Tag: islam

Stop this Crackdown on the Right to Protest for Palestine!

Tony StauntonLeave a comment

My weekly Comment Column in the daily Plymouth Herald (14.7.26), considering the recent statement of Prime Minister Burnham apologising for Starmer’s support for genocide in Gaza. Written the same day as the Church of England Synod debates and supports a report critical of Israel and accepting the existence of Palestine and the need to actively defend Palestinian Christians. The conclusion has to be – Protest Works! The constant protest, indefatigable and massive demonstrations in London and campaigning across the UK, indeed the world, has isolated and exposed the Israeli State and Zionism to a point where it is now dangerous for politicians not to oppose Israel. But Israel and the Zionist cause has a job to do for the global system of Capitalism: the maintenance of nationalism, racism (especially Islamophobia) and the logic of imperialist competition. The mass protests must be sustained and increased, especially the direct challenges to the military-industrial corporations linked to Israel. So, to London 18th July and Elbit on the 23rd – 11am, 38 Bolingbroke Way, Bristol, BS34 6FE.

The edited version below or expand the pic for the printed edit (at least something got printed!)

They say the Lord’s Prayer in Westminster. The two Houses swear to the Christian God, and to the King, whose official title is the “Supreme Governor” of the Protestant Church of England. But we do not consider opposition to Government policies and practices as opposition to Christianity.

Britain is a secular, multi-cultural country, with less than 5% of the Nation’s 68 million citizens actively attending Christian church once a month or more. One in four British Muslims worship weekly in a Mosque, and one-in-three Jews attend a synagogue weekly. Majorities everywhere do not devote their lives to  religion, and in Britain the majority are practical agnostics. 

It stands to reason that being critical of “the State”; challenging Government policies and practices, isn’t the same as challenging a religion. If we condemn the Government’s stance against asylum seekers we are not condemning Christianity, indeed we may well be invoking Christian principles. If we protest against British Imperialism and Colonialism – the exploitation and colonialism subjugating peoples and nations – we are not implicating the Christian Church, necessarily.

Yet now, there is an attempt to declare that any criticism of the Israeli State is an attack on the religion of Judaism and an offence against all Jews worldwide.  The Israeli State is presented as a special case, exempt from usual political rules. It is proposed that all Jews are Israelis, not British or American or Russian or Chilean Jews. Every Jew alive today is supposed to ascribe to the policies of the Israeli State. They do not!

So criticising the Israeli State is declared to be antisemitic – religious and political hatred of Jews. There is an attempt to criminalise any damning the destruction of the civilisation of Palestine and calling the extermination of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza genocide, alongside the illegal mass ethnic cleansing there and across the West Bank.

The creed of the Israeli State, the non-secular Apartheid politics of a country formed for a “single Race” called the Jews, to develop separately from the rest of humanity in their own interests, is documented as “Zionism”. Zionism is a political creed not a religion even if it refers to Judaism in the same way our State refers to Christianity. There are Christian Zionists, Hindu Zionists, Buddhist Zionists. 

Zionism is a political ethno-nationalist far-Right philosophy steeped in the demand for each ethnic-religious group within humanity to have its own separate “homeland”. The State of Israel represents the military-industrial and cultural centre for this racist creed. This “separate development” explains why some fascist groups in Britain are supporting Israel’s military expansionism alongside their bigoted hatred of Muslims.

Today, Nurses and Doctors and Porters working in the National Health Service in England and Wales have now been told they face the sack if they declare or show any symbols of opposition to Zionism or to the Israeli State, as if they are acting from prejudice and racial hatred. In fact, they are expressing humanist principles for the valuing and protection of all life, echoing their Hippocratic Oath. Yet now, Palestine flags, attendance at protests and even portrayals of watermelons are banned, despite trade union policies in support of Palestine.

Little wonder that the British Medical Association has voted to reject The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-semitism (2016). The IHRA has been re-interpreted by police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service, the NHS, and local authorities across Britain to proscribe criticism of the actions and policies of the Israeli State or Zionism. This, despite the British State formally recognising the right of a Palestinian State to exist!

Such hypocrisy and injustice must not stand!

The overwhelming majority of governments across the world have condemned Israel’s atrocities. Spain has closed it’s embassy in Tel Aviv, the Israeli government calling the Spanish government “highly antisemitic”. Andy Burnham has declared that Starmer’s full support for Israel’s actions was wrong. He could put words to action by removing all charges against the 3,000 protesters labelled as terrorists. He could, as first act as Prime Minister, end the licences that allow the armed-drones manufactured here by the Israeli firm Elbit to be exported to Israel and used to kill civilians.

