JTA — The Jewish leader of the United Kingdom’s Green Party has called on the government to sever trade and diplomatic ties with Israel in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Zack Polanski made the comments during the first minutes of a speech on Thursday that launched the Green Party’s local election campaign in London. Polanski, who has led his left-populist party to major wins since taking over in September, hopes the Greens will benefit from protest votes against the Labour government in local elections on May 7.

“It is outrageous that Israel is still enjoying diplomatic and trade privileges from the international community, and as a Green Party, we are calling on this government to make much more robust sanctions, to withdraw the UK-Israel trade agreement, and to end the genocide,” said Polanski.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon killed over 250 people on Wednesday, according to local authorities, with Israel claiming many of those killed were members of Hezbollah. It marked the deadliest day of the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group, an Iranian proxy, threatening the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran. The Israeli army is fighting across southern Lebanon, and government officials have signaled that it plans to occupy the area.

Polanski also said the United Kingdom should block the United States military from using UK airspace to ensure the UK has no involvement in strikes on Iran.

“We still have UK soil and UK bases where US bombers are flying over to Iran,” he said.........

© The Times of Israel