You Have Done Your Best To Ban Demonstrations Against Gaza’s Genocide – Using Jews As Your Moral Alibi – That Makes You Not the Protesters anti-Semitic
Emailed to: mark.rowley@met.police.uk
Dear Sir Mark Rowley,
You do not know me. I am just one of the thousands who have been wrongfully arrested by your officers.
The Battle of Cable Street
On October 4th 2024, the 88th
anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when the Met tried to batter their
way through 200,000 anti-fascists in order to allow supporters of the British Union of Fascists to march through the Jewish East
End, I was arrested at the Swiss Cottage demonstration against Israel’s racist and genocidal Ambassador
Tzipi Hotoveli. I was accused of having committed a ‘racially aggravated offence’.
My ‘crime’ was having compared the
Israeli state to Nazi Germany. I cited an article in which I compared the Nazi
holocaust to the Israeli holocaust.
Tony Greenstein arrested for his speech outside the residence of Israels Ambassador Tzipi Hotoveli
On 13th November I was
informed that you would not be charging me. My arrest was thus unlawful. I told
your officers that I was disappointed that I could not challenge in court your attack
on freedom of speech and your belief that policing political speech is part of
the Met’s duties.
I know that people in
your position have no sense of irony but arresting Jewish people for
anti-Semitism is like awarding Henry
Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tony Greenstein Speech in Liverpool
12 January 2025 at Palestine Solidarity Demo
You have made it clear that that the
only Jews who count are racists and Zionists. Anti-Zionist and anti-racist Jews
are invisible because we refuse to be the moral alibi for the British government’s
complicity in the Genocide in Gaza.
The constant theme when banning Palestinian
demonstrations is that solidarity with Palestine is inherently anti-Jewish.
That’s why on December 7 your officers surrounded the Jewish Bloc in order to ‘protect’
them from other marchers!
You have now abused your powers once
again to ban the
demonstration against Israel’s Ambassador over a large part of North London. The
pretext is that it’s a ‘Jewish’ area despite only 8.5% of Swiss Cottage residents
being Jewish. Again the assumption is that Jews support Genocide. If anyone Sir
Mark is an anti-Semite it is you.
It is time that you got it through
your thick head that not all Jews support Zionism, Israeli Genocide. Historically
Jews have been in the forefront of opposition to racism & fascism.
Mark Rowley's Police State in Action - Demonstrations on Palestine are Banned from the Area in Red
Today there is a growing Jewish revolt
against Israel’s neo-Nazi politics of ethnic cleansing. People realise that one
of the lessons of the Holocaust is opposition to all forms of racism.
Yehuda Elkana, a child survivor of Auschwitz and former
President of the Central European University spoke of
a profound
existential “Angst” fed by a particular interpretation of
the lessons of the holocaust … that we are the eternal victim. In this ancient
belief … I see the tragic and paradoxical victory of Hitler. Two nations,
metaphorically speaking, emerged from the ashes of Auschwitz: a minority who
assert, “this must never happen
again,” and a frightened and haunted
majority who assert, “this must never
happen to us again.”
Instead of fighting the terrorism that the British state created the Police are chasing political dissidents
The Metropolitan Police Used To Be Institutionally Anti-Semitic - Now It Supports Zionism – Nothing Much Has Changed
When anti-Semitism was prevalent in
Britain it was also rife in the Met. During the 1930s there were even exchanges
visits between the Nazi police and the Met. Today the Met is pro-Zionist. It is
a change without a difference.
Anti-Semites have always supported
Zionism as a means to get rid of the Jews in their midst. As A B Yehoshua, an
Israeli novelist once said ‘Even today, in a perverse way, a real
anti-Semite must be a Zionist.’ (Jewish Chronicle 22.1.82.)
That is why Tommy Robinson declared that he
is a Zionist. That is why the neo-Nazi founder of the alt-right Richard
Spencer, said he was a
White Zionist. Every bigot and racist today loves Israel – from Marine Le Pen
to the neo-Nazi AfD in
Germany to Donald Trump. You are not alone Sir Mark.
Special Branch report – on a ‘Jew’
driving a car
In We Fight Fascists Daniel Sonabend, wrote about the 43 Group, which was formed by Jewish
ex-servicemen in April 1946 to oppose the resurgence of fascist groups, led by
Oswald Moseley. The reaction of the Police to them was extremely hostile. Genuine
anti-Semitism not today’s false anti-Semitism has never bothered the Met.
Sonabend described the experiences of
David Goldstein who was falsely arrested.
