What is Palestinian solidarity? Last week, I sat and witnessed a mainstream political party in the UK deliberately spit in the face of the Jewish community. The problem of growing antisemitism extends far beyond the shores of the UK and recently inside the US Democratic Party, we have seen a similar struggle *begin* to surface. So is Palestinian solidarity related to rising antisemitism, where does this animosity come from – and how is it being allowed to successfully propagate?
If this were simply swastika wearing Jew hatred resurfacing, you would hope it would be easily identified. Which tends to suggest that it isn’t – or if it is – then at the very least much of it is well disguised.
Layers and institutions
There are several layers to the problem of rising antisemitism and the ‘obsession’ that was frequently referenced during the Labour Party conference is only one of those layers. Half a million people die in conflict each year – another half a million through interpersonal violence. There is climate and conflict induced famine, and whole regions that experience horrific abuse of women and minority groups. The world is home to rampant sex, child and people trafficking. Nobody can even tell you the level of modern slavery because there isn’t enough money or political will to deal with the problem. Yet the democratic state of Israel is always the first item on the agenda.
That obsession is institutionally racist against Jews. It does not matter what the excuses are, just as it did not matter what the Met Police used as an excuse for the disproportionate attention towards ‘non-whites’. Nor its dismissal of the relevant community concerns. The Palestine obsession, partially driven by circumstance and partially by people who hate Jews, combines to create an institutionally racist environment.
If you or your organisation are not willing to address the Apartheid system in Mecca, Christian persecution in Pakistan or the abuse of women throughout Asia and Africa – because you cannot raise a consensus or do not want to alienate those sitting around your table – then opting to pick on Israel becomes the institutionally racist choice. It explains the Labour Party obsession and the growing problem in the United States – as well as the fixation on Israel by the UN, Amnesty International and far beyond. Continually picking on just one tiny group of people and ignoring all the real human rights abusers in the world is not just hypocrisy – it is racism.
The rush to Palestinian solidarity
Israel becomes the subject of convenience. In Unions, schools, universities and around local council tables. Palestinian solidarity becomes fashionable by default. At the Labour Party conference, a stream of Labour MPs publicly ran to ‘virtue signal’ alongside the Palestinian flag (H/T Harry’s place). Like MPs Afzal Khan and Marsha de Cordova:
There were others – Clive Lewis MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP and Ian Lavery MP to name but a few. There were also those who ran to participate in ‘solidarity events’ such as Diane Abbott MP and Lisa Nandy MP. This is an insidious game. Support for the people of Palestine is explicitly being conflated with support for organisations such as the ‘Palestine Solidarity Campaign’. But are they one and the same? What exactly are these MPs supporting?
Are they supporting student movements such as the SJP, that are creating such trouble for Jewish students on campuses in the US?
Seeking Israel’s destruction
Directly or indirectly there are just two sides to this coin – there is the ‘Zionist side’ and the ‘Palestinian solidarity’ side. And it is on this point that we run into serious trouble. Where is the side of moderate Palestinians? Can anyone name a single Palestinian solidarity group that explicitly accepts Israel’s right to exist and will not waver from support for a two state solution? I doubt it, because I have never come across one.
A left-leaning Zionist movement such as Yachad in the UK has no counterpart. The Palestinian Solidarity movements despise the PA and have sympathy for the political ambitions of terror groups such as Hamas and the PFLP. These movements talk about ‘justice’ and not peace. Peace is not on their agenda. It isn’t even mentioned as a goal on the BDS website. Just search for yourself if you don’t believe me. None of these Palestinian Solidarity groups have any interest in a two-state solution that will inevitably create a weaker Palestine next to a strong Israel. Their positions go way beyond seeking ‘human rights’ for Palestinians. They want what Israel has built. They want it all.
Which means when an MP such as Clive Lewis talks about support for a two-state solution and then rushes down to pander to a deeply antisemitic movement that works towards the destruction of Israel then he is openly spitting in the face of the Jewish community.
Palestinian solidarity and tokenism
And the Palestinian solidarity movement tramples on every element of our understanding of racism. Take their use of the token Jewish face. *EVERY* survey amongst Jews places Israel as a central part of Jewish identity. From left-leaning Zionists across the spectrum to religious / national orthodox. To find a Jewish person that thinks Israel should ‘evaporate’ is no easy task, which is why the same faces and the same names are used by solidarity movements every time.
