It’s up to all pro-Palestinian campaigners to stamp out any anti-Semitic sentiments when they see them.
It’s up to all pro-Palestinian campaigners to stamp out any anti-Semitic sentiments when they see them
70 attacks have been reported on Jews in the UK since the Israeli war on Gaza began on July 8, two thirds of which are directly related to the conflict.
It goes without saying that this is an incredibly worrying trend. And as the Palestinian death toll mounts past a thousand, it appears to be spreading.
I was on the Stop the War demonstration in London on Saturday. It was huge (between 50,000-100,000), and it was peaceful. It was also incredibly diverse, with Jews for Justice for Palestinians marching alongside Muslims, students and peace campaigners.
But there were some disturbing sentiments expressed on banners and placards. I saw the flag of Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese Islamist party classified as a terrorist organisation in many countries. Other marchers reported seeing placards saying ‘Research: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’, the famous anti-Semitic conspiracy document, with a Star of David dripping in blood.
When confronted, the Jewish pro-Palestinian was hurled with abuse such as ‘Jews are the problem. If you’re a Jew, you’re racist, you’re what we’re demonstrating against’. There were also pretty horrifying Nazi allusions, including signs saying ‘Hitler you were right’. And chants from ‘No justice, no peace’ seemed to try to legitimise anti-Israel violence, at a time when an immediate end to hostilities needs to be the priority.
Daniel Randall writes:
“While outward displays of “classical” anti-Semitism are rare, subtler themes are more common. Placards and banners comparing the Israeli state to Nazism, and its occupation of Palestine to the Holocaust, and images melding or replacing the Star of David with swastikas, are, while far from universal, relatively commonplace. The politics of this imagery, too, has an anti-Semitic logic.”
The Muslim Council of Britain has rightly condemned all such imagery, as well as the incidents which have doubled in recent weeks.
The Community Security Trust also reports violence against Jews and Jewish buildings not at the march, including a brick thrown at the window of a synagogue in Belfast. Much of the non-violent incidents have occurred on Twitter, including the #HitlerWasRight hashtag which gained some following. Such actions represent the politics of the far-right – similar to the surge in anti-Muslim hate crime following the killing of Lee Rigby – and have no place in a progressive movement.
Now the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism are to launch a report into the spread of these hate attacks. But it’s up to all pro-Palestinian campaigners to stamp out any anti-Semitic sentiments when they see them – we must be vigilant in confronting it at all times.
Jews and Muslims must be able to demonstrate arm in arm against the war on Gaza – the movement for peace and human rights is nothing if it is not tolerant. It is especially nothing if it is not peaceful or respectful of human rights.
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42 Responses to “Anti-Semitism should have no place in the pro-Palestinian movement”
Leon Wolfeson
And you start insulting the Jew, as expected. Yes, you really did protest too much, it’s very very plain.
You’ll get fake-angry next.
AlanGiles
Paranoia is sad. Have a happy life. I am no going to encourage your feelings of victimhood
AlanGiles
“What is the left actually for?”
Thats just the problem now, Mike: the “leaders” don’t know. One minute Miliband wants to be different, then he agrees with Coalition policies. He is a non-Blairite surrounded in his shadow cabinet and PLP by Blairites, propped up via Progress with Lord Sainsbury’s money, who gives no donations now he is no longer a minister or shadow minister to the Labour Party itself.
It talks of “fairness” yet sees nothing unfair in handing out safe seats to the sons of former ministers. It pretends to despise the Coaltion welfare cuts and reforms convenienly forgetting it was they who instigated the Freud report in full in 2009 (James Purnell): they shed crocodile tears at the demise of Remploy, forgetting it was they who got the ball rolling in 2008 (Peter Hain). Just last year the repulsive Liam Byrne supported Duncan-Smith’s parliamentary motion to bring in retrospective legislation to stop payments being made to people who had won court cases in welfare cases. Saving “our” NHS from privatisaion, when, in reality Burnham got the process underway back in 2007 with NHS Global.
Miliband decries photo opportunities showing his memory is so poor he can’t recall July 21st when he darted over to Washington to get a photo with himself and Obama. Then earlier in the year it was Joey Essex, a professional bufoon and Lily Allen (“actress and singer”).
If such people are “the left” – and lets not forget Tessa Jowell, remortgage expert who wants to be London Mayor: Protected by Blair and the sisterhood at the time, she “left” her husband David Mills, and he was painted as the sole villian of the piece. However, when Tony Blair held a 60th birthday party for his plain and pricey wife last week, among the guests were – Mr and Mrs Mills (Dame Tessa and her “ex”). If this collection of careerist liars and hypocrites lead, then no wonder less and less people wish to follow.
In May 2015, despite the wet dreams of UKIP supporters, Briain will either have a Conservative government or a Labour government tinkering with current Coalition policies, led by a weak man forever looking over his shoulder at the Blairites and mollifying them – Blair and his chums who destroyed Labour in the first place
You said “it represented the poor, the workers and the vulnerable against people who wanted to rob, hurt and exploit them?”
Not much chance of that with self important snobs like Harman, Hunt and Umunna who seem to think they are “better” than everybody else and who are entirely motivated by greed and self interest. Labour constantly complain about “a cabinet of millionaires”. Do they really think we are so thick we don’t know that we have a Shadow cabinet full of millionaires?. Labour today stinks like a prop forwards jockstrap
Dave Roberts
Fairly comprehensive.
Mike Stallard
I want to thank you for that. It took time and thought to write that so sincerely – a very rare thing.