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As so often, the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis hit the nail on the head over yesterday’s terror attack in Manchester. It was, he said, the result of “a tidal wave of Jew hated.”
Jews have spent the past two years highlighting the danger posed by the authorities’ refusal to take more than perfunctory action against the regular hate marches and gatherings. We have warned what was coming – and yesterday it came. It will, I dread to write, not be the last terror attack.
Palestinian statehood is a decent and worthy cause. It is no more intrinsically poisonous than the push for a Scottish, Welsh or Catalan state, or indeed Irish unification. But as with the latter, for all that there are those who are entirely decent in the way they advocate and campaign for their cause, the broader movement has indeed been infected with poison.
Look at what happened last night, hours after two Jews had been murdered and the deaths of many others prevented only by heroism. How did the so-called Free Palestine movement react? By staging an “emergency” pro-Palestine protest organized by the “Global Movement for Gaza UK” on Whitehall. Mobs gathered not just in Whitehall but also in London railway stations and in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Bournemouth and elsewhere. Is this how normal people react after a terrorist attack?
While the answer to that is clearly “no,” it is exactly how the Free Palestine mob react. It is, for example, how the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) reacted after the October 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 Jews. On the day itself, while the massacre was still in progress, the PSC contacted the Metropolitan Police to signal their intention of staging a march the following week – on October 14, before Israel had even entered Gaza. It was the very definition of a hate march. And it was the first of the many that have followed, on which Jew hate is openly displayed, from banners with antisemitic caricatures that could have come straight out of Der Stürmer, the Nazis’ propaganda tabloid, to chants calling to the “globalize the intifada” – kill Jews – and “Khaybar, Khaybar, Ya Yahud! Jaish Mohammad sawf ya’ud!,’” which means “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The Army of Muhammad Will Return!”.
Dismissing these examples as the work of “bad apples” on the marches doesn’t wash. For one thing, all too often the organizers have utterly failed to condemn those responsible. Of course they have – because such behavior is in the DNA of the movement. Look at the smaller mobs that gather regularly – such as one in London on Wednesday night, the day before the Manchester attack. It was not just physically threatening, launching fireworks and pushing its way through crowded streets. It was united in chanting for the destruction of Israel.
These mobs spring up across the country on streets, in malls, at railway stations – anywhere where they can be seen and intimidate. And, almost always, the police stand and watch (although yesterday’s mob in Whitehall turned so bad that 40 people were arrested, six of whom were for attacks on the police).
Back to October 7, and the idea of staging a march straight after a massacre of Jews. Guess what is now scheduled for this Saturday, two days after the murder of Jews? A rally for Palestine Action, the proscribed terrorist group. The police have asked the organizers to reschedule, given that they are on high alert for more terror attacks on Jews. Leave aside that pathetic phrase, “the police have asked,” and ponder why on earth a mob which harasses, frightens and intimidates Jews would respond to the murder of Jews by stepping back from its latest plan that will harass, frighten and intimidate Jews.
