On the third anniversary of October 7th, student organizers in London, England, are determined to hold a pro-Palestinian march through the city. The London Metropolitan Police urged them to choose another date, noting that the demonstration was deliberately planned for the anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel, warning about the impact it could have on Jewish students and staff.
This was also the timing around which the United Kingdom’s Green Party voted to adopt a “Zionism is racism” motion, in what the Jerusalem Post describes as “Europe’s first mainstream political party to formally embrace an anti-Zionist position.”
The resolution characterizes Israel as an “apartheid state” and supports replacing Israel with a single Palestinian state across “historic Palestine.” Jewish leaders and Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the decision as anti-Semitic, arguing that it denies the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination.
“The Green Party in Britain adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism, legitimising armed struggle against Israel, and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’ – meaning the destruction of the State of Israel,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized. “The resolution constitutes a clear antisemitic text according to the IHRA definition, as it denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.”
Here’s my take.
I know that there are a lot of supporters of Israel in the United Kingdom, but activists like the student groups and the Green Party are drowning out their voices on the global stage.
There are 364 days to “advocate for Palestinians.” How out of touch with reality do you have to be to organize a pro-Palestinian march on October 7th or to call Zionism “racism” on the eve of the anniversary of Hamas’s attack that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and saw more than 250 people taken hostage?
October 7 should be a day to remember the victims of one of the deadliest attacks on God’s chosen people since the Holocaust, not to use as a platform to minimize the suffering of the Jewish people.
