Rape is Not Resistance

To Portland Place and the Offices of the BBC with the 7/10 Human Chain Project, a rally on behalf of the Israeli hostages. To focus today on the fiction, taken left at yesterday’s weekly hatefest,  that ‘We cannot chose how Palestinians chose to resist’ by pointing out how rape is NOT resistance, and also to shame the MSM and other organisations like the UN out of their silence on these atrocities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The police had blocked off the road for us and diverted the traffic which was good.

The BBC forecourt was blocked off and few BBC employees were in sight at the windows.

Below: Her mother said it was fine to show her daughter’s face but I have been on too many Safeguarding courses so I have blotted her features out. But she has a lovely face and good manners. To be reminded of innocent children today was no bad thing.

We gathered on the area below the steps of All Souls Church.

These are a few of the flags and posters.

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The Communist League seem to buck the trend of most other Socialist/Marxist groups in being supporters of Isreal and today they had small team.

There were also a large number of democratic Iranians who were welcomed sincerely. I didn’t get all of the poster to the right but it was a message from Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah, sending a message of friendship to Israel;  hoping to renew the ancient friendship between our two ancient peoples.

~To my shame I didn’t catch the name of the first speaker. It is now 121 days since the attack on Israel and still 136 men, women and children, one of them a baby, remain prisoners. Further it is astonishing that these atrocities are still largely ignored by the MSM.

These are not alleged crimes pending investigation; they are war crimes.

These were not spur of the moment assaults. These were planned and premeditated, to the extent that there is evidence that the terrorists were given drugs such as to remove all inhibitions.

Even if you you can ignore all the other atrocities you must DRAW THE LINE AT RAPE.  And the accompanying sexual sadism.

Revd Bo Ace of Christian Action Against Antisemitism spoke of the debt Christianity owes to Judaism. After all Jesus Christ is the world’s most famous Jew.

At intervals a young woman called Fifi sang accompanied by a guitarist.

Then we were asked to make way for The Women (who included men, as men were also victims of sexual assault) This was a powerful part of the afternoon. They were roped together, some blindfold, dressed in similar grey trousers and black top to the raped hostage Naama Levi , bruised, bloodied, lacerated.

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RAPE IS NOT RESISTANCE, RAPE IS NOT RESISTANCE, RAPE IS NOT RESISTANCE!

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The next speaker was the MP for West Bromwich East (in the Midlands) Nicola Richards. She listed some of the hostages held.

I met two women, mother and daughter, who were wearing symbols, the yellow star, from the 20th century slaughter the Holocaust.  The one that was supposed to be “Never again”

The Hebrew translates as

I am Israeli

I am Zionist

I am Jewish.

It was good to meet them.

 

 

A few hecklers wandered in on foot but they didn’t hang around long; the police and security soon saw them off the premises.

The next speaker I now know was Liat Kurdy co founder of the Jewish Kurdish Association, a very fine speaker.  She drew parallels between the rape of Kurdish and Yazidi women who were taken as sex slaves by ISIS and the rapes of Hamas. But in the case of ISIS and the Kurds it was immediately recognised as genocide, and the Kurds were not expected to withdraw their defences and make any kind of ceasefire.

 

Another speaker I now know was Joan Ryan, former Labour MP for Enfield North (district of North London) she remains honorary President of Labour friends of Israel. She resigned in order to call out the apparent anti-Semitism of Jeremy Corbyn.

The final speaker, was Fleur Hassan-Nahoum the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem who lived and studied in London at Kings College of the University of London. She spoke very rousingly on how, since 7th October, the world is turned upside down.

The closing address gave thanks to all who attended, to the police and security, and particularly commended the solidarity of the Iranians, who are more than the oppressive Islamic regime who have now been unmasked as the source of funds for Hamas.

Hatikvah and God Save the King was sung and we all left to make our way home. Hatikvah means ‘The Hope’ and as a song it is many years older than the State of Israel. An English translation of the beginning of the second verse is Our hope is not yet lost, The hope of two millennia. We have to be hopeful about the world because there are many good people of goodwill within it and I met a few today.

Photographs E Weatherwax London February 2024

Update – the report from the Jewish Chronicle