In Their Desire to Protect BBC Bias the Met are Once Again Hiding Behind Jews
Owen Jones Interviews Ben Jamal about Zionist ‘fears’ about Marches Against Genocide in Gaza
As we celebrate the ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire that despite his claims, Genocide Joe Biden has nothing to do with, we see the Metropolitan Police giving a veto to the Genocidal ‘Chief Rabbi’ Mirvis, a settler-trained rabbi who is an out and out racist, having participated in the ‘Death to the Arabs’ flag marches in Jerusalem.
As Nina Morris-Evans wrote in the Times of Israel in May 2017:
I’m ashamed of activities endorsed by two of the most influential members of the Orthodox movement: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. This week they were in Jerusalem to support festivities planned by the organisation Mizrachi Olami.
One of these events is the annual Jerusalem Day March of the Flags on 24 May (yesterday). Thousands of young people from across the country were bussed in to march through the Jewish Old City, shutting down most of the Muslim quarter and surrounding areas.
This march has come to be associated with growing levels of hate speech and racist violence, including shouts of “Death to Arabs” and vandalism to Palestinian property. Today (Thursday), some of the delegates were due to visit Hebron and dance through the streets with IDF soldiers.
Hebron is a city in which 200,000 residents live under the control of 600 soldiers, protecting 850 settlers. This celebration is an unequivocally political act, blatantly supporting the settlers’ presence there.
That the Police base their decision to try and reroute the Palestine march on the views of this out and out racist says everything about their political partisanship.
It is incredibly important that Saturday’s Palestine demonstration is the largest yet
The Police’s decision to try to ban Saturday’s march against Genocide in Gaza because the‘proposed route would have caused serious disruption to a central London synagogue’ is a lie. Lying comes as easily to the Met as a duck to water.
Laughably the Met also said ‘our role is not to take sides’. The fact that the Met have raised disruption to a synagogue, that is not even on the route, as a pretext to prevent a demonstration proves that they have taken sides. The side of the supporters of Genocide in Gaza.
Owen Jones Interview with Ben Jamal on Police Obstruction
Implicit in this decision is the assumption that the march poses a threat to Jews. This has been the long-standing refrain of Israel’s genocide supporters but there isn’t a sliver of evidence for it.
The Met have consistently accepted the racialised narrative that Palestinian demonstrations pose a threat to Jewish people. Their colonial mindset is incapable of understanding that the Palestinian fight for liberation is not an anti-Jewish one but an anti-Zionist one.
According to this playbook Palestinians reject colonisation and occupation, not because of dispossession and the theft of land and water but because they are anti-Jewish.
A similar narrative operated in Apartheid South Africa. According to apologists for White Supremacy Black people opposed racial discrimination not because they didn’t like being discriminated against but because they were anti-White. So it is with the Jewish Supremacist State of Israel.
The Met have demonstrated this colonial and imperialist mentality repeatedly over the last 15 months. Julia Bard described how, on the 9 December 2023 demonstration:
a cordon of police officers materialised in front of us, separating us from the march. They apparently had the idea that, since we were Jews, we must be counterdemonstrators.
We tried again and again to explain that we were there in support of the Palestinians, and had been present on the entire march….
But they simply couldn’t or wouldn’t compute the idea of Jews supporting Palestinians. This isn’t the first time. We’re getting used to police seeing the word “Jewish” on banners and telling us which side we’re on — and if we don’t agree, trying to stop us from joining the Palestine marches.
A month earlier, at the protest on November 11, the several-hundred-strong Jewish bloc assembled in Belgrave Square before joining the main march as it passed a nearby junction. While we were waiting, two Forward “Intelligence” Team officers — the police in the baby-blue vests — asked to speak to “the organiser” of what they evidently thought was a separate protest….
Since they would not accept that people holding banners with the word “Jewish” on them could support the Palestinians, we spontaneously started chanting “Free free Palestine,” until, eventually, one of the police officers got the point.
A more serious incident occurred on 18th May 2024.
UK – On 18 May 2024, as a result of Police actions, a Jewish activist named Jessica L was assaulted by counter-protesters when she attended the pro-Palestine ‘National March for Ceasefire’ wearing a Kippah and t-shirt with “Jews Say Ceasefire Now”.
Counter-protesters had gathered holding Israel flags. When Jessica passed by this area they became visibly and audibly hostile to her, shouting derogatory, misogynistic, Islamophobic and antisemitic abuse. Jessica was subjected to slurs such as “Kapo” and accusations of being a self-hating Jew—terms uniquely weaponized against Jewish supporters of Palestinian liberation. She also received explicit threats of violence and sexual assault.
