We cannot be cowed into submission by terrorist sympathisers

The Pro-Palestinian marches are not only anti-Israeli. They frighten us because they are also anti-British.

There are two central themes to the marches.

First, the Palestinian people were wronged in 1948 and the wars which followed, in which they were displaced from their homeland. The moral justification for Palestinians’ continued fight against Israel is derived from this historic grievance.

Second, Israel should ceasefire and stop the killing of innocent Palestinians in its pursuit of Hamas.

Both themes are fundamentally flawed.

If the contention underpinning the first theme is conceded, the only possible solution is the reinstatement of Palestinian lands and therefore the erasure of Israel. No civilised individual could justify making such a call. Yet, across our country, that is precisely what so many are advocating.

As far as the second theme is concerned, there can only be a ceasefire if Hamas also lays down its arms. It will not. So calling for Israel unilaterally to do so is, in effect, inviting Israel to surrender to Hamas, a terrorist group. The irrefutable logical implication of calling for a ceasefire is the endorsement of terrorism.

This apparent call in terrorism’s favour is not just being made by those who march but many Parliamentarians and senior officials, including the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and the First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf.

It might be that supporters of “peace” marching for Palestinians have not thought this through but certainly the organisers of the marches have. So, we can assume, have those politicians calling for a ceasefire. If they have not, they are guilty of serious intellectual negligence.

It is the implied and, more often than not, explicit call to obliterate Israel and surrender to terrorism that is inherently anti-British and frightening. Those threatened are not just Jews living in the UK, but all of us. Indeed, many marching have also made calls for Britons to decide which side they are on. The implication being that those who choose the wrong side will be punished.

We are all used to atrocious war in the Middle East. We are now seeing its roots on the streets of London.

As the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, rightly pointed out our own police forces are cowed by a mixture of their politicisation and straightforward fear. To be fair, if one can be, the police are daily fed a diet of “diversity, equality and inclusion”.

This ideology, advocating the ostensible promotion of ethnic and other minority rights, if necessary to the detriment of the majority, has confused and subdued the once proud British bobby. When confronted with illegalities committed by ethnic minorities, they are literally prepared to take the knee.

Many prescient politicians and commentators have, for very many years, warned about the risk of unbridled immigration. Yet, our governing class has allowed into the UK more immigrants in the last 25 years than in all of history before that. We have made little to no effort to assimilate them into our culture.

Instead, we have celebrated their cultures and promoted their interests above those of the indigenous population. Most who have arrived here want nothing more than to meld into a great country and work for our collective good.

But, and it is a big but, there are swathes who viscerally hold onto the grievances of their ethnic origins, often holding the United Kingdom responsible. This is one manifestation of the failed multi-culturalism to which Suella Braverman has also been correctly referring.

We all want peace; no sane minded person would not. But for peace to endure it must be righteous. There is nothing righteous in advocating the erasure of Israel.