Bari Weiss charges Ilhan Omar with ‘anti-Semitic slander’

Bari Weiss charges Ilhan Omar with ‘anti-Semitic slander’- but Israelis say these things all the time!

US Politics

Jonathan Ofir on January 27, 2019

New York Times columnist Bari Weiss joined the chorus of condemnation against freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar for tweeting back in 2012 that “Israel hypnotizes the world” and that it is doing “evil deeds” in Gaza (in the midst of the 2012 onslaught).

Weiss says that certain critiques “cross the line into anti-Semitism when they ascribe evil, almost supernatural powers to Israel in a manner that replicates classic anti-Semitic slanders”.

Applying the Bari Weiss measure, let us look at a small selection of prominent Israelis – journalists, politicians and intellectuals, who have ascribed “evil, almost supernatural powers” to what Israel is doing.

Haaretz journalist Amira Hass wrote a piece last year titled “In Gaza, Israel Surpasses Its Usual Evil”. So – not just occasionally evil, but routinely evil, with upsurges.

Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston wrote that “Israel’s Nation-state Law Has Redefined the Self-hating Jew”:

In the bare couple of weeks since Netanyahu cracked open the Pandora’s Box marked the nation-state law – a sealed container which had lain, rotting, reeking, and locked in a corner of his office since his current string of terms began more than eight years ago – the ills and demons which have exploded forth have rephrased the aspirations of Israeli society, poisoned its roots, betrayed, infuriated, polarized and alienated masses of the most loyal of its citizens. (My emphases).

In response to the settlement “regularization law” passed in 2017 (retroactively legalizing settler land-theft), former Likud minister Dan Meridor called the law “evil and dangerous”. Haaretz called it a “theft law.” So did Likud lawmaker Benny Begin.

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy spoke of “Israeli evil” in promoting the spilling of “gallons of blood” two days ago, when criticizing Benny Gantz’s political campaign boasting of his role in the destruction of Gaza:

Israeli evil has already led to the commitment of plenty of war crimes. But it’s doubtful we’ve ever seen such pride in the killing of human beings and the destruction of their homes. Funerals as sales promotions? Bombed-out neighborhoods as an elections gimmick? Numbers of dead as propaganda spin? Gallons of blood on one’s hands as something to be proud of?

The late professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who was hailed by Former President Ezer Weizman as “one of the greatest figures in the life of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in recent generations” and “a spiritual conscience for many in Israel”, said the following:

The State of Israel represents the darkness of a state body, where a creature of a human form who was the president of the Supreme Court decides that the use of torture is permitted in the interest of the state.

Leibowitz was referring to the Landau Committee on torture. Leibowitz also said in that context that “there are Judeo-Nazis”.

You see the point. Usage of such expressions, which relate to “evil, almost supernatural powers”, are meant to awaken the senses and morality. Remember, Ilhan Omar was not saying that Israel was just evil. She was referring to particular deeds it was doing in Gaza – being arguably softer than for example Amira Hass.

Bari Weiss said that Omar was drawing upon an anti-Semitic trope, the “Myth of Jewish hypnosis.” Weiss is applying loose association here. Omar condemned Israeli governmental military actions, rather than “Jews” (as she keeps pointing out).

And Weiss brought up instances of anti-Semitism and sought to associate them with Omar when Omar never addressed any of those instances. Weiss desperately points to three examples of supposed “hypnosis”:

• First the killing of Jesus, which, Weiss writes, served as “the template for the anti-Semitic conspiracy: the ability of this tiny minority to use its wiles and its proximity to power to con others into accomplishing their evil ends”.
• Then a Nazi propaganda film by Josef Goebbels, Jud Süss, about an assimilated Jew who brings destruction to a German city. Here, Weiss maliciously puts words in Omar’s mouth: “The Jewish power to hypnotize the world, as Ms. Omar put it, is the plot of Jud Süss”. Omar  never spoke of “Jewish power,” those are Weiss’s words.
• And third, three Jewish neocons whom Weiss says it is “common to blame” for the Iraq war (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith).

Thus she seeks to portray Omar as a puppet on the end of some Nazi conspiracy. This is so sloppy and unfair it is vile.

Weiss’s conflation of Israel and Jews is not accidental. It really is the point of it all. Weiss seeks to protect Israel from strong condemnation by the notion that criticism is anti-Semitic. The late Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni pointed out in 2002 (to Amy Goodman) that the ‘anti-Semitic’ claim is a “trick” which “we always use” to rebuff criticism of the Israeli government.

