Zack Polanski has called on the government to tear up the UK-Israel trade agreement, after the Israeli strikes on Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Polanski called for Keir Starmer to ban the US using UK airspace and said sanctions should be imposed on Israel<\/a>, after accusing the nation of \u201cbehaving in a completely uncontrolled way\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it going to take for this government to actually put robust sanctions on Israel?,\u201d he said at the launch of the Green party<\/a> local election campaign in London.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is outrageous that Israel is still enjoying diplomatic and trade privileges from the international community. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Polanski said the prime minister\u2019s insistence that the UK was \u201cnot involved\u201d in the conflict with Iran<\/a> was not \u201centirely truthful\u201d, because its bases had been used to aid US bombers attacking Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we need to do is disentangle the UK military and the US military, ban the US from using our airspaces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked about the economic cost of ending the trade deal with Israel, Polanski said the UK should not put \u201ca cost on people\u2019s lives\u201d.<\/p>\n Polanski called Trump an \u201cincreasingly unpredictable and dangerous man\u201d, and said recent events had \u201cvindicated\u201d his position on the US president. \u201cJust a couple of days ago, he said he was willing to wipe out a civilisation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Green leader used the press conference to criticise Labour on housing, saying Green-run councils would focus on building new council houses and \u201cstand up\u201d to property developers who resist building affordable homes.<\/p>\n Labour has promised to build 1.5 million new homes in England by the end of the decade, but developers have said the target is too optimistic. Steve Reed, the housing secretary, has admitted there would need to be a sharp surge to meet it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have a housing crisis, but what we also have is an affordability crisis,\u201d said Polanski. \u201cAnd actually it\u2019s about making sure we build the right homes at the right price at the right place. And what we see far too often with Labour councils is that building luxury, unaffordable buildings that no one\u2019s ever going to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n Labour accused Green party councillors of trying to block 42,000 homes across the country since 2018 and said they were not delivering social rented housing in areas where they were in power.<\/p>\n Reed said: \u201cThere is nothing progressive about keeping London<\/a> families in temporary accommodation. If you\u2019re not willing to build the homes Londoners need, you are choosing to keep them there.\u201d<\/p>\n Polanski said it was \u201can absolute nonsense\u201d figure, but added: \u201cIf a development is being blocked because it\u2019s an unaffordable luxury development, then I\u2019m proud of any Green party council that does that.\u201d<\/p>\n