with Donald Trump at the moment in a so-called special relationship is an idea that’s on its last legs.’
More recently he has been batting his eyelids at disaffected leftwing Labour MPs who find themselves on the fringe of the party under Sir Keir Starmer, urging them to come to the Greens as a home for the wider left.
‘Anyone who aligns with our values in the Green Party is very welcome to join the party, and so I’d love to see progressive leftwing MPs in the party,’ he told the Sunday Times at the weekend.
‘I’d encourage anyone right now, whether they’re a member of another party, or indeed, an MP from another party, if they align with our values, to join with the Greens.’
Asked if that offer extended to Jeremy Corbyn, who was kicked out of Labour for failing to refuse for anti-Semitism under his leadership, Mr Polanski added: ‘Anyone who aligns – and I believe that Zarah [Sultana, the former Labour MP] and Jeremy do align with where the Green Party are – that’s a decision for them.’
Showing support for Palestine Action will do no harm if Mr Polanski wants to attract these MPs, all of whom are pro-Palestine.
Alongside the picture, he posted online from Glastonbury Mr Polanski wrote: ‘Our government is selling arms being used to commit genocide. Israel kills a child every 45 minutes. We are all Palestine Action.’
But his support also came just days before Palestine Action is likely to be outlawed.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she would lay an order before Parliament in the coming days to make membership and support for them illegal, after a number of the group’s members were accused of vandalising two planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
However the group is seeking a legal challenge against the Government’s bid to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws.
An urgent hearing was held in the High Court yesterday related to an application for judicial review on behalf of one of the founders of the direct action group, Huda Ammori.
A further hearing will be held on Friday to decide whether the Government can temporarily be blocked from banning the group, pending a hearing to decide whether Palestine Action can bring the legal challenge.
Other Greens have also spokenout in support of the group. Ms Chowns, 50, the MP for North Herefordshire, said that proscription was ‘a shocking overreaction to a couple of protestors using paint’ at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.
Five people have since been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence in relation to the incident.
Last week a Green Party peer has said she would vote against proscribing Palestine Action if the order reaches the House Of Lords.
During a talk at Glastonbury Festival’s Speakers Forum with Palestine Action activist Francesca Nadin, Baroness Jenny Jones said people inside the Lords had told her she ‘should not be sharing a platform’ with the group, but she added she was ‘proud’ to be with them.
But one issue that does not seem to go away is Mr Polanski’s time as a hypnotist.
In 2013 he featured in a Sun newspaper article in which he purported to help women increase the size of their bust.
He told a reporter to picture herself with bigger breasts as part of a treatment and said his method could become ‘popular very quickly, because it’s so safe and a lot cheaper than a boob job.’
The newspaper said he then told her: ‘Imagine you’re in a movie. I want you to make the image bigger and brighter so it fills the screen. Now step it up and feel what it’s like having your new breasts. Are you walking differently? Do you look happy?’
He apologised for his comments on breasts to a local news website, when he was running as the Green candidate at the 2019 election in Cities of London and Westminster.
But speaking to the Big Issue last month he claimed he had been the victim of ‘misrepresentation’.
Mr Polanski has been approached to comment.
The Green Party leadership election result is announced on September 2.
