I’ve never been on a ‘hate march’. Even though I have certainly attended a lot of other marches, and rallies, and demonstrations since October 2023, when the world got even more fucked up that it ever was before. I’ve chanted ‘shame!’ at the BBC in Langham Place, but the building neither replied nor defended itself. I’ve shouted all sorts of things in all sorts of Central London venues, I even went to one rally at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, very close to home. And I spent a lovely hour or so kibbitzing with hundreds of people as about 27 others stood on the other side of the High Road… not doing much really. They’d gone to protest the fact that the Phoenix was going to show the movie of the October 7 attacks. They had their ‘free Palestine’ badges, the odd keffiyeh or two was bobbing around but there was no heart in it. They’re not used to being a minority. Whereas we’d gone to have the largest un-catered barmitzvah party on record.
And at all ‘my’ events, there was absolutely no ‘hate’. We didn’t call for ‘death, death to the Erith and Canterbury knitting circle!!’, we never shout insults at the representatives of the Cotswold Housewives book club and Hamas supporting association, we didn’t shout hate of Arabs, Palestinians, even Iranians!! Mainly because all pro-Israel marches are very well attended by Iranians. ‘Our’ Iranians. The ones who live here; well, live in Finchley, because they can’t live ‘over there’. And as Israel are the greatest enemies of ‘the regime’, the anti-regime Iranians love Israel. Common sense. Innit.
But there was no ‘hate’. We don’t actually hate anybody. Except, obviously, people who hate us.
And that’s the problem.
Sending in more police is ‘after the fact’. They’re there to chase the bad guys once the damage is done. Armed guards can’t guard everyone.
The problem is the hate. It is possibly Hamas’s greatest achievement. They essentially orchestrated a massive wave of worldwide antisemitism by effectively ‘showing the way’ on October 7. Everyone rallied round… the Palestinians. The underlying antisemitism was free to surface as the massacre was ‘justified’. And once the bombing started, it was game over. Israel was ‘the villain’, was ‘the occupier’ and ‘the colonialists’. And any Zionist, which is anyone ideologically supportive of the existence of a State of Israel, even those totally unsupportive of Netenyahu, became ‘part of the problem’. And thus could be vilified. Students abused, persecuted and excluded. And finally, actual attacks and murder attempts.
And all along there were the ‘hate marches’. Where such views were cemented into the national psyche. Where most of the people had no idea that they were chanting antisemitic propaganda. The phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ may have numerous interpretations. It’s like our Union Jack flag. It has many uses, but when you see it at a far right gathering, you know exactly what it means. Thus ‘globalise the intifada’ has an unambiguous meaning within the context of a ‘Free Palestine/Hate Israel’ march. Which is the Hamas version. Eliminate Israel and kill the rest of the Jews.
And the government did nothing. That was time to act. So to hear Starmer now say ‘we need to do something about antisemitism’, makes me want to vomit. When he’s done nothing for two-and-a-half years which could have possibly stopped things reaching this point. Because our national politics had become radicalised and hijacked by those who hated both Israel and Jews, and who had such a massive support that they won elections based on no other policy or promise.
To ‘unwind’ the antisemitism we now ‘enjoy’ is so much harder than having a strong government intervene to prevent it gathering steam. But we don’t have a strong government. We have a tosser in charge. So we are where we are.
Happy Saturday
A xxxx









