OPINION: Selective outrage about marches exposes political hypocrisy
Those who spoke out in the wake of the 'Unite the Kingdom' march but have said nothing in the face of endless 'anti-Israel' marches show inconsistency in the face of bigotry
Last Saturday, a mass march took place through the streets of London.
This, in and of itself, is no longer an unusual occurrence. It seems like every other weekend, large parts of the centre of the capital are cordoned off so that tens of thousands of people can express their anger.
But this march was different. It was called “Unite the Kingdom” by its organisers – and it featured the Union Jack and the Cross of St George rather than Palestinian flags.
I have no sympathy for this profoundly unpleasant march. One of the key organisers was Tommy Robinson, a man with a lengthy criminal record who has managed to establish a career out of being a professional Muslim-baiter.
Elon Musk, under whose stewardship Twitter welcomed back a rogues’ gallery of antisemites to the platform, appeared by video-link, addressing what he described as “the reasonable centre” and warning them that “whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”
Eric Zemmour – Jewish but simultaneously best-known by Jews outside France for his ahistorical claims about the Vichy government’s complicity in the Holocaust – told the crowd about what he described as “the great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture”.
I know there were some Jewish attendees in the crowd – the best I can bring myself to say about them is that they are, perhaps, deeply misguided, in having managed to convince themselves that people on the far right are their allies simply because at this point in time such people appear to dislike Muslims more than they dislike Jews.
Politicians queued up to condemn Saturday’s march – such condemnation is entirely understandable. The Prime Minister released a statement, telling the nation, among other things, that, “People have a right to peaceful protest. It is core to our country’s values. But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin. Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect.”
When marchers are holding Union Jacks or the cross of St George, rather than a Palestinian flag? Apparently then, and only then, is it time for platitudes about how minorities should not feel threatened.
I had to laugh a little at that. It may have escaped notice from some, but the last 23 months have seen plenty of marches through London which have seen both assaults on police officers and people feeling intimidated because of their background.
On these marches, people have routinely engaged in Holocaust inversion, echoed age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories by accusing the world’s only Jewish state of exercising unnatural control over politicians, media and financial systems, and called for globalising the intifada (I suggest you look at pictures of the aftermath of the many terror attacks which took place during the last intifada to truly understand what that means to most Jews).
Many members of the UK Jewish community have made clear that they have found these marches acutely intimidatory. And to head off the inevitable responses of ‘but there were Jews attending those marches’ – I hate to break it to you, but there were also non-white attendees on this Saturday’s march. In neither case does that minuscule percentage magically change the nature of the event.
In the last few days, I have seen a number of MPs and local councillors, many based in the capital, whose silence over the last 23 months, in the face of dozens of marches, was deafening. But when marchers are holding Union Jacks or the cross of St George, rather than a Palestinian flag? Apparently then, and only then, is it time for platitudes about how minorities should not feel threatened.
Fortunately for those politicians in question, in just a few short weeks yet another of those ostensibly pro-Palestinian demonstrations will take place in central London. These MPs and councillors will have the opportunity to demonstrate that their outrage about minority groups feeling threatened by a major march through London is not selective.
British Jews will watch to see whether such politicians can show a shred of consistency.
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