By Hassen Lorgat
At the end of April, I tried to persuade readers to call out antisemitism wherever it rears its head, and it can be read here and here. Barely a week thereafter on 2 May, there was another antisemitic attack in the UK on a Jewish leader of a major political party and once again, mainstream Jewish organisations, sadly, have failed to condemn.
The incident happened to the various antisemitic attacks in the form of a cartoon on UK’s Green Party leader Zack Polanski leaving him and his party standing alone.The cartoon came after his comments on social media about an incident where two Jewish people were attacked and stabbed at Golders Green, in the London Borough of Barnet, considered a densely Jewish area. This was clearly a racist and anti-Jewish attack — antisemitic. The police initially considered it an act of terrorism.
The video recording revealed the urgent action by the police. The officers, arresting the suspect, used a taser and kicked the suspect as they were trying to pry the knife from his hand. Polanski shared this comment on X that correctly, criticised the officers’ excessive action (my word) against a person who was not well. He wrote that the action involved “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head.”
Essa Suleiman, a 45-year-old Somali-born British national, was accused of the stabbing. The Metropolitan Police later announced that Suleiman was released from a psychiatric hospital just days before the attacks, and whilst he had been charged initially with terrorism offences, it was later changed to three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a bladed article in a public place.
Polanski criticised the conduct and handling of the police, for which he was roundly attacked by the establishment, which opened the door for all takers.
I will briefly mention the Reform UK party, a far-right group whose Jewish vote in the elections increased; their local branch ran a nasty campaign against the Greens. The Brighton and Hove branch produced a poster depicting Polanski, who is Jewish, that draws on the Nazi caricature of “the Jew” as a menacing dark-skinned “foreigner” who looms over the viewer.
Courtesy: socialist worker
This cartoon is a crude reproduction of anti-Jewish tropes relying on historical stereotypes — relying on physical caricatures in this case — to demonise Jewish people.
This cartoon appeared after Zack Polanski apologised for sharing his post too hastily but reaffirmed that the conduct of police is not above public scrutiny. The media also criticised his false claims he made when as deputy of the party (England and Wales) that he worked for the Red Cross.
A pretty vile antisemitic caricature
Following Polanski’s comments, The Times published a caricature of him by cartoonist Peter Brookes where the Green leader, with a hooked nose, is kicking a policeman.
Note that Polanski is the only Jewish political leader of a dominant party in the UK and, secondly, at the time of the attacks and probably since 7 October 2023, Jewish leaders have been talking about the increase in antisemitism.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Polanski said: “The Times newspaper published a pretty vile antisemitic caricature of me and have yet to apologise or withdraw that.” The Green Party’s complaint to Times editor Tony Gallagher included the following arguments:
– the cartoon uses antisemitic tropes;
– that Polanski faces daily antisemitic abuse, with two recent arrests for actions against him;
– and condemned the media and politicians for directing further attacks after a violent incident in his community.
So, why did Jewish organisations not come out to support Polanski when he was attacked by the right-wing press and political establishment? One thing: he is not a Zionist and is a member of Na’amod, an organisation of British Jews who say they seek “to end our community’s support for Israel’s occupation and apartheid”.
In various places, he speaks of how Jewishness made him. “When I speak out for Palestinians, I don’t do it in spite of my Judaism. I do it because of it. Because ‘never again’ for one group of people must actually mean ‘never again’ for anyone.” They further state: “We are committed to collective liberation. We are part of a broader struggle against racism, patriarchy, classism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia. We stand against antisemitism and Islamophobia with the same determination that we oppose the occupation and apartheid, because we recognise that all oppression is linked and none of us can be free until we’re all free.”
In the Green Party, he has spoken out against restrictions on free speech and rights, which has not endeared him to the establishment. On their website they state in April 2026: “Responding to calls for more restrictions on peaceful protest, Zack Polanski said: ‘Jewish communities are waking up this morning feeling incredibly scared after yet another odious antisemitic attack. This is a time for politicians to work together to protect Jewish people – but some party leaders are instead using this moment to make political attacks.’” At all times Zack Polanski has been outspoken against racism — including that faced in particular by Jewish people — saying that antisemitism is real.
