LIVINGSTONE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON ISRAEL TO STOP CARNAGE
Ken Livingstone has issued the following statement backing the demonstration in London today in London (Saturday 10 January) calling for an end to Israel’s military assault on Gaza and the lifting of the blockade of Gaza.
Ken Livingstone said:
‘Every day we see appalling pictures of children slaughtered by Israeli bombs, missiles and other sophisticated weapons. Yet with more than 700 dead and thousands more seriously wounded, the international community is allowing Israel to continue its completely disproportionate onslaught accompanied by an Orwellian litany of lies.
‘The root of this conflict is not crude Hamas rockets, it is the strangulation of Gaza by a pitiless blockade by Israel over a prolonged period of time reducing the population to abject poverty and repeated military incursions killing Palestinians in violation of the ceasefire agreed previously.
‘If anyone doubts this, they simply have to understand that Israel has also killed or injured hundreds of people in the West Bank over the last year, with no Hamas missiles at all, and continues a process of colonisation of that area with illegal settlements and military checkpoints slicing the territory to pieces.
‘The British government and European Union have the economic leverage to stop this carnage. They must take decisive action to force Israel to end the slaughter. This should start with the withdrawal of ambassadors from Israel and the suspension of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel and escalate until Israel ends all military operations, withdraws completely from Gaza and lifts its blockade. Hamas has repeatedly stated all rocket attacks would cease in these circumstances.
‘Israel could not continue its onslaught without the inaction of the international community. That must now end.’
Just got back from the demo in London which was massive - probably three times as big as last week, or more, which on my estimate of last week (25,000) means probably more than 80,000 on a freezing cold day - snowing at one point!
The positives were it was again very mixed in terms of ages and ethnicities, more trade union banners this week - and very militant. There was a vibrant atmosphere. Lots of Jewish anti-war protesters among the crowd, which was acknowledged from the platform, which also included Jewish speakers.
Very important that it was a massive turnout as tomorrow the Board of Deputies are organising a big pro-Israel rally to which they will be bussing people in for from far and wide.
Hope the organisers are sensible enough not to hold a another march next week but give themselves a breathing space to build for an even bigger one in maybe two/three weeks time. You can’t turn out huge numbers week after week.
Some of the negatives that need to be addressed:
* The stewarding was very poor. The failure to move people on past the Israeli embassy as darkness was falling and the riot police were tooling up made a confrontation almost inevitable and will give the media an excuse to skew the reports around the violence rather than the numbers, strength and demands of the demo.
* Although the vast majority of placards were clearly in line with the demands of the demonstration (end the siege, stop the killing) there were more than a sprinkling of placards this week with Nazi analogies etc that were more than borderline antisemitic and will be used by opponents to discredit the protest. Again the organisers/stewards need to think about how to deal with this.
* The SWP colonised a large section of Speakers corner where the march was gathering and were bellowing puerile slogans through their megaphones at the demonstrators as they arrived, appealing to them to “destroy Israel” (and presumably among them the Israeli anti-war movement) and calling on Zionists to “Go back to New York”. Not sure which aspect of socialist theory they think that comes from. But if they think the problem is Israeli/Jewish people rather than the oppressive Zionist state then they really have a lot of learning to do.
Comment by David Rosenberg — 10 January, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
David: what is wrong with placards with Nazi analogies? The holocaust is the standard by which all these things are measured and it shows that people remember the holocaust and are prepared to fight to prevent a recurrence. Gaza Ghetto is an absolutely correct analogy as far as I’m concerned. For the zionist, of course, the holocaust is not something never to be repeated but simply an excuse to commit unspeakable acts in the name of all jews whether they like it or not in the hear and now. The people of Israel should think on that as they cheer the F16s and Tanks going in. Not to mention the blockade.
Comment by David Ellis — 10 January, 2009 @ 7:51 pm
David at #2 says, “The failure to move people on past the Israeli embassy as darkness was falling and the riot police were tooling up made a confrontation almost inevitable and will give the media an excuse to skew the reports around the violence rather than the numbers, strength and demands of the demo.”
Unfortunately, experience shows that without those confrontations that you often get on demos when the police think it’s time to start wading in, the media don’t even mention the protest, or give it a two-second mention, which hardly constitutes a report on ‘the numbers, strength and demands of the demo’.
It’s entirely wrong to blame the stewards just because the march had a fantastic number of people on it, many of whom wanted to vent their outrage over the Gaza massacre outside the Israeli embassy.
Comment by steph — 10 January, 2009 @ 8:59 pm
didn’t go on this march…would have loved to…good to hear an unbiased critique of the March he offered by D.Rosenberg which doesn’t fall into ‘ harrys place’ type- hysteria
Comment by saeed — 10 January, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Saeed - true enough, but as you’ve seen on Harry’s Place, all they care about is finding points to attack.
It’s a sewer and it’s best avoided!
Comment by external bulletin — 10 January, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
David E - I think there are a few issues:
I’m not terribly keen on the use of analogy as a political mobiliser since it detracts from the significance of what is happening in its own terms. In Gaza Israeli bombardment has killed more than 800 Palestinians in two weeks - mostly civilians and including many children. And this after Palestinains lives in Gaza have been immiserated through the blockade for two years. Is that not a clear enough situation to respond to?
