Another day, another outrage.
Who is this woman? She’s been on some demo, marching against Brexit or Trump or some other gluten-free cause. She’s probably nice. I probably know her. Definitely seen her. Odds on, a Facebook friend.
Looking at her idly tapping on her phone. What’s she doing? Making a list of things to get on the way home? Making an arrangement for later tonight? Doesn’t matter. She’s been on the demo, made the effort. She means well. Or, she thinks she means well. She’s on the side of the oppressed, the victims, the down-trodden, the poor people. She’s probably a nice person, trying to do the right thing.
On the other hand, she could be an anti-semitic racist. Who knows. I doubt even she knows. She doesn’t know cos she hasn’t engaged her brain. She hasn’t stopped to think what it – what any of it - means. All she knows is “Palestine, good. Israel bad”. It’s part of the essential package of being concerned: anti-racist, anti-corporate, anti-colonial, anti.
Last week it was about Monsanto. This week it was Jamie Oliver and “cultural appropriation”. A few weeks ago there was a “Stop Trump” march and in amongst all the placards and posters about Trump, there were the Palestinian flags, the “Free Palestine” placards, all that. Probably placards about stopping the Judaisation of Jerusalem. This woman was probably there too. Stopping Trump and freeing Palestine.
“Stop Judaisation of Jerusalem”. What does it even mean? You couldn’t stop the “Judaisation” of Jerusalem any more than you could stop the Frenchification of Paris or the Englandification of England, but I’m not sure that’s the point. It’s a slogan. It looks good from a distance and has the word “Stop” in bright red letters. (It’s essential for a slogan to advocate stopping something).
Every day there’s stuff in the papers about the Left and about Corbyn and the Corbyns. Laying wreaths at the graves of murderers. Sharing platforms with right old scumbags. Whatever. And I get annoyed about it and upset by it and say to myself “Oh, I must write a blogpost about that” and by the time I get around to it there’s another thing. The vicious, vicious stuff that was thrown at Margaret Hodge by the caring, concerned Left. But this picture stayed with me.
It’s that word. Judaisation. They’re not messing about any more saying it's Israel. This is about Jews. The poster is about Jews. There’s no pretence about Israel or Palestine or any of that other bollocks.
I spent long enough working on newspapers, writing headlines, to know that in a headline the most important word is the first word, the biggest word. That’s the one that catches the eye. And that word here is Judaisation. That’s what catches the eye.
This woman, idly tapping on her phone. I find it so hard to believe she has an idea of what she’s carrying and what it says, that she’s given it a minute’s thought, that it’s anything other than essentially a fashion accessory. And maybe that’s what I most resent about this incarnation of Labour and the Left. They’ve made hating us fashionable.
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