There's A Lie At The Heart Of Western Palestine Activism.
Palestinian activism in the West has been shaped in Hamas' image. This helps no-one. But it doesn't have to be this way.
There is a lie on the left. It surfaces in any space left-wing activists inhabit, from dull Labour Party meetings in sleepy southern towns to major protests in cities. Its life began on the fringes of leftist politics, but the last Labour Party leadership catapulted it into the mainstream. It no longer lurks in dark corners: it has taken centre stage, amplified by celebrities and social media influencers. We can call it The Lie.
The Lie matters because it endangers British Jews. It states that, when people are accused of antisemitism, it is not because they have said or done something antisemitic, but because they have criticised the Israeli government. Its power lies in its simplicity. It achieves several things in just a few short words. It firstly paints British Jews as communally malign, implying that they are working for a foreign government when they accuse individuals of antisemitism. But it also provides a ready excuse for racists, who can claim that they have been unfairly censored if they face accusations of racism. A common meme shared by neo-Nazis on social media depicts a fist, adorned with a Star of David, crushing people. “To learn who rules over you,” the caption reads, “simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.” The Lie is a sanitised version of the same message.
In Corbyn’s Labour Party, the Jews on Britain’s left were the canaries in the coal mine. The events of the last few days are the manifestation of the fears held by Labour’s anti-racist groups writ large: in response to the escalation of violence in the Middle East, some social media influencers called for a second Hitler, protests took place with inflatable antisemitic effigies, and activists shouted from speeding cars in a Jewish area of London that they would rape Jewish women.
None of this comes as a surprise to those who have spent any time tackling Labour antisemitism. The last five years of leftist politics had demonstrated what happens when The Lie spreads. It permits racism masquerading as Palestinian activism to continue unchecked. Claims that Jews are subhuman were overheard at Labour Party Conference, while Jewish Labour Party members who called out racism were routinely subject to the accusation that they were working for the Israeli government. The Labour Party initially failed to suspend one of its members who had shared a graphic of a blood-sucking creature adorned with a Star of David wrapped around the Statue of Liberty. Even though the image wouldn’t have looked out of place in 1930s Germany, The Lie triumphed: presumably it was taken as criticism of Israel. The events of the last few days are what happens when The Lie goes mainstream.
You might wonder how any of this helps Palestinians. Movements in support of the Palestinian people are now associated with racism first and justice second. The central problem is that Palestinians no longer exist at the heart of the Palestinian solidarity movement: they have been extricated from it as much as anti-racists were extricated from Labour. If Palestinians were central to the cause, its activists would direct their ire at Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules in the region, as well as at the Israeli government. 15 years into a 4-year elected term, Hamas’ contempt for democracy is reflected in its many abuses of the Palestinian people. It routinely captures its political rivals, subjecting them to torture and physical harm. It has been known to use its citizens as human shields. Last week, it directed two thousand rockets at Israeli citizens, some of which hit their own people.
The Lie is a symptom of a deeper malaise: of the Hamasification of the Western Palestinian solidarity movement. Left-wing Palestine activism has been shaped in Hamas’ image, from its silence over Hamas’ human rights abuses to its occasional promulgation of antisemitism. Hamas’ charter commits it to a genocide of all Jews (note: not Israelis). It is antisemitic to its core: a document that would have looked at home during European pogroms, it holds world Jewry responsible for a cacophony of world events, including the French Revolution. That some of the Palestinian victims of bombing in the last week were in fact hit by poorly-targeted Hamas rockets never gets a mention by left-wing Palestine activists. When Israelis commit human rights abuses against Palestinians, the criticism can rightfully be heard from all sides. But when the perpetrators aren’t Jewish, there is silence.
The silence matters. It creates a narrative that this long-held intractable territorial conflict is the fault of one side alone. It creates a simple solution for simple minds: that Israel must be punished. It is an intellectual failing first and foremost, as it implies the world is divided into goodies and baddies. For the crime of being stronger than their Palestinian counterparts, the two thousand Hamas rockets fired at Israeli citizens can, it seems, be overlooked. I have been told by social media users that they don’t count, because if Israel decided to take them on, they’d win. And they also don’t count, I am told, because the Iron Dome kicked in and intercepted them, so they did not do the damage that was intended. Israel is the one state in the world not permitted to defend its own borders by the left-wing zeitgeist. It’s hard not to draw the conclusion that those apologising for Hamas are arguing that, while they may not hate Jews, they just can’t forgive them for existing.
The Jewish people’s continued survival is an act of rebellion. In attacking them on the streets of London, proponents of The Lie have only strengthened the case for the state of Israel. Because for many Jews, it is the one safe place they know is waiting for them if they are forced to flee their homes in the diaspora. What doesn’t seem to be understood by The Lie’s proponents is that rockets fired in self-defence from the only Jewish state now represent a part of that rebellion. If it was, justice for both sides might be in sight.