Islamophobia
150 British Jews tell Met top cop: you’re racist assuming we all support Israel
Letter from anti-racist Jews denounces Establishment’s treatment of anti-genocide marches as antisemitic
One hundred and fifty British Jews have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley denouncing the police (and government) treatment of marches against Israel’s genocide in Gaza as if they are antisemitic. The letter reads:
We Reject Your Insinuation That The Marches Against Genocide in Gaza Represent a Threat to Jews or the Jewish Community and Suggest that It Is Not the Business of the Police to Intervene in Ongoing Political Debates
We the undersigned, being Jewish, wish to support and join a complaint against the Metropolitan Police, for their racist and anti-Semitic assumption that all Britain’s Jews support Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
We further believe that the decision of the Metropolitan, Police to delay the starting time of the March Against Genocide in Gaza on 17 Feb. 24 from 12.00 to 1.30 pm ‘to accommodate an event at a synagogue along the route’ is lslamophobic, based as it is on the assumption that the large numbers of Muslims taking part pose a threat to Jews worshipping in congregations nearby.
Your decision to delay the start of the march rested u~on the assumption that there is something inherently anti-Semitic about supporting the Palestinians and that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism.
The Met’s decision ignores the fact that many thousands of British Jews have already taken part in such marches without feeling threatened in any way. Indeed the march has started from Marble Arch on at least two previous occasions recently without any anti-Semitic incidents.
We are tired of the Police’s racist and anti-Semitic assumption that to be Jewish is to support Zionism and Israel’s racist and genocidal treatment of the Palestinians. There are many thousands of Jews who are active in the Palestine solidarity movement and we resent your assumptions to the contrary.
The letter is signed by:
The letter’s publication comes amid a flurry of racist and Islamophobic comments by government and opposition politicians, with the help of their media allies, aimed at smearing those who object to mass murder as racist – and the arrest of three left-wing protesters in Newham on the nonsensical basis that booing and hissing a supporter of Israel is antisemitic.
The Establishment is determined to suppress free speech against Israel and its war crimes, and to ignore the blatant racism involved in the assumptions it uses to try to justify those attacks. Anti-racist Jews in the UK and the US know better.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Video: pensioner among 3 peaceful anti-genocide protesters arrested in Hastings
State repression of civic rights and protection of weapons manufacturers continues to escalate
A pensioner and two other protestors were arrested by police on Thursday 29 February during a peaceful demonstration outside the General Dynamics arms factory in Hastings, East Sussex. The local people were among a broad coalition of community groups that came together to protest against Britain’s role in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The three were arrested and taken to Hastings police station where they were held for nearly fourteen hours before being charged with aggravated trespass and then released on bail. They will appear before magistrates on April 3.
Laurie Holden, 71, a retired train driver from Burwash, was one of those arrested at the demonstration. He said:
It is outrageous that the police are treating us as criminals. We are not the criminals here – we are highlighting the criminal complicity of our government and arms companies in continuing to supply arms to Israel which is in the dock for genocide in Gaza. We will always stand on the side of the people of Palestine.
The Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign [HDPSC] united with representatives of Jewish groups, trade union bodies, Quakers, climate justice groups, parent groups and political parties to draw attention to the part Hastings is playing in arming Israel.
HDPSC Chair Katy Colley said:
Our brave and principled friends have shown enormous courage in the face of disproportionate and heavy-handed policing of a peaceful, community-led protest.
In January, the International Court of Justice put Israel on trial for genocide in Gaza but since then the slaughter and starvation have worsened. Over 30,000 are dead and thousands more will die if this continues. Yesterday Israeli troops gunned down starving civilians in the north of Gaza as they waited for food – over 100 were killed and 700 injured in the ‘the Flour Massacre’. This latest horror underscores the urgency of stopping all arms sales to Israel. UN experts have warned that any arms transfers to Israel will breach international law and ordered all countries to stop all arms sales immediately.
Our government has refused to halt export licenses to Israel so it is our duty as citizens to stand up for peace, international law and human rights.
We will not stand by as the UK continues to arm this genocide of the Palestinian people. It must end now.’
The protest started at 7am at the Sidney Little Road factory, one of the two General Dynamics sites in Hastings, timed to coincide with workers as they arrived for work. Demonstrators held placards, sung songs for ‘Ceaefire Now’ and handed out leaflets which informed workers of their right to refuse to take part in handling components used in breach of international law.
Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza has run for five months so far, killing almost 40,000 people and wounding and maiming double that number. The UN is now warning that a quarter of the population is at risk of death from famine and the World Health Organisation has said that more than a million are starving. Protests have been mounted outside arms factories all over the country, including in Kent, Leicester, Bristol, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Cambridge, Brighton, London, Lancashire, Belfast and Monmouthshire, to demand an end to UK’s ongoing complicity and enabling of genocide. This is HDPSC’s fourth protest at General Dynamics’ sites in Hastings since the campaign began.
According to the organisers, almost all of the ‘MK80’ bombs being dropped on Gaza are made by General Dynamics, which is the 5th biggest arms company in the world. The Hastings facilities provide avionic systems for fighter planes and tactical communications equipment for ground vehicles.
At the demo, Leah Levane of Jewish Voice for Labour said that Israel could no longer ‘act with impunity’.
It is shocking that the UK government is granting arms licences to Israel,’ she said. ‘This makes the UK partners in the occupation and the genocide in Gaza. As a Jewish organisation, we are one of several Jewish groups in the UK and the many more across the world who are protesting loud and clear – NOT IN OUR NAME.
Jen Rouse, representing Parents for Future Hastings & St Leonards, said:
We’re here today because as parents we cannot stand by and watch as our government supports a genocide of children.
The thought of our own kids having to live through even a fraction of the terror and trauma that Israel inflicts on Gazan children every day is unbearable. So the only right thing for all UK parents to do is to be here today, demanding an immediate end to the bloodshed. We will never give up until we see a free Palestine.
Simon Hester, Chair of Hastings & District Trades Union Council, added:
Hastings & District Trades Union Council supports the calls for end to all arms sales to Israel and for an immediate ceasefire to end the genocide in Gaza.
We demand that General Dynamics UK stop supplying equipment to the Israeli army or to get out of Hastings. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Olivia Cavanagh of Hastings Community of Sanctuary and Hastings Supports Refugees said:
We continue to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank.
We support an embargo on arms sales from the UK to Israel and stand with the Hastings community to call on the local General Dynamics factories to stop supplying arms to Israel and to act to end the unprecedented killing of Palestinian civilians.’
Yunis Smith from Hastings Green Party said:
Years from now the children of the world will ask what did you do to stop this calamity? I for one hope I will have a good enough answer!
And Chris Goodchild of Hastings Quakers said:
The poor tell us who we are, the prophets who we can be. Yet we kill the poor and kill the prophets. We are all Palestinian and civil disobedience is divine obedience. Stop arming Genocide.
The arrest form part of an escalating campaign of repression and demonisation of peaceful protesters demonstrating against genocide. PM Rishi Sunak, who like ‘opposition’ leader Keir Starmer has constantly backed Israel’s murderous actions, has today smeared demonstrators as divisive and hateful and has threatened to deport those who fall foul of what he considers the limits of acceptable protest.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
‘Nothing Will Change for Muslims Unless there is a Reckoning with Britain’s Normalised Islamophobia’
Violence in the Middle East is often coupled with the increased use of the language of terror that is routinely associated with Muslims.
Palestinians are ‘extremist’ and ‘terrorists’. British Muslims are ‘extremist’, ‘terrorist’ and ‘misogynist’ who are now apparently “in charge of Britain”. The language of one reaffirms the other and consequently harm towards Muslims – whether Palestinian or British – is legitimised.
The increase in hostilities towards British Muslims as a plausible genocide is being enacted in Gaza is not coincidental; and it does not just arise from simple ignorance. It is embedded top-down by the very instruments that govern this country.
British Muslim communities live in an environment in which Islamophobia is omnipresent – both directly and structurally.
Despite only comprising 6.5% of the total population, Home Office data on hate crime shows that Muslims were the target of 44% of all religious hate crimes in 2022-2023. Islamophobia is also pervasive structurally, in the Labour market, in health and across society. This is the constant, the normal for British Muslims.
Throw in an eruption of violence in the Middle East, and the inflammatory language that accompanies it, and the risks to British Muslims are magnified.
It is therefore no surprise that in this context, the Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU) released shocking data recently revealing the sharp spike in Islamophobic incidents.