When Jeremy Corbyn posts a ‘New Years’ message to the Jewish community using a token Jewish voice, he is using a racists handbook. When Rashida Tlaib rushes off to a Jewish Voice for Peace event to make herself look ‘kosher’ the same rules apply. This tokenism is hypocrisy from the very people who claim to understand it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib understand racist tokenism when it is used against them:
When it comes to the Jews, these people play the same racist tricks they see and despise when used by others. When a Palestinian Solidarity group holds up a Jewish face to pretend the Jewish people stand with them – it is a cruel act of deception and antisemitism. Tokenism is racism.
Why Palestinian solidarity spreads antisemitism.
Visualise Palestinian solidarity as a large building built on several pillars. Almost all of the discussion takes place inside the rooms on the upper floors of the house. One room is labelled occupation, another Gaza and so on. Many people who sympathise with the Palestinians happily walk into any of these rooms to ‘stand in solidarity’. What can be wrong with sticking-up for child prisoners?
Once inside the house, you are supported only by the pillars that are holding the building up. There is no moderate voice to align with and the only show in town is run by antisemites, liars and terrorist sympathisers. Even prominent politicians publicly support such extremist movements.
Extremist? Here are some examples that show why antisemitism is spreading. These are not special cases but rather taken straight from a popular anti-Israel website. This IS the Palestinian ‘narrative’ – and is the antisemitic fairytale that they teach globally. These examples are from ‘Visualising Palestine’, which is a slick piece of Palestinian propaganda promoted by activists, politicians and academics.
The website provides a perfect insight into the core ‘narrative’ (read revisionist poppycock) that underpins the entire anti-Zionist argument. You will find the same arguments presented anywhere that pro-Palestinian activism is spread:
The ‘Nakba’ of the innocent
This is a page from the visualising Palestine webpage. It discusses the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of 1948. The message is clear. The Jews ethnically cleansed (deliberately) a peaceful Palestinian population:
The magicians sleight of hand is barely noticeable. The first image and the last image are entrenched in an inherently truthful narrative. There were numerous villages in 1945. It is also true that many villages were depopulated. Civil conflict can have that effect. The centre image twists the entire story. 220 towns and villages were depopulated *BEFORE* (bolded in the text) Arab forces ‘entered Palestine’. The Jewish argument that the conflict was defensive is discarded and it is place is a brutal onslaught of violent Jews vs peaceful Palestinians.
This ‘lie’ isn’t accidental, nor insignificant. It is one of the primary pillars upon which the entire ‘Nakba’ fairytale is built. The ‘peaceful’ Palestinians against the ‘demon’ Jews.
None of it is true. Firstly, it is known that a significant number of the wealthier Palestinians fled as soon as conflict became inevitable. Secondly, it ignores the civil conflict – internally hostile forces that were armed and violent towards neighbouring Jewish towns. Most importantly, Arab irregular armies, funded by Egypt and Syria entered British Palestine as early as January 1948.
How did Arab irregular forces carry out a bombing of a marketplace in February 1948 that killed 50 civilians if no Arab forces were present? How did they attack Jewish convoys on the road? The image above is a deliberate lie. Intended to distort the truth. What it does is demonise Zionism. It turns Zionism from a movement of national liberation for the Jewish people into a sinister movement intent on systematically destroying Palestinian lives.
The peace of the pre-Zionist era
Another vital pillar holding the building aloft. Before the nasty Zionists arrived, Palestine was a model civilisation. The truth is that under Ottoman rule non-Muslims were second-class citizens (as they were throughout much of the Arab world). This didn’t just affect Jews, but also Christians.
Chile has a massive Palestinian population. This wasn’t created by the ‘Nakba’ but began 100 years earlier when Christians fled hardship, forced conscription and were enticed by rumours of opportunity in South America. Back then of course when they arrived, they only identified as ‘Turks’.
Other migrant waves to Chile occurred – such as in the build up to WW1. As is always the case (and as would happen in 1948) deep unrest and the threat of conflict *ANYWHERE* creates migrants. By the 1910s Christians were fleeing rising Arab nationalism. A trend that has continued throughout the Middle East as Christian communities have been oppressed and, in some places, slaughtered.
Jewish people also had it hard and the British archives are full of stories of Jewish people turning to the British for protection. In 1917, over forty years before Israel was created, the Jewish population of Tel Aviv and Jaffa was expelled by the Ottoman rulers. Thousands were forced to flee to Egypt. Approximately 1500 died of starvation and disease.
