Palestine solidarity demos in the UK

[Gramsci]

Thing is Falters succeeded.

The Met statement on policing of recent protests says it will be meeting Jewish community groups.

Now when I've been on the marches there is a Jewish bloc consisting of several Jewish groups. JVL/ Jewish Socialist group and Naamod are ones I've seen.

The only community groups mentioned in press release are London Jewish forum and Community Security Trust.

I'm sceptical it's going to be any of the Jewish groups who attend the marches.

I appreciate the pressure police are under. As previous attempts to smear marchers as making central London unsafe for Jews haven't worked people like Falter and CAA are turning on the Met.

Updated statement on Met's policing of protest

We know recent events and some of our recent actions have contributed to concerns felt by many.

news.met.police.uk

 

[teqniq]

Braverman lying here, repeatedly:

 

[nino_savatte]

Even the government's execrable "antisemitism czar", John Mann, isn't happy with the CAA, who have taken the extraordinary step of blocking him.

 

[Gramsci]

Even the government's execrable "antisemitism czar", John Mann, isn't happy with the CAA, who have taken the extraordinary step of blocking him.

Had a look at that. And in the clip from BBC news John Mann holds up his phone to show that CAA have blocked the government anti semitism Czar from their twitter account.

Couldn't make this up

And he's questioning what their real motives are for turning up to demos.

 

[tony.c]

National PSC march in London this Saturday.

 

[Balbi]

Had a look at that. And in the clip from BBC news John Mann holds up his phone to show that CAA have blocked the government anti semitism Czar from their twitter account.

Couldn't make this up

And he's questioning what their real motives are for turning up to demos.

John Mann v the CAA is a real let them fucking fight situation.

 

[teqniq]

This is the same john Mann who resigned from the Labour party because of claims of antisemitism, blaming Jeremy Corbyn. You really couldn't make this up.

 

[Gramsci]

Got this from PSC. Considering neither of the two main parties are giving any support PSC has been doing outstanding work organising demos. And withstanding the smears levelled against those who take part in demos and help organise.

They are asking for extra funds to cover all this work. PSC have stepped in to fill the gap and done imo democracy a service.

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ For nearly 7 months we have been marching, rallying, protesting and building campaigns demanding a ceasefire to end the genocide in Gaza. The movement that all of us have built has refused to be silenced by the smears, demonisation and intimidation it has faced from the political establishment. But all this costs money… can you help us keep going? ​ Donate to PSC Yesterday we coordinated protests across the country in the latest nationwide day of action, centred on picketing Barclays Bank as part of the campaign for a boycott of the bank until it ends its investments in companies supplying weapons to Israel. Now we are building for the thirteenth national march for Palestine on Saturday 27 April. But we need your help to make this even bigger than our recent mobilisations. ​ We need to raise £40k For the first time since we began marching in October, we have managed to secure Hyde Park as a venue. We need to make this one of our largest demonstrations, so that the vast area of the park is filled and the image of hundreds of thousands of people of conscience is beamed across the world and seen by our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Holding a rally in Hyde Park with hundreds of thousands attending means we need to ensure we have a stage and sound system which can carry the message to all present. This alone will cost us upwards of £40,000. Can you help make this happen? ​ Yes, I can chip in The marches we have organised have been of unprecedented scale. There has not been a period in British history, maybe since the suffragette movement, when protests of this size have continued for such a length of time. People have marched because of their outrage at the images they have seen and voices they have heard detailing the horror inflicted upon Palestinians as Israel’s genocide has unfolded. They have marched because of their anger at the complicity of our political leaders who have continued to support Israel, even as it stands trial at the world’s highest court for the crime of genocide and uses starvation as a weapon of war. These protests have shaped public opinion, with recent polls showing that now not only do 70% of the British public want an immediate ceasefire, but by a 3 to 1 margin they also support the demand for ending arms sales to Israel. The pressure on our political leaders is growing. ​ Donate to keep up the pressure The movement we have built is growing stronger and louder. PSC now has over 100 local branches. This is the base from which we will carry the momentum from these extraordinary mobilisations into the sustained campaigns that will bring the change required to end all UK complicity with the oppression of the Palestinian people. This movement does not stop. This movement never stops until all of their demands are met, until all of the walls of apartheid are dismantled, and until the Palestinian people are finally free. Please donate to support our work. Ben Jamal Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign ​ ​ ​ Copyright © All rights reserved. Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd is limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales, Number 5213508. The Registered Office (not for correspondence) is Palestine Solidarity Campaign, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX ​ ​ ​

