WHAT do you think is a suitable way to mark today’s second anniversary of the massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7, 2023?
Perhaps a sombre gathering, with some reflections on the events of that terrible day?
AlamyProtestors at Saturday’s march in London in support of Palestine Action[/caption]
Gary Neville ranted about how the British public are ‘being turned on each other’
Maybe some stories from the lives of the victims? Even a religious service?
All of those are happening today, quite rightly. But October 7 is not a day of infamy for everyone.
There are those who live among us for whom the anniversary of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust is instead a cause for celebration.
And today they will march not to commemorate the dead but to attack the living — with the same slogans and chants that they use on the regular hate marches and demonstrations that are seen on the streets of our cities. And not only marches.
Driven by hate
There will be events on campuses, such as Goldsmiths, University of London, where the “feminist library” is holding a night of “remembrance and resistance” — seemingly celebrating the rape and murder of Jewish women.
And at Liverpool University there will be a “Palestine Bake Sale”, with the celebratory sub-title: “Time for Dessert”.
If you live in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds or many other places, you will likely have seen the mobs and heard their chants.
One of the most common is “Globalise the intifada” — a call for the murder of Jews to be moved beyond Israel, as if October 7, 2023, should be just the start.
Thursday’s terror attack in Manchester was an example of globalising the intifada.
Another is “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — which demands that Jews be expelled from Israel.
One chilling chant which has been heard repeatedly is “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud! Jaish Muhammad sawf ya’ud!”, which means “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The Army of Muhammad will return!”
The marchers claim they are driven by concern over what is happening in Gaza but while that may be true for some, the prevalence of such chants (and banners with antisemitic caricatures that could have come straight out of Der Stermer, the Nazis’ propaganda tabloid) show how many are driven by Jew hate.
We will see more of it today.
It is sometimes forgotten that the first march took place on October 14, 2023, the week after the Hamas massacre — before a single Israeli soldier had entered Gaza.
The organisers of the march, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, contacted the police to plan the route on October 7 itself — while the massacre was still happening.
Imagine the mindset that sees mass slaughter and thinks, “What a great idea for a celebratory march.”
EPAA woman weeps at a memorial for victims of the October 7 attack[/caption]
GettyFootballer-turned-pundit Gary Neville has decided that the real problem isn’t Islamist extremism[/caption]
The Manchester terror attack was a wake-up for many, exposing how worrying the rise in anti- semitism has become.
But that has long been clear to British Jews.
We have pleaded with the authorities to take action against these open displays of Jew hate, but to no avail.
We warned where it was heading — and last week we saw.
I hate to write this, but I would be astonished if that was the only such attack. The security services prevented others until last week, but there will be more.
Antisemitism in Britain has been steadily rising since the years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, which emboldened Jew-haters to be more vocal and active.
But with hindsight that was the least of it. The unpalatable truth is that the October 7 massacre led not to a slowing down in the rise of antisemitism but an acceleration.
The response to a massacre of Jews was a record level of antisemitism in Britain. It is difficult sometimes to grasp just how depraved that is.
Stephen Pollard
Last month the Community Security Trust, which monitors Jew-hate, published figures showing there had been 1,521 antisemitic incidents here in the first half of this year alone.
The biggest rise, however, was in the first half of 2024, when the figures were the worst ever recorded.
In other words, the response to a massacre of Jews was a record level of antisemitism in Britain.
It is difficult sometimes to grasp just how depraved that is.
But the footballer-turned-pundit Gary Neville has decided that the real problem isn’t Islamist extremism but “angry, middle-aged white men”, as he put it in a post after the attack on Friday.
Has anyone told him about Jihad al-Shamie, the Manchester terrorist — a 35-year-old British Syrian?
Perhaps Neville has come across a secret cell of middle-aged white male Islamist terrorists. He should tell the security services.
Police protection
Neville then ranted about how the British public are “being turned on each other” because these angry, middle-aged white men are “using the Union Flag in a negative fashion”.
As a British Jew who once had to have police protection because I was on an Islamist hit list, I have a message for Neville: When I see the Union Flag I feel safe.
It is no threat to me or to anyone who is proud to be British.
Today will bring back all sorts of terrible memories from the massacre.
But for others, it brings joy. They are the enemy in our midst.
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