If we reach for the most terrifying analogy now, what language does that give us to mobilise from to describe if and when things get worse (as they are likely to do)?
What Israel is getting away with, with American and British support, is terrible but to say it is the same as the mass industrial slaughter of million in death camps is not credible.
Of course history is not always being reinvented and there are similarities between situations but if an analogy is to help us understand a situation then it is best if they are fairly accuarate. if you want to pull an analogy from Jewish history, then what Jews suffered under the Tsars in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century is probably much closer to what the Paletinans are suffering than the Holocaust.
In tsarist Russia, jews were confined to a particularly area by law, forbidden to move from town to town , had a series of discriminatory laws restricting their ability to meet their daily needs, were denied access to proper educational facilities and all kinds of employment opportunities etc and were subject to random mob attacks and persecution by the authorities.
Under nazism all Jews were cast as ‘untermenschen” and destined to become victims. The Holocaust analogies go along with texts proclaiming that the victims have become perpetrators. Certainly all Palestinians are seen as enemies in Israel, but are all Israelis and Jews the perpetrators? And is that our basis of a political programme for rectifying the situation? Or is it a case that the israeli military-political leadership are the perpetrators (with American and British military support) while many other Israelis would like to live in peace with the Palestinians and some actively pursue that by protesting against the war?
is Gaza a ghetto - probably yes. Is it on a par with the situation that pertained in the Warsaw Ghetto where people are rounded up regularly for transportation to death camps, or the Lodz ghetto completely sealed off from the world for four years with no possiblity of resistance ? No.
Many holocaust survivors went on to become staunch defenders of human rights everywhere including those of the Palestinians. These victims certainly didn’t become perpetrators.
When I see the ancient Jewish symbol of the Star of David = a swastika I see a horrendous accusation labelled at all Jews, not just an attack on Zionists, and I see a political programme emerging from it that will be diverted to the wrong targets and open itself justifiably to accusations of antisemitism.
That divides Palestinians off form potential Jewish allies in the diaspora and in Israel and cannot be in the interests of the Palestinians.
Comment by David Rosenberg — 10 January, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
Sorry Steph - i’ve just replied to your comment about stewarding but on the other thread! (huge protest for Gaza in London) - where basically I said that the police were well up for confrontation too - but that I remember much more effective stewarding on the Lebanon demos of 2006.
Comment by David Rosenberg — 10 January, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
When I see the ancient Jewish symbol of the Star of David = a swastika I see a horrendous accusation labelled at all Jews, not just an attack on Zionists
Yes. It’s also saying that Zionism is a destroyer of Jews, or of the Jewish people. Some anti-Zionist Jews might endorse this argument (I’ve seen it argued that the Diaspora represents the true Jewish identity) but it’s deeply divisive among anti-Zionists, let alone among Jews in general. The last thing you want to do at a time like this is alienate the majority of British Jews.
Comment by Phil — 10 January, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
hello,
Sign the petition to impose arm embargo on Israel (British Parliament)
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Arms-embargo/
Please forward to all your friends in UK … we need 40,000 signatures to make the government act …
Comment by bent felesteen — 10 January, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
I didn’t participate in the Gaza demonstration today although I am a member of StWC. While I have sympathy for the plight of Palestinians particularly those in Gaza now, the issue is not one that I have chosen to focus on as an activist – one has to set up some boundaries to activism!
Some comments earlier in this thread I find alarming and some I find tiresomely predictable. The most alarming comment is the report that SWP members were calling for the destruction of Israel at Speaker’s Corner. This is outrageous, has SWP discipline totally collapsed in the post Respect period?
The predictable comment that irks most concerns conflating Israel with the Nazis. Do people who make such analogies actually know what the Holocaust comprised! Clearly not and if they knew more about the Holocaust they would gain an essential insight to the Israeli psyche pertaining to never depending for their security on anyone else but themselves alone.
I was in Kensington High St to witness the march. It was clear the organizers had lost control because the march was headed by about two thousand agitated men, many of whom were progressing in that jogging on the spot manner so reminiscent of demonstrations past in South Africa. I did not think for a minute that those guys were going to pass by the Israeli embassy to listen to speeches at the Albert Memorial or wherever. And when the march ground to a halt I cleared off.
I did see the official head of the march and spotted Tariq Ali – his hair longer than when last I saw him – looking, together with the few demonstration stewards present, a bit frazzled.
StWC was founded in response to the “war on terror”. The Israel Palestine conflict predates this. StWC’s assertion of leadership in the current situation is misplaced and dilutes the organisation’s authority with respect to Afghanistan and Iraq about which the British public are much clearer in their opposition than the half century plus saga of Israel/ Palestine. Of course there should be a demonstration in London about what is currently happening in Gaza but surely that is the function of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Comment by Hugh — 10 January, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
“Some comments earlier in this thread I find alarming and some I find tiresomely predictable. The most alarming comment is the report that SWP members were calling for the destruction of Israel at Speaker’s Corner. This is outrageous, has SWP discipline totally collapsed in the post Respect period?”
