British Jews rally against Israel’s settler recruitment drive in London

Jewish activists and their allies targeted London’s ‘Aliyah Day’ gathering yesterday evening, protesting its role in advancing the colonisation of Palestine.

The event — organised with support from the Israeli occupying government — encourages British Jews to partake in Palestine’s ongoing colonisation. Practical information was given around living in ‘Israel’, such as the job market, education, and tax benefits for Jewish immigrants.

Aliyah is central to Zionism, and is the practice of Jews moving to occupied Palestine. The aim is to reclaim and settle in their so-called ‘homeland’ to build up an ethnoreligous state.

Jewish Anti-Zionist Action (JAZA), in collaboration with Palestine Pulse, protested against the event. They projected the slogans “stolen land sold here” and “Jews for Palestine” onto the side of St John’s Wood Synagogue, where the event was held. They also held evening prayers outside the synagogue.

Palestine Pulse: The Aliyah event “supports dispossession of Palestine”

A Palestine Pulse spokesperson said:

We are deeply disgusted to witness an event that supports the ongoing dispossession of Palestine and the unbelievable suffering of the Palestinian people. As a British/Palestinian community, we cannot stay silent when actions or celebrations contribute to normalising injustice.

Those demonstrating against Aliyah Day say they were met with heavy and forceful policing from the MET police. They were also mocked by Zionist counter-protesters from Stop the Hate, and the Campaign Against Antisemitism. They shouted anti-semitic abuse at the Anti-Zionist Jewish protesters, calling them “fake Jews”.

Before the protest, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) took to X arguing:

The government is in the process of changing the law to protect synagogues and other places of worship from this sort of hateful action…

Board of Deputies weaponising antisemitism to muzzle activists

The BoD is a long-established and extremely influential Zionist lobby group.

It opposes an independent Palestinian state, actively seeks to restrict freedom of speech and expression when it comes to Palestine. It has significant financial resources and political connections in the UK, and huge power in shaping government policies and media narratives. The BoD constantly calls for stricter public order laws and policing measures against those speaking out about genocide and apartheid. It also believes that any criticism of Israel’s criminal regime is antisemitic.

Though the BoD claims to be “the voice of the Jewish community” this is not the case.

Activists felt it was important to take action and speak up at the Aliyah event. They say the BoD calling their action “hateful” is far from the truth.  They only wanted to speak out against the illegal Israeli occupation and its human rights abuses against Palestinians.

“We cannot stand by while our places of worship are used for such abhorrent means”

Talia Woodin is a member of Jewish Anti-Zionist Action (JAZA), a UK-based Anti-Zionist Jewish group which uses direct action to dismantle zionism.

She explained to the Canary what compels her to speak-up and confront Zionist lobbying.

As Jews, we do not want to have a protest outside a synagogue. It is heartbreaking for us. But we cannot stand by while our places of worship are used for such abhorrent means. Speaking up against a genocide is always going to be the priority above policing ourselves for the sake of saying the wrong thing. We will also never back down in the face of fascists accusing us of being Jew haters. Our Jewish Anti-Zionism and solidarity with Palestine is rooted in so much love, they couldn’t even comprehend it.

The sole intention of yesterday’s event was to recruit British Jews to colonise stolen Palestinian land. It was organised by the UK branch of the World Zionist Organisation (WZO), and the Israeli government’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration (MAI).

Zionism’s twin-goals of ethnic cleansing and Jewish supremacy

The Zionist goal is for ‘Israel’ to become the “national home for the Jewish people” in occupied Palestine. The methods used include government lobbying, using education for “strengthening of the Jewish national sentiment”, and “promoting the settlement” of Jews in Palestine. According to Zionism, the right to national self-determination is unique to Jews. This formalises the existing system of apartheid and Jewish supremacy.

The MAI provides many incentives to encourage new immigrants to ‘Israel’, and funds the new “Zionist economic plan”. Benefits include financial grants, tax breaks for up to 10 years, rental subsidies, health insurance, discounted public transport and mortgage assistance.

For Jewish people, making Aliyah is said to be the ultimate commitment to the Jewish state. But events such as yesterday’s, rely on fear and exploitation of antisemitism, so Jews are indoctrinated to believe that ‘Israel’ is the only place they can be safe.

Zionism could not exist without this fear and distrust. Yet the truth is that ‘Israel’ is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Jew.

Weaponising antisemitism serves ‘state of Israel’

According to Woodin, the weaponisation of antisemitism is “the greatest tool that Zionism has in its artillery”.

She says

Right now, fear mongering and stoking up the idea that Jews aren’t safe, is really working in the Israeli state’s favour.

Since October 2023, Israel has received over 53,000 new Jewish immigrants, with large numbers coming from Ukraine, Russia, France, North America, South Africa, and  Ethiopia. Many of these new immigrants, supported by the occupational government, have been settled in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. They benefit from financial incentives and programmes designed to change the demographics, and Judaise occupied regions.

Aliyah promotes occupation of Palestine, ruled illegal by the ICJ

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation violates international law. So we should not treat events such as Aliyah Day as benign cultural gatherings, because they are not. Instead, they function as recruitment drives to settle in territories the ICJ has deemed unlawfully controlled, and should raise serious legal and moral questions. At a time when the Israeli regime is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank, celebrating any programmes facilitating further dispossession is outrageous. Not only is this morally and ethically wrong, but is more than likely illegal.

Protesting against Aliyah is not an attack on Jewish life.

It is a stand against policies further entrenching systematic apartheid against Palestinians, and deepening the illegal occupation. Genuine safety and justice, for both Jews and Palestinians, cannot be built on practices condemned under international law.

Featured image via the author