London Neo-Nazi rally features Palestinian, Confederate flags

A  neo-Nazi rally held July 4th in London to protest the "Jewification" of London featured an interesting alliance of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Palestinian activists.

Observers reported 2 dozen haters , hundreds of counter-protesters and scores of police.
Read about it here:
London neo-Nazis outnumbered by counter-protesters
Neo-Nazi protest dwarfed by huge counter-demonstration in central London

London: Dozens of Neo-Nazis Rally While Flying Palestinian Flags

A Letter from a terrorism victim to St. James’s Church

Kay Wilson is a British born Israeli who was a victim of a horrific Palestinian terrorist attack in 2010 that left her friend and companion Kristine Luken dead.

Read her   A Letter from a terrorism victim to St. James’s Church

Via Trending central:

ADVERTISEMENT

....I have given much thought to the events of that terrible day, that culminated in my near murder and the execution of my friend. I believe that I of all people could be forgiven for hating Palestinians. I believe too that I could be forgiven for thinking all Palestinians are terrorists. But I do not. On the contrary, I have maintained relationships with my Palestinian friends, so that my ignorance will not give me reason to hate. I hate hatred. It is the hatred of St. James’s Church in London, in the form of a Christmas stunt, that has compelled me to write.

I would like to think that as Christians, the church would never condone Kristine Luken’s heinous murder or the attack on myself. I suspect however that you may rationalise this savagery as an inevitable result of the “Israeli occupation.”

You would probably suggest that the Palestinians who murdered my friend were themselves victims who grew up in depravity. I would concur, but would point out that if poverty was the case, the aristocrats who flew into the twin towers had no reason to commit their crimes.

The Palestinian terrorists were indeed victims, victims of a radical and primitive Islamist regime that force feeds them a morally malnourished diet of hatred of Jews and hatred of any life – including their own. They were also deprived: deprived of an education that cherishes culture, history, literature, art and the dignity of difference. Their impoverished morality coupled with ignorant generalisations is what enabled two men to butcher defenceless women without so much as blinking an eye.

The “wall” that has been erected outside St. James’s Church is hopefully just a result of your own ignorance and generalisations concerning the complex situation here in the Middle East. Nevertheless, like all walls, it serves as a facade and a barrier.

If the wall was scrutinised, one would see that underneath the whitewashed surface that concerns itself with Israeli policies, there are blocks of anti-Semitism. These bricks stand high. They raise expectations from an entire people group. This wall precedes to separate the nation of Israel as non-desirable.

The wall is cemented together by a superior theology that tells it’s people that G-d gave up on the Jews. This is the same theology that lies behind radical Islam. G-d tried the Jews, then the Christians, but ultimately it was the Muslims who He ultimately chose.

The wall, is just one brick in a global wall of an Islamist agenda, an agenda that will stop at nothing until the destruction of the Jewish State. To your own cultural detriment, it is a wall that obstructs truth and ultimately seeks not only to destroy Israel but every Judeo-Christian society.

The wall inflames an ancient conflict that for those like myself, who live in this region, long not for an exacerbation in hatred but for a quenching of hostilities.

The wall is an affront to Kristine Luken and other victims of terror who may well have been alive today had there have been a wall erected on the other 90 percent of land that separates us from our Palestinian neighbours.

The wall is an injustice to Christians living under Muslim despots. Ironically it is the State of Israel, that you deem pariah and unjust, that is unique in the Middle East because unlike all of our neighbours, our Christian population is flourishing and our Christians have full religious rights.

Please write on your wall, under the cross, now obscured by the crescent…. “R.I.P Kristine Luken.”

Sincerely,
Kay Wilson – (a British-born Israeli)

Read Kay's letter in its entirety here

Crossing the line in London

St James Church in Piccadilly, London  has built a  replica of the Israeli security barrier as part of their holiday program  "Bethlehem Unwrapped"   Not the 97% that is a chain link fence- there is no drama in that.

From Richard Millett 

St James’s Church, Piccadilly, in London’s West End has installed a life size 8 metre tall/30 metre long replica of Israel’s security wall in its courtyard as part of its Bethlehem Unwrapped festival. The replica wall is so vast that it obscures the Church itself.

The replica wall will be lit up at night and for the next twelve days of Christmas (until 5th January) a montage of images and slogans will be continuously projected onto it. Scenes include parts of London with a wall passing through it.

What you won’t see projected onto the replica wall are scenes of bombed out Israeli buses, hotels, pizza restaurants, bars and nightclubs that were ubiquitous in Israel before the wall.

 Apparently the church has  have encouraged people to come along and write messages on their wall.