 

[GarveyLives]

Coverage of the attempt by Gideon Falter to try and provoke an incident at the Saturday 13 April 2024 pro-Palestine protest in London in order to bring further pro-Palestine protests to an end:

​

‘Gideon Falter Came to a Pro-Palestine Demo Looking to Provoke – And the Media Gave him What He Wanted’

 

[The39thStep]

According to someTwitter investigators Gideon Falter has at least two bodyguards whilst he innocently walks around searching for Palestinian demos to cross



The blonde bloke with the sunglasses turns out to be a fella called Vicentiu Chiculita who works for works for a security company called the SQR Group. He previously helped coordinating the security at December’s fundraiser at the the RSA that had Israel’s Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in attendance and an adress by Israel's President Isaac Herzog via video link.




The SQR group recruit former British squaddies and according to the article below are run by former Mossad agents.

Your simcha security, drilled by the Mossad

www.thejc.com

 

[Gramsci]

And scrolling down from that article on how ex squaddies feel at home with ex Mossad JC reports that Gideon Falter is now saying he will go for a walk in London this Saturday:

Falter has called on his supporters to join him for a “walk” this Saturday, which will coincide with another pro-Palestine march in central London. In a letter to Met Police Chief Superintendent Andy Brittain, a screenshot of which Falter posted to X, the CAA head wrote:

“I am not planning a protest on 27th April. I am going for a walk as a private individual. I have not yet decided where I will walk, however it is likely that whilst walking I will be quite openly Jewish. Others might decide to join me. They might not. That is a matter for them. They might also be quite openly Jewish. They might not. That is also a matter for them.”

And the issue is broader than being able to cross the road. The issue for some Jewish groups is the marches themselves.

Defying calls for his removal, Rowley met with Home Secretary James Cleverly and London mayor Sadiq Khan on Monday, and they were joined by representatives from Jewish groups who called for stricter regulations on the number of pro-Palestine protests allowed to take place in central London.

Cant have people protesting against mass killings of Palestinians / increasing settler violence in West Bank/ yet more illegal settlements in West Bank given ok by Israeli government/ wholesale destruction of infrastructure of Gaza making it unlivable

I mean protesting about that is unreasonable.

I've not being feeling 100percent recently. But after reading that article I'm definitely going.

I'm afraid Gideon Falter and CAA are going to try a direct confrontation with the march. Im no great supporter of the Met but looks ot me they want to push the Met into either arresting them or Met backing down letting them go directly into march / being directly confrontational and hoping a few marchers will lose it. I'm sure Falter will have his ex squaddy Mossad fans there with cameras.

Really hope it does not work.

So far , to the disappointment of the likes of CAA, their provocations have not worked.

What they think imo is that this large scale well attended demos is in itself making London unsafe. Even when their provocations have got no where. They imo don't like people criticising Israel / and or being anti Zionist. But instead of saying this directly are trying to make out these are hate marches making London unsafe for all Jews.

From what I've seen the marches are made largely up by general public not the usual suspects. But its a sector of general public Falter and CAA have a problem with as they support Palestinians and don't have a great opinion of State of Israel.

 

[nino_savatte]

I wish the Charity Commission would pull their finger out and get on with the job of investigating the CAA for breaching compliance rules.

The Green Party reported the CAA in 2020.

Charity faces election bias investigation

Green Party spokesman reports the Campaign Against Antisemitism to Charity Commission over anti-Corbyn smear campaign

morningstaronline.co.uk

The complaint, made by Green Party home-affairs spokesman Shahrar Ali, accused the group of failing to be independent of party politics — a requirement under law for charities.

