Demonstrators at conference rally against anti-Zionism have ‘extremist views’, says Green member
'They say things like the genocide in Gaza is a media construct'
A Green Party member at the party’s conference has described the views of Stop the Hate members protesting against the Zionism is Racism motion as “extremist”.
From around 11am this morning, people from Stop the Hate, a group that says it “the largest Jewish-led direct action campaign group” gathered outside the Brighton Centre to protest.
John Mayford, a Brighton Green Party member, said he had seen “quite a few” of the protesters last week, and that some of them said “‘the genocide in Gaza is a media construct, saying things like ‘the UN is a left-wing organisation’.”
Mayford said that “of course the UN is a member organisation made up of governments from around the world”.
He added: “A lot of these people here today are extremists.”
Mayford added: “Likud under Netanyahu is a fascist organisation, with people openly saying they want to carry out ethnic cleansing.”
He said that the people from Stop the Hate he had spoken to at a protest last week had indicated support for Likud’s ideas.
“One of the premises that is false about these kinds of protests is the conflation of religion with condemnation of a fascist state that is committing genocide,” he said.
The Green Party member called it “ridiculous”, adding: “That’d be like saying it would be anti-Christian of me to criticise Maggie Thatcher.”
Mike Davies, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Brighton, said members of the group are “just nasty” and that he doesn’t think they have any “legitimate concerns” about the motion.
Davies added: “Where they’re coming from is support for Israel, but they have a lot of things they invent to prop that up, because of course support for Israel is support for the genocide, support for the eviction of Palestinians, and support for two laws, ones for Israelis, and one for non-Jewish Israelis.”
One person protesting with Stop the Hate said he didn’t know what the motion was, but that he was there to support Israelis and Jews.
On the situation in Gaza, he said the IDF was “killing not murdering people”, adding that it is “not a genocide”, but “a military campaign”.
“Hamas have not laid down their weapons and they’ve promised to do it again, another October 7th at their earliest opportunity,” he stated.
He added: “You don’t understand what Israel is up against.”
Image credit: Cameron Baillie
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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