Leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin recently made some new statements of rebranding the policies of the BNP to the British Public in their European election manifesto.
“Freedom, Security, Identity, Democracy. Nobody can criticize them, nobody can come at you and attack you with those ideas, they are sayable… So instead of talking about racial purity we’ll talk about identity.”
Nick Griffin, BNP party leader.
I immediately remembered where I had heard these words used before, it is the same language of former Israeli politician and new head of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, most present in his latest two books, The case for Democracy and Defending Identity.
In another interview Nick Griffin was asked whether British Indians for example could be British like a white British person. To which he responded that they could be civically British but not Ethnically British.
Britain today, regarding itself as a multicultural society allows for different ethnic groups to retain their own culture and community and also integrate as part of the greater society. Nick Griffin does raise an interesting point that there is to an extent a double standard being imposed on people like himself to identify himself as ethnically British and to exclude those who are not ethnically British but British citizens from being a part of his community and being branded as a racist for doing so. He raised the argument that if he were to go to India he would still be British ethnically and not fully accepted as being Indian even if he were an Indian citizen.
Before we go off the rails with such criticism of his party’s ideas, he does raise some very interesting points worthy of our attention as part of the UK Jewish community and as Zionists. If ever I were given one of those forms where I had to fill in my Ethnicity, I would always mark ‘White Other’ and then write ‘Jewish’ under please specify. I would indicate that I was a UK citizen and born in Britain but I am Jewish, I am part of the UK Jewish community and that is my Ethnic background. I am aware that there are Jews in Britain that view Judaism as a Religion and not as an ethnic background but yet according to the British race relations act 1976, the Jews meet the criteria of an ethnic group.
Under the Race Relations act, 1976, an Ethnic group must regard itself, and be regarded by others, as a distinct community by virtue of possessing the following characteristics:
1) A long shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which keeps in alive;
2) A cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily associated with religious observance. In addition, there are other relevant characteristics, one of more of which will commonly be found and will help to distinguish the group from the secondary community
3) Either a common geographical origin or descent from a small number of common ancestors;
4) A common language, not necessarily peculiar to the group;
5) A common literature peculiar to the group;
6) A common religion different from that of neighbouring groups or from the general community surrounding it;
7) Being a minority or being an oppressed or dominant group within a larger community.
Jews are recognised in Britain as an ethno-religious group, so can a Jew choose their ethnicity according to their choice? Some of us will put Jewish under religion and some under ethnicity. Some Jews may put nothing under Religion if they are not religious. This always confused me, because I have a religion, but I am not religious, I have been brought up with a Jewish background and with its traditions, I had a Bar Mitzvah and I went to Jewish school, but my religious views are atheist. I view my Jewishness as my ethnic-cultural background. And then there are Jews I know who will pick Jewish as their religion and White British as their ethnicity the same as Nick Griffin. Hence the complexities of Jewish identity I guess.
As an Israeli, the issue becomes a little more complicated. My ID card, which every Israeli citizen holds does not mention my ethnicity, however ID cards issued before 2005 did include ones ethnic group under ‘Nationality’ as Jewish, Arab (including Christians and Muslims) Druze or other. As a result of legalities on whether it is permissible to assign ethnicity or nationality to the ID cards it was dropped and today if one is Jewish there will be a Hebrew date of birth as well as a civil date which will not appear on the ID cards of non-Jewish citizens.
I do not believe that the state of Israel would have allowed me to identify my ethnicity or nationality as British if I so desired by virtue of the fact that I am Jewish before 2005. My ID card assigns this component of my identity to being my ‘place of birth,’ the United Kingdom. However Nick Griffin would have been regarded according to the old ID card system as British if he were to have moved to Israel. It would be interesting to know how the State of Israel would have classified for example a British Indian citizen with dual citizenship already becoming an Israeli citizen before 2005.
The United Kingdom does not have ID cards and even on my British passport it does not mention anything of ethnicity, Nationality refers to citizenship and says that I am British. The United Kingdom does have a criteria for what it defines as an ethnic group but it seems at present whether one belongs to one of these groups is for legal purposes up to the choice of the individual. However it seems likely that should the BNP some day come into power they would like to impose a more concrete definition with regard to ones identity into the British system, most likely similar to that of Israel.
Nick Griffin when asked if he hated Muslims responded that:
“We do not hate Muslims, but we do have a concern about the Islamification of Britain.”
