The Far Right in Britain hardly need Israel to show them how it is done!
JVL Introduction
The idea that the Far Right in Britain need guidance from Israel – or any other country – should be laughable; that this is being taken seriously by some who advocate for justice for Palestinians is potentially dangerous. Britain’s history is littered with racist ideas and racist action and this is continuing today where even Black and Asian police officers are saying in May andAugust 2024. that things are getting worse! The fact that some funds backing Tommy Robinson have come from Israel or its supporters does not mean it is behind the riots, as we have said before, what is behind the riots is the decades (at least) of Islamophobia, talk of “illegal migrants” and “stopping the small boats” that has come from the government and mainstream media. To this we can add the 14 years (and more) of austerity along with the total failure to teach the truth about British history, along with the whole Prevent programme that has mainly targeted Muslims and the requirement to teach “British values” where the emphasis is on the illusion of tolerance, noting that, as a teacher friend said to her students – are you happy with being tolerated?
LL
This article was originally published by Morning Star on Sat 24 Aug 2024. Read the original here.
‘Netanyahu made me do it’
It’s myopic to suggest that fascist ideology has been “imported” into Britain and could not possibly be home-grown.
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Thanks, Julia, fir this corrective to the oversimplifications which we see from some on the left, attributing all evils to Israeli manipulation. We should oppose crass conspiracy theories from whichever quarter.
There’s something about this article I find slightly disturbing.
First the author uses the adjective “progressive” to refer to Soros. He is not remotely progressive and has funded attempted colour revolutions all over eastern Europe.
Second, she refers to “far right zionists” as if there were gradations of zionism. Zionism is a racist ideology as formerly determined by the UN; it needs no further qualification. Some racists behave violently, others don’t but it doesn’t make them less racist.
Zionism and most other forms of rascism including antisemitism are European in origin, latterly exported to the Americas and a small part of the middle east. They should be combatted wherever they are found. The erasure of the zionist entity in Israel is as good a place to start as any. Israel may have had no direct involvement in the recent riots in Britain but actively or otherwise, it currently provides succour to racists and fascists worldwide.
In my view the continuing ‘debate’ around whether Israel is or isn’t behind far right activity is unhelpful at this time. Positions are presented as either/or. TR is a racist bigot and we know that far right/ fascist organising goes back to the 1920s but we also know that TR has received funding from Israel and that increasing Islamophobia here (and elsewhere) serves Israel’s purposes. Focussing on this is conveniently allowing SUTR to deflect attention from criticism of its ‘unity’ statement. A so called ‘unity statement’ that excludes any reference to anti-Palestinian racism, Zionism or apartheid. If a SUTR unity statement excluded anti-Semitism there would be outrage and justifiably so. Where is the outrage when after 76 years of occupation and a genocide taking place anti-Palestinian racism is excluded?
Bard says ‘It seems extraordinary that anyone locating themselves on the left should ignore the breadth of support for far-right activism’. Well it’s also extraordinary that ‘anyone locating themselves on the left’ should ignore the breadth of support for Zionism, the racist, settler colonial political ideology responsible for the last 11 months of genocide and 76 years of brutal occupation and apartheid. To make a distinction between ‘far right Zionists’ and other presumably acceptable Zionists is a dangerous path to tread. Antiracists either oppose Zionism or they don’t. Fact is though, this debate is providing cover for SUTR at a time when determined scrutiny of its position is essential.
We all want unity of action against racism but the way forward is surely for a movement that does not employ a hierarchy of racism but stands up to all racism, including anti Palestinian racism. That should be our universal demand but time and again we see comrades who purport to be antiracist and supporters of Palestine colluding with SUTR’s position and defending the indefensible. Shrinking the space in which criticism can be expressed is straight out of the Zionist handbook and it is being employed more and more when Zionism is questioned.
Normally, I have no comment to make about the excellent content here.
However, I, for the life of me, cannot understand why it is not possible to hold two or more thoughts in one’s head as to the causes of the far right riots. As far as I can tell from listening to Lowkey’s interview and then watching the shared clip of Dr. Miller, there’s actually a lot of common ground as to the drivers. Surely there were many factors at play. Why the dismissive attack in this piece? It is true that Miller can over generalise and simplify – at least when he speaks – but he has done sterling and deep research and analysis for which many of us are deeply indebted.
