ERIC
LEVY - A LIFE DEDICATED TO THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
1928-2022
Below I’m happy to publish a passionate tribute to Eric Levy, a Jewish
anti-Zionist who has just died aged 94, by Abbas Ali on behalf of In Minds, the Human Rights Group.
Eric was very active in many causes. He was active in Revolutionary Communist Group circles and took part in the non-stop picket outside South Africa House during the apartheid era. This was the picket which so annoyed the Met Police that they arrested Jeremy Corbyn. Eric was also a teacher and his photo was plastered on the cover of a tabloid because in class he showed support for the Irish republican movement. Eric was active in the civil rights movement and apparently he was friends with Paul Robeson and Claudia Jones.
A truly remarkable life. Below this is an article which appeared in Camden’s New Journal in January 2021 which details his arrest outside Westminster Magistrates Court because he ‘breached’ COVID regulations. The same regulations that Boris Johnson breached but which the Met refused to investigate until faced with court proceedings and even then didn’t issue him with questionnaires for most of the parties he attended. Thus it ever was.
Tony
Greenstein
ERIC
LEVY - A LIFE DEDICATED TO THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
1928-2022
We
are honoured to call Eric Levy our
brother, our comrade. We knew him as a passionate campaigner for justice. He
played a prominent part in our campaigns since 2014.
As
an ardent anti-Zionist Jew he was particularly dedicated to the cause of
Palestine. He had visited Palestine and seen first-hand how Israeli apartheid
was destroying Palestinian lives, how the indigenous Palestinians were being ethnically
cleansed from their land to make way for white European colonists.
He
was at the forefront of our campaigns for Palestinian rights, including
campaigns against G4S and HP for complicity in torture of children; Addidas and
Puma for complicity in ethnic cleansing and illegal settlements; De Beers for
peddling Israeli blood diamonds; and the campaign for the release of
Palestinian political prisoners tortured in Israeli dungeons.
But
he was not limited to one cause. Wherever he saw injustice, he threw himself in
to the struggle on the side of the oppressed. He opposed the invasion of Iraq
and travelled to Iraq as a 'Human Shield'. He opposed the Saudi genocidal war
in Yemen; and campaigned for the release of Bahraini political prisoners; and
for the release of Sheikh Zakzaky caged by the brutal Nigerian regime; and
perhaps what he is best remembered for - he ardently campaigned for the release
of the journalist Julian Assange in the UK.
Mindful
of his age and frailty we purposely didn't invite him to guerrilla projections,
but there was no stopping him attend the Malcolm X remembrance projection in
Brixton on a bitterly cold February night. He had particular affinity to the
cause of black liberation.
Eric
was arrested several times, both for blocking Israeli armaments, and for
protesting Assange's unfair extradition hearings. We were awed and inspired by
his bravery, and dedication.
Eric
was a person with no ego, his only focus was the struggle. For many years, he
wouldn't even tell us his age, in case it might lead to preferential treatment.
Although he was a person of very modest means, yet he would refuse even the
smallest of gifts, unless everyone was receiving it. He was a very caring
person, always looking out for the more vulnerable members. Eric
was particularly mindful that indigenous voices in the struggle were allowed to
flourish.
We
were truly privileged to have known Eric.
His
dream was to continue the struggle for justice till his last breath. In
fulfilling his dream, in his death at age 94, he has shown us how to live, how
to live a life worth living. An inspiration for generations to come. We will
miss you Eric.
Abbas
Ali
Chair,
Inminds Human Rights Group
Thursday,
21st January 2021 — By John
Gulliver
THIS
extraordinary picture of a little stumbling gaunt-faced elderly man being
arrested by several police officers at a demonstration outside Westminster
Magistrates’ Court is haunting. On the soundtrack from a mobile video snapped
by, presumably, one of the demonstrators one can hear someone shouting: “He is
92… he will die… what are you doing?”
I was not at
the demonstration that was held at a bail application by the jailed journalist
Julian Assange outside the court on January 6. Assange was refused bail and is
still held at the high security jail Belmarsh in south London while lawyers
continue to argue for his extradition to the US on the ground that he committed
espionage by releasing secret tapes.
I can
confirm that the man in the picture is actually 92 and lives in the Camden Town
area. I have seen him several times over the years as he is a regular presence
at protest meetings and know him as Eric Levy.
He clearly
has strong radical views that draw him to various causes. In the Iraq war – 17
years ago – he was among several “peace” campaigners who travelled to Baghdad
and set up camp in various public buildings, such as electricity stations, to
“warn” off US air attacks. But, surely, there was no need to arrest this frail
old man – and the fact that so many police officers could waste their time
doing so illustrates poor judgment or an unfair sense of persecution.
Oddly
enough, I saw another side to Eric Levy many years ago at one of the regular
evening poetry sessions that used to be run in a small community centre in Torriano
Avenue, Kentish Town, by the late artist John Rety. These gatherings were
usually exotic affairs where someone in the crowded small room would stand up
and recite one of their new poems – and very good they often were.
In a crowded
room, one session produced new poems by the great poet Dannie Abse and the
avant garde poet and publisher John Calder, both of whom had suddenly appeared,
to my delight, in the audience.
It was on
this particular evening that suddenly Eric Levy, sitting at the back, suddenly
stood up and wondered whether he could recite the Ode to Joy by the German poet
Friedrich Schiller set to the melody of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
I wondered
what was going to emerge – and, then incredibly, this little man stilled the
audience as his rich baritone voice rang out the beautiful poem that sounded so
haunting in its native language.
Thus, there
are many sides to a person, I discovered. And as I looked at the image of this
harmless elderly man being hustled away by police officers, I wondered whether
he serenaded them in the cells with the Ode to Joy – it would have given them
food for thought.
• According to a Met Police statement issued yesterday (Wednesday), eight people were detained “for breaching coronavirus regulations” outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 6. “They were later reported for consideration of a fixed penalty notice and ordered to leave the area,” said the Met. Presumably Eric Levy was one of them.
