Palestine Event

It’s been almost a year since the massive and historic protests against the then-pending Iraq war. I went to the march in Glasgow, as well as a few other marches and talks earlier and later. They were fascinating, as well as worthwhile, and my belief at the time that they were the point when suspicion of the Bush administration’s push for war became entirely mainstream. I feel that point of view has been utterly vindicated. A documentary was shot over those months about the school students who took days off school to protest, and it has been screening off and on, generating a lot of support for what was widely decried at the time by even the most moderate of commentators. It was an extraordinary moment, and the only time in my living memory when such dissent had been so much a part of the mainstream around me.
Last night Cal and I went to ‘The Road To Peace In Palestine’ at the Edinburgh City Council chambers. Much less of a cause than the Iraq war, but very much continuous with the anti-war movement. The elegant chambers overlooking the royal mile were packed out, and the demographics had shifted even further from the anti-war protests – the largest groups by far were retired white people (Scots, I presume) and middle eastern people in their mid to late 20s. There were only a handful of white faces under the age of 40 – quite a change from every single protest march I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if that’s a positive step, but if nothing else it makes it hard to tar the concerned people I saw with the brush of ‘foolish middle class white kids’.
Reverend Alistair McGregor of the Church of Scotland spoke first, and his overwhelming message was to go to Israel/Palestine and see the situation first-hand. He emphasised the psychological pressure being placed on the Palestinians by the occupiers. I found his speaking was unpleasantly locked in the Tony Blair Brit politician tradition – lots of ‘friends, believe me’ type rhetoric – but his message of seeing first hand was hard to fault. Also of note, and a big change from last year, was his haste to raise the issue of anti-semitism and proclaim his innocence. It’s a sign of how high that issue has been raised in recent months.
Then Rabbi Cohen spoke. He presented as fact something I’d never heard before – that active modern Zionism, forcefully creating a Jewish state, is actually against God’s will. He spoke movingly, and I certainly wish his interpretation to be correct since it is so profoundly rooted in humane concerns, but if I know anything about Talmudic lore it’s that readings are endlessly disputed. The most valuable contribution he can make, I think, is to give Palestinians a Jewish person to welcome and talk to and debate with, and so demonstrate that the anti-semitism charge made against their whole people is likewise without merit.
Finally, and best of all, Ibrahem Hewitt. A Geordie plain-speaker, he was compelling and sharp, and spoke of how his organisation has been and remains labelled as a terrorist threat by US security, preventing a lot of international freedoms. Of course, it has been thoroughly investigated by UK officials and utterly cleared. A sign of the way in which these matters are dealt with. I felt he was too quick to characterise the enemy (Israeli government, US government) in terms of their most extreme exemplars, which could lead inadvertantly to demonising of the Israeli people, but within its own context he was impossible to fault.
It was an interesting night and raised a lot of questions for me. None of which I’m going to share right now. It’s time for bed.