News media today reports: “Protests supporting banned terror group Palestine Action were ‘almost gloating over the Yom Kippur attack’, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has said.”
The entirely peaceful Palestine Action protests are about freedom of speech. They want to undo the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation which it most definitely is not. Remember Yvette Cooper, the previous Home Secretary, saying that she had information that supported labelling Palestine Action (PA) a terrorist group? Well, we have not been told! Nada. It was a political, autocratic move, that has backfired on the UK government. Another stupid mistake.
Many, perhaps most, of the PA protestors are elderly and educated. I have been to these protests and have seen them, photographed them and talked with them. These good people are not terrorists! And they are not antisemites.
They protest against the government’s autocratic stance on freedom of speech. It has become abundantly clear that Starmer is behaving like an autocrat. He is quashing that most precious of human right: freedom of speech and lawful protest. It will backfire on him. The current Home Secretary is now instigating law to curb repeat protests. More curbing of fundamental freedoms. This too will backfire on the government.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews are simply jumping on the bandwagon to emphasis antisemitism in the UK but they should also look to themselves and Israel’s crushingly disproportionate destruction of Gaza. It is that which has fueled a rise in antisemitism in the UK.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has conveniently conflated a peaceful protest supporting basic human rights plus support of Palestinians with antisemitism. This is a cheap trick.
Note: I am very sympathetic to the feelings of Jews in the UK. They feel threatened. But I feel that many are in denial about the alleged genocide of Gaza’s Palestinians. Although we know that many Jews are as upset about this as the Palestinians. They should be very vocal in their dislike of the Israel government’s actions.
I don’t think we see enough criticism of the Israeli government by Jews living in Israel or abroad.
Someone will probably call this short post antisemitic. It is not. I am just putting the record straight in highlighting poor behaviour by a Jewish organisation that should know better.
More: DUBIOUS proscription of Palestine Action as terrorist organisation
