The “British method”
27Aug09
Following a political campaign by the BNP, a Muslim man was abducted from his home in Essex and threatened at knifepoint to stop organising weekly prayer sessions at the community centre.
Asked to response, local BNP councillor Pat Richardson denied the BNP was behind the attack, explaining:
“Firebombing is not a British method. A brick through the window is a British method, but firebombing is not a way of showing displeasure”.
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Filed under: UK | 5 Comments
Tags: BNP, fascists, Islamophobia, Nazis, Pat Richardson, Racism
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What a frickin’ idiot.
Yeah stay classy BNP
Jamie, did you see this article by Avery –
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=222257
I did, yes. Here are some good critiques by Helena Cobban and Ran Green. One point on which I do agree with Avnery is the danger of making Israeli Jews feel like everyone is against them and thereby creating a siege mentality, which tends to increase rather than reduce intransigence. I think that, at least initially, the boycott should focus on the occupation and the settlements, for this reason.
Thanks for those. I think Helena misses Averney’s point on the numbers – yes, there are millions of Palestinians if you add in the refugees, Gaza and West Bank. But Averney is talking about the minority of Israeli Arabs with a vote in Israel. And I think what he is saying is that the Arab minority in Israel would presumably be in favour of change whereas the Jewish majority overwhelmingly are not. And given that it is extremely unlikely that Gazans, Refugees and West Bankers will be given a vote in Israel anytime soon, it is only the ‘Israeli citizens’ who can change their own government policy. I’m not sure it is helpful to call Averney racist for making this analysis.
Of course, this implies this was what happened in South Africa to make the change. I’m not knowledgable enough to know what happened there regarding votes for the various ethnic groups and whether this is really an issue.
It strikes me that the ‘everyone is against us’ attitude is a good point. I still think that positive reverse boycotting of Palestinian goods has more likelihood of positive effects in the short term – even though at the moment it is virtually impossible.