A Met Police Liaison Officer identified Jessica as Jewish based on her attire, forcibly removed her from the main protest, and then pushed her towards the counter-protestors as he shouted at her to “get back over there”. The counter-protestors proceeded to reach across the barriers, pulled Jessica towards them by the hair, attempted to remove her kippah, struck her, spat on her, and they continued to shout misogynistic and antisemitic abuse at her.
Jessica shouted for help, but police officers failed to intervene. Eventually, she freed herself with the help of PSC stewards and rejoined the demonstration. A police officer then communicated that they wanted Jessica to leave the demonstration due to the amount of hatred and hostility she was receiving from the counter-protesters. Jessica sought to report the assault to police officers, but she was told to report it online. When she then went to make a report at a station, she was refused an in-person meeting with a supervising officer.
Jessica L – a member of Na’amod and JVL – has instructed Bindmans LLP to pursue breaches of her human rights to freedom of expression, assembly and to enjoy these rights without discrimination. The claim is supported by a letter confirming that she felt humiliated, shaken, and degraded by the police conduct and the assault by counter-protesters, facilitated by the police officer’s discriminatory conduct. The incident forced her to leave the protest early.
The incident highlights the forms of intimidation and discrimination, including verbal and physical abuse, that confront anti / non-Zionist Jews who publicly and privately support justice for Palestinians. Jessica L has requested an apology and a meeting with senior Metropolitan Police officers in order to discuss the experiences of Jewish protesters marching in support of Palestine and to propose changes to policing these demonstrations.
Jessica L commented:
“It was terrifying enough to be within the grasp of counter protesters spouting antisemitic hate speech and threats of violence but when a police officer pushed me into their protest, seemingly because he believed that this was the protest where Jewish people belonged, I immediately feared I was in serious danger of harm as the mob grabbed at me, pulling my hair, spitting on me and hurling vile antisemitic abuse at me. I screamed for help and no police officer intervened – thankfully the protest stewards helped me. It was insult to injury to later be told that the police believed I should leave the demonstration because, essentially, they viewed my Jewishness as a provocation, attracting obvious hostility and hatred from the counter protesters, when their focus should have been on protecting my right to protest in safety from violent, antisemitic and Islamophobic hatred.”
Max Hammer, a spokesperson from Na’amod, said:
“The incident on 18 May stands out for the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police officers on site. By inferring a set of political beliefs from the Jewish activist’s physical appearance, the officers not only displayed a distressing lack of awareness of the political diversity within the UK Jewish community, but also demonstrated their inability to keep non- and anti-Zionist Jews safe from antisemitic abuse directed at them by far-right ultra-Zionists.
The police’s role in this violent assault comes amid … repeated labelling of largely peaceful Palestine solidarity marches as “hate marches”. The incident illustrates a persistent issue in the Police’s failure to recognise or prevent the unique forms of antisemitism and right-wing violence directed against non- and anti-Zionist Jews. Neither the Metropolitan Police nor the CST, a charity which collects antisemitism data used by the police, have a reporting system for incidents of antisemitic abuse by Jews against other Jews. …
Given that the prevailing media narrative surrounding PSC’s marches has been that they are unsafe for Jewish people, it is unsurprising that our presence at the marches is not recognized by the police. We urgently call on the police to improve its understanding of Jewish community dynamics and anti-Semitism…
The fight against antisemitism can only be successful if it combats all forms of antisemitism, including those directed against Jewish people who march in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
Jeffrey Newman, Rabbi Emeritus, commented:
“Jewish campaigners and groups who have campaigned against the Occupation of the West Bank and the war on Gaza or for recognition of the right of Palestinians to their own State on the West Bank and Gaza are frequently vociferously opposed, sometimes with the use of force, by other Jews.
There is a word for the behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers who refuse to understand or recognise that not all Jews support Genocide in Gaza and that is anti-Semitism.
That is why the MPS has rejected the route that was already agreed, citing spurious concerns about the Central Synagogue. The Met’s justification is here. The Jewish Bloc therefore issued a second statement on 14.1.25.
What will the Met do? attack the JB in order to protect Jews?
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Stephen Kapos, a holocaust survivor, speaks at Palestine solidarity demonstration
Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Sign Open Letter Opposing Ban on BBC Protest
The Metropolitan police intend to ban the 18 January Palestine march from the area around the BBC headquarters in Portland Place in London. Their excuse is that Jewish attendees at a synagogue that is well away from the march route will suffer ‘disruption’ of their religious worship.