I am also concerned with the following assertion:
“John McDonnell has given a measured analysis”; really? The man who counselled JCorbyn to keep on giving way to the weaponised AS claims when more decisive action against the perpetrators would have been more appropriate and left us arguably in a stronger position, politically. There were many Jewish victims including Jackie Walker, let’s not forget. For me, this is another example of compartmentalising; selling out Palestine as a full-blown racist Zionist-inspired genocide is happening, with the support of the far right, albeit Zionism serves only as a ”moral alibi” for hegemonic control.
And then there’s also the implication that, Bard doesn’t want ‘Zionists’ confused with ‘far-right Zionists’. Why? “We need the Zionists to fight the fascists” is a line that SUTR has consistently used to sell-out the Palestinians and their supporters in order to keep Zionists on board. Lots of us are deeply unhappy about this. I know different people have different opinions, but that Zionism is a form of Racism is actually recognised by the UN.
Finally, I don’t think either Lowkey or Miller said Israel ”was behind the riots” …
[cut to our limit of 300 words – admin]
I don’t think people like Lowkey are saying “Israel is behind the riots” and I don’t think things have to be so either or – yes, both Tory and Labour, as well as the media, have whipped up anti-immigrant Islamophobic hatred, but it is also true that Stephen Yaxley -Lennon/Tommy Robinson calls himself Zionist, and allegedly gets funding from a zionist, who apparently happens to fund a few other Islamophobic influencers. Pointing that out isnt the same as trying to invoke some kind of “hidden Jewish hand”. Jvl should write a corrective to this and perhaps let Lowkey and Miller respond.
In another recent interview Lowkey did, he names names, so this idea the author pushes about him saying Israelis, as if he just means regular and all Israelis is a joke. I also don’t think he believes the right wing ideology and right winger behaviour is all the fault of “Israelis” but that the person – Tommy Robinson – who does incite said ideology and behaviour, happens to apparently get some funding by one or two specific people. This Morning Star article, which jvl have just uncritically re-posted, is an off kilter hit piece.
Although you make some interesting & important points. I think that what you are missing is that Zionism is ALWAYS racist, show me ah instance in which Zionism does not translate into the dispossession of the Palestinian people. We all need to deal with our indoctrination into a colonialist mindset & that includes Jews, regardless of other history & trauma. Israel is the poster boy & blue print for the far-right. Liberal Zionists, though they may oppose many fascists, “both sides” settler colonialism, they don’t wish to dismantle it, they just want it to look nicer so it doesn’t interfere with the stories they tell themselves about being the good guys. They will argue it’s “complicated”, it’s NOT as it wasn’t in Algeria, as it wasn’t in the Americas, the African continent, as it wasn’t in Australia, and on and on. Liberal Zionists are just dishonest ones. Israel needs to be decolonised, I’m not suggesting expelling all Israelis, I mean the end of a privileged class & reparations to the indigenous people.
Julia Bard’s piece was striking for its depth in relation to far-right history in Britain and the breadth of its present horizon which doesn’t limit it to Britain and Israel. She refused to accept simplistic explanations and admitted there are unanswered questions about the riots.
John Westerman denies that Lowkey or Miller said Israel ‘was behind the riots'”. In Lowkey’s case it was a clear inference, and as Tony Greenstein admitted, Miller said: “The riots show that Israel is trying to burn down the UK.” Julia Bard quoted Miller accurately when he argued that Israel was provoked to “push the riot button.” These analyses obscure the homegrown roots of the Far Right’s murderous Islamophobia and commitment to fascism.
Julia Bard conveyed that there was more to Robinson than his anti-Muslim obsessions, talking about his links with very antisemitic Far Right forces in Poland for example. There is more to add: several years before Robinson created EDL he was a member of the Neo-Nazi BNP, led by Holocaust deniers.
Anne Mitchell criticises the limitations of SUTR’s unity statement that didn’t mention Palestine/Zionism, but I and several other anti-Zionists signed it because of what it DID say rather than what it didn’t. It was focused on the UK case, making the important point that: “Racism and Islamophobia in Parliament is leading to racism and Islamophobia on the streets.”
Pro-Israel lobbyists focus on telling Israel’s story (lies) to the media and politicians, but it is the self-interested British state and the political classes’ constant Islamophobic propaganda and its “Prevent” obsessions during the last two decades, (despite pushback by Corbyn when he led Labour) that have prepared the ground which Robinson and other far-right activists exploit.
This is what enabled 4m+ people in Britain to vote for a party to the right of the Tories – ReformUK – with its nascent far-right ideological programme and 5 seats. (Reform won more votes nationally than the Lib Dems). These are frightening times and that is why we need more convincing arguments than “Netanyahu made me do it.”