So there they were, in Edgware, calling for the destruction of Israel and singing their favourite chants “Death, death to the IDF”, and “Zionists out” while waving placards for the Ayatollah and making the inverted triangle sign to signal support for Hamas.
As they marched to the synagogue, they took photographs of houses with mezuzahs. One resident described to me that it felt like they were “going on a Jew hunt”. He added: “It was the worst day; I’m so done with this.” The violence in the air was palpable.
Their destination was Edgware United Synagogue because homes in Israel were being sold from there. When counter-protesters refused to let them get close to the shul and, outnumbered, they were forced to turn around, they threatened, “Zionists, Zionists watch your back! We will be coming back!”
The demonstrators included some of the nastiest antisemites in the country. It doesn’t take much to stir them up – the same group even demonstrated against a peace conference led by the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz. This was their second attack on a synagogue – they were outside St John’s Wood United’s Aliyah Day event in November too.
The only difference was that this time they had been stirred up by more than 100 parliamentarians who had signed a letter demanding that the Great Israeli Real Estate Event be prevented from taking place. London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Green leader Zack Polanski battled it out at the London Assembly to speak of their fury about the event. This is a major and concerning difference.
Ostensibly, the anger towards the Great Israeli Real Estate Event at Edgware United Synagogue on Sunday afternoon was because of territories on disputed land, but, as we know, it doesn’t take much to set this mob off.
The organisers insisted that there would be no land sales in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. The synagogue repeated those denials. But a report on Sky on Monday night suggested that at least one stallholder was still handing out leaflets advertising property in settlements deemed illegal under UK law. If true, the organisers have let down Britain’s Jewish community which is already under enough pressure in this country and could do without more. While the properties in question were in settlements that would remain Israeli under any conceivable two-state agreement, fact is, the organisers appear to have said one thing and done another.
How much that really matters to the angry crowd who want nothing more than the destruction of Israel is another question.
For those who ever doubted this, see the frankly insane reaction to Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow daring to advertise luxury property in Herzliya. This town was never part of any Palestinian state, real or imagined. It has only ever been part of ‘Israel proper’. And yet, for the gall of advertising an Israeli residential development, she has attracted a tsunami of hatred.
American socialite Alana Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, called the campaign “tone deaf” and “complicit”. Make-up influencer Matt Bernstein shared a post slamming her for ‘depravity’. The phrase “gwynocide” was shared again and again.
The obsessive frothing stream of invective that came from Livia Firth, previously best known for being married to actor Colin, showed just how unhinged this mad hatred is for – let us not forget – daring to advertise an apartment block in Israel.
In a video on Instagram, she said she had cancelled a trip Gwyneth had planned to make to visit her farm in Italy, adding: “Making an ad for a luxury condo is as disgusting as it can be for someone [with] privilege. How detached are you from reality?”
Here, the ostensible problem was that the town was named after the father of Zionism – Theodor Herzl. How very dare they? Or maybe it was because it’s not far from Gaza – which, thanks to Israel’s tiny size, it would be impossible for it not to be.
For multimillionaire Labour donor Dale Vince, it’s because the property company also makes property in the West Bank. He intoned. “These illegal settlements (and lovely penthouses) are the result of a campaign of terror and great violence against Palestinian people. They are illegal under international law and immoral of course.”
But it feels that for some protestors, anything to do with Israel is illegal and immoral.
What the reaction to Gwyneth daring to advertise property in Israel shows us is that, for the most extreme activists, this is simply about the existence of Israel. They don’t think Jews should be there at all. But they don’t appear to want us here either.
The great irony, of course, is that this obsessive hatred, which we saw on the streets of Edgware, and which we see online, will only drive more people to the one place in the world where they are not marching on synagogues.
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