They're On The Other Side, Jonathan....

...and in the Green Party. 

For me, it’s mostly sadness. Among others, the overriding emotion is fear. For some, it’s anger. It was certainly anger that was most vividly on display in Golders Green after the stabbing on Wednesday of two men, both Jews, in the broad daylight of a spring day – much of that fury directed at the government. When the prime minister came to visit, they shouted: “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer.” I understand that fury, even if I think it’s aimed at the wrong address.

Do you? Oh, silly me. Of course you do. 

Ministers say the right things and pledge more money for the security measures that have been necessary at Jewish buildings for decades – the guards who stand outside Jewish schools and synagogues, the reinforced glass in our windows – and, of course, community organisations are grateful. But no one wants to live in a fortress. The solution cannot be to confine ourselves behind ever-higher walls.

I wouldn't mind, actually. After all, the ones who direct our lives do, after all. Look at all the protection around Downing Street and the Mayor of London's bulletproof Range Rover.  

There are some indications that these attacks could be orchestrated by Iran, paying local people with a history of violence or criminality to attack Jews. Hence the demand for the government to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. It would be comforting to tell ourselves that this is all the work of foreign actors, that we have no homegrown problem of our own. But let’s say Tehran is involved: that it could recruit Britons so easily to the task of attacking Jews would tell its own story.

Indeed, if it did originate in Iran, they found themselves pushing on an open door, thanks to our encouraging of the scum of the earth to settle here: 

Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who this week described the recent attacks on Jews as a “massive national security emergency”, has also said that talk of Jews and Israelis as “if they are demonic, as if they are the source of the world’s problems” has been “very present on the streets” and “it’s painting a target on Jews’ backs”. He has suggested a moratorium on the marches.

And surely you agree?  

Still, I’m uneasy about a ban.

Oh. Of course. 🙄

Part of my objection arises, obviously, from a belief in free speech. It’s also clear from the Palestine Action precedent that it would never work: the marches would still happen, almost certainly bigger than before.

In other words, we have no control over them. And that doesn't worry you?  

Too Little, And Far, Far Too Late...

Two people have been arrested after allegedly shouting slogans calling for “intifada” during a protest by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in London, police said. Five people in total were detained outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster on Wednesday evening, with further arrests for obstruction and public order offences.

It came after a change in approach from the Met and Greater Manchester police, who announced earlier on Wednesday they would arrest anyone chanting the words “globalise the intifada” or holding a placard with the phrase on it.

And all it took for the police to finally act was the slaughter of innocent Jewish citizens in another country. 

The chiefs of both forces said attacks against Jewish people in Manchester, where two died, and in Sydney, Australia, where 16 died, including one of the alleged killers, meant new rules now applied. In a joint statement, the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, and GMP chief constable, Sir Stephen Watson, said: “The words and chants used, especially in protests, matter and have real-world consequences. 

“We have consistently been advised by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don’t meet prosecution thresholds. Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive. 

Sure, blame the CPS. Despite the fact you're well aware that the process itself can be the punishment, when you want to use it that way.

“We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as ‘globalise the intifada’ and those using them at future protests or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action. 

We'll see if this holds up longer than the headlines it's garnered you... 

The smart money's on 'No!'

“Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed – words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.”

'Sorry about that, but we're raring to do our job now, just watch us' - I've never been so ashamed of the UK police in my life.

It Isn’t Even Breaking The Middle East

Oh, give me a break! 

Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life”.

By making such a nuisance of yourself, and preventing the other students who just wanted to study without some screeching lunatic on campus disrupting their education, that eventually the police had to be called to remove you. 

Haddad, who is Palestinian American, had been raising awareness on her campus about the Palestinian fight for freedom as part of her university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Maybe ‘raising awareness’ isn’t quite the right phrase to describe what this organisation does?  

Israel’s war in Gaza is chipping away at so much of what we – in the United States but also internationally – had agreed upon as acceptable, from the rules governing our freedom of speech to the very laws of armed conflict.

I don’t think that anyone - well, apart from your mob - has changed their view about whether killing, raping and torturing or taking hostages is a legitimate warfare tactic though? 

This collapse began with the liberal world’s lack of resolve to rein in Israel’s war in Gaza. It escalated when no one lifted a finger to stop hospitals being bombed. It expanded when mass starvation became a weapon of war. And it is peaking at a time when total war is no longer viewed as a human abhorrence but is instead the deliberate policy of the state of Israel.

And funnily enough, the villain here is - of course - capitalism: 

“When students expose the violence of Israel’s occupation and genocide, institutions like VCU, which are deeply entangled with weapon manufacturers and corporate donors, become fearful,” Haddad said. “So they twist the rules, they rewrite the policies, and they try to silence us … But it’s all about power. Our demands for justice are a threat to their complicity.”

You're no threat to anything except your own futures, with the criminal records you're amassing. 

In 2003, the historian Tony Judt wrote that the “problem with Israel [is] … that it arrived too late. It has imported a characteristically late-19th-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a ‘Jewish state’ – a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded – is rooted in another time and place. Israel, in short, is an anachronism.” Judt’s idea that Israel is a relic of another era requires understanding how the global push for decolonization significantly accelerated after 1945. The result was a new world – but one that forsook the Palestinians, leaving them abandoned in refugee camps in 1948.

Why do these articles always gloss over what happened in Arab countries that accepted Palestinian refugees, like Jordan? 

Bye, Sweetie!

Don't let the door yp Heathrow hit you on the way out, and good riddance!

A Palestinian student who said she was 'full of pride' after Hamas launched its attack on Israel claims the Home Office has revoked her visa on the grounds of 'national security'.

Dana Abuqamar, 19, a law student at the University of Manchester, attended a pro-Palestine protest just one day after Hamas carried out its October 7 attack. During the demonstration, Ms Abuqamar, president of Manchester Friends of Palestine, was filmed saying she was 'really full of joy' and 'proud that Palestinian resistance has come to this point'.

Excellent news, and very gratifying to see that they don't always drop the ball at the Home Office.  

She has now claimed that the UK Government has 'violated her human rights' by rescinding her student visa on the 'baseless' accusation that she is a 'risk to public safety'. The Home Office told MailOnline it does not comment on individual cases and it remains unclear precisely what revoking the visa means for the teenager's future in Britain.

Hopefully that she doesn't have one.  

In a new video released this week, Ms Abuqamar confirmed she would be appealing the decision and said her remarks in October, which were publicly condemned by policing minister Chris Philp, had been misrepresented. 'My words were taken out of context and they were framed as me supporting harm to innocent civilians, which is completely false and completely untrue,' she told the Middle East Eye.

They didn't need to be 'framed' as anything, it's patently obvious what they were.  

She added: 'It's an outrageous claim that the Home Office is making by deeming me a national security threat. I am a 19-year-old who has done nothing but go to school and advocate for social justice and try and be an asset to my community. 'So saying I pose a threat to national security is a completely baseless claim.'

Whether it is or not, we don't need you here, we don't want you here, so home you go where you can spout racist rhetoric all day long, should you choose.