And now Bari Weiss is using this “trick”. It’s an unfathomable irony. If Ilhan Omar had tweeted that Israel “tricks the world,” as Aloni said, then Bari Weiss would surely be making the same accusation against her and title the piece, “Ilhan Omar and the The myth of Jewish trickery”.

Oh, and speaking of trickery, let us not forget Benjamin Netanyahu, who in 2001 said on hot mic, “I know what America is. America is something that can be moved easily.” Gideon Levy’s piece about that video from 2010 is called “Tricky Bibi”. Netanyahu “thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes,” Levy wrote. That’s pretty much like saying Netanyahu thinks he can hypnotize Washington, and by that, the world. And really, it’s a fair assessment.

Are You an Anti-Semite?

“Sorry, you don’t even look like a Semite!”

Definition of a Semite 

1. a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs
2. a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic  language.
   • Semitic languages being of, relating to, or constituting a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic (Merriam Webster)

Definition of anti-Semite (by Jews)!

Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is generally considered to be a form of racism! (Wikipedia)

So how do people jump from the first definition to the definition of anti-Semite? Who decided this “exclusivity?”

If you criticize a Jew, a Zionist, an Israeli or the government of the Apartheid state of “Israel,” then you’re labeled as an antisemite. Why? Because you’re “attacking” Judaism… a religion of… you guessed it, Semites!

No such thing as antisemite or antisemitism! 

Ivanka Trump, Sammy Davis Jr., and other converts for example, are NOT and NEVER will be Semites.

You don’t become a Native American for example, just because you were naturalized and became an American citizen! 

Likewise, Indonesian or other Asian Muslims are not considered Semites just because they’re Muslims! Therefore, European jews, South American Jews and “Alaskan jews” are just jews! Period.

This term anti-semitism is a “Zionist manufactured” phrase to scare people of and force them to bow to Zionists (disguised in Jewish clothing) wishes and racist agenda! 

If Semites and Semitism can be defined by religion, then consider this:

• there are 2.3 billion Christian Semites (31% of world population)
• 1.8 billion Muslim Semites (24% of world population)
• …and jews, representing only 0.01% of World Population!

Now then, if you support BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against “israel” how on earth can you be accused of being an antisemite? Was criticism of Apartheid in South Africa parallel to criticism of Christians or Christianity?

I think antisemitism is in order when 0.01% of World Population accuse the 55% of World Population of being “antisemites!”

 

 

The Illegal Creation of “israel!”

The Demographic History of Palestine

At the beginning of WWI (1914), the Jewish population in Palestine was 38,754 (5% of all population) of which 12,332 were Ottoman subjects and the rest were new European immigrants.

 

1895 jews

 

By the end of the British Mandate (1920-1948), which was supposed to bring independence and freedom to the Palestinian people, the Jewish immigrants were increased considerably but were able to hold land of only 6% of Palestine and that through the collusion of the British Mandate.

In addition to helping the Jews obtain land, the British government also facilitated the mass immigration of Jews into Palestine, thus altering its ethnic composition.

By 1946 there were 608,225 (32.96%) Jews including illegal immigrants and 1,237,334 (67.04%) Palestinians (Muslims and Christians); thus in spite of the mass immigration, Jews constituted a minority population, albeit larger than before.

Palestine – pre-1948

The cardinal principle of Zionism had been initiated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1923 and applied faithfully by David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. Jabotinsky was very clear; “israel” can only be imposed by brute force and will be shielded by an iron wall. He stated:

Their [the Arabs] voluntary agreement is out of the question… Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population – an iron wall which the native population cannot break through. This is our policy towards the Arabs.

David Ben-Gurion Quotes

 

Ben-Gurion – Born: October 16, 1886, Płońsk, Poland

 

Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf, and nothing can bridge it… We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs.
Written statement (June 1919), as quoted in Time magazine (24 July 2006)

The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan: one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today, but the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them.
Speech in 1937, accepting a British proposal for partition of Palestine which created a potential Jewish majority state, as quoted in New Outlook (April 1977)

What matters is not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do.”
An “oft-repeated credo” according to the “Windsor Star – Dec 3, 1973 and repeated in various newspapers (with minor variations) including the Jerusalem post (May 22,2009) “It doesn’t matter what the goyim say, but what the Jews do”

Under the guise of United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 of the Partition of Palestine, which was only a non-binding suggestion and was dropped by the UN and USA in March 1948 in favour of UN trusteeship on Palestine, Ben Gurion initiated his plan, Dalet, to eliminate the Palestinian population from the area of Palestine that was to be governed by the Jewish immigrants. In this area, half of the inhabitants were Arab Palestinians. Ben Gurion would have none of them. He expelled the majority before the state of Israel was (illegally) declared on May 14, 1948.

