Propaganda, Palestine and Repression: Our Dangerous Trajectory
The tragic events of last week will now be used by the Tories to further restrict the right to protest, writes BEN CHACKO
Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration near the Israeli Embassy, in Kensingston, London on Monday
THE immediate priority of demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine this weekend will be to urge an end to the collective punishment of Gaza for Hamas’s deadly raids a week ago.
The denial of electricity, food and water to more than two million Palestinians in the strip is unambiguously a war crime, whether the one-time human rights lawyer Keir Starmer recognises that or not.
As Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal pointed out at a fringe meeting at Labour conference, Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning to civilians in Gaza to get out can only be interpreted as covering his back for huge numbers of civilian deaths he already plans — which, indeed, are already happening. They cannot get out, because Israel itself besieges them.
There is a clear need to stand up and be counted in opposition to what is happening. The horrific scenes of last Saturday morning have unleashed a torrent of propaganda against Palestine and against Palestine supporters over here. They have also been seized on by the Tory government to accelerate a crackdown on expressions of support for Palestine which was already underway.
The Israeli media have no difficulty in placing last Saturday’s attack in context. The editorial board of Haaretz, the oldest and one of the biggest-selling Israeli newspapers, stated within 24 hours that the disaster was “the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu” who “failed to identify the dangers he was leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession... while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.”
As journalist Aaron Bastani has pointed out, similar comments in Britain would provoke howls of outrage. It would be decried as “victim-blaming,” though Netanyahu is not a victim and pointing to the Israeli state’s culpability for the situation is not blaming the innocent men, women and children who were put to death a week ago.
The right like to accuse the left of “virtue signalling,” but the demand that every public statement must be an unqualified condemnation of Hamas that does not reference the 17-year siege of Gaza, the significant rise in lethal Israeli violence against Palestinians over the past year or the inclusion of brazen, outspoken racists in top Israeli government jobs is virtue signalling. It is also a demand that discussion be entered into only on the right’s terms.
That’s dangerous, because rather than facilitating an indiscriminate retaliatory bloodbath in Gaza Britain should be putting its weight behind those Arab countries which — like Haaretz — have pointed to Israel’s contemptuous disregard for an alleged peace process as a causative factor in the tragedy and called for the urgent renewal of meaningful talks on establishing a Palestinian state.
We hear a lot about “fake news” spread on social media or by foreign disinformation, but Establishment titles like the Times have been utterly irresponsible in trumpeting incendiary claims which have not even been verified, as with the front-page stories about Hamas beheading babies.
Some on the left may be too quick to dismiss the reports — Hamas has openly and deliberately killed civilians, and stated its readiness to commit further breaches of international law such as the execution of hostages, so appalling crimes of this sort cannot be ruled out. But as another journalist and author, Alex Nunns, has indicated, as even the article under the screaming headline in the Times made clear, these are unverified allegations which the Israeli state has itself declined to endorse.
The purpose of splashing such claims across the media is to whip up a vengeful frenzy in which voices for calm and de-escalation can be smeared as apologists for terrorism.
Everyone on the left should be familiar with this tactic by now. It was deployed to defend the devastating and ultimately futile 20-year war on Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.
Variations made their appearance in the propaganda run-ups to the wars on Iraq and Libya, or when Jeremy Corbyn pointed to the role of British foreign policy in making attacks like 2017’s Manchester Arena bombing more likely.
Polls showed that despite the media frenzy most people agreed with Corbyn then, which should give us courage to speak up about the causes and solutions to these terrible events.
But the context now is more dangerous. Britain has a habit of whipping up and then dropping these propaganda drives as the need for them passes. Long-running public inquiries and parliamentary commissions happily published devastating indictments of the Iraq and Libyan wars, which left little doubt that those who launched them did so dishonestly — not that anyone was ever held to account.
Since a genuinely anti-imperialist politician like Corbyn came uncomfortably close to power in 2017, however, there has been a more consistent attempt to use each crisis to narrow the boundaries of permissible dissent.
Though rows over the extent of Labour anti-semitism would never have been headline news had the right not cynically seen them as an effective way to discredit Corbyn, the defeat of the movement he led has not seen the slander that support for Palestine equates to anti-semitism dropped. Instead, the Conservative government has pressed ahead with its effort to ban the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Early last year Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a massive acceleration of online censorship and a political crackdown.
Genuine horror at the scenes unfolding was exploited to effectively ban support for the Stop the War Coalition within Labour, with MPs who had signed its statement on the war (which condemned the Russian invasion but pointed to Nato’s role in the build-up) ordered to remove their names or face disciplinary action.
In 2020, Stop the War was voted the most popular campaigning organisation by Labour members; three years on it has to hold its fringe meetings outside the ring of steel around Labour conference and cannot expect a single Labour MP to grace its platforms.
Criticism of Nato, questioning our military alliance with the United States or the arms industry, is no longer tolerated in Labour and the defiance the Labour left showed at conference on questions of public ownership was notably absent on anything to do with foreign policy or war.
That has made campaigning for peace harder. It has also had a chilling effect on public debate in Britain on all international questions and is likely to make resisting a potential world war against China, which US generals openly contemplate and in which hundreds of millions could die, much more difficult.
It is already clear that Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel is being used in the same way. Suella Braverman has instructed police to consider whether, in context, non-criminal acts like unfurling a Palestinian flag might be crimes. Arrests have already been made on these grounds.
And as we know from demos like that against King Charles’s coronation, the police are increasingly willing to make arrests on the flimsiest grounds whenever a protest is in the offing. Vague “crimes” defined at the discretion of police forces beset by scandals over racism, misogyny and homophobia are a major and growing problem.
Braverman has revived earlier musings on banning the “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” chant often heard at solidarity demonstrations.
The Morning Star supports a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and the chant has long been controversial on the left because of its implied backing for a single state, with organisations like the Communist Party always having advised members not to chant it. But everyone should recognise how dangerous government discussion of banning such sentiments is.
Tory chair Greg Hands has seized on the opportunity to press Labour’s leadership to further crackdowns on support for Palestine, including with a disgraceful and dishonest attack on MP Apsana Begum which prompted a wave of vile and racist abuse against her. For the Tories this is win-win — public expressions of support for Palestine can be further repressed; if Labour further alienates the largely Labour-voting Muslim community, so much the better.
On our side against this propaganda barrage is the widespread solidarity and support for Palestinians’ right to a free and independent state built up over years of hard work by activists across Britain, evident in the packed-out fringe meetings for Medical Aid for Palestinians, Labour for Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign at Labour conference.
Even attending in the current atmosphere took courage, as PSC’s Jamal noted when he began his address. Labour MPs and trade union leaders who spoke at the meetings deserve our support.
That support must be maintained. Maximum turnouts at Palestine solidarity demos should be a priority for left organisations while the bombardment and possible invasion of Gaza continues. Union branches and CLPs should take their banners along. The strength of institutional support in the labour movement for a just solution and a peace process must be made clear.
Ben Chacko is the editor of Morning Star.
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