OPINION: Al Jazeera allegation that I harassed BDS supporters is false and misleading
Political activist Luke Stanger responds to allegations made in a recent Al Jazeera documentary that he hounded anti-Israel activists in Brighton.
Last week, in its documentary The Labour Files, Al Jazeera accused me of harassing ‘pro-Palestinian activists in conjunction with an organisation called Sussex Friends of Israel’. This is incorrect.
I once attended Brighton Clock Tower on a Saturday morning in May 2019 with a Jewish friend from university who was staying with me for the weekend. This friend was keen to witness the weekly confrontation between Brighton PSC/BDS and Sussex Friends of Israel. I have never had any formal involvement with Sussex Friends of Israel.
While there for about an hour, I challenged various Brighton BDS members about their documented antisemitism and whether this undermined their credibility as proponents of human rights for the Palestinian people, a cause I wholeheartedly and proudly support.
I also suggested to some of those Brighton BDS activists present that they were exploiting a very complex and emotive geopolitical conflict to advance their appalling views. These people include Tony Greenstein, Becky Massey and Anne Mitchell.
I have never attacked anyone for their political activism in support of the Palestinian people. I am concerned only about fighting antisemitism.
Part of my politicisation began by being taken on Palestinian Solidarity Campaign demonstrations by my mum and nana at a young age. Indeed, during my teens I leafleted outside Brighton’s ‘Ecostream’ Shop several times, in protest of its produce coming from West Bank settlement areas.
My activism and advocacy of Israel relates to the friendships I forged with Jewish students at the University of Birmingham. This altered my entire perspective on Israel and the concept of Zionism, as I came to see how integral a part of most Jews’ religious practices it is, offering a safe haven for an ethnic minority that has faced a terrible history of genocide, pogroms and persecution.
Belief in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and a homeland has become a central part of my politics in recent years.
However, I’ve always believed that the only feasible and sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict involves a negotiated two-state solution, that safeguards Israel’s security and ensures self-determination and equal national rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Belief in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and a homeland has become a central part of my politics in recent years.
I accept that the ever-worsening displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people, through settlement-expansion in the West Bank, reduces the likelihood of that two-state solution. Indeed, my social media history shows such views are a matter of public record for many years.
I believe Israeli politics has to be viewed primarily through the prism of security and the sheer complexities of the country’s history, existing alongside neighbouring states that wish to see its destruction.
My left-wing ideals and values apply to what I see in Israel as much as what I see in the UK – I identify with those Israelis and Palestinians who believe in peace and equality and condemn those who promote division, violence and oppression, whichever side they are on.
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