Sadiq Khan Called “Disgrace” for Claiming ‘From River to Sea’ Chant is Not Antisemitic
Sir Sadiq Khan has been called a “disgrace” by a former Labour minister after he suggested that protesters who chant ‘From the river to the sea’ are not antisemitic, despite it calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. The Telegraph has more.
The slogan is frequently chanted at pro-Palestinian marches, despite claims that it envisages the destruction of the state of Israel.
The Mayor of London said that whether the phrase was antisemitic or not depended on the context in which it was spoken.
He made his comment during Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall on Thursday, a week after protests that took place on the evening of the Manchester synagogue attack.
Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Conservatives, said: “Do you think to scream ‘From the river to the sea’, which they’re doing during these hate marches, is appropriate? Do you think it is antisemitic?”
Sir Sadiq replied: “I don’t think it is antisemitic and I think it’s all about context.
“Some slogans can be antisemitic, but it’s all about context. And in certain contexts, yes, those slogans are antisemitic. In other contexts, they’re not.”
The slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ is normally followed by a second line: ‘Palestine will be free.’
It is a reference to the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, within which the whole of the state of Israel lies.
Critics say it is a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, but pro-Palestinian groups say it refers to the right of Palestinians in the West Bank as well as Gaza to freedom.
Sir James Cleverly, the Shadow Communities Secretary, said: “‘From the River to the Sea’ is a chant that calls for wiping the world’s only Jewish state from the map. It is patently absurd to claim it is not antisemitic.
“Against a backdrop of regular hate marches on the streets of London, Sadiq Khan has once again let the capital’s Jewish community down.”
Lord Austin, a former Labour minister who campaigns against antisemitism, said: “Let’s be clear, this chant calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of millions of its Jewish citizens.
“These are the same people also call to ‘globalise the Intifada’ which is incitement to kill Jews here in Britain.
“It is deeply disturbing that the mayor is siding with these racists and bigots.
“He should have dealt with these hate marchers two years ago but to defend them now, especially after last week’s murders in the terror attack in Manchester, is a total disgrace.”
Worth reading in full.
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Only in the context of the river Thames and the Channel is Khan correct, and only at the London end of that land.
Can we all stop calling him Sir, he might have been officially knighted, but only a corrupt establishment can believe he was actually deserving of the title, ditto Blair.
We could all probably list plenty more Sir’s and Dame’s who are equally undeserving, as well as a few who are deserving but have not received the honorific, like maybe Farage for services to the nation, or Jeremy Clarkson for having the Cahoona’s to speak his mind!
Okay, neither is perfect, but let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and all that!
But isn’t that just Free Speech, like Burning a Koran & shouting “F*** Islam”?
Or Burning a Jewish Torah, and shouting “F*** the Jews”?
Or Burning a Christian Bible, and shouting “F*** Christians”?
Or Burning the Kurdish holy book Mishefa Reş, and shouting “F*** the Kurds”?
Of course it is. It also isn’t “antisemitic” because that’s originally a German term and referred to a set of loosely associated political pressure groups seeking to revert the so-called Jewish emancipation of the early 19th century, the granting of full citizen’s rights to Jews in the German territories of that period in exchange for them also serving as conscripts in their armies. It came to international prominence because Hitler placed himself in the tradition of Austria-German nationalist antisemitism and ceased to be a politically relevant factor in 1945, before a state of Israel ever existed. No Arab can ever be an “antisemite” because Arabs, as speakers of another so-called semitic language, are Semites themselves.
But that doesn’t bother the government of Israel much which wants to retain the term for its perceived political usefulness to lob it at anyone who’s opposed to anything the government of Israel ever did. Eg, Andrew Bridgen for its opposition to COVID vaccination campaigns of which the Israeli one was particularly aggressive (the very notion of endless COVID boostering came from a medical experiment the government of Israel carried out on the population of Israel).
I upvoted your comment, but it just showed a “Green Zero”, and a “Red -1”, which seems to indicate some editorial interference with the voting…
You made a very important point that Arabs are also “Semites”, and therefore cannot be labelled as “antisemitic”.
I think that’s a wordpress oddity. Some comments also get negative red and green numbers.
The main point I was trying to make is actually that hostility to Jews predates Antisemitismus as very specific form of hostility to Jews of which Hitler was the most notorious exponent by more than a thousand years. Hostility of Arabs to Jews is certainly real and certainly also quite murderous at times, but so was hostility of the Catholic Church to Jews long before semitic was invented as a word (derived from Noah’s mythological son Sem by German linguists of the 18th century, as far as I know).
My upvote worked.
But that isn’t shown on my computer screen!
It shows “Red -2” now on RW’s first comment, and “Green Zero”.
Wait, now it shows “Red -3” and “Green Zero”, as if 3 people’s upvotes have all been converted into downvotes! Strange.
Linguistically you are correct, but anti-Semitic has come to be defined as anti -Jewish. No one is suggesting New Zealand is evil and should be eradicated because of its misguided covid policies. The humiliation of Jews in the UK exemplifies how that particular persecution starts. Anyone who does not know this from 20th century Germany is suffering from wilful blindness.
