Let the people speak: or not? In a new report, Might is Right?, the Right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange has polled on protests in urban areas. It says that 71 per cent of people would not travel with small children if a protest is planned; 69 per cent would not travel with an elderly or mobility-impaired relative; 62 per cent wouldn’t visit a tourist attraction; and 58 per cent wouldn’t go shopping or eat at a specific restaurant.
Women are more affected, of course, because women are more easily scared, being physically weaker. I think I knew that when I walked down the Strand with a small “F*** Hamas” sticker last summer, after reporting on a Gaza protest. It felt like an act of subversion to condemn Hamas: even among people calling for Palestinian liberation. Two young women stopped me to say they liked the sticker. They whispered it.
Since the summer riots, incited by racists after the murder of three young girls in Southport, things should be clearer. Incitement to violence and murder — in this case against people for existing in a certain space — is always wrong. It was suggested that, due to their unhappy life experience, some people should not be jailed for their part in these riots. I say: too bad.
As ever in Britain, class matters. A well-dressed racist may be subtle, and more dangerous for it. He’s still a racist
When hotels occupied by asylum seekers are attacked, and people of colour are terrorised, you cannot offer mere condolences or caveats: you must punish the people in front of your eyes, because the alternative, at some point, is always death for others. But those inciting the violence from keyboards or TV studios are also culpable, and I have seen fewer of them called to account. As ever in Britain, class matters. A well-dressed racist may be subtle, and more dangerous for it. He’s still a racist.
What of the Gaza protests and the threat they pose to British Jews, and their allies? (I do not call the protests “pro-Palestine”. No one should. If you are not against Hamas, which is not a movement for Palestinian nationhood, you cannot be for Palestine). The organisers maintain these protests are peaceful, even as they demonise Jewish people as genocidaires, land thieves, puppet-masters (retro and enduring) and the font of all wickedness. While I acknowledge the tiny Jewish bloc at these protests, I also acknowledge the Jewish character of Israel. The organisers would have you acknowledge the first, but not the second. They want clean hands, and, since the Holocaust, I’m not surprised, though I wonder when this tendency will end.
Now, in the Policy Exchange report, the Met frets about the policing of the earliest protests. Matt Twist, assistant commissioner at the Met in charge of protest and public order policing, said this in May, though his remarks are only published now: “When we look back at the policing of protests over the last eight months, we know we didn’t get everything right — particularly in the early stages in October.” If he meant the celebrations in Kensington on October 7th – and they were celebrations, there were fireworks! – he didn’t say so.
“On occasion,” he said, “we did not move quickly to make arrests: for example, the man chanting for jihad”. That, he admits, was an error. “We are now much more focused on identifying reasonable grounds for arrest, acting where needed and then investigating, so in these circumstances it’s very likely arrests would be made more quickly.”
Jewish buildings, and Jews, have been attacked in London this year: in June, it was reported that Jewish schoolchildren were assaulted at Belsize Park Tube station. It’s easy to find incitement to violence at the protests if you are honest. Globalise the Intifada is a common cry. (They would say they want a non-violent globalised intifada, but they live in London). So is From the River to the Sea, which is a call for a Judenrein Middle East. (They would say it is for a Judenrein Middle East delivered in a non-violent fashion, but, again, they live in London). Last Saturday they shouted: “We don’t want no two state / we want 1948.” “Armed resistance is the only answer,” read a placard. “End Israel”.
The Met say they will police these protests more robustly now. It seems it is not just Jews who have been chased from London since October 7. To paraphrase Isaiah Berlin: freedom for the wolves is not freedom for the sheep.
