Wake Up Bradford!

Having attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Bradford Centenary Square on November 4th, we would make the following comments. We fully agree with the call for a full and permanent ceasefire, rather than a mere pause in the atrocities, which implies that the slaughter will begin again. We also fully support calls for an end to the siege of Gaza.

We note the courageous decision of the Burnley Labour councillors who, in the face of daily pro-Zionist propaganda, have resigned from the Labour Party in protest against Kier Starmer’s continued refusal to support a ceasefire and an end to the siege. Central to the media’s pro-Zionist propaganda is the claim that Hamas supporters are “terrorists”, “animals” and the like. No right minded person can support what Hamas did on October 7^th. However, rather than name calling, Mrs Thatcher used to call Nelson Mandela a “terrorist”, we surely need to examine why this happened. History is full of examples of settlers seeking to expel or wipe out native populations. Is it really any surprise that the natives sometimes fight back? The United States itself provides a good example, with white European, slave owning, settlers using their media, including Hollywood movies, to present native Americans as sub human, scalp hunting, “savages”.

The former leader of Burnley’s Labour Council, Afrasiab Anwar, is a shining example to us all in pointing out that protests against the Israeli occupation of Gaza are “not a Muslim matter”. We say this in view of the fact the Bradford demonstration was noticeable for its lack of white supporters. The demonstrators were largely courageous young lads and lasses, probably mostly born in Bradford of Pakistani descent. Where were Bradford’s Labour councillors and members of parliament, white and Asian? Surely they should follow Burnley’s example and resign their seats. What is the point of having a Labour government if its policies are the same as those of the Tories?

Clearly, following Mr Anwar’s advice, we need to broaden the agenda of the protest movement by involving members of all faiths and none, including fair-minded members of the Jewish community, most of whom are appalled at the mass slaughter of innocent men, women and children on both sides of the Israel/Palestine divide. We respectfully recommend that speakers at future rallies make every effort to be as inclusive as possible, rather than using language which is aimed exclusively at a Muslim audience. Amongst the unelected leaders of the Conservative government, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called for future demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people to be banned because, she argues, they may lead to violence. Following in the tradition of the British Imperialist slogan divide and rule, Tory politicians are seeking to dismiss calls for a ceasefire as a purely Muslim matter and thereby divide the communities in this city. We may note here that historically the record shows that Jewish minorities were, in general, treated far better in majority Muslim nations than they were in majority Christian nations. Similarly, we note that Bradford’s Reform Synagogue on Bowland Street was given support by members of the Muslim community when faced with financial difficulties. We make these comments since we believe that fair-minded people from all communities in this city, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, support the call for a new Middle Eastern state in which people of all faiths and none can live together in peace. We say this in the hope that future rallies in Bradford, and elsewhere, will be attended by people of all faiths and none.

In protest against the idea that Britain should continue to be America’s ventriloquist’s dummy, we resigned from the Labour Party as soon as Starmer was elected leader. America continues to support the financially and ideologically bankrupt state of Israel, making billions of dollars for American arms manufacturers producing the weapons currently being use to murder Gazan men, women and children. We may note that the current Labour leadership has not spoken out against the pressure America has put on the military and, largely corrupt, career politicians in Pakistan to imprison former leader Imran Khan, who is a much liked former chancellor of Bradford university.

Finally, we note that after Starmer took over the Labour Party the majority of people expelled for alleged anti-Semitism were actually Jewish. Their only ‘crime’ being their support for a new nation in which people of all faiths can live together in peace. This begs the question: is it in fact Starmer and company who are the real anti-Semites?

Simeon Scott, Arif Khan

Comment

(This is)”the voice of the minority and it’s expressed fairly and accurately. The Palestinian people are truly helpless in this conflict. No one can condone what Hamas did but the lives taken in return are 10 fold and rising every single day. If Hamas do not retaliate then who will? No other country is offering any assistance for fear of supporting a terror organisation. But what about all the innocent civilians caught up in this. Nearly 5k children killed so far.  Palestinians are oppressed and occupied people who are being treated like second class citizens in what is historically their land. It’s great you are trying to highlight the bias that exists in the west. Diplomacy is the answer not bloodshed.” 

Reshma Khan

Comment

I don’t think that UK media is pumping out pro-Zionist propaganda. In light of Hamas’s explicit aim of eliminating Israel as a state, to defend its existence is not propaganda at all. Now I can believe that Palestinians, along with very many in the surrounding Arab states, not forgetting Muslims living in the UK and across Europe, do regard Israel as some alien intrusion or settler-state, but the other side needs to be put, and there is another side, along these lines: Jews have lived in that area for millennia, in exile/diaspora they have aspired to live there again; Zionism arose late in the 19th century as another nationalist project because of the persecution of Jews in Russia and in Europe in general; the Balfour declaration (which of course belongs to an age when great imperial powers could assign and divide land as they wished) offered the Jews the prospect of a homeland, with Palestine the most obvious location; and thirty years on, with the support of the UN, Israel became a sovereign state. It is worth saying, and probably you know this, the extreme Orthodox do not agree that there can be a Jewish state at present; only after the coming of the Messiah can this take place. But they are an outlier, and in any case Israel exists, with its heroes and villains, successes and failures, and a political system that does give Arabs the vote, and the ability to rise in the professions. In other words, not a uniquely evil “Zionist entity”, nor the serious threat to world peace that some protesters view it as. Are there any other countries the legitimacy of whose existence is questioned, or rather denied? I can only think of Ukraine in the eyes of Putin and his supporters. This is not to deny the dreadful destruction of lives and property in Gaza, nor the long-lasting theft of land for Jewish settlements in the West Bank. They are stains on Israel’s record, and can only store up bitterness and violence, not just in the Middle East.

You write that fair-minded people of all faiths and none want a new Middle Eastern state, presumably encompassing West Bank, Gaza and Israel. This strikes me as more unrealistic than ever, following the latest war. Even a two-state solution looks to be out of the question possibly for fifty or a hundred years; a one-state solution would sooner or later end the Jewish state.

A Jewish native of Bradford