Zack Polanski speaking at Green Party conference

The Green Party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski has accused shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves of being “deeply misleading” and “irresponsible” in comments she made about Gaza.

On the Today programme this morning, Reeves was asked about the recent attack on Israel by the military wing of Hamas and the Israeli government’s extensive military response. In her response she said that Gaza was not occupied by Israel.

Both Gaza and the West Bank have been under military occupation by Israel since 1967. The occupation has repeatedly been condemned as illegal by resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, and Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestine are in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Since 2006, Gaza has been held under a full scale land, air and sea blockade in which the Israeli government operates almost complete control over people, goods and utilities entering and leaving. The area has consequently been described as the world’s largest open air prison by human rights groups.

In a move indicative of the scale of the state’s control of Gaza, Israel has now cut off all electricity, food, water and fuel from entering the Palestinian territory.

Polanski criticised Reeves for failing to acknowledge this and accused her of trying to align Britain with the far right government in Israel. He tweeted in reference to her comments: “This is deeply misleading & irresponsible by the Labour Party. Wat and conflict often has many complex factors. One very basic fact though is Israel has illegally occupied Gaza. Denying that is an attempt in aligning our country with a far right government and it’s crimes.”

PS. We hope you enjoyed this article. Bright Green has got big plans for the future to publish many more articles like this. You can help make that happen. Please donate to Bright Green now.