The government of Israel makes a habit of referring to all its opponents, at least all its non-Jewish opponents, as “antisemites” to deliberately evoke the Third Reich for political manuevering, in line with all self-accused democrats anywhere always referring to their political opponents as “Nazis” using a variety of camouflage terms (eg “far right extremist” or “white supremacist”).
No one suggested that Israel should be eradicated because of “COVID policies” (at least no one I’m aware of). But Bridgen was smeared as antisemite because of his criticism of COVID vaccination campaigns.
There doesn’t seem to be a sensible English article about this but between 1348 and 1351, Jewish life was virtually eradicated in Germany by a series of lynchmob assaults because of hysterical “narratives” about Jews having caused the Black Death (the plague). This was at least tacitly tolerated by the Christian Church of that time, if not tacitly (or even not-so-tacitly) supported.
This is a long story which started in the first century AD and not in 1933.
There is far more film footage from 1933-1945 than the fourteenth century showing the persecution of Jews, even if the principle is the same. Not much Germans can do about that.
But not much footage showing the persecution of Ukrainian Christians, starved to death in their millions in the Holodomor of 1933.
Surely people should avoid confusion by just saying “Anti-Jewish”, or “Anti-Muslim”, or “Anti-Hindu”, or “Anti-Christian”, or “Anti-Satanist”.
not really because Islam is a religion not a group of people.
Judaism is also a religion and not a group of people.
So is Christianity.
So is the Kurdish religion of the Kurdish Terrorist who burnt the Koran.
So is Hinduism, Buddhism, Satanism, etc.
Speaking of Satanism, the Kurdish religion is Yazidi, who reportedly worship Satan, though I haven’t had time to look up more about it.
Sorry Heretic but free speech is only oe way.
So it would seem…
Agree with Jim. This odious, duplicitous little scumbag, with his first loyalty to the Ummah, ( why do you think he keeps saying ”diversity is *our* strength”? Because it strengthens the Left-Islam alliance ) like so many of his ilk, sows division, normalizes hate speech and promotes the degradation of society; ”There comes a point when moral relativism crosses into moral rot. Sadiq Khan reached that point this week. Asked whether the chant “From the river to the sea” – the phrase that calls for the erasure of Israel – is antisemitic, the Mayor of London said no. Not in all contexts. Not always. This wasn’t a slip. It was a confession – that under his watch, hatred can be excused if it wears a keffiyeh and the right colours. The phrase “From the river to the sea” is not poetry. It is the genocidal dream of Hamas – a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state, and by extension, the Jews who live there. When shouted in London streets it is not a call for peace but for annihilation. Every Jew in this city knows it. Every decent person should too. Yet Sadiq Khan, the man… Read more »
If I were Mr. Jim Chimirie, I would be cross with you for quoting all his posts in their entirety, thereby discouraging everyone from clicking on the link, visiting his site to read his whole post, and thereby depriving him of site visitors and post viewings.
May I suggest just posting a few of his most important paragraphs, to encourage people to click the link and benefit him?
“…quoting all his posts in their entirety..”.
When reality doesn’t support your narrative, just fabricate your own version of reality.
How on earth do I quote ALL of his posts? ‘Jim’ is a very prolific poster on Twitter ( so not “his site” at all ). In fact, I’ve just visited his page and counted 31 original comments he’s posted just today, not including other people’s comments that he’s re-shared.
Anybody can go right ahead and fact check me, just head over to Twitter and get back to us with your findings. So again: how do I manage to “quote ALL his posts in their entirety”? Your argument is so weak it’s non-existent.
Therefore, just another of your deliberately antagonistic posts, once again with accusations you’re unable to support and that are factually incorrect. So what does that make you?🤷♀️
Thanks for posting Mogs 👍
Cheers, hux. I do attract a certain, er…’type’, don’t I?🤭
But you know what they say: Your haters are your most loyal fans.😁
Oh gosh, thanks for being my most loyal fan then.
Yep.
Prominent Israelis, including politicians have constantly made “hate speech” comments against Palestinians.
Here are over a hundred examples of Israeli hate speech against Palestinians up to 2003.
https://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/palestinians.php
5 Israeli Quotes on the Gaza Conflict examples of Israeli hate speech, up to November 2012.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-gaza-quotes_b_2162796
More examples of Israeli hate speech from 2003 to 2023.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/wests-double-standards-on-israeli-hate-speech
Israeli MP Says It Clearly for World to Hear: ‘Erase All of Gaza From the Face of the Earth’
Knesset member and former Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distal Atbaryan Nov 01, 2023
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-genocide
Law for Palestine Releases Database with 500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide since 2023 – Continuously Updated
https://law4palestine.org/law-for-palestine-releases-database-with-500-instances-of-israeli-incitement-to-genocide-continuously-updated/
He is of a faith that hates the Jew, so what does anyone expect
Freedom of Speech?
Kahn would say white is non white to wriggle out of a corner. His and his is the only way.
The line that follows “…Palestine will be free” is never said out loud. It goes, “Come on you filthy Jews, Get up them chimneys!” For that is what is meant.