31.07.2014
Gaza: Resorting to smears
Protests against the assault on Gaza have been met with charges of outright anti-Semitism by defenders of Israel, writes Micky Coulter
In many places July 26 marked the third protest against the latest Israeli offensive on the people of the Gaza strip in as many weeks, and, so far, neither the numbers nor the sympathy with the people of Palestine and anger at the onslaught has diminished. Against this, however, the voices of the pro-Zionist establishment have grown ever shriller, culminating in denunciations of the protests as an expression of “anti-Semitism”.
At present it looks like the Israeli offensive will continue for some time, turning the public relations battle between supporters and opponents of Zionism into a war of attrition. At the start of the current operation Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Likud chair of the knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, Ze’ev Elkin, both spoke out in favour of a full reoccupation of Gaza in order to subdue Hamas.1 More moderate Israeli politicians are willing to support the more limited goal of destroying Hamas’s cadre and infrastructure to the point that, in the words of knesset member Ofer Shelah of the centrist Yesh Atid party, “it will give us a long period of quiet.”2
With the offensive entering its third week, a Palestinian death toll of 1,350 at the time of writing and swathes of destruction wrought across what is the extremely confined urban area of Gaza, one has to wonder exactly how much more bloodshed it will take for Israel to be satisfied that even this “realistic” target had been achieved. Recent remarks of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu add weight to the view that the campaign will run for some time yet. He warned Israelis to “be prepared for a protracted campaign”.
Protests
Not just across the UK, but across the world, on Saturday July 26, the 18th day of the onslaught, hundreds of thousands of people came onto the streets to protest against the massacre of civilians. The Australian Green Left Weekly noted that “From Tehran to Paris, Islamabad to Berlin, Jammu in India to Wellington in New Zealand, Singapore to Buenos Aires, Tunis to Seoul, from Durban in South Africa to Dublin in Ireland, from Oslo to San Francisco: hundreds of cities and towns in every continent all calling for an end to the attack on Gaza and a lifting of the siege.”3 Across the UK there were demonstrations called, often at short notice, in most of the large cities and towns. In London somewhere between 45,000 (police estimate) and 100,000 (Electronic Intifada) marched from the Israeli embassy to the houses of parliament.
At the demonstration in the capital the Socialist Workers Party, in spite of its troubles, made up the most prominent and noticeable far-left contingent by some long way. Left Unity also had a visible presence on the march, dishing out postcards expressing sympathy for the Palestinians (although the lack of specific policy means it cannot be much more than that at present) and opposition to the continuing massacre. As always with any large political event, certain fringe elements also made a showing, the most curious of which, according to one London comrade, was the Anonymous movement (now well out of the Occupy and Assange spotlight), whose supporters pushed the bizarre line that Israel and the Islamic State (formerly Isis) are basically the same, as they both “think they are better than everybody else”. Unfortunately, such protests, especially when involving Israel, also tend to bring out less harmless elements, including a small minority of anti-Semites - something which the rightwing, pro-Zionist establishment is always quick to pick up on and exaggerate to maximum effect.
While London saw the biggest protest, there were also enthusiastic demonstrations elsewhere. In Sheffield, for example, around 500 gathered outside the council chambers - a good turnout, given the sunny weekend weather and the ongoing Tramlines music festival, though this was down from the 1,000 or so who turned out, largely through the efforts of the mosque, for the first demonstration on July 12. There was a reasonable showing from the organised left, with the SWP enjoying a visually overwhelming presence, thanks to its protest placards - though its actual numerical presence was nothing special (and largely made up of ageing ultra-loyalists). Left Unity here had a stall and did a brisk trade with those wishing to sign something - anything, it seemed! - and to buy pro-Palestine badges. No doubt the colours of the Left Unity logo, bearing a very close resemblance to the Palestinian flag, did no harm. Earlier in the week, on Wednesday July 23, around 150 had gathered outside the BBC Radio Sheffield building to hand in a petition demanding “fair media coverage” and an end to pro-Israeli bias.