Four
police officers leapt on him. He received several blows to the face and was
knocked to the ground before being dragged to the nearest police car. The police
later claimed Goldstein had provoked them by kicking the superintendent in the
balls.
Accusing the victims of police
violence of assault is something that Black people have a long experience of. Sonabend
describes what happened at the police station.
they
encountered the man Goldstein had reportedly attacked,... Superintendent
Charles Satterthwaite. ‘Fucking Jew
bastard’ Satterthwaite shouted at Silver as he repeatedly beat him, while
two of his officers held Silver against the wall... Satterthwaite went for his
face, which... was left ‘covered in a mass of blood.’
Satterthwaite was described by one Lennie
Rolnick as ‘a first class anti-Semite who
would have done well at Belsen.’
Anti-fascists were three times as
likely to be arrested as fascists. Sonanbend concluded that ‘widespread anti-Semitism in the
Metropolitan Police force’ was the explanation for this disparity in arrest
rates. Sonanbend quotes Vidal Sassoon:
Two
policemen held one of my comrades., Mo Levy, while a sergeant pounded him,
beating him everywhere but the face, at the same time calling us ‘dirty Jew bastards’, ‘fucking Yids who
Hitler missed’ and ‘sons of foreign
whores.’
Sonanbend described the Met as an ‘institutionally anti-Semitic organisation.’
Ring any bells Sir Mark?
as well as being
anti-Semitic and anti-communist, the police also harboured pro-fascist
elements.’
‘Many members of the Commercial Street
Police Station ‘openly boast about being members of Jeffrey Hamm’s fascist
party.
Metropolitan police assault pro Palestine campaigner
Wasseem Yousuf
Nothing much has changed except for
the victims. Instead of Jews it’s now Black people and Palestinian supporters
like Wasseem Yousuf who are the victims of police violence.
This is outrageous! This is assault!
— Syed Siddiqi (@SiddiqiSyed) July 12, 2024
Earlier today, in Tower Hamlets, a Metropolitan Police officer attacked a pro-Palestine activist in broad daylight and front of numerous witnesses.
This officer must be suspended immediately. pic.twitter.com/kzEfjnG5MC
Thugs in uniform attacked Wasseem for
the ‘offence’ of carrying a Palestine flag and like the East End Jews of 80
years ago was charged with assaulting the police. Habits die hard Sir Mark. Perjury
is nothing new to the Police.
Why are the police targeting Waseem Yousaf?
There is a
petition here that can be signed demanding that
your thugs are suspended Sir Mark but it should not take a petition for you to do
your duty.
The Met Have Decided that Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is a
Criminal Offence
You and the
Met have taken it upon yourselves to decide what is and is not allowed to be
said on the streets of London. You have become a political thought police.
You produced a 17 page Advice Sheet ‘Instructions about tackling
the hate speech and actions by HAMAS supporters on the marches’. The title is instructive. Very few Palestinian
protesters support Hamas. What we support is the right of the Palestinians,
including Hamas, to resist the violent and illegal
occupation of Gaza by Israel.
Page16 of this sheet ‘Israeli Government/Nazism Comparisons’ says:
‘A
particularly difficult areas is the comparison of either (a) the Israeli
Government or the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu with (b) either Nazism or
Hitler.’
Why is it so difficult? There is more
than enough evidence to prove this. Nissim Vaturi, Deputy
Speaker of the Knesset said that Israel needs to "separate the children and women and
kill the adults in Gaza, we are being too considerate. Israeli Finance
Minister Bezalel Smotrich said it is moral
to starve 2 million people to death. It is a difficulty of your own making.
The sheet speaks of ‘comparisons between the actions of the
Israeli Government and the actions of the Nazis (i.e. the holocaust)’. I
realise that police officers are not historians. That is why you should keep
your nose out of historical disputation – you are not qualified to offer an
opinion.
The holocaust began on 22 June 1941
with Operation Barbarossa, the
invasion of Russia. The Nazi regime lasted from 1933-1941, so comparisons
between the Nazis and the Israeli government/Zionists aren’t just about the holocaust.
Your advice sheet says that ‘There are also frequently oblique
comparisons that relate to "genocide" or the phrase "never
again.’ That is correct and the comparisons are not oblique. Israel’ attack
on Gaza IS a genocide. The International Court of Justice in January 2024 ruled it was ‘plausible’ that a genocide was taking place. Every single human
rights organisation from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch believes that Israel is committing a
genocide.
If you find calling Israel’s Genocide
problematic then it is clear which side you are on. If Srebenica, with 8,000
dead was a genocide then Gaza with hundreds of thousands dead
is certainly a genocide. It may be politically inconvenient for you and fellow war
criminal Keir Starmer but that is tough. Any arrest you make as a result are political
and unlawful.