Back to South Africa
There is no doubt by many critics that the cartoon was or is antisemitic, but when one reads the SAJR on the same issue, which seems to have been reproduced by the Jerusalem Post, from the matter is simply reported but not condemned. Instead, they spoke about Polanski’s views of establishment Jewish organisations and their response thus: Polanski was “blasted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the country’s largest group representing Jews, after he said that British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis didn’t speak for most British Jews and instead spoke ‘in the interests of defending the Israeli government’.” Ahead of the UK’s 7 May 2026 local elections, Conservative peer and former MP Lord Zac Goldsmith publicly condemned the Green Party on X (formerly Twitter), stating that the Green Party was “one of the greatest threats to Jewish people in the UK”.
South Africans will remember the Clover cartoon, which resulted in the SAJR being asked to apologise for calling activists antisemitic responsible for it. I invite you to look at the cartoon in the light of these revelations and drawings and check which is antisemitic. It is on the website of the SAJR. The caption then read: “Greedy bosses connected to apartheid Israel. Blood curdling milk [and cheese, yoghurt, etc.]. Every reason to boycott Clover! Change your brand. Viva GIWUSA…”
In that case, the BDS pushed back, arguing against such antisemitic assumptions. “The image used isn’t antisemitic, and in fact, we are very concerned at the SA Jewish Report’s assumption that the portrayal of a greedy capitalist is a portrayal of a Jew”. In addition, the organisation argued that making “false claims of antisemitism (which) is a tired strategy used by pro-Israeli organisations, such as the SAJR, to demonise any criticism of Israel.” Making false claims of antisemitism and or consciously failing to call out genuine cases of antisemitism are two sides of the same coin and need to be remedied.
Source: sajr
The author of the article in the SA Jewish Report wrote that the “Clover” cartoon “clearly looks like an antisemitic cartoon on its Facebook page” but the cartoon, presenting a sense of doubt, was strangely called antisemitic. In one interview, I recall the image looked more like Donald Trump, and as was found in these hearings, it was about a labour dispute. But why is there silence about the Polanski cartoon?
My answer is simple: these groups appear to have joined hands with the right-wing groups (The Times, Reform UK etc.) and condoned these attacks. A report from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), quoted by the Guardian, showed that both the Greens and the Reform party gained Jewish votes. I highlight the right wing because it is my belief that these are fundamentally racist/antisemitic. They found that support for Reform rose among British Jews from 3% in August 2024 to 11% in June 2025. However, the increase lagged the 14% rise Reform enjoyed with the wider electorate. “Jews remain less likely [than the wider electorate] to vote for Reform UK [11% vs 28%], but more likely to vote for the Green Party [18% vs 7%],” the report affirmed: right-wing groups in the UK and the USA do not love Jews, but love Israel. Zack loves Jews and has been critical of the Israeli regime, and for that he was not defended.
Already in 2021, the US-based Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) observed that “many white supremacist groups both hate Jews and love Israel. Depending on their specific ideology, they may admire Israel as a model ethnic supremacist state, share its Islamophobic and anti-Arab views, and/or want Jews to be corralled in their own state far away from the US.” They observed that white supremacists target both Jews and Palestinians — and that JVP opposes every single piece of that hate. No exceptions as they fight for everyone’s safety and equality.
This is a point argued similarly by Owen Jones in his Guardian piece on the right-wing UK press from 6 May 2026. As an example, Owen cites the Zack Polanski interview on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips and comments that Phillips barely concealed his contempt for Polanski. At times Polanski butted in, asking why his own “Jewish identity [was] being erased from this conversation”. He also asked why the antisemitic attacks on him were ignored. To this, Jones argues, is a lesson: “Say almost anything about Palestinians, however inflammatory, and your career will remain intact. Oppose their destruction, and you will be vilified.”
In their complaint to The Times, the Greens were clear as outlined above and at the time of writing the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) — the UK’s press regulator — had no complaint. This is because the Green Party had complained to the newspaper directly about the antisemitic cartoon. Later we learnt that The Times editor, Tony Gallagher, and the newspaper have refused to apologise or withdraw the cartoon, defending the image and the right to robust political satire. To add insult to injury, the cartoonist, Peter Brookes, arrogantly on X reproduced the offensive image stating: “My cartoon @thetimes Saturday. Prints available to buy from http://timescartoons.co.uk”
Jewish groups undermined the fight against racism as an aspect of antisemitism when they do not speak out consistently when it rears its head. They do not have to look around to say who perpetrates antisemitic ideas and perpetrates anti-Jewish violence as a consequence of those ideas. Never again means even defending “bad Jews”.