When directly compared to the preceding five-month average, incidents in October 2023 rose by 365%; by 325% in November; by 206% in December; and by 206% again in January 2024.
The first half of February is already showing a 301% increase in comparison to the previous five-month average.
These are shocking figures despite Muslim communities tending to be reluctant to report such incidents. Depressingly, the true figures may be much worse.
The incidents vary from silencing and censorship to verbal and physical harm.
Take Uzma, a successful executive with an impressive CV citing EY, PwC and Microsoft as past employers. She was banned from LinkedIn for what she believes to be her pro-Palestinian activism. She had a following of 80,000 supporters and more than five million impressions for her content. Uzma took the opportunity to use her platform to talk about the events in Israel and Gaza. Exercising her freedom of speech has cost her access to her livelihood and with little to no support from the platform.
Then there is the year 13 student who was pulled from his classes and interviewed by two teachers because he wore a Palestine badge. Was he Muslim? Did he go to mosque? Did he have a British passport? These were questions he was subjected to by adults that he should have been able to trust. All of them centralised his identity as a Muslim. And all served to spotlight his identity as a problem. This is not the isolated actions of two teachers, it is the result of legislation made by this state which embeds and legitimises the marginalisation of Muslims – even if they are children.
There is also the direct Islamophobia experienced by Muslims on a daily basis; individuals being harassed as they walk down the street or use public transport. One such case documented by the IRU involved a visibly Muslim person being spat at on a train then being goaded for not responding, which resulted in them being subjected to further racial slurs. Muslims engaged in the most mundane activities are deemed offensive by their very existence.
These are just three examples of many incidents that impact Muslims in all walks of life and in all settings. This cannot be a surprise given the normalisation, indeed the rewarding of Islamophobia within our political discourse.
Contrary to the easily identifiable Islamophobia of the right, Islamophobia transcends the political spectrum. You can be elevated to the House of Lords after running an Islamophobic campaign in the case of Lord Zac Goldsmith. You can hold positions in the highest office of the land in the case of Boris Johson. You can use it as a ‘get out of jail free card’ if you are the Speaker of the House who has thwarted the conventions of Parliament.
The returns on Islamophobia are undoubtedly attractive unless you happen to be a Muslim.
In that case, even holding positions of power does not immunise you from its presence as the experiences of Humza Yousaf, Zara Sultana, Apsana Begum or Sadiq Khan show.
When Islamophobia permeates societal structures and is propagated proudly in our political discourse, we cannot expect the harms that it inflicts on British Muslims to cease. The symptoms may present on our streets, but the disease has taken hold of those at the top.
Without a reckoning with the normalised Islamophobia in our political discourse, organisations like the Islamophobia Response Unit will never be out of work and British Muslims will never truly be safe.
‘People in Ashfield are Sick of Hearing Our Community Mentioned Every Time Lee Anderson Makes a Prejudiced Comment’
The ex-mining town of Sutton-in-Ashfield was often a tough place to grow up – particularly if, like me, you came from a South Asian background.
Racism was an ever-present issue in my childhood. But I noticed as I grew up that it became less prevalent as the area, and country, became more diverse and tolerant. In my adulthood, the majority of people in Ashfield would treat me just like anyone else.
Since the election of Lee Anderson in 2019, I have witnessed a reversal of the progress on racism.
Anderson – who has had the Conservative whip suspended after claiming that London's Muslim Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has allowed "Islamists" to take over the city – has a long history of prejudice.
This includes blocking travellers from using a park. Being an active member of a Facebook group that supports George Soros conspiracy theories. Boycotting the England men's football team as they took the knee to raise awareness of racial injustice.
In fact, a quick search online of 'Lee Anderson racism’ will bring up a plethora of news stories and incidents from both his time as a Labour councillor and as a Conservative MP. One such incident, when he told asylum seekers to “f*** off back to France” brought back memories of people telling me to “go back to where you came from”.
What has made it worse is the deafening silence from the Conservative Party.
Rather than being reprimanded for such comments, Anderson was rewarded with the role of Deputy Chair. By doing this, Rishi Sunak gave racists and Islamophobes in this country a sense of vindication. It is something that strikes fear into people like me, who understand the devastating effects racism can have.