Mr Ali’s complaint centres on comments made by CAA’s head of political investigations, Joe Glasman, in a video published shortly after the 2019 election result.

Mr Glasman comments on Labour’s election defeat by saying that “the beast is slain,” also using the word “slaughtered.”

The bizarre video appears to show Mr Glasman admitting to co-ordinating a campaign using “spies and intel” against the party.

Charity Commission opened a compliance case against them in 2023.

Commission looks into complaint against antisemitism charity

The regulator has opened a compliance case to assess concerns about the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which says it has 'no reason to anticipate action'

www.thirdsector.co.uk

The CAA has grown rapidly during the last five years, with income rising from £60,000 in 2017 to £1m in 2021, according to Charity Commission figures.

A commission spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the Commission is assessing concerns raised with us about the Campaign Against Antisemitism.”

The CAA said that there was “no reason to believe that the complaint has any credence or merit” and that it did not expect to face further regulatory action.

My bold. The fucking arrogance of these people.

JVL lodged a second complaint against CAA in 2022.

JVL lodges second complaint to Charity Commission over Campaign Against Anti-Semitism

morningstaronline.co.uk

Campaign group Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), who first complained to the Charity Commission about the conduct of the CAA in April 2020, have now submitted a further complaint against the charity.

The latest complaint from JVL in March followed an attack by CAA on journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who they said had “overstepped the line” for an article written in December 2021 where she suggested “criticism of the state of Israel is deemed anti-semitic.”

JVL’s original complaint called for CAA to be removed from the Register of Charities on the grounds that they are a partisan political organisation and in breach of charities law.

 

[teqniq]

I wish the Charity Commission would pull their finger out and get on with the job of investigating the CAA for breaching compliance rules.

The Green Party reported the CAA in 2020.

Charity faces election bias investigation

Green Party spokesman reports the Campaign Against Antisemitism to Charity Commission over anti-Corbyn smear campaign

morningstaronline.co.uk

Charity Commission opened a compliance case against them in 2023.

Commission looks into complaint against antisemitism charity

The regulator has opened a compliance case to assess concerns about the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which says it has 'no reason to anticipate action'

www.thirdsector.co.uk

My bold. The fucking arrogance of these people.

JVL lodged a second complaint against CAA in 2022.

JVL lodges second complaint to Charity Commission over Campaign Against Anti-Semitism

morningstaronline.co.uk

Don't expect much from the Charities Commission the Good Law Project had an issue with them recently over the IEA and they promptly rewrote their rules:

Charity Commission races to clear Institute of Economic Affairs - Good Law Project

The charity regulator changed its guidance a day after receiving our letter and dismissed a complaint against the radical rightwing Institute of Economic Affairs in 12 days. Why the rush?

goodlawproject.org

The chair of the commission has strong links with the vermin (see in above link).

 

[ddraig]

beautiful Cardiff

 

[bcuster]

USC cancels 'main stage' commencement ceremony

After tensions led USC to drop its valedictorian and keynote speaker from its main commencement ceremony, the school canceled its largest graduation event.

www.latimes.com

This is in US, of course, but the increased protests on US college campuses are really starting to have had an effect...

 

[ska invita]

Wow

 

[Gramsci]

Met sets out policing plan ahead of central London protests on Saturday

Our objectives this weekend are to police without fear or favour, to protect the right to protest and to keep the peace. All Londoners have a right to have...

news.met.police.uk

The CAA "walk" has been cancelled.

The Israeli flag wavers will have position on march route at corner of Waterloo place and Mall. So expect the same as last demo with several lines of police keeping them away from those on march.

Really annoyingly Met make comment to imply that Jewish people who go on march are not representative of the general Jewish community:

Helpful map showing route.