The Advice Sheet also said that
These
comparisons are particularly offensive as it likens the systematic
extermination of over 6 million Jews with the military conduct of Israel in the
Middle East.
To whom is it offensive? Jews? Many
Jews see the parallels all too clearly. But even if Jews were to take offence,
so what? Was Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses banned because it
offended Muslims? It is clear where you are coming from.
In Redmond-Bate v DPP Stephen Sedley, a
Jewish and later Court of Appeal judge, ruled that“Freedom only to speak
inoffensively is not worth having.” I realise that you find concepts such
as freedom of speech difficult to comprehend. The mindset of the average cop and
free speech don’t make comfortable bedfellows.
I
am therefore writing to you to demand that this Advice Sheet, especially page
16 on Nazi-Zionist comparisons is withdrawn as the advice in it isn’t worth a
copper’s nark.
Over
recent months you have displayed an increasing hostility to Palestine marches,
starting with the banning of the march starting at
the BBC on January 18. In my view the organisers should have ignored your
dictats and told you to fuck off.
The
Court of Appeal has now ruled that your powers to
ban marches are less than you once thought. The last Conservative government was
hostile to the idea of freedom of association and gave you enormous powers
which you then abused.
However
Sir Mark, not even the most reactionary and racist cop is beyond reform. I am
therefore going to explain why it is that I said Israel is Hitler’s Bastard Offspring.
The
IHRA ‘definition’ of anti-Semitism states that ‘Drawing comparisons of
contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’ could be
anti-Semitic. This has been widely criticised by leading lawyers and
scholars. It was drawn up by the Zionist American Jewish Congress
in order to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. It is no surprise that the
Met should adopt the IHRA, which isn’t even a definition.
Anti-Semitism
is a very simple concept. It is ‘hostility to or prejudice against Jews as Jews.’ Anti-Semitism
has nothing to do with opposition to Zionism or Israel whereas most
anti-Semites love and always have loved Israel and
Zionism.
The IHRA
‘definition’ states that it is ‘non-legally binding’. So why is the Met using
it as if it had the force of law?
Why the Israeli State is ‘Hitler’s Bastard Offspring’ and
Why Nazi-Zionist Comparisons are Legitimate.
1.
When Israel’s war on Gaza began, wanted war criminal Defence Minister Yoav Gallant,
called
the Palestinians ‘human animals.’
When Heinrich Himmler addressed senior SS Generals in Posnan on October 4 1943
he called
all non-Aryans ‘human animals’.
2.
Comparisons between Israel and the
Holocaust have been made by numerous holocaust survivors. They are in a better
position to form a judgement than you.
3.
When Shlomo Shmelzman, a survivor of
the Warsaw Ghetto, wrote
a letter to the Israeli press announcing his hunger strike against the 1982
Lebanon War, he stated:
a.
In my childhood I have suffered fear, hunger and
humiliation when I passed from the Warsaw Ghetto, through labor camps, to
Buchenwald. Today, as a citizen of Israel, I cannot accept the systematic
destruction of cities, towns, and refugee camps… I hear too many familiar
sounds today…. I hear “dirty Arabs” and I remember “dirty
Jews.” I hear about “closed areas” and I remember ghettos and camps. I hear “two-legged beasts” and I
remember “Untermenschen.”… Too many things in Israel remind me
of too many things from my childhood.
4.
Moshe Zimmerman, a Professor of German
History at Tel Aviv University, compared
the children of the Hebron settlers to those of the Hitler Youth.
5.
Lawrence Weschler, a contributor to The
New Yorker, compared
Gaza to Dachau before the Final Solution.
6.
Israeli psychologist Gavriel Solomon wrote
that:
a.
The idea of Judenrein (Jew-free zone) or Arabrein
is not new. . . . Some might say ‘how can you compare us to Nazis?’ I am not
talking about the death camps, but about the year 1935. There were no camps
yet, but there were racist laws. And we are heading forward toward these kinds
of laws.
7.
Veronika Cohen, 80, a Holocaust
survivor who was born in the ghetto in Budapest, said
“I don’t think we can remember
our suffering without acknowledging the suffering of Gaza... To me, when I read
the stories of their suffering in Gaza, it blends completely into how I feel
about the Holocaust.”
8.
In the same article Ruth
Vleeschhouwer Falak, 89, who survived the Nazi-occupation of the Netherlands as
a child, said she was standing there because
“in the
1930s, if Germans had stood up loudly against the Nazi party, maybe they
wouldn’t have been able to do what they did to us. Speaking up is not a choice
for me.”
