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The leader of the UK Green Party, Zack Polanski, has publicly accused the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis of failing to represent British Jews, saying instead that the Rabbi “speaks in the interests of defending the Israeli government.” The comments come amid rising tensions over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and intensifying debate within British Jewish communities over what constitutes legitimate communal leadership.

Polanski made the remarks on The Rest Is Politics, hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. Though describing himself as “proudly Jewish but not religious,” he said he feels “less safe” in the UK because of what he sees as efforts to conflate anti-Semitism with anti‑Zionism.

Read: Britain’s chief rabbi looks like the latest hate preacher to surface

“I am outraged that there are British communal organisations — in fact, I’ll go further — we have a Chief Rabbi who I think has overstepped the mark many times. He is not speaking for the British Jewish community,” said Polanski.

“He is certainly not speaking for me,” Polanski added. “I don’t think he’s speaking for the wider community.”

Continuing his comments about the Rabbi’s support for Israel, Polanski said: “He is clearly speaking in the interests of defending the Israeli government. As a personal view, he is totally entitled to do that, and I’m totally entitled to disagree with him. But for someone with the role of Chief Rabbi to politicise what is happening in Israel as a defence of the Jewish community in Britain, I think, is deeply damaging.”

Polanski’s remarks reflect growing unease within parts of the British Jewish community and wider civil society about the use of religious leadership to advance the political agenda of the Israeli state.

Read: UK’s chief rabbi urges voters not to back Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn

Rabbi Mirvis has in recent years repeatedly framed criticism of Israel including opposition to its Gaza genocide, as inseparable from threats to Jewish safety. He has publicly condemned UK government actions that critics interpret as pressure on Israel, intervened in domestic political debates over Israel’s assault on Gaza, and argued that anti‑Zionism often equates to anti-Semitism.

For instance, in September 2024 he decried the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms‑export licences to Israel as undermining a “close strategic ally” and feeding “falsehoods” that Israel had breached international law.

In 2025 he publicly rejected government plans to recognise a Palestinian state, calling the move a “profound betrayal” that would encourage Hamas and imperil Jewish safety.

He has also insisted that “anti‑Zionism is the new anti-Semitism,” arguing that Judaism and Zionism are inextricably linked, a stance that many British Jews contest.

Polanski is not alone in questioning whether institutions such as the office of the Chief Rabbi adequately represent the full range of Jewish opinion in Britain, particularly those critical of Israeli government policy. Organisations such as Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) long argued that established communal bodies fail to reflect the diversity of political perspectives within the Jewish population.

Polanski said that his own views on Israel have evolved after witnessing the genocide in Gaza, and that advocating for Palestinian rights has attracted increasing numbers of Jewish members to the Green Party.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.