My friend John Rose, who has died aged 79 from renal failure, was a lifelong socialist. He was also a committed anti–Zionist from a Jewish background and passionately supported the Palestinian cause.
As an undergraduate at the London School of Economics in the 1960s, John was one of the leading figures in the 1968 student revolt. Protests had begun in 1966 when Walter Adams, the former principal of the College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now the University of Zimbabwe), accused of failing to oppose UDI in Rhodesia, was appointed director of LSE. John was disciplined for his actions, but was undeterred.
He was arrested during the 1967 occupation of the Greek embassy in London while protesting over the colonels’ coup. Then, the ANC activist Ronnie Kasrils (one of Nelson Mandela’s future ministers) and a fellow LSE student, recruited John and me for a mission to South Africa. We smuggled banned anti–apartheid literature into the country and distributed it from “leaflet bombs” that propelled the material into the air at busy locations.
On one occasion when armed police surrounded our car in Durban in 1970, John bamboozled them by flourishing his British passport. This dramatic story is featured in the 2012 book London Recruits, and in the award-winning drama documentary of the same name currently showing in British cinemas.
John was born into a Jewish family in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. His father, Leslie, was a salesman, and his mother, Phyllis (nee Simons), was on the staff at the Yorkshire Post. When Oswald Mosley and his fascists visited Harrogate in the 1930s, Leslie was one of those who spoke out against them.
After leaving Harrogate grammar school, John stayed with his older brother, Peter, in London to take his A-levels, then went to LSE to study sociology. At the time of the 1967 six-day war, following intense debates with Tony Cliff, an anti–Zionist Palestinian Jew and leader of the International Socialist movement, John abandoned his support for the state of Israel.
As a member of IS, and subsequently of the Socialist Workers’ party, John became a prominent speaker, writer and organiser in the cause of Palestinian freedom. His most influential work, The Myths of Zionism (2004), forensically dissects Zionist claims to the land of Palestine.
A lecturer at Southwark Further Education College for many years, and an activist with the Natfhe lecturers’ union, John completed a PhD at King’s College London in 2020 on the enfeebling effect of orthodox communism on workers’ struggles internationally. Sadly he did not live to see its publication.
Basically a shy man, John never sought the limelight, taking on his many public roles out of heartfelt commitment, not self–promotion. He had an independent mind that shied away from no argument, and he wore his exceptional intellect lightly. He was also a man of great wit and wry humour with a large circle of friends.
John is survived by his wife, Elaheh Rostami, whom he married in 2003, and his niece, Luci. Peter predeceased him.
