Birds of a feather flock together I was taught and school. And we are having a good demonstration of this with the link-up between Zionist activists and the English Defence League.
Two weeks ago the EDL joined the Zionist Federation at a joint demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in support of Israel’s murderous attack on the convoy of aid ships to Gaza and the Mavi Mamara.
Last weekend the fascist English Defence League attacked the stall of Birmingham Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The statement they issued described what happened thus:
15 EDL members attacked a Palestine Solidarity Campaign stall and peace vigil in solidarity with Palestine. The peace demonstration was made up of people of all backgrounds representing Birmingham’s Diversity. It followed the Israeli attack and murder of peace activists on a convoy to Gaza. The EDL chanted racist and islamophobic abuse and attacked one of the stalls, physically assaulted protesters and threatened further violence. The Palestine demonstrators held their ground and forced the police to finally remove the EDL. The peace demonstration continued for another 45 minutes afterwards growing to 100 people having drawn the support of the wider public. The message is clear the EDL will not be divide or intimidate us in our city and Nazis are not welcome here.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish EDL ‘has signed up hundreds of followers on Facebook since the launch last week. Supporters include an ex-Community Security Trust volunteer who claims “a lot of Jewish guys want to get stuck in”. The ex-steward in question is a Mark Israel and he is recruiting apparently among his old mates in the CST!
And it is no surprise that activists in the CST, which has acted as the Zionist heavy squad against anti-Zionists in recent years, are now attracted to the open fascist of the EDL rather than the mealy mouthed racism of Mark Gardener and co.
To be sure, and I want to be fair to the Zionist, they ensured that there was a section reserved for EDL members. The only problem was that the EDL and the Zionists joined hands together and the EDL space was empty. And squirm as they might, the Zionists can’t avoid the fact that there is a Jewish English Defence League
To see more commentary on the Zionist-EDL link up see
‘Shema Israel!’: The EDL Jewish Division
and Jewish leaders condemn the English Defence League
Mark Gardner, the CST communications director, said:
“The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry.”
Gardener is of course quite right, but who has been demonising the Muslim community if not the Israeli government and their British supporters? The CST is prime amongst the groups that have defamed Muslims and Arabs. Indeed it is the hatred from Zionists and their American backers that has enabled the EDL and like-minded groups to triumph in Europe, notably Gert Wilders ‘Freedom’ Party in the Netherlands as they clambered on board the anti-Muslim/Arab bandwagon.
And if a prize for vacuous idiocy was to be awarded it has to go to Jon Benjamin Board of Deputies chief executive, who said: “The EDL’s supposed ’support’ for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely. “Sadly, we know only too well what hatred for hatred’s sake can cause. The overwhelming majority will not be drawn in by this transparent attempt to manipulate a tense political conflict.”
If the EDL’s support for Israel is ‘duplicitous and empty’ what then of his own? Israel has attracted support from fascists throughout Europe precisely because of its attacks on and hatred of Muslims. As I write the Israeli state is demonising the Turkish charity IHH which helped organise the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and is trying to have it banned as a terrorist organisation! They do this to justify their singling out and murder of 9 Turkish activists and aid workers. Of course it is true, as Benjamin says, that Jews know only too well where this type of racism leads but even his empty head might ask a simple question – why do the EDL and the British National Party support the Zionists?
But as we know, empty vessells make the loudest noise.
Perhaps the answer to Benjamin’s statement about the emptiness of the EDL’s support for Israel are marches by government supporters in Israel calling for ‘Death to the Arabs’ or laws in Israel. Laws which explicitly discriminate against non-Jews i.e. Arabs and organisations which do so too (Jewish National Fund, Histadrut etc.). Or maybe it was the tenacious defence that the Jewish National Fund, a body that owns and controls 93% of Israeli land, put up when an Arab, Adil Kadan wanted to rent a house in a community. Only for sale to Jews he was told. Ah this is the stuff of racist dreams in Britain but is a living reality in Israel and these buffoons wonder why the EDL is pro-Zionist!
Perhaps the worries over the ‘demographic threat’ of Arabs in Israel plays a part and possibly they admire Judaification in Israel and only wish they could have a little de-Islamicisation in Britain (as they had deJewification in Nazi Germany).
And what is the result of this? The attack of the fascist EDL on a Birmingham stall on Saturday. What is important is that anti-fascists and anti-racists recognise now that the EDL and similar fascist groups see Palestinian solidarity in much the same way as the fascists saw Irish solidarity in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It is time for the left to wake up and ensure that the fascists – be they draped in the flag of St. George or the pirates flag of Israel are defeated.
Tony Greenstein