I may not make it as working tonight.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist:

“The cumulative impact of almost seven months of protest is felt widely, but it has been a particular cause of fear and uncertainty in Jewish communities. While there has been a Jewish presence on many of the PSC marches, there are many more Jewish people who do not travel into the centre of London on protest days, or who avoid the tube, hide their identities or otherwise change their behaviour. It is a reality that should concern us all.

“I know there are people who feel the solution is to see these protests banned. The bar for such a decision is incredibly high – it requires a risk of serious public disorder of the sort we simply haven’t seen either in this period of protest or for several years."



So it also implies if the bar was not so high they would ban them. I feel the Met have started to cave in on the pressure they have been under.

They say that the demos have been peaceful. No break down in law and order. So its back to making out these peaceful demo aid in increasing anti semitism.

 

[Balbi]

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian doing the centrist dipshit thing of what sounds like a reasonable headline but then managed to avoid the finer detail in the Falter situation, like the whole further video which shows him to be an outright liar, while implying he may have a point so offering him cover.

Was Britain’s Jewish community grateful for this contribution from Falter? Some were, but others were troubled by his insistence that he had merely been out and about on a Saturday, minding his own business, when he happened to stumble across the Gaza demo, rather than admitting that he had deliberately set out to make a (perhaps legitimate) point. That lack of honesty was damaging because it played directly into the hands of antisemites who say Jews cannot be trusted to tell the truth about antisemitism.

...and takes a massive swing at Naomi Klein by not accurately saying what she said and offering her absolutely no cover, despite there being no lying involved in Klein's statement as published. Professional jealousy from Freedland here?

And that feeling is not reduced when they hear a big-name speaker suggest to a New York crowd that any Jew who believes, after two millennia of persecution, that Jews need a home of their own is a worshipper of a false, profane god.

Most Jews and Palestinians want peace. Extremists, narcissists âand other âalliesâ only block the way | Jonathan Freedland

Both sides are beset by those who think their words and deeds bring peace closer. Instead they make a better future harder to attain, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

www.theguardian.com

Someone elsewhere noted that Falter and the CAA have, for the first time, experienced pushback on their right wing activities because they decided to try and take on the Met Commissioner and the Cop, and bounce the Tories into doing what they want.

It was absolutely fine for them to doggedly go after Labour and get all the completely unexamined media time in that regard, but this time they've stepped out of line and now reports about the antisemitism czsar warned against Falter advising the extremism taskforce, and reports on his links with Israeli illegal settlements are suddenly able to be reported upon as journalists find that what wasn't relevant before is now extremely relevant.

CAA cancels counter-protest against London pro-Palestinian march

Campaign Against Antisemitism, led by Gideon Falter, cites safety fears and promises more protests to come

www.theguardian.com

I also see Falter and the CAA have cancelled their protest due to safety concerns but still purporting that their plan to walk alongside the pro-Palestine march was actually an innocent act - rather than just scaling up Falters provocation.

Not that they'd have got "thousands", but given their previous marches took place on alternate days or in entirely separate locations - this deliberate choice to attempt to hold a march not just simultaneously, but in the same location with the intent of following the other one should be getting a lot more criticism than it is.

As folks have said, the cops never allow football fans from opposing teams to do that, or anti fash and fash to hold sidebyside marches. Why on earth did the CAA think they could do this? Because they're used to getting what they want and they're mad as hell the establishment gave them even the mildest slap on the wrists for fucking with the cops.

 

[teqniq]

Demo started up at Warwick University:

At Warwick the Global Student Palestine Protest Movement arrives in style

On the morning of Friday 26 April, Warwick Stands with Palestine, a student-led coalition, called a rally and began an occupation on the Warwick campus at 6 pm, reports Robert Horsfield Having been there as a student, the University Campus is modern, corporate, and doesn’t at all lend itself...

www.counterfire.org

 

[Balbi]

Falter and the CAA have fucked it when the Observer puts something out like this, equating them with the Christian Zionist psychos etc

London Gaza protest: has row over ‘openly Jewish’ remark changed the march’s mood?