There has also been a vocal backlash against Anderson within the constituency, which has been heartening.
I have found great solace in various highly active Facebook groups that constantly call out his rhetoric for what it is. More recently, we have set up the Stand up for Ashfield campaign, which is part of the MP Watch network, to hold Lee Anderson to account and fight for a better Ashfield. People here are sick of hearing our community mentioned every time Lee Anderson is in the news for another controversial statement.
Anderson's comments about Sadiq Khan came in a week in which former Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed the UK was run by "Islamists"; and when ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss stood silent as Tommy Robinson was described as a "hero" by far-right activist Steve Bannon.
Lee Anderson has refused to apologise for his comments. He has since described his words as “clumsy” – but they were not “clumsy”. They were targeted and specific. He intentionally set out to cause division and stoke hatred, as he has done consistently since becoming an MP.
At times of heightened tension around issues of racism, I always put myself in the shoes of a 10-year-old version of me going to school. How will I be treated in class? Will the racist rhetoric trickle down yet again? Will I have racist abuse hurled at me on my way home?
Rishi Sunak must expel Lee Anderson and those others who have weaponised racism in the Conservative Party. I have experienced first-hand how devastating it can be to grow up in an area facing racist abuse. I thought those times were in the past. But it feels as if coming from an ethnic minority background is becoming increasingly dangerous in Britain today.
Newsletter offer
Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive editorial emails from the Byline Times Team.
The ex-mining town of Sutton-in-Ashfield was often a tough place to grow up – particularly if, like me, you came from a South Asian background.
Racism was an ever-present issue in my childhood. But I noticed as I grew up that it became less prevalent as the area, and country, became more diverse and tolerant. In my adulthood, the majority of people in Ashfield would treat me just like anyone else.
Since the election of Lee Anderson in 2019, I have witnessed a reversal of the progress on racism.
Anderson – who has had the Conservative whip suspended after claiming that London's Muslim Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has allowed "Islamists" to take over the city – has a long history of prejudice.
This includes blocking travellers from using a park. Being an active member of a Facebook group that supports George Soros conspiracy theories. Boycotting the England men's football team as they took the knee to raise awareness of racial injustice.
Lee Anderson’s claims that the Muslim Mayor of London has handed the city to Islamists is another unsurprising example of the political culture the Conservative Party has normalised, writes Hardeep Matharu
Hardeep Matharu
In fact, a quick search online of 'Lee Anderson racism’ will bring up a plethora of news stories and incidents from both his time as a Labour councillor and as a Conservative MP. One such incident, when he told asylum seekers to “f*** off back to France” brought back memories of people telling me to “go back to where you came from”.
What has made it worse is the deafening silence from the Conservative Party.
Rather than being reprimanded for such comments, Anderson was rewarded with the role of Deputy Chair. By doing this, Rishi Sunak gave racists and Islamophobes in this country a sense of vindication. It is something that strikes fear into people like me, who understand the devastating effects racism can have.
There has also been a vocal backlash against Anderson within the constituency, which has been heartening.
I have found great solace in various highly active Facebook groups that constantly call out his rhetoric for what it is. More recently, we have set up the Stand up for Ashfield campaign, which is part of the MP Watch network, to hold Lee Anderson to account and fight for a better Ashfield. People here are sick of hearing our community mentioned every time Lee Anderson is in the news for another controversial statement.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
Anderson's comments about Sadiq Khan came in a week in which former Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed the UK was run by "Islamists"; and when ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss stood silent as Tommy Robinson was described as a "hero" by far-right activist Steve Bannon.
Lee Anderson has refused to apologise for his comments. He has since described his words as “clumsy” – but they were not “clumsy”. They were targeted and specific. He intentionally set out to cause division and stoke hatred, as he has done consistently since becoming an MP.
At times of heightened tension around issues of racism, I always put myself in the shoes of a 10-year-old version of me going to school. How will I be treated in class? Will the racist rhetoric trickle down yet again? Will I have racist abuse hurled at me on my way home?
Rishi Sunak must expel Lee Anderson and those others who have weaponised racism in the Conservative Party. I have experienced first-hand how devastating it can be to grow up in an area facing racist abuse. I thought those times were in the past. But it feels as if coming from an ethnic minority background is becoming increasingly dangerous in Britain today.
