RMT and Unison leaders address inflammatory protest outside Downing Street

Last night at a protest outside Downing Street, amid the sort of docile policing that we have come to expect in situations like these, an anti-Israel crowd provided passersby with a whole panoply of antisemitic rhetoric and incitement to violence.

They called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews, chanting that ‘Palestine is Arab, Zionists out!’ They screamed for ‘Intifada’, yearning for more of the violent campaign of terror that left over 1,000 Jews dead in recent decades. They shouted ‘No Zionists here!’ whether oblivious to or in full knowledge of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Jews are Zionists. They accused Israel of ‘harvesting Palestinian organs’, a popular reinvention of the ancient blood libel. Then they heard from Eddie Dempsey of the RMT union and Liz Wheatley of Unison, who apparently felt comfortable in this sort of crowd.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “After almost a year of this rhetoric at such demonstrations, it stretches credulity that these union leaders did not know or anticipate that such chanting would feature. If their unions wish to distance themselves from this language, they must immediately discipline these individuals and set out steps to ensure that in future their representatives do not risk being associated with these messages, which have undoubtedly contributed to the unprecedented surge in antisemitism over the past ten months.”