The smears of antisemitism are used to try and slander the Palestine movement Picture: Guy Smallman
The media and politicians are systematically out to slur the Palestine movement as antisemitic.
Every mainstream newspaper has repeated columns and news reports claiming that Jews are living in fear because people are turning out in such huge numbers for Palestine.
It’s a lie to distract from the murders in Gaza and to slur the marchers. It may be used as a reason to clamp down on protests.
Antisemitism is a poison that has to be confronted—and it comes mainly from the far right and its hangers-on.
But the Palestine movement is not antisemitic—and the pro-Israel groups do not speak for all Jews. Some Jews have joined the demos because they too are horrified by the actions of the Zionist state.
Being against a racist, settler-colonialist state does not mean you hate Jews. It means opposition to a tool of imperialism that was built on the dispossession of Palestinians and can survive only by continuing violence against them.
It is those who now support Israel’s crimes who are slurring Muslims in particular and using vile racist stereotypes against them.
Again and again supporters of imperialism have used fake charges of antisemitism against Palestinians. As Jeremy Corbyn discovered, the worst response is to make concessions to these empty charges.
Instead we need to say that the Palestinian movement is the one fighting racism for liberation.
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