‘The “Dangerous Muslim” Trope is Being Weaponised to Avoid Scrutiny’
It’s not about the women and children being massacred in Gaza, it’s about Lindsey Hoyle and UK's elected representatives feeling scared. Somehow the House of Commons Speaker turned a motion by the Scottish National Party calling for a ceasefire in Gaza into a debate on who runs the country. According to former Home Secretary, Suella Braveman it is the “Islamists”.
It is a far-right trope that effectively defines Muslims in Britain as a 'Trojan Horse’. Braverman and her acolytes are now puffing out their chests, determined to face down this phantom menace to the democracy which they themselves have so readily undermined.
Lee Anderson turned his fire on London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who he opined was being controlled by Islamists. Khan’s Muslimness has so offended Conservatives both in Britain and across the pond that, every few years, they accuse him of being in cahoots with undesirables. In their eyes, he is now nothing more than a puppet.
Braverman and Anderson have been joined by William Shawcross, the former extremism tsar who lamented that the Government had ignored the recommendations from his review of the counter-terrorism Prevent Strategy – a strategy considered by critics to be a mechanism to criminalise religious and political beliefs.
Shawcross cited the safety of the public, which he claimed is now at increased risk in the UK due to the war in Gaza. Official police statistics show that the arrest rate for the millions of people who have marched since October is lower than the Glastonbury Festival – a fact not reported in any mainstream media outlet.
Both in its timing and execution, the campaign by those against Palestine employed its 'dangerous Muslims' card in a manner that has left journalists on right-wing radio stations aghast at how possibly “orchestrated” it is.
Academic Ben Whitham has called it a well-crafted “racist tradition”. As he posts, “politicians and journalists have worked hard over many years to perpetuate the idea that British Muslims represent a fifth column and secret cabal plotting to 'Islamicise’ the UK”.
The lives of Palestinians are now a political game, whereby those supporting the idea that they should not be murdered and maimed are cast as the 'baddies’. This isn’t about the safety of MPs. Turning themselves into victims of a phantom threat is really a panic about their moral culpability in supporting the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza – aided and abetted by the media class.
This nexus was at work again this week in the spike in online articles and broadcast mentions of the word 'Islamist’ . The use of the word and its associated terms suggests that detractors don’t hate Muslims per se, it’s just the really, really bad ones they’re concerned about.
Yet time and again, 'Islamist’ is used when reporting on any issue in which Muslim voices are raised, leading to debates on safety and extremism.
Democracy is great, we are told, because alongside other things, it encourages citizens to voice their concerns on issues they feel strongly about. But if you do this as a Muslim, there’s a high chance you will be labelled an Islamist; an extremist; and, in the case of Palestine, an antisemite.
As a new study on the media’s use of language when reporting on Muslims concludes, Islamism is “represented as being totalitarian and as such is incompatible with democracy and other modernist values”.
The Government has made no secret of its disdain for Muslims for many years.
The Prime Minister and his Deputy can’t bring themselves to use the word “Islamophobia”. Conservative MP Paul Scully joined the chorus when he claimed particular areas of Britain with large ethnic minority populations are no-go zones, citing the heavily Muslim-populated Tower Hamlets in east London and Sparkhill in Birmingham. Again, 'no-go zones’ is a suspiciously coded phrase which most likely means areas people like Scully don’t like visiting as opposed to anyone actually being denied entry. The last time a newspaper printed such lies the press regulator ruled against the Daily Mail and forced it to publish a correction.
The tropes now being launched against Britain’s Muslims are no longer obscure fringe talking points –they are being thrust into the mainstream by Conservative politicians and the right-wing media, irate at seeing mass protests in support of the Palestinian people. The Telegraph, a pillar of Britain’s right-wing media long hostile to any Muslim protest, front-paged the absurd allegation that Islamists were now running the country.
The next time a frustrated Brit has to endure cancelled trains or can’t get a GP appointment, or an entire council goes bankrupt as many are predicted to do, remember: it’s the Muslims who have done that.
More concerning is the fact that the kind of rhetoric that was routinely found on the pages of right-wing publications now has a broadcast presence, on the likes of GB News and TalkTV.
This is not mere 'news’ but polemic against British citizens. At a time where much of the population continues to face the challenges of a fall in living standards and the destruction of institutions, there are few if any solutions being offered to them.
