Green party engages lawyers over Times’s antisemitic depiction of Polanski

The Green party has instructed lawyers and formally complained to the editor of the Murdoch Times after it published a foul cartoon using antisemitic imagery to depict its leader Zack Polanski. The cartoon portrays what is meant to be Polanski with a visibly hooked nose reminiscent of antisemitic propaganda of 1930s Germany.

A guide published by the Fighting Online Antisemitism campaign describes typical features of the antisemitic ‘Happy Merchant meme’, listing ‘hooked noses, hunched posture, and sly expressions’ and notes that these are ‘similar to those found in Nazi propaganda.’

A Green Party spokesperson said:

It is astonishing that amongst a rising climate of anti-Semitism in the UK, a national newspaper has chosen to publish a cartoon of the only Jewish political leader in the country using tropes so clearly associated with antisemitic depictions of Jewish people.

Zack faces daily antisemitism, and in the past six weeks two people have been arrested for antisemitic actions towards him. The words used by both politicians and the media this week, directing further attacks towards Zack in the wake of a violent attack on his community, are deeply irresponsible.

Polanski has been the target of an ever-escalating campaign of smears and attacks in the run-up to the May 2026 local elections, by a rattled Israel lobby and the government that supports it. The attacks are a naked attempt to revive the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam. They are also a clear indication of how badly both fear the Greens’ electoral surge after Labour’s humiliation in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election.

Featured image via the Canary