Overview
- Declassified UK organised an open letter, signed by Green leader Zack Polanski and figures including Jeremy Corbyn, that asks Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper to create a database of roughly 2,000 British‑Israeli dual nationals who served in the Israel Defense Forces.
- The letter asks the government to subject those dual nationals to secondary screening at UK ports of entry where necessary and says the records would help enable robust domestic investigations if allegations of war crimes emerge.
- The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the proposal as unfairly targeting Israelis and intimidating British Jews, and Conservative chair Kevin Hollinrake said Polanski should withdraw his name because the move risks stoking division.
- A Polanski spokesman defended the call by citing allegations of serious misconduct by the IDF reported by bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and argued the UK should act against any British citizen complicit in crimes.
- The plan raises practical and political questions: under Israeli law many Jewish Israelis must do military service so records exist for some dual nationals, the proposal could increase border checks and community fear for British‑Israelis, and it intensifies scrutiny of Polanski and Green Party vetting practices.