Instead, they are being served an enemy.
‘The Normalisation of Politically Expedient Racism: Rishi Sunak Cannot Call Out Something He Has Been Complicit In’
The Prime Minister’s response to claims by his party’s former vice-chair that the Muslim Mayor of London has let the city been taken over by “Islamists” has been to refuse to acknowledge the racism of his comments. Instead, he repeated a well-worn statement: that the UK is the “most successful multi-ethnic democracy in the world”.
These words do nothing to address how and why Conservative politicians have normalised a political culture in which racist dog-whistle politics is still seen as acceptable. Not reasoned discussions about extremism – but emotionally-charged and racially-activating comments designed to provoke controversy, hate and division.
Rishi Sunak won’t say whether he believes Lee Anderson, who lost the Conservative whip following his claims about Labour’s Sadiq Khan, was driven by racism in making the remarks.
But he has pointed to how proud he was to become the UK’s first Asian Prime Minister and how this had occurred without it being of note.
“That’s because we have a way of doing these things, of respecting everyone, and at the same time ensuring that everyone integrates into our community and subscribes to a common set of British values,” he added. And that’s why… racism or prejudice of any kind is completely unacceptable.”
These are the same vague lines we hear every time issues of race become a ‘flashpoint’; when underlying realities briefly catch the attention of politicians and media outlets usually only too willing to refuse to engage.
But claims about Britain’s ‘better nature’ do nothing to address a political culture in which issues such as Islamophobia are seen as a way to advance political capital – and specifically how the Conservative Party has been at the forefront of its normalisation.
Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – the first Muslim to serve as a Cabinet minister in David Cameron’s Government – has spoken many times in recent years of how she doesn’t recognise the elements of her party taking this route. For her, Anderson’s comments showed how the Conservative Party sees Muslims as “fair game” and “convenient electoral campaign fodder”.
Anderson's comments are also indicative of a deeper, perhaps narrow but emboldened, current within the party that has never been afraid to vocalise such sentiments – from the very top.
It was the former Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who wrote of “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” and Muslim women looking like “bank robbers” and “letterboxes”.
His Vote Leave campaign, which Johnson led with Michael Gove, claimed Turkey would soon be joining the EU and was unafraid of peddling a xenophobic and anti-immigration message during the Brexit Referendum.
Accusations of institutional Islamophobia in the Conservatives – including most recently by the vice-chair of the influential 1922 Committee, Nusrat Ghani – remain unscrutinised, even if dismissed by the party.
At the top of Sunak's priorities is the controversial Rwanda scheme, ruled unlawful by the UK’s Supreme Court, which was initiated by former Home Secretary Priti Patel (a policy one seasoned and senior Brexit-supporting Conservative MP told me was “the concentration camp scheme”).
Patel’s successor at the Home Office Suella Braverman – who Sunak was happy to bring back into government when he became Prime Minister – has made a number of inflammatory statements during her tenure and since, including falsely claiming that child grooming gangs in the UK are “almost all British-Pakistani” (despite the Home Office’s own research finding that the majority of offenders are white).
These are just a few examples, from the Conservative Party itself, which have contributed to a culture in which Lee Anderson had no qualms about claiming that the London Mayor has handed the cities to Islamists.
Then there are the elements within the party only too willing to stand alongside the likes of Nigel Farage and his friend, alt-right strategist Steve Bannon – who has baselessly ‘predicted’ that there will be a nationalist uprising in Britain to install Farage as Prime Minister.
Whether these dog whistles are sounded for political capital with the public at large, with Conservative Party members in the country, for reasons of leadership ambitions, or in the myopia of a ‘culture war’ perpetuated by politicians and media outlets far detached from the actual views of the vast majority of people in this country, the effect is the same: the normalisation of the weaponisation of hate.
In 2021, Peter Jukes and I spoke to former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve on Byline TV about how such a culture was being normalised by his party under Boris Johnson, who had expelled him and a number of 'One Nation' Conservatives.
“If you are pandering to people’s prejudices, because it is a way of getting short-term fixes, to your lack of policy and your being a shambles, it’s inevitably going to take you down this road,” he said.
“As an MP, people come in [to see you] and feel angry or unhappy or upset and want change. And, generally speaking, the Conservative Party has seen itself as absorbing this, by acting as a check and moderator.