Manchester saw the 100 or so protestors who set out being swollen by around twice that number, as people spontaneously decided to join the march as it passed by. Socialist Worker sellers were, of course, out in force, but here Left Unity was less prominent - outnumbered by supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Group - while the AWL was conspicuous by its absence. But the greater numbers, and the life and soul of the demonstration, were made up by Arab and Muslim youth, who led some impressively energetic chanting, given that it was the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Women from this contingent made up a large part, and perhaps a majority of the demo, which went off without a hitch apart from the momentary disturbance created by what appeared to be a tiny number of pro-Zionist English Defence League types, whose dignity (and hides) were only saved by the presence of the police.
The evening saw a meeting on Palestine organised by what remains of the Respect coalition, at which George Galloway, the party’s sole MP and dominant personality, was both the chair and the main speaker. And ‘Gorgeous’ can still pull in the crowds: the hall at the Irish Heritage Centre was standing room only, with a crowd of around 250. Galloway, as one expects, gave a polished but fiery speech condemning the hypocrisy of British and US politicians, and the barbarity of the Zionist project. A CPGB comrade made a contribution from the floor, but was immediately stopped in his tracks by Galloway at the first word of criticism of Hamas.
Reaction
The response to the apparently successful mobilisation in favour of the Palestinians and against Israel has been a mixture of concern and hysteria from the establishment and from pro-Israel media figures. The headline of self-declared “neocon” Douglas Murray’s article on the Spectator website was simply: “London’s pro-Palestine rally was a disgusting anti-Semitic spectacle”. Yes, apparently “Thousands of anti-Semites have today succeeded in bringing central London to an almost total standstill.”4 The smell of desperation is tangible. The astute propagandist does not come out with the biggest smear possible at the first opportunity - perhaps Murray might at least have attempted to put forward something approaching a rational argument.
He was not an isolated case either. Joining him was the reliably contrarian Spiked writer, Brendan O’Neill, who was somewhat less strident than Murray in his condemnation of the protests on the Telegraph blog: he contented himself with claiming that the left is heading towards outright anti-Semitism.5 O’Neill based his provocative article on a kernel of truth - the weakness of the left and of socialist ideas and analysis - though to this we must add the necessary converse, which O’Neill omits: the increase in the influence of rival ideas, religious, nationalistic and plain irrational, to fill the vacuum. He writes: “The key problem has been the left’s embrace of conspiratorial thinking, its growing conviction that the world is governed by what it views as uncaring ‘cabals’, ‘networks’, self-serving lobbyists and gangs of bankers ...” And it is only a small step from this to “the idea that a powerful, sinister lobby of Israel-lovers has warped our otherwise respectable leaders here in the west, basically winning control of western foreign policy”, which for him is redolent of simple, old-fashioned anti-Semitism.6
It is partly the nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict itself, and the ideological forms that it takes, that risks fostering actual anti-Semitism. On the one hand, Israel presents itself as the state of Jews the world over. On the other, the defeat and the shattering of progressive socialist movements in the Arab world, encouraged by imperialism, has led to the consequent rise of various petty bourgeois, religious-reactionary, nationalist trends, such as Hamas (which has an anti-Semitic charter). Nonetheless it can claim to be the only force capable of offering immediate, concrete resistance and practical help to the local population. Meanwhile, those who defend the idea of the necessity of “the Jewish state” are giving succour to and, at base, agreeing with the anti-Semites who claim that Jews cannot get on with other people.
The left also does itself no favours with its uncritical ‘broad frontist’ support for the Palestinian cause, remaining silent about the petty bourgeois, reactionary and anti-Semitic character of Hamas and other such groupings (recall the slogan ‘We are all Hezbollah now’), and through our general disunity. That being said, we cannot emphasise enough that the solidarity movement as a whole has absolutely nothing to do with either anti-Semitism, or is on a slide towards it.
Notes
1. www.timesofisrael.com/israel-pounds-dozens-of-gaza-targets-in-major-counteroffensive.
3. www.greenleft.org.au/node/56960.
4. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/07/londons-pro-palestine-rally-was-a-disgusting-anti-semitic-spectacle.
5. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100281417/is-the-left-anti-semitic-sadly-it-is-heading-that-way.