Project Get Zack: How the media used antisemitism against the Greens’ Jewish leader

As I write, local election results across England have seen massive gains for Reform, the right-wing anti-immigration party, while Keir Starmer's Labour suffered huge losses. The Liberal Democrats and the Greens were making significant gains.

These elections show that the two-party system is dead, but the country is heading toward a government of the far right. How did we get here?

In a functioning democracy, scrutiny of political parties and their leaders is the right and proper job of the media. 

The lack of such scrutiny can lead to a situation where a party is elected without voters knowing key facts about it, its policies and, crucially, its funders. Just look at Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. He got an easy ride, then voters realised who he really was.

But there is a point when scrutiny flips into a concerted campaign to bring down a political figure through character assassination.

In recent weeks, we have seen such a campaign directed at one man: Zack Polanski. 

The recently elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales has led a political surge from a once small party into second or third place in national polling, helping to overturn a century-old two-party system, alongside the dramatic rise of Reform.

For two decades Farage has been given a rolling free publicity campaign by sections of the right-wing press, and by the BBC

But the contrast with the treatment given to Reform leader Nigel Farage by the media is instructive. For two decades, Farage has been given a rolling free publicity campaign by sections of the right-wing press, and by the national public broadcaster, the BBC.

The frequency of appearances of Farage on the flagship BBC Question Time programme is just one example of the way the establishment media loves the populist right-wing leader. This media support became more obvious in 2024 when it was clear that the Tories were a busted flush.

By contrast, appearances of leading left-wing figures are rare. Their treatment in the media is almost uniformly hostile. Farage has had it mostly all his way.

Then along comes another media-savvy political entrepreneur, but this time from the left. 

Polanski has embraced the media since his landslide leadership victory last September, using social media videos to great effect, while jumping at any opportunity to talk to major broadcasters, facing down their relentless attempts to undermine him.

A decade ago, the surprise victory of Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership election led to a period of political upheaval, and a concerted media backlash against the left-wing leader. In the end, the accusation of antisemitism inside Corbyn’s Labour was the most effective weapon his opponents in the establishment found - calling the lifelong anti-racist a racist, day in day out, till it became the accepted truth.

Today, the strategy of those opposed to the rise of Polanski and his more left-wing version of the Green Party is almost identical: accuse the UK’s only Jewish leader of being a friend of Islamists, leading a party of antisemites.

Polanski, even more than Corbyn, walks bravely into the storm of media and social media scrutiny, defending his position, refusing to accept negative media framing, and pushing the Greens’ bold agenda of wealth taxes, rent controls, nationalisation of major utilities, and opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The intensity of the character assassination campaign against him grew in the days before Thursday's local and devolved assembly elections, tinged with overt antisemitism against the Jewish leader, most obviously in crude cartoons of him reminiscent of 1930s Germany in newspapers such as The Times.

The twisted irony of a media accusing Polanski of antisemitism while using antisemitic tropes and cartoons against him shows just how crude and dishonest this campaign is.

This should be a signal to voters: the billionaire class and their media fear the Greens because they might challenge their wealth and power.

Polanski has owned up to missteps on social media, such as sharing a post criticising a Metropolitan Police officer kicking the attacker in Golders Green, or allegedly exaggerating his role speaking for a charity many years ago.