We are writing as Jewish Holocaust survivors, and descendants of survivors, to protest against this clear attempt to dissuade people from opposing the Gaza genocide. Along with thousands of other openly Jewish protesters, we have attended numerous Palestine demos in London and have received nothing but support and warmth from our fellow demonstrators. To suggest that the 18 January march is a threat to Jews, or is in any way antisemitic, is simply a fabrication in order to restrict everyone’s right to protest.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Kapos (survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)
Agnes Kory (survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)
Haim Bresheeth (son of two survivors of Auschwitz)
Mark Etkind (son of a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and Buchenwald)
Aurora Yaakov (daughter of survivor of Dachau & Kaufering camps)
Yosefa Loshitzky (daughter of survivors of the Holocaust in Poland)
Miranda Pinch (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia)
Ursula Blumenthal (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)
Peter Kapos (son of a Holocaust survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)
Peter Hall (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)
Sonja Linden (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)
Chris Romberg (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)
Beatrice Hoffman (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)
Palestine Solidarity Campaign have also issued a Statement on police barring 18 January march from the BBC which has been signed by 42 Members of Parliament and many others.
We strongly condemn police attempts to stop an agreed march for Palestine from protesting at the BBC on 18 January.
The route for the march was confirmed with the police nearly two months ago and as agreed with them, was publicly announced on 30 November. This route has only been used twice in the last 15 months of demonstrations and not since February 2024. With just over a week to go, the Metropolitan Police is reneging on the agreement and has stated its intention to prevent the protest from going ahead as planned.
The BBC is a major institution – it is a publicly-funded state broadcaster and is rightly accountable to the public. The police should not be misusing public order powers to shield the BBC from democratic scrutiny.
The excuse offered by the police is that the march could cause disruption to a nearby synagogue which is not even on the march route. As the Met Police have acknowledged, there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue attached to any of the marches. Any suggestion that pro-Palestine marches are somehow hostile to Jewish people ignores the fact that Jewish people have been joining the marches in their thousands.
The rights to protest and free speech are precious. It is not acceptable in a democratic society that, in the face of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, people should be barred from protesting at the BBC. We call on the police to drop their objections and allow the protest to go ahead as planned.
Palestine Coalition Organisations
Adnan Hmidan, Acting Chairman, Palestinian Forum in Britain
Ben Jamal, Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Ismail Patel, Chairman, Friends of Al-Aqsa
Lindsey German, Convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Raghad Altikriti, Chair, Muslim Association of Britain
Sophie Bolt, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Members of Parliament (42)
Abtisam Mohamed MP
Adnan Hussain MP
Andy McDonald MP
Apsana Begum MP
Ayoub Khan MP
Baroness Christine Blower
Baroness Jenny Jones
Baroness Pauline Bryan
Baroness Rosie Boycott
Bell Riberio Addy MP
Brendan O’Hara MP
Brian Leishman MP
Carla Denyer MP
Cathal Mallaghan MP
Chris Hazzard MP
Chris Law MP
Dáire Hughes MP
Dawn Butler MP
Diane Abbott MP
Dr Simon Opher MP
Grahame Morris MP
Ian Byrne MP
Imran Hussain MP
Iqbal Mohamed MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
John Finucane MP
John McDonnell MP
Jon Trickett MP
Kim Johnson MP
Lord Bryn Davies
Lord John Hendy
Lord Prem Sikka
Nadia Whittome MP
Órfhlaith Begley MP
Pat Cullen MP
Paul Maskey MP
Richard Burgon MP
Seamus Logan MP
Shockat Adam MP
Siân Berry MP
Steve Witherden MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Trade Union and Civil Society Leaders
Akiko Hart, Director, Liberty
Amnesty International UK
ARTICLE 19
Asad Rehman, Executive Director, War on Want
Brian Linn, General Secretary, Aegis the Union
Charlotte Marshall, Director, Sabeel-Kairos UK
Christians for Palestine UK
Climate Justice Coalition
Daniel Garnham, General Secretary, Security Industry Federation (SIF)
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary, National Education Union (NEU)
Dave Ward, General Secretary, Communication Workers Union (CWU)
David Wilson, co-founder, War Child
Dr Jo Grady, General Secretary, University College Union (UCU)
Dr Sara Husseini, Director, British Palestinian Committee
Fran Heathcote, General Secretary, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
Gawain Little, General Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU)
Greenpeace UK
John McGowan, General Secretary, Social Workers Union (SWU)
Kate Flannery, Secretary, Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
Louise Hazan, Co-Director, Tipping Point UK
Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Matt Wrack, General Secretary, Fire Brigades Union (FBU)
Mick Lynch, General Secretary, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
Mick Whelan, General Secretary, Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)
Nick Dearden, Director, Global Justice Now
