The Home Secretary has called for demonstrators to “step back” from plans to hold pro-Palestinian marches across the country this weekend, following a terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester in which two men were killed.
“I do think that carrying on in this way does feel un-British, it feels wrong,” Shabana Mahmood said.
Critics of this stance have suggested that the Palestinian cause can still be championed while recognising the horror that has gone on in Heaton Park. Others back Mahmood and see the protests as inappropriate and insensitive to a grieving community. So should the pro-Palestinian protests go ahead? The i Paper’s experts offer their perspective.
David Aaronovitch: ‘Let’s move away from a polarised society’
Should pro-Palestinian demonstrations this weekend be banned? No. Freedom of speech and assembly are hard-earned rights and should be qualified as little as possible.
Should the organisers call off the protests? Absolutely. It would show respect for the victims of yesterday’s attack. It would indicate a desire to move away from a dangerous polarisation in British society.
And everyone should look at their language and ask where it leads. Does it help the cause of peace or not?David Aaronovitch is a journalist, television presenter and author
Zack Polanski: ‘We cannot let hate win’
The horrific antisemitic attacks in Manchester this week have left people frightened and shaken. And as a Jewish man raised in the Jewish community in Manchester, I felt this personally. Every Jewish person has the right to feel safe in their own community.
And the answer to bigotry is not to shut down protest. The right to march, to speak out, to demand justice – these are the foundations of our democracy. And at a time when Gaza is facing devastation on an unimaginable scale, people must be able to call for peace and for an end to the killing.
We can and must hold both truths together – that Jewish people deserve absolute safety, and that Palestinians deserve justice and freedom. One does not cancel out the other.
So yes, the marches should go ahead. And the organisers, police, and all of us have a responsibility to ensure they are safe and inclusive. Because a society that protects both free expression and minority communities is a society that I am pushing for. We cannot let hate win.
Zack Polanski is the leader of the Green Party
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: ‘The human heart is big enough for us to feel for Jewish people and Palestinians’
I totally abhor the attack on Jewish people in a synagogue in Manchester. The violent acts prove antisemitism is on the rise again. Jews are in shock and pain. I unequivocally stand with them.
But I also unequivocally stand by those who have organised a mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action. There is no contradiction in my position. One doesn’t always have to take sides, even though that is the imperative in today’s global culture. The human heart is big enough for us to feel for Jewish people as well as Palestinians.
square SIMON KELNER I’ve never worried that people hate me because I'm Jewish – that's changed
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The ban is unjustifiable. People of all backgrounds, ages and political persuasions have been marching against the undemocratic decision taken by this government to inhibit support for Palestinian civilians. Extraordinarily courageous Jewish people have joined the demos.
The police are asking organisers to postpone the march because they need to protect people from another terror attack or from reprisals. For months, police officers have engulfed and intimidated pro-Palestine protestors. If some officers are called away, this weekend’s protesters will, perhaps, walk without being cuffed and dragged away.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a columnist at The i Paper
Hugo Gye: ‘The Government must not ban protest’
Free speech is, or should be, the bedrock of our society. For the Government or the police to seek to ban pro-Palestine marches this weekend would be profoundly wrong.
Being a supporter of the Palestinian cause or opposing the ongoing war in Gaza in no way implies that you endorse or tolerate the murder of innocent British Jews in Manchester.
Nonetheless, those thinking of joining a Gaza protest in the UK in the coming days should think again. Now is not the time.
Antisemitic incidents in Britain have increased significantly since Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians on 7 October, 2023 and the subsequent assault on Gaza by the Israeli military. It is clear that in the minds of a small minority of pro-Palestine activists, all Jews bear responsibility for the deaths in Gaza and so they are all fair game for verbal abuse or sometimes worse.
The vast majority of Palestine’s supporters who do not hold that view should be mindful of the hurt that Jews in the UK are feeling now – and of the way that a small number of people attending anti-war marches in the past two years have actively sought to intimidate Jewish people.
They must be free in law to protest, but this weekend they should stay at home.
Hugo Gye is The i Paper’s political editor
Kate Maltby: ‘Jews will be accused of censorship’
The right to political protest should be sacred in Britain. So too should be the right in grieve in peace.
Many march organisers stress that their target is the government of Israel. There is much to criticise about that government. But for British Jews, the broader antisemitic imagery that surrounds them is impossible to ignore.
And if, as a non-Jew, you don’t understand why “globalise the Intifada” is understood by Jews to call for our global extinction, or “Khaybar, Khaybar, the army of Muhammed will return” celebrates the ethnic cleansing of an ancient Jewish city, then remember this.
square KATE MALTBY For British Jews, the Manchester attack felt inevitable
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For many years, we have watched the contemporary left establish an understanding of racism that condemns microaggressions and insists that we must listen to how ethnic minorities understand and perceive potentially hurtful language. Except, of course, when it comes to Jews.
As sunset fell on Yom Kippur, I had to make my way to London’s Southbank for work. What I was thinking about was whether the Jewish children in my life would be safe at school tomorrow.
At Whitehall, I found my way blocked by protestors: a man in a keffiyeh shouted that it was the “Yehudi” (Jews) who were “baby-killers”. If protests are banned during this grieving period, I fear Jews will instead be blamed as “censors”, “strangling” public discourse. Let them go ahead. But given their reality, no decent person should attend them.Kate Maltby is a columnist at The i Paper
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