Islamic extremism is a concern for the whole world, and particularly to countries that fear those who call for democratic governments to be overthrown or replaced with Sharia law. However the attitudes of the BNP to reinstate a Britain for the British people involving control of immigration and inevitably involves shared concern with the majority of Israeli parties represented in the Knesset, demographics. Zionist leaders speak openly about the “Demographic” threat, referring to the number of Jews living in Israel in relation to the growing number of Arabs. The Arab population in Israel, both Israeli Arabs and often referring to the Palestinian Arabs are referred to in open discussions as a demographic “threat,” or “problem.” It wouldn’t surprise me if the BNP in the change of its use of language from talking about “Racial purity” to referring to it as preserving “Identity” would start referring to ethnic minorities in the UK as posing a “Demographic threat.”
I only wonder if Israel weren’t to be a self proclaimed Jewish state anymore and were just a Democracy where there would be more Thai workers living here permanently and other non-Jewish immigrants coming here looking for a better quality of life, whether the Zionist parties of today would be regarded in the same manner as the BNP. Many people today do regard Zionism as a form of Racism.
The British nationality has been blurred for the British people. Columnist Melanie Philips in her book “Londonistan” attributes this post modernism and abandonment of Britishness in favour of multiculturalism to a feeling of ‘post colonial guilt.’ Where the British have chosen to give up on its heritage and values in order to cleanse itself of its feeling of guilt for the exploitation of the former British Empire.
It is interesting how some Jews can apply two opposing political principles to two different countries. On the one hand calling for Britain to be a multicultural society, which understandably would enable greater freedoms to its ethnic minorities by being so. But at the same time, arguing that Israel has a right to be the state of the Jewish people, and insist that the whole world and the Arab world and particularly Israel’s Arabs accept this.
There are certainly some differences in the content of the BNP and the manner by which they have gone about making their voices heard in the past. Which have been undoubtedly discriminatory and threatening to the UK’s minorities. However this puts me in a rather difficult position as an Israeli and an Ex British Jew.
Zionism and British nationalism do agree on their definitions of Nationality and Ethnicity. And in principle I always believed that Britain had maybe gone too far with regards to not preserving much of its heritage. I was not happy when trading laws changed on Sundays, and there has become in Britain a lack of a connection to its heritage and an extreme reaction by the BNP.
During my time in Britain I never regarded myself as being ethnically British. I considered it my place of birth and my country of citizenship, I was a law abiding citizen and as long as I was granted equal rights, which I was, and the ability to be a Jew as I pleased and had my freedom, I would not pose any threat to Great Britain. Particularly as I was also a Zionist, I understood what was involved in preserving a countries identity, values and culture and believed that if I were a minority living in Israel this is how I would like them to behave. In Israel, the Druze are a good example, as long as they are loyal citizens and accept the country as having a Jewish character then I would be happy to live amongst them in mutual respect.
This was my attitude towards Great Britain, it is a good country that granted the Jewish people refuge there, and is a relatively good host nation for its Jewish community and other minorities in spite of its problems. It has almost become politically incorrect to refer to one group as being more British than another in the UK, even in an ethnic sense. If British nationalism could moderate its form a bit so as to apply respect to all of its citizens then I would most likely support it.
I cannot see how on the one hand I can believe that the Jewish people have a right to a state in the land of Israel. And even have policies and open discussions about preserving a Jewish majority either through immigration or compromising on land as just one example and then deny in principle the right of another nation to their own state. Nationalism comes from the starting point that “there should be a state for every nation.” What that means in a globalized world is harder to put into practice and raises issues of other nations that do not have a state of their own, such as the Kurds.
In a country like Britain where there are many nationalities and ethnicities residing, many with dual citizenship, I guess in a sense it is maybe better to speak of homelands. I guess I do not see an issue if Britain, like many other nations including Israel adopted some sort of law of return encouraging or giving the ‘British’ descendants priority on immigration to Britain. British is a distinct ethnicity yet the British are afraid of offending someone by admitting so. There are British communities that in recent years have ghettoized themselves into communities in parts of Spain for example.
Israel is the Jewish homeland and there are Jews all over the world. India is the Indians homeland and there are Indian communities all over the world, and the same goes for all other Diaspora communities. Britain is the homeland of the British. I do not see anything wrong in that. I have a friend here in Israel who has been working here for quite a few years now, she is not Jewish or Arab, she is a White British girl, she likes it here but Britain is her homeland, that is where her family is from, that is where her culture is and her people. Once I was a Jew living in her country and now she is a Brit living in mine. And I’m fine with that. I do not support the BNP but I am in favour of the British being British. In the words of Israel’s first President, Chaim Weizmann:
“Palestine will be as Jewish as England is English.”
Today it is up to the English to decide whether it wishes to be as ‘English as Israel is Jewish.’
Alex Carson
08.06.2009
For more articles by Alex Carson, visit: http://alexcarson.wordpress.com/