“If you decide to no longer be a moderator, because it suits your short-term agenda, to cover-up for the shambles, then that’s the route down which you’re going to be pushed.”
Downing Street is today be briefing that “we don’t tolerate any anti-Muslim hatred in any form” – once again ignoring how it has normalised a political culture in which anti-Muslim dog whistles have been tolerated for far too long.
The truth is that strategically deployed racism has long been seen as a political tool. Rishi Sunak, as our first Asian Prime Minister of a party that has normalised its use, cannot call out something he has been complicit in.
Video: Rayner flees campaigners’ Gaza challenge
No answer for locals demanding answers over Labour’s complicity in genocide
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has run away from locals challenging her over her party’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
While out campaigning, Rayner ran into a group shouting – via loudhailer – ‘shame on you’ and fled as fast as she could get into her car and escape:
Rayner’s decision to be out campaigning in the first place may well be driven by insecurity: she has only a 4,263 majority in a town with a Muslim population of around 9,000. Labour’s support among Muslims has collapsed because of the regime’s insistence that Israel has a ‘right’ to conduct it’s mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians and it’s starvation blockade of over two million people, half of whom are children.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Bookies slash Galloway Rochdale odds to 2/1
Reaction against Labour candidate and warm welcome for Workers’ Party GB hopeful cuts odds from 16/1
Betting companies have slashed their odds against George Galloway winning the Rochdale by-election from 16/1 to 2/1 after the campaign saw the Workers’ Party GB candidate’s warm welcome contrast starkly with the hostile reception given to the Starmerite candidate, especially by local Muslims.
The phenomenon aligns with the catastrophic national fall in Labour Westminster voting intention among Muslims voters who voted Labour in 2019 – from 86% then to half that now – because of their outraged at Keir Starmer’s appalling support for Israel’s genocide and other war crimes in Gaza.
Not the Andrew Marr Show presenter Crispin Flintoff, who has been in Rochdale covering Galloway’s campaign, said:
I am still buzzing over what I saw around George Galloway’s campaign. There were hundreds of people at the launch and his campaign is extremely well organised. At the same time, other parties and candidates seem to be in disarray.
Starmer’s advisers have anonymously admitted that they fear the the impact of their enthusiasm for apartheid Israel, despite the ICJ’s findings against Israel for genocide, on the vote among Muslims and others horrified by the mass slaughter of Palestinians civilians in Gaza, mostly women – as well as the more general issue of the Labour right’s rampant Islamophobia and racism – and have already been proven correct in London boroughs and other areas after catastrophic local election results.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Labour ‘shuts out’ Black MPs and groups from ‘race equality’ launch
Black MPs and groups were ‘shut out’ of Keir Starmer’s ‘race equality’ launch last night. Several had expected to attend the event in Tottenham, but were not given the new location after Starmer and Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy cancelled the original meeting to avoid facing protesters eager to challenge them over their support for Israel’s war crimes.
Black paper The Voice has reported that:
Black MPs, community media and leading campaign groups were not invited, leading to accusations from party members we spoke to that the Labour party intentionally excluded them in a bid to censor opportunities to grill party leader Keir Starmer and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds preventing any real scrutiny of the Race Equality Act plans which were launched back in 2020.
This appears to have left Doreen Lawrence, a Starmer supporter, as essentially the only Black attendee – and ensured that no Black MPs or activists who might have challenged Starmer and his equalities spokeswomen Anneliese Dodds about the lack of substance in their ‘plan’.
Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, dismissed Labour’s plan as ‘window dressing’:
The proposed Race Equality Act is just window dressing. The foremost Black media organisation, The Voice, was not invited to the launch and most Black MPs were excluded. This reveals the reality of where Keir Starmer’s Labour party really stands on fighting anti-Black racism.
Even the paper-thin plan is unlikely ever to come to fruition under habitual promise-shredder Keir Starmer.
Labour’s issues with Black people and other racialised groups under Keir Starmer go back to the beginning of his tenure, when he named an all-white ‘diversity panel’ and excluded Labour’s most senior ethnic minority staffer. Since then, the party has been embroiled in rampant Islamophobia, attacks on Black women MPs and other senior elected figures, wholesale deselection of Black councillors and blocking of Black candidates in areas with large Black communities and more, as well as disgraceful racism toward Gypsy Roma people and naming an entirely male, entirely white panel to select local authority election candidates.