Peace & Justice Project
People & Planet
Rev Chris Rose, Director, Amos Trust
Sarah Woolley, General Secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union
Steve Gillan, General Secretary, Prison Officers Association (POA)
Steve North, President, Unison
Zamir Dreni, General Secretary, App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU)
Zita Holbourne, Joint National Chair, Artists Union England and Chair BARAC UK
Prominent individuals including artists, journalists, academics and lawyers
Ahdaf Soueif, novelist
Ahmed Alnaouq, journalist and director of We Are Not Numbers
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, journalist
Alex Lawther, actor and filmmaker
Alex Nunns, author
Alexei Sayle, author and comedian
Andrew Murray, journalist
Andy de la Tour, actor
Ben Smoke, journalist
Bilal Hasna, actor
Brian Eno, musician
Brigid Keenan, writer and co-founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature
Charlotte Church, singer
Daniel Levy, writer and political analyst
Francesca Martinez, comedian and writer
Hamza Yusuf, journalist
Harriet Walter, actor
Jasleen Kaur, artist (winner of the Turner Prize 2024)
Jen Brister, comedian and actor
Jo Siedlecka, editor, Independent Catholic News
John Rees, journalist
Juliet Stevenson, actress
Kamila Shamsie, novelist
Katharine Hamnett, fashion designer
Ken Loach, director
Khalid Abdalla, actor
Kim Longinotto, filmmaker
Kneecap, music band
Lemn Sissay, author and broadcaster
Mark Adderley, director
Mark Rylance, actor
Mark Seddon, former speechwriter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Max Porter, writer
Maxine Peake, actor and writer
Mike Lerner, producer
Myriam François, journalist and filmmaker
Nadia Sawalha, actor
Nadim Sawalha, actor
Nancy Strang, producer and filmmaker
Omar Robert Hamilton, author
Owen Jones, journalist
Paloma Faith, singer-songwriter
Pam Hogg, fashion designer
Peter Kennard, Professor Emeritus of Political Art, Royal College of Art
Rachel Holmes, author
Rana Begum RA, artist
Rebecca O’Brien, producer
Richard Sanders, journalist and TV producer
Riz Ahmed, actor
Sarah Agha, actress
Susan Abulhawa, author
Taj Ali, journalist
Tariq Ali, political activist and writer
The Mary Wallopers, band
Tony Graham, theatre director
Tracy Seaward, producer
Victoria Brittain, journalist and author
Vijay Prashad, author
Yanis Varoufakis, economist and politician
Yusuf Cat Stevens, singer
Zackie Achmat, filmmaker and activist
Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor, Kings College London
Alex Gordon, former President, RMT
Amira Nimerawi, CEO, Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P)
Anas Altikriti, CEO & Founder, The Cordoba Foundation
Andi Kocsondi, GFTU National Executive
Andrew Feinstein, political activist
Barnaby Raine, historian
Brian Shaw, London and South East Regional Secretary, PCS
Chris Doyle, Director, Caabu
Clare Short, former Secretary of State for International Development
Claudia Webbe, former MP
Daniel Machover, solicitor
Dr Andrew Myerson, A and E Doctor, London Hospital
Dr Elina Shaari, Surgeon, London
Dr Feyzi Ismail, Goldsmiths University of London
Dr Michelle Staggs Kelsall, Senior Lecturer in International Law, SOAS University of London
Dr Milly Williamson, Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Paul O’Connell, Reader in Law, SOAS University of London
Dr Tanzil Chowdhury, Associate Professor in Public Law, Queen Mary University of London
Emeritus Professor Bill Bowring FAcSS, Barrister, Field Court Chambers
Emeritus Professor Mica Nava, University of East London
Fraser McGuire, Unite the Union Hospitality Sector activist & Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas
Geoffrey Shears, trade union lawyer
Gholam Kiabany, Goldsmiths, University of London
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Hugh Lanning, Labour & Palestine
James Schneider, author and activist
Jess Barnard, Labour National Executive Committee
Khaled Dawas, Director of GI Surgery, UCLH
Leanne Mohamad, political activist
Linsay Taylor, CEO, Muslim Engagement & Development (MEND)
Matt Foot, Criminal Defence Lawyer
Matt Willgress, editor, Labour Outlook
Max Holloway, Leader of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Michael Mansfield KC, barrister and head of chambers at Nexus Chambers
Mohammed Kozbar, Deputy Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain
Muhammad Uddin, Newham Muslim Forum
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Jewish Voice for Labour
Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law, SOAS University of London
Omar Abdel-Mannan, President/Chair, Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P)
Paul Heron, Legal Director, Public Interest Law Centre
Professor Adam Hanieh, University of Exeter
Professor Alpa Shah, University of Oxford
Professor Catherine Rottenberg
Professor Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor John Sloboda, PalAcademic Campaign
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead
Professor Justin Schlosberg, University of Westminster
Professor Laleh Khalili, University of Exeter
Professor Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths, London University
Professor Neve Gordon
Professor (Emeritus) Phil Taylor
Rachel Waller, solicitor and former Chair and Trustee of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)
Swee Ang, co-founder and honorary patron, Medical Aid for Palestinians
Todd Wolfson, President, American Association of University Professors
Zack Polanski, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and London Assembly Member
Zoë Garbett, Green Party London Assembly Member
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