The following article is a response to the scurrilous attacks on our party that have been printed in the Daily Telegraph and the Jewish Chronicle.
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Dr Ranjeet Brar is a lifelong campaigner against racism, against fascism and against zionism.
He has been arrested four times as a direct result of his support for the anti-zionist, anti-imperialist struggle of the Palestinian people. In singling him out again, Britain’s pro-zionist mainstream media are playing their part in a concerted attack on his professional status and medical practice – and therefore also upon the communities he serves.
The timing of these events is not accidental. Our rulers’ support for zionist Israel is coming under the greatest pressure it has ever faced, and their ability to shore up the economic, diplomatic and PR holes in their project is rapidly declining.
The crisis of legitimacy for British politicians and media has been markedly exacerbated by their unashamedly pro-Israel stance in recent months. When ‘democratic’ means of diverting and confusing the public have failed, repression is the only means left for silencing inconvenient truths.
The United Nations’ International Court of Justice recently ruled that Israel is likely to be committing genocide in Palestine. It has awarded provisional measures and ordered Israel to ensure that it stops the commissioning of genocide.
Israeli ‘defence’ minister Yoav Gallant, who famously justified the genocide in Gaza by stating on television that “we are fighting against human animals”, labelled the ICJ as “antisemitic”. Presumably the Israeli judge was also guilty of ‘antisemitism’?
Our party puts Israel’s current crimes in historical context, and Ranjeet has openly and publicly defended Palestine, the Palestinians and their right to exist.
Therefore also – in accordance with UN resolutions (Additional Protocol I to the Geneva conventions of 1949; resolution 2105 of 1965; resolution 2625 of 1970; 1974, resolution 3314 of the UNGA; resolution 37/43, dated 3 December 1982) – he has defended Palestine’s right to resist occupation and genocide. In so doing he is simply stating international law.
We note that zionism, as a genocidal ideology, cannot be accommodated. It must be challenged wherever it raises its head. It is given succour by our politicians and media precisely because it is a tool of Britain’s imperialist ruling class.
In the video above, Ranjeet outlines this position in a historical, factual and antiracist speech given recently at City University in London.
We note that the Daily Telegraph has launched a vicious attack upon Ranjeet and our party for having the temerity to continue speaking out against zionist genocide in a political climate that is increasingly repressive.
This attack on free speech is part of former home secretary Suella Braverman’s pro-genocide campaign to label the millions of working-class Britons who support Palestine as “hate marchers” and “terrorists”.
The Telegraph’s distorted article plays into this narrative, claiming that our party’s anti-zionist views are “racist”.
Compare the doctored quotations in its headlines with the whole speech and decide for yourself whether these allegations stand up to scrutiny. Speaking the truth is not a crime – yet!
We note also the tired trope of ‘vulnerable’ students who must be protected from ‘hurtful’ and ‘offensive’ truths. Where is the Telegraph or City University’s concern for the actual bodily harm being done to hundreds of Palestinian civilians every single day under zionist bombardment?
Why is the illegally occupying power (Israel) deemed to have all the rights and the occupied (the Palestinians) none? Why are those who stand with the oppressed demonised and silenced while those who stand with the oppressors are protected and promoted?
Landmark finding in David Miller tribunal
We note in this context the landmark ruling in the case of sacked history professor David Miller that anti-zionist beliefs are a protected characteristic under British discrimination law – further undermining the Telegraph’s really racist (anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian and pro-genocide) and zionist campaign.
Prof Miller said: “I am extremely pleased that the tribunal has concluded that I was unfairly and wrongfully dismissed by the University of Bristol. I am also very proud that we have managed to establish that anti-zionist views qualify as a protected belief under the UK Equality Act.
“This was the most important reason for taking the case and I hope it will become a touchstone precedent in all the future battles that we face with the racist and genocidal ideology of zionism and the movement to which it is attached.
“The determination that I was sacked for my anti-zionist views is a huge vindication of my case all the way through this process. The University of Bristol maintained that I was sacked because zionist students were offended by my various remarks, but it was plain from the evidence of its own witnesses that this was untrue, and it was the anti-zionist nature of my comments which was the decisive factor.
“I also want to note that this verdict is a massive vindication of the approach I have taken throughout this period, which is to say that a genocidal and maximalist ideology like zionism can only be effectively confronted by a maximalist anti-zionism.
“Apologies, debate and defensiveness of the sort illustrated by many on the left, and even in the Palestine solidarity movement, will not work. The zionist movement cannot be negotiated with. It must be defeated.”