The Norwegian Football Association has donated all its income from the World Cup to Doctors Without Borders operating in Gaza, as a show of support for Palestine, The Egyptian team and fans flying the Palestinian flag. Yet these campaign statements are banned from our mainstream media. A brutal UK crackdown on our right to protest is happening right now, those standing in solidarity with Palestine bearing the brunt. We are being criminalised for daring to oppose the corrupt international war criminal, Netanyahu and his Zionist State. Throughout history, the greatest change has come from those brave enough to take to the streets. If we lose the freedom to speak out today, we lose the power to fight for anything tomorrow.

Let’s stand together to oppose Zionism and the perpetrators of genocide! Let’s defend our right to protest for Palestine, its land, its peoples and their rights. Saturday, 18th July, London and everywhere!

Screenshot

The Union Jack is a Symbol of Imperialism

Tony StauntonLeave a comment

My weekly comment column in the daily Plymouth Herald (26.8.25) identifying the political polarisation represented by the flags being hoisted everywhere. Hatred or Hope? It’s time to choose sides and take action.

Unedited here:

Painting red crosses onto white mini-roundabouts reflects confusion. Not just for drivers. The Red Cross on White background is the national flag of England. This “Flag of St George”, also known as the White Ensign, is incorporated into the imperialist Union Jack which unified England, Scotland, Wales and the colonies becoming known across the world as the “Butcher’s Apron” because it was flown into every battle across every continent and subjugated a third of the world under the great British Empire of the 19th Century. The Union Jack is a symbol of power, of conquest, of imperialism even today.
All flags symbolise power, and a lot more besides. Flags rally people into a shared identity, a common cause, and a commitment. The flag of St George is now being flown from windows and balconies and lampposts signifying a new-found symbolism. Mixing myth with dogma, the English flag is now being flown as the call to arms against refugees and asylum seekers. Black refugees. And Muslims. Overwhelmingly the poorest and most helpless in society.
It could be explained that St George is a well documented historic figure, his mother a Palestinian and father Turkish. St George is celebrated in Palestine and many other peoples for helping those in need and opposing the persecution of others. True, the flag was used as a herald in at least one early plundering escapade of the Crusades targeting the riches of the Middle East under the cynical guise of Christianity defeating the devil of Islam.
Those utilising this symbol today may evoke the Protestant Christian adoption of the flag of St George in the 16th century, and use it as a statement against Islam as the primary enemy amongst all non-Protestant faiths, but the bigots outside the asylum hotels are not, in all honesty, particularly interested in any of that. Today’s Red Cross on a white background is a statement of hatred of Black people, of the call for supremacy of the White English Race.
The flag of England has been turned into a rallying cry for racism. When, during football tournaments it was flown to support the English Team, now it symbolises hatred of Black people in general and refugees landing here in boats (we are an island, after all). It has been irredeemably politicised, weaponised once again.
Other flags are available and being flown. Somewhat ironically, supreme amongst them right now, across Britain and most of the world, is the flag of Palestine. It represents the people of Palestine – colonised, brutalised and now experiencing not just ethnic cleaning through non-stop heavy artillery bombardment, enforced famine and genocide.
The Palestinian flag has become the symbol of internationalism, social justice and equality. In Britain it now a symbol of human rights, including the right to protest. Whilst pensioners are arrested for flying the flag of Palestine, those marching against refugees and even calling for them to be killed are protected by Police and escorted into battle.
Britain is in a state of polarised hostilities whipped-up by an economic crisis caused by corruption and ruling-class propaganda, scapegoating minorities to keep the spotlight away from their plundering of the Commoners’ wealth. It is difficult to get at the actual people who are pillaging our country and destroying our security – the corporate directors and their political puppets. It’s much easier to blame, target and attack local people who are Black and penniless.
Outside the ramshackle profiteering hotels, ultra-nationalists are flying the Union Jack, the flag of St George and the Zionist flag of Israel together in racist rage. They are politically led and driven by fascist cadre who know what they’re doing. The Israeli state has an apartheid constitution giving Jewish citizens more rights than those of any other heritage – it is a racist state. It’s what the far-Right protesters want here – superior rights for those born into White-skinned Protestant families. The flag of St George conjures-up anti-Muslim military crusades, the Union Jack represents a British Empire long gone and never returning. This is a crusade of despair and hopelessness.
Anyone, of any human decency will not rally to the flag of hatred, bigotry and racism. Instead, we must rally together to defend human rights and build hope through working class allegiance across communities, nations and cultures. Fight all exploitation and oppression! Stand Up To Racism!