Yet modern Palestinian solidarity seeks to turn Christians against the Jews. So whilst in reality Christian and Jews were both persecuted second-class citizens in Ottoman lands, Palestinian solidarity spreads its lies through church groups, actively targeting them as a force to help them boycott the Jewish state:
Students are also explicitly targeted:
The violent refugees
In the 1880s before the Zionist movement was created and when just a trickle of Jewish people moved to the area – there was violent opposition to their arrival. This is how the Palestinian Solidarity groups record such violence:
A few Jews bought some land and built a home. This was too much for the Ottoman residents – so they attacked them. Imagine just for a moment, people in the UK or US attacking immigrants who had purchased a home to begin a new life. Who in their right mind would stand in solidarity with the attacking force of racist bigots?
But the distortion carries on throughout the fairytale. And it does not matter whether you use the ‘Visualising Palestine’ website or any other Palestinian solidarity outlet. They all tell the same tale. In 1929 133 Jews were massacred in places such as Hebron. This is how that event is told to those who sympathise with Palestinians:
According to this, the Jews started the ‘disturbance’ and in the resulting ‘confrontation’ a roughly even number of Jews and Arabs were killed, mostly at the hands of the British. In reality the Arabs turned on then Jews, destroyed their property and massacred 133, a large majority of whom were murdered in their homes. Most of the Arabs were killed by the British police while trying to suppress the riots.
Reading the timeline is a sickening experience. When Jews are murdered it is by ‘anti-Zionist’ forces, when Arabs riot, Jews always ‘start it’. Jewish immigration is seen as a danger which can be justifiably met with violence. In this timeline, when Jews flee Genocide, they are the bad guys and the people that riot and kill them are the innocent.
The unchallenged pillars of Palestinian solidarity
These are just some of the pillars that hold the entire ‘house of Palestine’ aloft. There are many others. For example – the idea that this was all pre-planned by the few thousand Jews who arrived in the early 1900s. For mass Jewish immigration to be more than just the wild dream of a few idealists – means that the Jews had to have foreseen the Holocaust. How twisted a narrative is that?
To adopt the Palestinian cause, like the NUT have done or Unite the Union, or the campuses or the Labour Party – you absorb all this distortion. This poison is antisemitic. It isn’t based on fact or opinion, but rather a demonisation process of the ‘other’. Never is it challenged. What these people stand upon when they indicate Palestinian solidarity is RAW antisemitism.
This is why we are witnessing such a rise in antisemitism. The Palestinian cause becomes nothing more than a vehicle of deception upon which antisemitism is carried.
The trap:
Look at this tweet. It is the strongest defence Jewish people can expect from the left these days. Yes – antisemitism exists – but it is wrong to blame Jews for what Israel is doing. In other words Israel is guilty, but that Jew is innocent. But then what if that Jew supports Israel?
This adherence to a toxic cause entirely removes all responsibility from the Palestinians. They do not have to do anything to detoxify the narrative before being rewarded by MPs and American politicians wrapping themselves in the Palestinian flag. It is why sickening policies like ‘pay for slay‘ can exist. The Palestinians have no agency – they can do no wrong. These Solidarity movements have embedded themselves in the west as a ‘humanitarian’ force and are spreading a toxic hate of Jews everywhere they are permitted to set up a stall.
Until this is addressed, nothing will change. This marriage has unleashed raw antisemitism. Images like this are posted without the person in the image understanding what is wrong with what he is doing. Palestinian solidarity legitimises such hatred:
Then we see images such as this from the Labour Party conference.
None of this has anything to do with Palestinians who live in Ramallah or Gaza and want to live their lives in peace. Palestinian solidarity has created a travesty. Not only does picking up a Palestinian flag require you to support a fictitious narrative. It means you adopt toxic beliefs and it holds everyone hostage – even the Palestinians.
A question for politicians such as Afzal Khan, Marsha de Cordova, Clive Lewis, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Ian Lavery, Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Lisa Nandy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. When you hold the flag aloft of your local Palestinian solidarity group – what are you standing in solidarity with?
Are you suggesting that the Arab irregular armies were not invading in January 1948? Do you believe that the Jewish immigrants of 1890 deserved to be attacked? Are you indicating your support for the story that Jews were responsible for the massacres against them in the 1920s and 1930s? Do you oppose immigration and think refugees buying houses is a provocation that requires a violent response? Do you believe that the Zionists of 1900 could foresee the Holocaust?
Why exactly are you standing in solidarity with these lies and why are you waving the flag of such a toxic, rancid, antisemitic movement?
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