Boris Johnson: pro-Palestine marches support ‘nihilistic Islamist ideology’
Former prime minister urges public to visit Nova Exhibition, calling antisemitism a “virus” now “out in the open”
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has said pro-Palestine marches support a “nihilistic Islamist ideology” and reiterated his “emphatic” support for Israel.
Mr Johnson visited the Nova Exhibition, a memorial to the victims of the 7 October attacks, in Shoreditch, on Tuesday. The exhibit closes today.
He commended the “huge bravery” of those behind the exhibition and said it was “vital” that people see it to “remember which side they’re on”.
The 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage.
Israel’s attacks have since killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, half of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government but is staffed by medical professionals who maintain detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.
Specifically, the Nova Exhibition – which has travelled around the world – is set up to commemorate Nova Festival goers who were killed in the 7 October attack.
Mr Johnson told the Press Association: “People have got to remember whose side they are on and I’m emphatically on the side of Israel.
“I think it’s incredible that people can effectively support Hamas in the way that so many people do in the West, and I think it would be a wonderful thing if more people came to see this exhibition.”
Asked whether he was including all pro-Palestine marches as “supporting Hamas”, he said, “yes, that’s what they’re doing”.
He added: “By saying they want to see Israel defeated, or they want Israel to vanish from the river to the sea or whatever their moronic slogan is.
“They are supporting a nihilistic Islamist ideology that hates equality between the sexes and wants to destroy some of the most beautiful things about Western civilisation.”
The former prime minister dismissed the idea that protesters may be acting with humanitarian concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying: “Oh, balls.”
Mr Johnson also described “harrowing” conversations with survivors from the Nova festival attacks while he was at the exhibition, including a woman, May Hayat, who said she had hidden, covered in her friend’s blood, for hours during the attacks.
He also called antisemitism a “virus” which hides “beneath the floorboards” and is currently out in the open.
Singer Boy George and actor Martin Freeman were also looking around the Nova exhibition on Tuesday afternoon.
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