Here we go with the SWP bashing. David, can’t you focus on the plight of Palestinians rather than making up things about the SWP? What were you there for - to protest about Isreal slaughtering Palestinians or attack the SWP and find anti-semitism around every corner? What are you like????
Comment by Ray — 11 January, 2009 @ 1:26 am
“What were you there for - to protest about Isreal slaughtering Palestinians or attack the SWP and find anti-semitism around every corner? What are you like????”
I was there for the same reasons I’ve been there on every major protest for Palestine since the Lebanon war of 1982 - to express solidarity with the Palestinians and support their demands for self-determination and equality. I’ve also been active in anti-racist and anti-fascist work since the mid-70s and never assumed there was any contradiction between these two strands of activity.
Along the way at times I’ve worked closely and other times less closely with comrades from the SWP.
Clearly the key issue at the moment is maximum support for the Palestinians and maximum pressure on governments around the world to stop the slaughter. That pressure will come form a strong united movement that cannot allow the poison of antisemitism to undermine it.
The movement is bringing in people who have not demonstrated before and have not been politically active before but want to express their anger. I would have thought that the role of socialists would be to encourage that anger to be channelled in the most effective way.
Comment by David Rosenberg — 11 January, 2009 @ 8:50 am
`Clearly the key issue at the moment is maximum support for the Palestinians and maximum pressure on governments around the world to stop the slaughter. That pressure will come form a strong united movement that cannot allow the poison of antisemitism to undermine it.’
What a stupid over reaction. You started off with an apparently reasonable arguement that comparing the events in Gaza to events around the holocaust was premature because things are probably going to get a lot worse for the Gazans and that these analogies will have lost their impact when they do. That was a discussion we could have had. But now you are just outright saying that those who compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto for instance or defaced an Israeli flag are simply motivated by anti-semitism and should be kicked off the demos at your say so. End of discussion I think.
Personally I think it is correct to wrest the memory of the holocaust from its zionist misappropriators and reclaim it for the oppressed of the world and I can assure you, not that I think it will make any difference to you, that I am not anti-semitic. Gosh, it seems only a few short weeks ago that we were all holocaust deniers.
Comment by David Ellis — 11 January, 2009 @ 9:45 am
#9. “I didn’t participate in the Gaza demonstration today although I am a member of StWC. While I have sympathy for the plight of Palestinians particularly those in Gaza now, the issue is not one that I have chosen to focus on as an activist – one has to set up some boundaries to activism!”
Well we can’t let minor events like like the continuing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza spoil our Saturday afternoons can we!!!
Hugh, you’re a total fucking disgrace.
Comment by Patrick Scott — 11 January, 2009 @ 10:57 am
“One has to set up some boundaries to activism!” Ha ha ha, that’s funny, I like that.
Reminds me of an anti-Nazi in the Third Reich asking his Catholic priest what he should do, and being told, “One must not endanger one’s life”…
Comment by Faust — 11 January, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
“Hugh, you’re a total fucking disgrace”
presumably my disgrace is being a member of StWC but not turning out for the Gaza demo. Well, I am like the millions that demonstrated with StWC against what this country intended for and participated in, in Iraq and Afghanistan. I suppose Patrick S thinks they are all a f***ing disgrace too. He must be a lonely guy!
As for no. 14 ,I am reminded of a post under a Seamus Milne article in the Guardian recently: 6 Israelis = 600 Palestinians = 600,000 Congolese.
Comment by Hugh — 11 January, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
One is reminded, when Hugh writes of putting some boundaries to activism, of a fat man in an armchair holding an expensive cigar. One suspects that Hugh would have been played by the later Orson Welles in the film one might have entitled “Hugh: The Limits Of Activism”.
Comment by Faust — 11 January, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Dave Ellis, I’m sure you are not anti semite, but lets not give the Zionists that stick to beat us with!
Nazi analogies are such a gift to the right so they can say “look at the awful anti semites, they pretend to care for the palestinians but its just Jew baiting”
Calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, hmmmnn.. well I support a single state solution, but are second third and forth generation Jews to be driven into the sea? - I prefer to call for a building of a free non racial Palesrael!
David Rosenberg and the rest of the Jewish Socialist Group have a great record on campaigning on Palestinain rights and are frequently attacked by the pro Israeli right for it.
Hugh’s point on Congo is quite valid, where are the protests there or don’t Africans count? What Israel is doing is appauling certainly war crimes, shame we are unlikely to see Olmert and co on trial for these crimes. But the death toll in the Congo, Zimbabwe, Burma etc… why the silence here?
I don’t get why we can’t be a bit more nuanced in our arguments, which in no way means being soft on the war crimes being committed in Gaza.
Comment by green socialist — 12 January, 2009 @ 8:02 am
With all due respect, the Star of David is considered by most people nowadays as a symbol not of Jewry but of Zionism. It is analogous to the Swastika, which very few people consider to be a symbol of Buddhism - which it very much was before the Nazis took it over.
Comment by Vinod Moonesinghe — 18 January, 2009 @ 1:59 am