Thanks for invitation on behalf of Jewish Action for Palestine (Manchester) and JVL – (“L” now for Liberation NOT Labour!). Brothers, sisters, – Life is Precious. The life of our mothers. The life of our fathers. The life of our sons. The life of our daughters… each life is precious. We all share this human emotion. We are deeply saddened by the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue and by the killing of Adrian Daulby and Mark Cravitz. We mourn their loss and offer our support to their loved ones, their families and community and all the families involved and all the various communities across the country.
There is not one Jewish community. We are diverse like everyone else. We include Charedi Jews very many of whom are strongly anti-zionist. We include secular Jews like me. But across this diversity I’m sure we all share the feelings of grief both within and outside the Jewish communities. We have all been deeply moved by the widespread expressions of sympathy and solidarity we have received from our comrades and friends particularly in the Palestine solidarity movement – and here on these assemblies and marches – Jews Muslims, Christians people of many different faiths and people of no formal religious faith. Here in Manchester we have walked together in solidarity. Walked together side by side, arm in arm every week for these 2 long and painful years.
And we express our sorrow and our grief about the slaughter of so many Palestinians. Grief goes across these lines. It doesn’t belong to any one community. We share it., Each individual is precious, unique – the children’s names will be read out today – so may names – so many hours – it’s almost inconceivable and it will take many, many hours. Each name representing the horror and the pain of the loss of a unique human being. More than 60 thousand killed in Gaza! More than 20 thousand children killed!.
But this horror is more than each unique individual. It is also a genocide and I mean that as a lawyer – as defined by the 1948 Convention and acknowledged by all the world’s leading legal experts and genocide scholars – although still cynically officially denied by Starmer and our politicians. He can’t acknowledge it! Why not? Because once they say they recognise it’s a genocide, legal requirements kick in and he has to do something!. Fine words will be no good after that. He’d have to ban the export of arms entirely – they’re still sending F35 parts which are raining bombs on the families in Gaza. He’ll have to end the trade deals and end the diplomatic cover. So he’s not going to admit it’s genocide. In other words -this is an attempt to destroy the Palestinian people “in whole or in part” – those are the words of the Convention.
Starmer and his team spread the lie that our marches are a threat to Jews in the UK. As always they try to confuse the terms – Jews/Israelis/Zionists -these are utterly different categories.. And anybody who sits down to think about it will see how much harm is caused by that kind of deliberate confusion. Jews in this country are not responsible for the horrific crimes of Israel in Gaza. That’s one example of that confusion for you. And that confusion can cost lives. We know that now. We know that in Manchester now.
By suggesting we should not march today these leaders are giving credence to the idea that decent minded Jewish people in this country do not share our opposition here to the slaughter in Gaza. Of course they do. So that’s all the more reason why we shouldn’t give in to the pressure to say that somehow our marches are harmful to Jews – quite the contrary! I believe we are expressing what decent minded Jewish people will think – that there has to be an end to the horror and the genocide in Gaza.
These are NOT hate marches. I have personally experienced – coming every week no hate at any time over 2 years. I want to tell you – and it moves me close to tears I have experienced great kindness and solidarity …and love. I want to say thank you. That’s the truth of it. The propaganda is that we are gathered IN HATE that comes from many. The Home Sec Shabana Mahmoud tells us… stay at home today. She says “Imagine you’ve lost a loved one”. Well I’ve got a question for you Shabana. Can YOU not imagine how many here on these marches have ALSO lost loved ones? Can you not imagine that? This is a grief shared. It doesn’t belong to one community. It doesn’t belong to one politics. It’s shared. So by coming together again today we can share our grief.. the grief which cuts across religion and ethnicity – it hurts every one of us.
She tries to cast the slur this is UNBRITISH – a very dark, dark phrase. As though we place ourselves outside the shared communities of this country. Our answer is that the best traditions here are of solidarity and love – And we’re in Manchester, youknow? 200 years ago not far from here, in St. Peter’s field – 60 thousand people were also told to stay home. But they did not stay at home. They peacefully assembled up the road and they demanded Bread the Vote and Justice. We also call today for justice for Palestine as well as an end to the bombing. We will not be DIVIDED.
Starmer is another one saying we should stay home …”to recognise and respect the grief of British Jews.” There he goes again! I AM a British Jew. My comrades here in our groups ARE British Jews. and it is precisely to mourn our loss and to share our grief with our Palestinian brothers and sisters and their supporters here that we must be here today. As Jewish people we are bound to have a …particular sensitivity to the horrors of pogroms and genocide. We will not be DIVIDED!
And chief rabbi Mirvis says stay home… claiming we are spouting hate – claiming we’ve been spouting hate for 2 years – it’s just not true!” He quotes “globalise the intifada” as hate against Jewish people. Mirvis will never listen to what that really means… but maybe we need to spell out more clearly to our fair-minded fellow citizens in M/C we mean an uprising to draw global support for Palestinian resistance to an unlawful occupation – I’m not quoting my opinion – unlawful occupation is the opinion of the highest court in the world. Globally not just by marches and student encampments. It’s the various activities across the world… in Italy …strikes and blockades … French dock workers in Marseilles blocked military exports to Israel and around the globe pressure on governments to try to support Palestine and to stop the genocide. Surely, rabbi Mirvis you can’t object to that saving of life?
Mirvis says RIVER TO THE SEA is antisemitic. It’s a phrase also used by Benjamin Netanyahu – but we’ll pass over that. Mirvis will not listen. We need to talk to our fellow citizens in Manchester who may be confused buy some of these phrases. But our fellow citizens need to understand that there are so many in the Palestine movement who have a vision of a united single state with equal rights and respects for all religions and ethnicities including Jews – it’s a vision of the future It’s not an annihilationist vision at all. People may say “How realistic is that?” But think about Northern Ireland and Ireland. Things are moving there. Irish nationalists have a vision of a united Ireland. That’s not annihilationist. It’s a vision of the future.
Whatever the motivation of the perpetrator of the attack on the Heaton Park synagoogue – it seems from the information released today that this may have been via online hatred. We know of course that racism antisemitism and Islamophobia are extremely serious threats. On these marches I am confident that such a lone wolf spouting Jew hate would have been challenged. Yet another reason for us all to come together here today – rather than sitting at home in isolation agonising about the horrific material we see on our screens. By coming together here we can gain the wisdom of our community and we can reason with and stop the kind of hatred that this person was seduced by.
We all recognise and condemn the increase in antisemitic conspiracy theories across social media. But I want to add to that that there have been far too many dog-whistle phrases in the speeches of mainstream politicians – huge hypocrisy – claiming to be anti-racist and at the same time sending their messages against migrants and foreigners.
I want to say something about Israel. As we know, Isreal is totally dependent on the support of its western allies – particularly the U.S. – and if Trump tells them to stop please God, they’ll stop – he hasn’t done until today. Israel routinely exploits antisemitism in order to create fear, helping to sustain its unlawful occupation and its genocidal actions in Gaza. I want to point you to the actions and words of Netanyahu and the Israeli state claiming to represent all Jews worldwide. They are placing Jews everywhere at increasing risk of violence. It goes back to that confusion about Jews, Israelis and Zionists. Don’t let them confuse you!
We will not rest. We will not abandon the streets until we see an end to this genocide and until Palestine is free. We are united in sorrow. United in determination to stand against the genocide. United to stand for justice for Palestine. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
- We are the people
- We wont be silenced
- Stop the bombing
Now/now/now now.
