Zack Polanski has accused the Israeli military of staging “false flag” attacks.

The Green Party leader claimed that there were “definitely examples” of incidents staged by Israel.

The remarks, unearthed by The Telegraph, come amid the row over anti-Semitism that has engulfed the Greens during Mr Polanski’s first year as leader.

In a summer episode of Bold Politics, his podcast, Mr Polanski said: “What I find really difficult to navigate is anti-Semitism on the Left. Because, again, I want to be really clear: there are definitely examples of where the Israeli government [has] used false flags.

“In fact, I think there’s a Hannibal Directive, which basically demonstrates within the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF], that if an Israeli soldier is captured, they would rather kill that Israeli soldier than allow them to be captured. All of that is evidenced and true, and I don’t think it’s anti-Semitic at all to name any of that.”

The Hannibal Directive was officially revoked in 2016, and was put in place to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces who might use them as bargaining chips. It allowed troops to open fire even if it caused the death of a comrade.

In 2024, a United Nations investigation – strongly rejected by Israel – alleged that the Israeli military had probably killed more than a dozen of its own citizens during the Oct 7, 2023 attacks.

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A 2024 report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank combating misinformation, found that the Hannibal Directive had been central to false claims and false conspiracy theories that Israeli forces had killed as many or more civilians than Hamas on Oct 7.

Mr Polanski went on to admit that some on the Left can “get distracted” or “see false flags or conspiracy theories in places where we don’t have evidence for it”.

“I think it undermines the real fight against anti-Semitism that we have in this country, which as a Left-wing movement we stand against all forms of racism,” he said.

“So that has to be part of it too. I can understand why people are angry. I really understand why people are angry. I can understand why people want to hold people to account as soon as possible.

“How do you harness that true motivation and at the same time encourage people to take a breath and say when we make accusations or when we put things out there, it has to be based [on] evidence – otherwise, we’re undermining our own movement.”

In May, Mr Polanski was forced to apologise for criticising police officers over their response to the Golders Green terror attacks.

The Green leader had shared a post on X that attacked officers for kicking the suspected knifeman after he had been Tasered.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, accused Mr Polanski of sharing an “inaccurate and misinformed” social media post about the treatment of Essa Suleiman.

Mr Suleiman pleaded not guilty to stabbing two Jewish men last week. The Crown Prosecution Service has said that he will stand trial next year.

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More than 24 hours after sharing the post, Mr Polanski said: “Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologise for sharing a tweet in haste.”

However, he declined to apologise for previous comments suggesting that there might be a “perception of unsafety” among the Jewish community instead of a real threat.

His comments came after a number of attacks on synagogues and an arson attack on Jewish community ambulances in Golders Green in north-west London.