Contacted by the JC, a Stop The Hate spokesperson described the message – especially given it related to a day on which Jews remember the European antisemitism that made Zionism necessary – as “shameful”.
They said: “In recent years, British Jews have faced a horrifying resurgence of antisemitism. We have seen the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue, Jewish men stabbed in Golders Green and Hatzola ambulances set ablaze. Once again, British Jews have been forced to confront the reality of hatred directed at our community.
“That is why it is particularly shameful that some anti-Israel groups attending Sunday’s commemoration, while presenting themselves as anti-fascists, have sought to tell Zionist Jews that we are not welcome.
“Cable Street is part of our history. Nobody gets to erase Jewish people from our own story, and nobody gets to decide that Jews may commemorate our history only if we first pass a political purity test.
“We will not accept the suggestion that being Zionists somehow excludes us from remembering the Jewish men and women who stood against Mosley’s Blackshirts.”
Stop The Hate also called for unity and tolerance despite the potential for political disagreements between those planning to march.
They said: “Our message to everyone attending on Sunday is simple: you are welcome to commemorate Cable Street alongside us. For one day, surely we can stand together in remembrance of those who confronted fascism 90 years ago. We hope others will extend that same tolerance to us.
“So on Sunday, we will walk through Whitechapel with pride: proud as Jews, proud as British citizens and proud of those who came before us.
“And we will carry a message that should unite every genuine opponent of hatred – ‘Jew hatred is Jew hatred, no matter the mask’.”
Anti-Israel group IJAN has posted on its Instagram page that Zionists are not welcome at Cable Street event (Image: Instagram/IJAN_UK)[Missing Credit]
Our Fight, a group consisting of mainly non-Jewish members who fight to tackle antisemitism, also told the JC: “The left are now the Blackshirts. They are blinded by their own anti-Israel prejudices. They cannot see that they are the inheritors not of those that erected the blockades, but of those who the blockades stopped from marching to isolate Jews.
“90 years on they will not stop Our Fight from marching alongside our Jewish allies. 90 years on we say, ‘we shall pass’.”
Marchers will meet this Sunday, October 4, at midday outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall in East London.
