Why I Won’t Be At The Protest Today
by Laura Stuart
Today there is a protest in London in support of the Palestinian Hunger Strikers, but I won’t be there. Not because I not totally against administrative detention and against the occupation, clearly administrative detention and occupation are morally wrong.
But I have come to the conclusion that such actions as protesting outside the Israeli embassy or Downing Street have zero value, of course it’s always nice to see my friends and fellow activists but I keep asking myself – what does this really achieve? I go home after such a protest happy to have seen my friends but
thinking so what really happened there? We waved a few banners and shouted a few chants but in reality nothing – absolutely nothing changed. More than 60 years of protests and of petitions have not changed anything on the ground for the Palestinian people.
As a Muslim I am convinced that the situation in the Middle East will change only when the Muslims and particularly the Arabs decide they want to take action. When the Arabs and Muslims reach this point then as we have seen with the Arab Spring even the most vile and oppressive leaders and regimes can be toppled.
Also as a Muslim I feel that such organisations as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have nothing to offer at all. This week for one example Sarah Colborne unfriended me on Facebook after she posted an article about B.B.C. bias – I asked her on the comments why she declines to mention the reason for this bias i.e. Jewish lobby groups such as B.I.C.O.M. however, apparently the words Jew or Jewish are totally verboten in the P.S.C. since it’s take over by Jewish lobby groups – read about that here – here – here and here.
So if Jews proudly identify as Jews and form Jew only groups such as “Jews for Justice for Palestine” or “JBig” or have Jews only ships sailing to Gaza then why am I not allowed to use the term Jewish lobby group? Surely they are exactly that?
The fact that Palestinians do not find themselves welcome in the P.S.C. has been written about extensively by Palestinians themselves and I would add to that the fact that P.S.C. do not really offer anything for Muslims either. We had better look into the teachings of Islam for a solution to injustice than expecting any solution from non Muslims. I wrote a few days ago and indeed many times how Western justice does not apply to Muslims read it here. We cannot forget that British politicians got the Palestinians into this mess and have continously failed to offer the Palestinian people any justice ever since, so why should anyone waste their time outside Downing Street? Perhaps it gives some people a feeling of having done something, however the results of such actions speak for themselves.
Definitely it is time that Palestinians and Muslims in the U.K. lost their fear of retribution from the Israeli controlled British Government and stopped hiding behind left wing organisations that claim to be against apartheid but appear to follow a very similar agenda to the Zionists by oppressing free speech. Such organisations as P.S.C. are part of the system of the oppressors and operate with the same methodology. We should be standing up as Muslims and believe that we can make a difference if we organise and unite.
If any Muslim really believes that the solution is going to come from a political or legal resolution then they must have had their heads buried in the sand to events of the last 60+ years. There is no solution coming from Cameron or Obama just as there was no solution from all the previous Prime Ministers or Presidents and with 80% of the Conservative M.P.s being members of Conservative Friends of Israel we should not be surprised.