Police Stop Our Fight Joining March — Again
Kurpa Patel was at the Together Alliance march to highlight a growing intolerance, spearheaded by the Green Party. She was also part of an Our Fight group that tried to join the march but was prevented by the police. Is the Met saying that we and our Jewish allies are the far right, she asks.
Last Saturday, on the same day as the Together Alliance march in central London, the Green Party was also holding its spring conference, at which it was due to vote on Motion A105/E12. This motion would label anyone who supports the basic right of Israel to exist — the essence of Zionism — as racists. This motion is not only dangerous for the 97% of Jews who feel "personally connected" with Israel – including Zack Polanski’s own mother — but it would also label as extremists anyone that would seek to be an ally.
Daniel Ben-David
One-state Solution
As well seeking to isolate anyone that stands with Israel, the motion also demands that the Green Party move from its position of favouring a two-state solution to calling for only one state. The the current state of Israel could be dismantled and replaced 'by any means necessary'.
As with many on the radical left, the motion deceitfully suggests that any new configuration will be democratic, and that Jews will be safe.
Yet on October 7th, Hamas, who currently control Gaza, carried out their twenty-year plan to systematically murder Jews. It’s clear from these pogroms that Jews are not safe under the rule of Hamas.
We can also point to the Palestinian Authority's 'Pay for Slay' policy which is still operational, and rewards terrorists — and their families — when they have carried out attacks on Jews.
And what of other parts of the world? In recent years, anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews have risen to levels many of us have never seen in our lifetime, reinforcing the reality that Jews are not always welcome or safe outside Israel either.
So if the Green Party's Islamo-Left alliance has their way, where are the Jew’s meant to go?
Green Party. Racist Party.
By belittling the safety and security of Jews both in Israel and the rest of the world, Motion A105/E12 makes the Green Party the most racist party in Britain and reflects a deeply troubling direction for the Green Party.
At the Together Alliance march, Our Fight stood alongside the Green Party bloc to expose this racist turn. And we weren't met with chants about climate change, global warming or even the minimum wage; within minutes a unanimous chorus of ‘Free Palestine’ began.
We also met some party members who were genuinely unaware of this policy proposal but our advice to them was simple: they are being used as cover for the party's anti-Semitic shift, and should leave. The Greens are no longer the fluffy, cuddly party they once were.
Proud Zionists
Later, we tried joining the march as 'proud Zionists', along with our many Jewish allies; in fact, most of our group that day were Jewish. We chose to march with the Together Alliance because we also oppose the far right.
However, when we arrived, the police stopped us from marching, claiming we were a counter-protest. In making such a claim, had the police decided that we are the ‘far right’? Who else could be against this march? Yet given Jewish history of the Holocaust and the fact that Nazism was an extreme right-wing ideology, it seemed absurd to suggest that Jews are far right.
What were the police thinking?
After demanding that "Jews want to march", the police allowed us to move forward briefly but almost immediately stopped us again, this time saying it was for our own safety. A Section 14 condition was imposed, meaning that if we left the designated area we would be arrested and potentially charged. All this 'for our own safety'.
The whole experience raises some serious questions: who were we supposedly being protected from? If the Together Alliance is against racism, what was the implication of preventing Jews from marching alongside them? Were the Met implying that Jews will be attacked by those that are against racists or were they saying that the Together Alliance is against all racism except when it comes to Jews? And in preventing us from marching 'for our own safety', were the Met saying that Jews are not safe outside their own front doors?
Perhaps most shocking of all we now have to ask: are Jews being effectively ghettoised in the UK?
Kurpa Patel is Director of Outreach for Our Fight.
Further Reading
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