Says the Mail yesterday:
Police have made their first arrests after two people allegedly shouted chants involving ‘calls for intifada’ amid a crackdown after the Bondi Beach shooting. Five people were taken into custody yesterday at a pro-Palestinian demonstration held in central London. One was taken into custody for obstructing arrests, while two were arrested for public order offences – one being ‘racially aggravated’, the Metropolitan Police said. It comes shortly after the London force and Greater Manchester police announced they would arrest those chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ amid a rise in antisemitism.
Read carefully. Shannon McGuigan implies without saying so that her story bears out the claim made in its header. No matter. The fact remains that two British police chiefs have declared that those who chant “globalise the intifada” will be subject to arrest. In a joint statement two days ago on December 17, the Met’s Sir Mark Rowley and Manchester’s Sir Stephen Walton declared the Bondi Beach atrocity and Manchester Synagogue murders to be direct outcomes of that rallying call.
The words and chants used, especially in protests, matter and have real world consequences. We have consistently been advised by the CPS that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don’t meet prosecution thresholds. Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive.
We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as “globalise the intifada” and those using it at future protest or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action. Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed – words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.
Two writers who’ve shown the police claim to be ignorant if we’re charitable, cowardly or worse if we’re not, are Jonathan Cook and Stephen Gowans.
Jonathan first:
Open letter to Met police chief: Let me tell you what ‘Globalise the intifada’ actually means
Dear Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley,
I heard on the BBC News last night that you are planning to “take a more assertive approach to the way [you] police pro-Palestinian protests” in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.
I wondered what this might mean, given that you and other forces have already arrested thousands of entirely peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters – many of them elderly, a number or them disabled or infirm – for holding a placard opposing the Gaza genocide.
Journalists have been detained by your counter-terrorism squad for writing, too critically it seems, about Israel’s slaughter of children in Gaza.
Prominent Jewish activists like Haim Bresheeth and Tony Greenstein are being investigated or prosecuted on terrorism offences, for publicly echoing the International Criminal Court and major human rights groups in accusing Israel of committing crimes against humanity.
What more are you planning? Tarring and featherings. Hangings in the public square. Let us hope not.
The BBC says that, following the attack in Sydney, you will arrest anyone using slogans like “Globalise the intifada”. Last night your force arrested two people at an anti-genocide protest outside David Lammy’s ministry of justice building for using what you apparently term “racially aggravated” speech.
Mr Lammy must be delighted …
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Since Stephen Gowans covers much of the same ground, as indicated by his similar title – What “globalize the intifada” does and does not mean – I’ll confine myself to his remarks that the Bondi Beach killers were, it seems, inspired less by Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells …
… and more by ISIS, one of whose senior commanders – shame on those twisted cynics loath to take his word that he’s renounced his former ways! – now runs what’s left of ‘liberated’ Syria.
Steve writes:
The killers, according to Australian officials, appear to have been motivated by Islamic State ideology. Islamic State thinking is pretty simple: kill the infidel—Yazidis, Christians, Shia Muslims, Alawi Muslims, Jews, and even non-fundamentalist Sunni Muslims. ISIS militants are not choosy. If you don’t believe what they believe, you’re fair game.
In June “a suicide bomber who was a member of the Islamic State opened fire before blowing himself up during the Sunday service at the Greek Orthodox church of Prophet Elias in Damascus, killing at least 30 and wounding more than 60 Greek Orthodox Christians.”
For every Jew killed at Bondi Beach two Christians were killed at Damascus, by killers inspired by the same Islamic State ideology. Significantly, the killing of 30 Christians was a non-story, barely noticed anywhere, but the massacre of half as many Jews has widely reported and is now known by much of the world.
No one has cited the Damascus slaughter of Christians as evidence of a spike in anti-Christian hatred, or called for Christians to have their own ethno-state where they can feel safe, or demanded measures to combat a growing scourge of anti-Christian animus.
It would appear that the Bondi Beach killers did not target Jews to show solidarity with Palestinians. It is more likely that they slaughtered Jews for the reason ISIS militants slaughter anyone, including Christians and Shia Muslims: because, in ISIS’s view, they’re infidels.
But even if the killers’ actions were intended as a show of solidarity with Palestinians, their decision to slaughter Jews on an Australian beach has no meaningful connection to any legitimate interpretation of “globalize the intifada.” The slogan is not a call to kill Jews as Jews, much less Jews living almost nine thousand miles away from Palestine, but to support Palestinians in their quest to overcome the opposition of Israelis to the achievement of a legitimate Palestinian political aim.
Read full piece on Steve’s What’s left? site.
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[Enter, stage left, an elderly John Cleese]
“He said ‘Intifada'”