British Green Party leader Zack Polanski repeatedly declined to give a direct answer when asked whether Israel has a right to exist during an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program on Friday.
Pressed on the issue by presenter Nick Robinson, Polanski instead accused Israel of oppressing Palestinian Arabs and committing apartheid and genocide.
"I don't believe any state has the right to oppress or to commit apartheid and certainly not genocide on another people," Polanski said, adding, "I don't believe that's a state that anyone should be supporting."
Robinson subsequently asked the Green Party leader to provide a straightforward "yes/no" answer on Israel's right to exist.
Polanski again avoided responding directly, saying: "I've repeated many times that I want to see equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians - at the moment Palestinians don't have equal rights so I think I'm answering your question really clearly."
His remarks came amid growing controversy over a resolution adopted by Green Party members earlier this week that characterizes Zionism as a form of racism and supports the establishment of a single Palestinian state encompassing present-day Israel.
In a separate interview with BBC Breakfast on Friday, Polanski said he would not have supported the resolution in its current form, although he agreed with what he described as its central argument.
The Green Party leader called the motion "imperfect" and indicated that he would have voted for an amended version.
He nevertheless defended its underlying accusations against Israel, despite Israel's repeated rejection of allegations that its military operations in Gaza constitute genocide.
The resolution, approved Sunday at the Green Party's annual conference in Brighton, defines Zionism as an ideology advocating "an ethnonationalist Jewish state" and endorses a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine".
Polanski did not participate in the debate or vote, having left the conference early to campaign in Holborn and St. Pancras.
He subsequently declined media interviews during the closing days of the by-election campaign and did not initially clarify whether he would have supported the motion.
During Friday's BBC Breakfast interview, Polanski was repeatedly questioned about how he would have voted had he attended the debate.
"There's parts [of the motion] I disagree with and parts I agree with," he responded.
He explained that his principal objection concerned the resolution's endorsement of a single-state solution.
"The part I disagree with is the Green Party of England and Wales or indeed even the British government deciding that there should be a single state. I think that's up to the Israelis and the Palestinians."
However, Polanski, who is Jewish, maintained his support for the resolution's central criticism of Israel.
"In terms of the actual substantial part of the motion... the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology. I think that's obvious."
The resolution has provoked criticism in both Britain and Israel, including from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who called on the Green Party leadership Thursday to reverse the decision.
Burnham, whose own political platform has included proposals for increased pressure on Israel, described the resolution as "completely wrong" and an example of "terrible judgement".
Speaking to reporters in Berlin, the prime minister argued that the motion effectively rules out a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict.
"For that reason, it shouldn't be supported in any way, shape or form," Burnham said, according to the BBC.
"I would call on the leadership of the Green Party to say that it will be reversed and it won't be Green Party policy."
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)