In the wake of a controversial viral video, Holocaust survivors joined pro-Palestine demonstration while fears of antisemitism grow

www.theguardian.com

 

[teqniq]

The Fail gets fact-checked by the Met:

 

[Balbi]

The CAA being so high on their own supply that they're going after the cops and the Mail being on board with this puts the Tories in a bad position.

They need the cops, but can't let CAA etc get away with this stuff. It's not like when they went hundy at Labour, they didn't matter.

My worry is if Labour get in they're absolutely fucken spineless against the CAA and will do something wild like ban these protests.

 

[agricola]

The CAA being so high on their own supply that they're going after the cops and the Mail being on board with this puts the Tories in a bad position.

They need the cops, but can't let CAA etc get away with this stuff. It's not like when they went hundy at Labour, they didn't matter.

My worry is if Labour get in they're absolutely fucken spineless against the CAA and will do something wild like ban these protests.

I doubt it - they might try and talk that talk, but even our current legal system would balk at banning protests that have caused very few problems (despite their size and frequency). Of course they would need to bear in mind too that the demands for action wouldn't stop with banning protests either, they'd try and ban symbols (flags and keffiyeh for example) and then move on to something else.

 

[planetgeli]

Part of an anti-semitic hate mob, yesterday.

 

[Gramsci]

A future Labour government would not need to ban protests like these. What it could do is lower the bar where Met can say a demo like this is threat to public order.

I notice when replying to Falter one of the Mets reasons they cannot do more is that the bar to ban a demo is high.

 

[Gramsci]

Or a future Labour government could fudge the issue by limiting number of protests.

Instead of outright banning.

Can see them do this in the mealy mouthed way Labour go on. Respecting peoples right to protest but limiting it.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

This is one articulate student

 

[Rob Ray]

Huh, didn't have "Macklemore dropping a banger for Palestine solidarity" on my bingo card for the week ...

 

[hitmouse]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this.

Last night the the BBC reported that


Falter is the CEO of the Campaign Against Antisemitism and claims that he wasn't trying to be provocative, but I have serious doubts. Falter's stunt (because that's what it was) was intended to provoke and smear the pro-ceasefire demonstrators, show up the the Met as taking sides and give credence to the claim that Central London on protest days is a "no go area for Jews", despite the fact that thousands of Jews take part in the demos. The news orgs fail to challenge the claims made by groups like the CAA and never interview Jews who are on the marches.

Falter is lying. My bold

Met Police apologises for 'openly Jewish' comment

Footage shows Gideon Falter being told his presence is "antagonising" near a pro-Palestine march.

www.bbc.co.uk

Falter is not only CEO of CAA, he's also a director and vice chairman of the Jewish National Fund UK, which buys up land on which to build illegal settlements. Here he is being celebrated on the JNF website in 2021.

https://www.jnf.co.uk/2021/06/jnf-uks-vice-president-gideon-falter-tours-several-life-changing-projects/

Tony Blair is also a trustee of the JNF UK.

The JNF has also funded the CAA not once, but twice.

Revealed: Israel charity funded Campaign Against Antisemitism

Jewish National Fund is a key donor to a group which boasted of slaying opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.

asawinstanley.substack.com

Very late to this one, but whenever the subject of Falter and the CAA comes up, I always remember the time a neo-nazi walked into a synagogue and massacred praying Jews, and Falter responded by writing a statement for the CAA that managed to avoid explicitly condemning nazis and just did a sort of "Muslims and Jeremy Corbyn are bad too" both-sidesism:

CAA reacts to the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh: “All over the world, far-right, far-left and Islamist extremists are stoking the flames of Jew-hatred, with too little done to stop them.”

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Today the peace of the Jewish Sabbath was shattered when a terrorist targeted Jewish innocents at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. As the Sabbath ends, families have been broken and lives have been taken. All over the world, far-right...

antisemitism.org

 

[nino_savatte]

Falter is a gaslighting cunt. The CAA once published a piece about black Jews, but neglected to mention how they, too, are affected by the same racism that affects all people of colour.