Farrukh Dhondy | Amid Gaza war, efforts on to ban pro-Palestinian London protests

“Come visit the all-seeing Sachapir

His words fulfilling as a bowl of kheer

Predicting the past is his expertise

The future holds unknown mysteries

You will depart no wiser but peaceful and calm

With a lighter pocket -- can that do any harm?”

From Encounters with Evil Gibberish, by Bachchoo

Ever since the genocide in Gaza came to the world’s attention, there have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations every Saturday in London. They carry Palestinian flags, placards which say “Free Palestine”, “Ceasefire Now”, etc.

Some marchers have raised the slogan “from the river to the sea”, which has been interpreted as a demand for a state of Palestine from the river Jordan (I presume, rather than the Indus) to the Mediterranean. Undoubtedly, it could be interpreted as a demand for a nation that includes the West Bank, Jerusalem, Israel and Gaza. This could be, and is characterised as, a hostile-to-Israel demand (Fat chance? Beggars would ride???) for the obliteration of the Zionist state.

I could offer another interpretation: that of a single multi-faith state with a guarantee for the entry and safety of the Jewish Israeli population living in harmony with Palestinian Arabs. Yes, a fantasy, so not a demand -- just a possible interpretation, even though ultra-orthodox Jews, such as Neturei Karta and the Satmar Hasidim, would support it on the grounds that Jehovah’s promised land was not a human-established nation state.

These demonstrations are, in the main, demanding an end to the slaughter of innocents in Gaza, which is why hundreds of Jewish people join these marches.

Organisations, such as the Jewish Network for Palestine, make it their duty to demonstrate a presence. Several of their members have appeared on television, testifying as the descendants of the prisoners (or even themselves as infants, the prisoners) of Nazi concentration camps.

Their unmolested presence, to me, gentle reader, indicates that there is no venomous anti-Semite, anti-Jewish animus in the Palestinian marchers -- or at least one that doesn’t express itself in attacks, verbal or physical on these Jewish people. Yes, anti-Zionist!

On Saturday, April 13, Gideon Falter, the chief executive of an organisation called the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, went to Aldwych in central London as the pro-Palestinian demonstration was in progress past that spot. He was wearing a yarmulke, the Jewish skull-cap. He approached the marchers from a point behind the police cordon that accompanies most demonstrations. He accosted the bodies of policemen who blocked his access to the passing marchers.

He said he wanted to cross the throng of marchers to get access to the streets beyond. A senior policeman denied him access to the march and said, since he was clearly Jewish, it could be a provocation to the marchers and so, for his own safety, the copper said he would escort him by another route to the other side of the street. Falter refused and tried to push past the constable. He was restrained.

It’s pretty obvious that the policeman, whether rightly or wrongly, prevented this entry and crossing through the marchers, not through any anti-Semitic conviction but because he believed it might provoke an attack on Mr Falter.

Falter was stopped from crossing but not from loudly protesting that he had encountered police anti-Semitism.

This protest reverberated through the Tory Party and even with Prime Minister Hedgie Soongone, who joined him in demanding an abject apology from the officer who had told Falter that he was openly Jewish. These Tory boobies even demanded an apology from the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

They, with Falter, turned this simple attempt to forestall a possible civic “incident” into a disingenuous cry of “anti-Semitism” in the police force.

Now, it’s no secret that Falter and his Campaign have lobbied to have the pro-Palestinian Saturday marches banned. Some Tory supporters have even called for the Army to be sent in to disperse the Saturday marches if a ban on their demonstrating resulted in civil disobedience. The disobedience could be thousands of pro-Palestinians gathering to assert their right under British law to demonstrate on the streets.

Allow me, gentle reader, to get personal and go back to July 7, 2005, when four bombs were set off by Islamist suicide bombers, three on the London Underground and one on a London bus. The bombs went off earlier in the day and I happened to be walking towards Edgware Road Underground station where one of the bombers had killed himself and his innocent victims. There was a police cordon across Edgware Road. Nevertheless, some people were walking through the cordon.

As I approached it, a senior police officer stepped out and asked me to stop and turn back -- he said he was not letting me through. He must have used words to the effect that I was obviously Asian though I wasn’t wearing my Parsi skull-cap or even the Muslim fez I’ve kept from my father’s belongings.

The officer said there were gatherings (he didn’t say “a mob”) outside the Tube station and that he was turning me back for my own safety. I understood. I turned back -- thankfully.

I didn’t go to the press or to the Labour Party to protest against the curtailment of my freedom or that of “obvious” Asians to walk wherever they chose.

So: “Why did Gideon Falter cross the road?”

“To provoke an incident which would permit his Zionist Tory supporters to try and ban pro-Palestinian marches.”