Jewish Holocaust descendant explains why she’ll risk arrest for Palestine tomorrow

Many Jewish people in Britain have long been opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza on a regular basis. They include Carolyn Gelenter – the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Having witnessed first-hand the increasing police hostility under Keir Starmer’s government against people showing solidarity with Palestine, she firmly opposes the escalating crackdown of recent weeks. And she now plans to risk arrest as part of the protest in London’s Parliament Square on 6 September calling for the government to lift the ban on non-violent direct-action group Palestine Action.

She explained to the Canary why she plans to take this risk.

Gelenter: “It is more urgent than ever that Jewish people speak out”

As the daughter of a Polish Jewish Holocaust Survivor I am proud to work with a core group of older Jewish women of conscience called ‘Jewish Peaceniks UK’ to organise support for Gaza. I am also honoured to stand under the banner ‘Holocaust Survivors and Descendants against the Gaza Genocide’ on the demonstrations for Palestine. We have been asked to stand witness on the 6th of September to the mass arrest of over 1,000 people, willing to get arrested in support of a group of mostly young people, who passionately wished to stop our government’s complicity in the genocide and starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza and the violence throughout the West Bank.

The arrests of those who are holding up placards against genocide and in support of the proscribed group, are against the rights of democracy and free speech and are made more shocking by the fact that it is happening under the jurisdiction of a Labour government.

I have decided to do more than stand under the banner and witness. I have chosen to get arrested. Whether others are doing this action or witnessing the arrests in solidarity or marching, it is more urgent than ever that Jewish people speak out about the falsity of the government claim of supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and that criticism of the state is antisemitic.

Zionism is a political ideology supporting a nation state and has nothing to do with being a Jew. To claim otherwise is in itself a form of antisemitism, objectifying Jewish people as one entity with one belief. What people are doing here today is the true honouring of the memory of those victims of the Holocaust: Jewish, Roma, communists, socialists and trade unionists, the differently abled.

Israel is far from representing the entire world’s Jewry. It does not act for me. I stand today with humanity for all.

She is not alone

In July, the Canary reported on a protest from the Jewish Peaceniks women in Hampstead and Highgate, London. They stood with placards highlighting that the number of children in the area is similar to the number Israel has murdered in Gaza.

In late August, they repeated the same protest:

People of conscience from across Britain continue to oppose genocide and the Starmer government’s support for it. And as the action on 6 September will show once again, the voices of peace will not be silenced.

Featured image via the Canary