This Sunday, November 26, I shall be joining the march against antisemitism. Here’s why.

 

Photo credit: AntisemitismUK

The past is a foreign country; I did things differently, there.

Back in the 1970s, I marched with many others of my own age -and older - against the National Front, British National Party and its fellow travellers and confronted them at Speakers’ Corner, Red Lion Square, Luton and anywhere else I had the misfortune to encounter them, from railway station cafes to scapegoating mobs. I have the rattled teeth and occasionally aching ribs to remember them by, 50 years later.

Family and career kept me away from active involvement for much of the 1980s but I still supported the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Amnesty and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, any way I could. Financially was the default position.

In 2003 I marched, along with my family and millions of others against the ill-considered and disastrous invasion of Iraq – to no avail, as it turned out. The consequences of the destabilisation of the Middle East some of us foresaw and warned about continue their baleful progress today.

In the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack, I – along with others – went out of my way to reassure Arabs, Turks, Middle Easterners generally and Muslims more widely that they were not held in any way responsible for the barbarity of 9/11. Something as simple as having a meal in the local Turkish or Bangladeshi restaurant, the smallest expression of solidarity, could bring a smile and relaxation of shoulders. Not the biggest deal but I like to think that every little helped, as the saying goes.

Here We Go Again

I was aware of the involvement of the ‘usual suspects’ trying to hijack the genuine outrage and antipathy towards the UK government for its commitment to the Iraq invasion – the Socialist Worker Party and its popular front organisations are all too familiar, tread the same path and usually to the same conclusion: opportunism, fracturing and obscurity until the next thing comes along.

Whipping Boys and Blurred Lines

It never occurred to me to blame people who may have some vague connection countries or groups thousands of miles away, for the policies and behaviour of governments and/or groups like IS/Daesh or whatever. Those policies and actions are not their responsibility.

The line between ‘anti Zionism’ and outright antisemitism has long been a problem for the Left – especially the Far Left, in the Socialist Worker Party/popular front/fellow traveller orbit. It is blurred at the best of times and opportunists have used the blurring as a fig leaf behind which to hide what must now be recognised as the re-emergence of the oldest prejudice.

Eventually, I had to recognise that the blurred line had definitely been crossed. ‘Anti Zionism’ had become nothing but an alternative word for antisemitism, somehow more acceptable in polite society. The Labour Party’s problem with it meant that I could not support it in 2017 and 2019, no matter what I felt about alternatives. I finally accepted that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had gone further than I could be comfortable with, cancelled the direct debit and said so, publicly.

Do I now support the settlements and often brutal regime Israel has imposed on Judea and Samaria? No, of course not – and I know that many Israeli citizens don’t, either.

Be that as it may, the actions of a government thousands of miles away are not the responsibility of people in the UK, whatever their religion or ethnicity.

The Veil is Torn

The barbarous attack on Israeli kibbutzes and a music festival in the Negev Desert seem to have, paradoxically, released a cork and allowed antisemitic hatred to somehow become acceptable. We have seen weeks of what should be regarded as highly intimidatory gatherings and demonstrations, many of which have repeated wickedly antisemitic slogans - such as Khayabar al yahoud, calling for the slaughter of Jews, through ‘Hitler was right’ to ‘From the River to the Sea’ – and seen physical attacks on Jewish people, their organisations and institutions.

Back to the 1930s - the wrong way

I cut my political teeth on stories about Cable Street and the East End’s resistance to the real fascists, the Mosleyites and British Nazis, who marched with the deliberate intention to intimidate, back in the 1930s. In the past the Socialist Worker Party would, from time to time, organise marches against employment with the slogan ‘no return to the Thirties’. What we are seeing now most definitely is a return to the Thirties – the ugliest aspect of it; the rife antisemitism that became fashionable in some circles, that characterised fascist parties in the UK and across Europe.

Jewish people in the UK should not have to cower behind locked doors and closed curtains. They should not be frightened to attend their synagogues. They should not be scared to go to work, take a taxi or Underground train, or send their children to school.

The racism and antisemitism that has been let loose upon the streets of the UK – and its airwaves and media – is poisonous and shameful.

Girding My Loins

My past is behind me but I like to think I still, ultimately, stand in the same place: for our common humanity and against prejudice and bigotry. For the emancipation of ordinary people and against the violent, aggressive mob.

We are not like this. I sincerely hope not, anyway. This old warhorse will be stirring himself and turning his ears to the sound of battle, one more time. I will be marching in London this coming Sunday in solidarity with my fellow citizens. David Baddiel’s book is called ‘Jews Don’t Count’. I hope we can show that they do and that the British people’s essential decency will, once again, face down this filth.