9.
Ilana Drukker Tokotin, 87, who spent
her childhood hiding from the Nazis, said that
The saying is
never again; that means never again for anybody. That’s really what we’re
standing here for”
Stephen Kapos is 5th from the left
10. More
recently Stephen Kapos, a child survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary wrote
that
a.
‘Israel’s plan is to destroy
Palestinian society in Gaza in order to force as many people as possible to
leave. This policy has many differences from Nazi Germany’s plan to destroy
Jewish society in Europe – but it also has many similarities. That is why, as a
Holocaust survivor, I’ve felt compelled to join various pro-Palestine protests
in London.
Recently
you interviewed Stephen under caution. In the eyes of you and your officers
even holocaust survivors are now criminals. Opposition to genocide is becoming
an offence in London’s police state.
11. Marika Sherwood,
a holocaust survivor, academic and anti-racist was barred
under the IHRA from giving a talk at Manchester University titled “You’re doing to the Palestinians what the
Nazis did to me.” Israel’s war criminal Ambassador Mark Regev had objected
to it.
Elad Barashi: "I can't understand the people here in the State of Israel who don't want to fill Gaza with gas showers... or train cars... and finish this story! Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza."https://t.co/5nE3mOw5yj
— Frank van der Linde (@frankvdlinde) May 6, 2025
12. But
it’s not only anti-Zionists who make the comparisons between Israel and the
Nazis. It is the Hebron settlers who daub ‘Arabs to the gas chambers’ on a cemetery.
Or it’s Elad Barashi, a television producer on Israel’s Channel 14 who wrote
on Twitter: ‘Good morning, let there be a Shoah
(Holocaust) in Gaza.’ In another post, he wrote,
"I can't understand the people here in the State of Israel who don't want to fill Gaza with gas showers... or train cars... and finish this story! Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza."
If you think that bombing hospitals and murdering
thousands of children is ‘military conduct’ then you are a very sick man Sir Mark
Rowley.
13. You
went out of your way in your advice sheet not to call what’s happening in Gaza
a genocide. You referred instead to Israel’s ‘military conduct’. If you
think that bombing hospitals, murdering thousands of children, torturing
prisoners, raping women is ‘military
conduct’ then you are a very sick man Sir Mark.
Why this leading
Israeli Holocaust scholar says it's a genocide in Gaza | The InnerView
14. Israeli
holocaust historians such as Shaiel Ben-Ephraim,
Omar
Bartov and Daniel Blatman accept
that Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal. What expertise do you have? Over
55 scholars in holocaust and genocide studies signed a statement that said the same. Over 800 legal scholars said that Israel
may be perpetrating the ‘crime of
Genocide’ in Gaza. What expertise do you have? Being a bigot and a racist
is not a qualification.
"Holocaust historians Daniel Blatman and Amos Goldberg drew chilling parallels in their piece titled 'Although what is happening in Gaza is not Auschwitz, it is of the same family - a crime of genocide'"
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 21, 2025
✍️ Opinion by Soumaya Ghannoushihttps://t.co/XCT56Rbppt
So you see
Sir Mark there are plenty of Jews who think Nazi-Zionist comparisons are valid
in times of genocide. I don’t expect you to agree but that is what freedom of
speech is all about. People having the right to say what they want to say without
fear of arrest by thugs in uniform. If people take offense so what? People often
find the truth offensive.
I realise
that a policeman’s mind is a closed mind. You have chosen to keep company with
and take counsel from the Zionist Board of Deputies,
a group that represents barely 30% of British Jews. They have every right to
their racist views. What they don’t have the right to expect is to have the Met
become their enforcer. You don’t have the right to arrest those who disagree
with your own anti-Palestinian racism.
Rowley’s
response to Louise Casey's Report on Racism, Misogyny in the force
The Metropolitan
Police’s Institutional Racism
The Met has been
called ‘institutionally racist’ by
the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and more recently by Baroness Casey’s review. The latter was commissioned after
the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who fellow officers called ‘the
rapist’.
You promised
to change the behaviour of your officers but given your own racism that is unlikely.
Not only should you withdraw your ill-conceived advice sheet on what is
anti-Semitic but you should also resign.
An
institutionally racist organisation cannot cleanse itself of the stain of
racism whilst it is headed by a racist. In your anti-Palestinian actions and
behaviour you have proved that you are as bigoted as your predecessor Cressida Dick.
Yours sincerely,
Tony
Greenstein
