- CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTISEMITISM - STAFF - MAY 13, 2023 -
Today’s anti-Israel protest outside Downing Street in London, believed to have been attended by thousands, featured a number of comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.
Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit were present at the protest to gather evidence.
One sign read “Free Palestine from German guilt,” while a large banner placed near the BBC’s headquarters made a comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany. A sign affixed to a bicycle presented a swastika next to the Israeli flag.
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Signs calling to “End” and “Smash” Zionism were present, as were placards calling Israel a “racist” state. Examples can be seen here and here.
"O EIXO DO MAL LATINO AMERICANO E A NOVA ORDEM MUNDIAL"
The chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was heard throughout the rally. Signs and clothing bearing the words of the chant were also on display.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state — and its replacement with a State of Palestine — and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the Definition.
According to the Definition, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.
Calls for another “intifada” were also heard. The “intifada” is widely understood as the campaign of Arab terrorist violence against Jewish Israeli targets in the early 2000s that claimed hundreds of civilian lives and brought an end to the peace process.
One prominent sign at the event, aimed at Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, read: “Racist Starmer supports Zionism without question”.
Additionally, support for Leila Khaled, a convicted terrorist, plane hijacker and member of the violent Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who took part in two terrorist hijackings in 1969 and 1970, was on display.
The antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was one of the event’s featured speakers and issued “a huge thank you to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, not just for today, but for all the days that they’re campaigning.”
A month-long investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) supporters on social media. Earlier this year, a PSC branch published an Instagram post calling Zionists “brainwashed racists” who should be fired from their places of work.
Delia Mattis, a self-described “social justice activist” who claims to be the Founder of Black Lives Matter Enfield, also took to the stage to address the crowd. During her speech, she said that Zionism was “a psychotic ideology” and that Israel “stood for white supremacy.”
Attendees at the event included the disgraced Reverand Dr Stephen Sizer, who in January was handed a twelve-year ban by the Church of England after having been found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity” by a tribunal of the Church of England, and the controversial activist Jim Curran who was spotted holding a sign that read “The Nakba was a Holocaust”. Mr Curran has been seen with similar signs in the past and is a regular attendee at a group called Keep Talking, a group of far-right and far-left conspiracy theorists who come together to promote antisemitism.
Similar signs and chants were on display at last month’s “Al Quds Day” rally in central London.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over five hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews more than five times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.