By Conor Payne
The stabbing of two Jewish men in the Golders Green area of London last week is being used by the British media and political establishment to attack the Palestine solidarity movement and its supporters. This attack has understandably added to the climate of fear among Jewish communities in Britain, amidst rising antisemitism. The perpetrator also stabbed a Somali Muslim in another part of London on the same day, something that has been largely ignored by the media. We send our solidarity to all victims of these horrific attacks.
In the wake of the attacks, we are seeing renewed efforts to criminalise Palestine solidarity and opposition to Zionism as an alleged threat to Jewish communities. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called for the banning of pro-Palestine marches. Keir Starmer stated: “If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews – and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.” Of course, these politicians are not driven by genuine concern for the safety of Jewish people. Rather, they speak as supporters of the Gaza genocide who want to shut down opposition to the crimes in which they and their governments have been complicit.
Right to resist
Amongst other things, this ignores the fact that there have been Jewish speakers and sizable contingents of Jewish people on all of the Palestine protests, whose contribution has been welcomed and celebrated. The phrase ‘Globalise the Intifada’ is a call to build a movement in support of the Palestinian people worldwide, not a call for violence against Jews as portrayed.
Intifada is the Arabic word for uprising or “shaking off”. It was used in the late 1970s in Egypt, when there were mass protests against the rising cost of food prices, known as the “Bread Intifada”. The First Intifada was a mass uprising by the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation in 1987, as was the Second Intifada in 2000.
Palestinians have the right to resist with arms the occupation and oppression they face by the Zionist regime. This needs to be a global struggle because it is a global system of imperialism and capitalism which has established and enabled this regime.
All of this is happening on the same week as the conviction of four members of the Filton Six and the banned Palestine Action group who broke into the Israel-owned arms company Elbit Systems’ facility in Filton, Bristol. Once again, opposing the Israeli genocide is being shamefully criminalised; Palestine Action still remains a banned group.
Attack on the Greens
Much of the media and political attacks have been focused on Green Party leader Zack Polanski, whose party is hoping for a breakthrough in Thursday’s local elections on a broadly pro-Palestine and left-of-Labour platform. Polanski is also the only Jewish leader of a major party.
Polanski reposted criticism of the brutal manner in which the Golders Green attacker was apprehended by police, including being kicked in the head. Such police violence cannot be accepted or normalised, regardless of who the victim is. Mistakenly, Polanski apologised for this, a concession which has failed to stop the ongoing smear campaign against him. The attacks on Polanski included the publication of a vile cartoon in the Times, where he is depicted as a blatantly antisemitic caricature. The hypocrisy could not be more sickening.
Rising antisemitism
Antisemitism is rising but this is not because of people protesting the genocide carried out by the Israeli state. Clearly the far right is rising in Britain and internationally and antisemitic ideology is part of this alongside racism and Islamophobia.
Equating the Israeli regime with Jewish people as a whole is also a form of antisemitism. But it is not the Palestine solidarity movement which is equating them. In fact, it is the Israeli state and its supporters who are continually and falsely claiming that Israel represents Jews worldwide.
The recent attacks against Palestinian solidarity represent another attempt by the capitalist establishment to distract from their crimes by using division. In response, we need a united working class movement of solidarity which opposes all forms of racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, and the rule of this rotten capitalist system.