From Israellycool

...Read this Facebook status from some friends of mine:

Sharon and Lesley again at the St James market place today armed with our bag of acrylic paint and wall brush. (SWU clearly not there – again)
With no support from anybody the sense was one of antagonism, being watched as we were by the wardens present it seemed, in case we dared to write on the wall. Seeing our paint Tom, a St James warden approached us to say we could only use their now worn out felt pens. Explaining the uselessness of those pens and the fact that others had used spray paint Debbie, another warden said she’d get us some of theirs. Returning a while later she produced grey – the shade they use to obliterate posts they don’t approve of. In the end Tom told me I could paint one message on a designated spot, provided I was professional and refrained from being abusive. Odd that seeing that others could write what and where they wanted as many times as they wanted!
So I painted This Wall Saves Lives, started to write that 1340 Israeli citizens have died as a result of terrorist attacks since 2000, but Tom’s space and location didn’t permit!

 Sharon and Lesley are right. Israel's security barrier saves lives.

Pointless Asides:

Sharon and Lesley's strategy  has precedent.  Several years back, a painting of Israel's security barrier appeared at the Santa Clara Palestinian Cultural Day Commemoration. Viewers  were encouraged to interact with the piece- markers were provided

Santa Clara Palestinian Cultural day

The message "Israel wants peace" was added to the painting of the security barrier. 

Santa Clara Palestinian Cultural day

An Israeli and a Palestinian flag were eventually added to Handela, turning him into an effective symbol of peaceful co-existence.  Nice touch.



The anti-Israel cru have invested too much time and money in this monstrosity to assume it will be shelved at the end of Christmas. I suspect London is just its debut performance.  It will likely be coming to a city near you.  Be prepared.

A Play Attendee from the Globe Reports

Sarah AB at Harry's Place was able to see the performance. Sounds like an excellent performance, although I really hate Merchant.

Loved this part: Generally people heeded the opening plea to keep calm and not respond to disruption. But at one point, when an audience member started to recite a Palestinian themed parody of Shylock’s famous ‘Hath not a Jew eyes’ speech, an exasperated ‘piss off’ met with warm applause.

Cultural Boycott Fails, Israeli Shakespeare Performance Sold Out

I almost want to scold Habimah, Israel's national theater group, for choosing The Merchant of Venice to stage at the Globe Theate as part of an international Shakespeare festival. Merchant? Really? It's an edgy choice, but edgy in a sort of dated way. I would, honestly, rather have seen an Israeli-nuanced King Lear, or The Winter's Tale. But I'm not in London anyway, and nobody asked me.

However, any criticism of Habimah's choice has to be overshadowed by the cheerfulness with which I report that, yet again, the forces of BDS have produced great Sturm und Drang, and two sold-out performances for Habimah in London.

In the end, it all came down to a protest outside, a counterprotest, a lot of police checking bags, and then,

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Israel wins, Shakespeare wins, London, strutting her cultural stuff for the Olympics, wins, and the Palestinian company who performed Richard II wins. BDS loses.

In nosing around for information on the event, I happened to run across this piece by Harry Glass at Worker's Liberty. They're a Trotskyite group, which raises my hackles to begin with, and I am not thrilled by Glass's light use of the term 'atrocity' toward the end of this piece. (So basically, this is a reading suggestion, not an endorsement) It is a well-written, well-reasoned, far-left critique of BDS, thorough and coming from a clear worldview that extends beyond the irrational self-congratulation of BDS supporters. I found myself impressed.

Glass writes: BDS needs to be fought politically, because it stands in the path of two states, the only consistently democratic solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. But BDS is ultimately a pessimistic approach. It put the agency for change outside of the region.

Read it in full.

Make Art Not War: Haters threaten to disrupt Hebrew language "Merchant of Venice"

Next week the historic London Globe Theatre will feature Israel's Habima Theater Company in "The Merchant Of Venice". Habima will be performing as part of the 37-play Globe to Globe Shakespeare festival. Having failed in their attempt to censor the production, anti-Israel bullies have threatened to disrupt the sold-out Hebrew-language play .

In response, the Globe is increasing its security, reserving the right "to refuse admission to anyone we have reason to believe may cause a disruption" and that "any objects or material which could be used in disrupting the performance will be deemed prohibited items".

A Palestinian theater group from Ramallah, Ashtar was at the Globe theatre earlier this month, performing 'Richard II', without incident. Human rights activists apparently turned a blind eye to Palestinians arrests of journalists and bloggers and persecution of gays and minorities.

Increasingly, as the BDS movement falters and stalls, we are seeing more of these extremist and counter-productive bullying tactics from anti-Israel activists.

From Divest this!

"As with most BDS tactics, this type of bullying almost seems designed to turn off those whom the boycotters claim they are trying to convince, demonstrating the fanaticism and rudeness of those who adhering BDS principles. And when such behavior has been rightly wrapped around the neck of the BDS movement as a whole, it has helped continue the process of de-legitimizing the entire effort to de-legitimize the Jewish state."

From reknowned author Howard Jacobson:

“If there is one justification for art - for its creation and its performance - it is that art proceeds from and addresses our unaligned humanity.

“Whoever would go to art with a mind already made up, on any subject, misses what art is for. So to censor it in the name of a political or religious conviction, no matter how sincerely held, is to tear out its very heart.

“For artists themselves to do such a thing to art is not only treasonable; it is an act of self-harm.”