Labour depict Zack Polanski as an anti-semitic caricature

[green party labour]

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party have been accused of anti-semitism as a result of their latest Green Party smear:

> official Labour account now caricaturing a Jewish rival as a sinister svengali type. [https://t.co/ysOf5SKGhd][1] [pic.twitter.com/5GX6ynNzYw][2]
> 
> — bat020 (@bat020) [February 22, 2026][3]

There are some complexities to this, but one thing is clear: if Labour had portrayed a Jewish politician like this under Jeremy Corbyn, the British media would have covered it 24 hours a day for a year.

## Svengali

The commenter above points to the Wikipedia Svengali article, which carries the following image of an actor playing the character:

Svengali was an evil Jewish hypnotist, with the highlighted Wikipedia article noting:

> Svengali is a character in the novel Trilby which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier. Svengali is a Jewish man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young orphan girl working in Paris, and makes her into a famous singer.

Additionally:

> In the novel, Svengali transforms Trilby into a great singer by using hypnosis. Unable to perform without Svengali’s help, Trilby becomes entranced.

[This is how *History Today* describe the character][4]:

> Svengali is one of those rare literary creations that becomes shorthand for a kind of behaviour: in this case, mesmeric control over another.

So here’s the thing; [Zack Polanski was actually a hypnotist][5]. As such, there’s an argument to be made that people should be able to portray him as a stereotypical hypnotist, even if it does resemble an anti-semitic caricature.

Here’s the other thing; between 2015 and 2019, [the British establishment decided anything which even remotely looked like anti-semitism should be treated as the gravest hate crime of the century][6].

Now, the media is churning out stuff like this:

> This caricature of Zack Polanski in the daily mail is pretty fucking dodgy isn’t it? [pic.twitter.com/cVbzkWWwAO][7]
> 
> — Godspeed You Black Tamperer (ft Maya) (@twlldun) [December 29, 2025][8]

And [Reform are knocking out images like this][9]:

> [#Reform][10] in [#Brighton][11] have posted, reposted and spread this [#Antisemitic][12] meme, in reference to [@ZackPolanski][13], a Jewish man, which is clearly directly based on a [#Nazi][14] poster from 1937.
> 
> Comments welcome from anyone wanting to defend [#Reform][15] using actual [#Nazi][16] propaganda. [pic.twitter.com/nxfzIc5sv3][17]
> 
> — John O'Connell (@jdpoc) [November 3, 2025][18]

## Shameful

We said in the Corbyn years that the media and Labour right were using [concocted anti-semitism smears to attack the anti-Zionist movement.][19]

Now, the people we warned you about have made it crystal clear; they never cared about anti-semitism beyond their ability to use it as a cudgel.

*Featured image via [X][20]*

By [Willem Moore][21]

[1]: https://t.co/ysOf5SKGhd
[2]: https://t.co/5GX6ynNzYw
[3]: https://twitter.com/bat020/status/2025639654133776689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4]: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/first-svengali
[5]: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/11/23/reform-ad-zack-polanski/
[6]: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/12/29/daily-mail-jewish-caricature-zack-polanski/
[7]: https://t.co/cVbzkWWwAO
[8]: https://twitter.com/twlldun/status/2005586785599152310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[9]: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/11/03/reform-antisemitic-zack-polanski/
[10]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reform?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[11]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brighton?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[12]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antisemitic?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[13]: https://twitter.com/ZackPolanski?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[14]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nazi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[15]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reform?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[16]: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nazi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[17]: https://t.co/nxfzIc5sv3
[18]: https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1985302413977498008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[19]: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2019/08/15/norman-finkelstein-tells-the-canary-that-anti-corbyn-smears-have-nothing-whatever-to-do-with-antisemitism/
[20]: https://x.com/UKLabour/status/2025560917627310581?s=20
[21]: https://www.thecanary.co/author/willem-moore/


https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2026/02/23/labour-polanski/