This report is true. I can confirm that Black journalists were excluded too.
https://t.co/G4BUu9hXXA
— Nadine White. (@Nadine_Writes) February 6, 2024
The party has also done nothing to root out the embedded racism exposed by the Forde Report, which Starmer reluctantly commissioned under pressure, then ignored when he could no longer delay its publication.
Read the full story on The Voice here.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
‘Landmark’ employment victory for Miller gives anti-Zionist views workplace protection
Prof David Miller wins unfair dismissal case vs Bristol Uni
In what his lawyers have described as ‘a significant triumph’, Professor David Miller has won a ‘landmark’ decision today in one of the most closely monitored Employment Tribunal cases of recent years.
Prof. Miller successfully claimed discrimination on the basis that his philosophical belief that Zionism is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial is a ‘protected characteristic’ under the Equality Act 2010, alongside a finding of unfair dismissal.
This judgment establishes for the first time ever that anti-Zionist beliefs are protected in the workplace.
In a comprehensive 108-page judgment, Regional Employment Judge Rohan Pirani of Bristol Employment Tribunal ruled in Miller’s, establishing that he had experienced discrimination based on his philosophical belief and had been unfairly dismissed by Bristol University.
David Miller is an academic sociologist specialising in state and corporate propaganda, public relations and lobbying. He was employed by the University of Bristol as a Professor of Political Sociology and continued working for the University until he was dismissed on 1 October 2021 after coordinated pressure from pro-Israel groups, despite two separate lawyer-led inquiries for the university finding that he had said and done nothing antisemitic.
The case has drawn attention to the challenges faced by academics and individuals advocating for justice, fairness, and equality in Palestine. It also underscores the issue of the weaponising of antisemitism by supporters of Israel to stifle discussions on Zionism, the political belief in a Jewish right to establish a state in Israel.
Rahman Lowe’s Zillur Rahman, who represented Miller, said Miller would be seeking ‘maximum compensation’:
This is a landmark case and marks a pivotal moment in the history of our country for those who believe in upholding the rights of Palestinians. The timing of this Judgment will be welcomed by many who at present are facing persecution in their workplaces for speaking out against the crimes of the Israeli state, and the genocide taking place in Gaza.
I am delighted for our client, David, who has been vindicated. His courage in fighting against the vicious campaign that was waged against him by Zionists within and outside the university, now sees him as a trailblazer for others that will follow. What is interesting about this case is that when David expressed his beliefs about Zionism which led to him being dismissed, they weren’t that widely known. However, the genocide Israel is committing at present, has woken the world up to the very belief David holds and was manifesting, which is that Zionism is inherently racist and must be opposed.
Whilst I am happy for David, it is clear that what took place has had, and will continue to have an impact on his career and therefore, we will be seeking for maximum compensation.
David Miller said:
I am extremely pleased that the Tribunal has concluded that I was unfairly and wrongfully dismissed by the University of Bristol. I am also very proud that we have managed to establish that anti-Zionist views qualify as a protected belief under the UK Equality Act. This was the most important reason for taking the case and I hope it will become a touchstone precedent in all the future battles that we face with the racist and genocidal ideology of Zionism and the movement to which it is attached.
The determination that I was sacked for my anti-Zionist views is a huge vindication of my case all the way through this process. The University of Bristol maintained that I was sacked because Zionist students were offended by my various remarks, but it was plain from the evidence of its own witnesses that this was untrue, and it was the anti-Zionist nature of my comments which was the decisive factor. I also want to note that this verdict is a massive vindication of the approach I have taken throughout this period which is to say that a genocidal and maximalist ideology like Zionism can only be effectively confronted by a maximalist anti-Zionism. Apologies, debate, and defensiveness of the sort illustrated by many on the left, and even in the Palestine Solidarity movement will not work. The Zionist movement cannot be negotiated with. It must be defeated. I want to thank the court, Regional Employment Judge Pirani and the two panellists Ms Kaye and Mr Launder for the professional way that proceedings were conducted.
I want to thank my legal team Zillur Rahman of Rahman Lowe and Zac Sammour of 11KBW for their strong commitment to defending the right to be anti-Zionist from the outset.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.