Plan Dalet – called for the conquest of Arab towns and villages inside and along the borders of the area allocated to the proposed “Jewish State” – according to the UN Partition Plan. In case of resistance, the population of conquered villages was to be expelled outside the borders of the Jewish state. If no resistance was met, the residents could stay put, under military rule.

israeli War Crimes

“War” crimes perpetrated by the Zionist forces against the Palestinian civilian population, included at least 232 incidents, which included atrocities, massacres, destruction, plunder and looting between 1947 and 1956. Almost every one of the thirty Zionist/Israeli military operations was accompanied by one or two massacres of civilians. There were at least seventy-seven reported massacres, half of which took place before any Arab regular soldier set foot in Palestine.

Half of the 77 massacres committed by “israel” in 1948 took place before “israel” was declared

The expelled population, before The British left and before “israel” declared itself as a state, was half the total Palestinian refugees. This could not have happened without killing as many as possible. Half of the 77 massacres committed by Israel in 1948 took place before “israel” was declared.

Of these massacres, we know of the infamous Deir Yassin on 9 April 1948. Few knew about Bureir, where 120 of the inhabitants were killed and their homes torched. A mere 48 hours after the massacre in Bureir, Ben Gurion stood solemnly before the Jewish immigrants’ assembly to announce the foundation of Israel and declared:

We appeal – in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab inhabitants of the State of “israel” to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.

In the following 6 months, the other half of the 77 massacres (out of 156 war crimes listed in the Atlas of Palestine 1917-1966) committed by the israelis established their practice of using massacres as a well-tried weapon of ethnic cleansing. Jabotinsky’s plan was working as Ben Gurion was turning the myth into a fact; Palestine almost became a “land without people”.

Another example of Israel ethnic cleansing arose after the signing of the first Armistice agreement between israel and Egypt on 24 February 1949. This agreement allowed the Egyptian forces to withdraw from a besieged enclave with their arms. Two villages, Faluja and Iraq-al-Manshiyya, lay within this enclave that the Egyptian forces were defending. Under the Armistice agreement endorsed by the U.N., israel guaranteed the safety, the life, and property of these two villages, which the defending Egyptian forces had to leave behind. Disregarding its agreement with the U.N. and Egypt, israel terrorized the two villages with indiscriminate shooting, constant curfews, looting, and attempted rape. Three weeks later, israel forcibly expelled the population in stark violation of the Armistice Agreement.

Kafr Qasem Massacre [Operation Hafarferet]

The israelis reneged on the “agreement” with King Abdullah I of Jordan to divide Palestine between them. In April 1949, the Zionists dictated to him that they must grab extra Palestinian land known as the Little Triangle, in central Palestine. The affected area is about 90,000 acres where one 100,000 Palestinians lived. Thus its eighteen villages were annexed outright to israel. There was a condition that the inhabitants must remain in their homes. One of these villages was Kafr Qasem. The people of the Little Triangle were not expelled at the time, but there was an Israeli plan for them. Israel was waiting for the opportunity to carry it out.

It came in October 1956, on the same day of the Tripartite Aggression, or Suez Campaign, in which Israel, Britain, and France conspired to topple Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and regain the Suez Canal. Ben Gurion’s aims were more than that, to convert the Armistice line, which has no legal value as a border, into a de facto border for Israel and to expel the Palestinian population within this “border.” It was attempted in Kafr Qasem under “operation Hafarferet”, an outright expulsion plan. Read More

It took four decades for Israeli historians to have access to declassified Israeli files. Benny Morris was hailed as a brave, objective historian when he found evidence to corroborate what the refugees were saying all along. Curiously he said that these repetitive similar massacres were ‘an accident of war’ not a plan. Not so, said Ilan Pappe. He compared the Palestinian oral history and the Israeli files and found them consistent. He gave it its proper name “Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”.

The Kafr Qasem massacre is, therefore, part of a persistent pattern of ethnic cleansing of which Sabra, Shatila, Jenin, Rafah and the destruction of the Gaza Strip are but a few stations on this bloody trail. But the Kafr Qasem massacre was different in some ways. First, it was against “Israeli citizens”, thus making the claim of Israeli democracy a mockery. Second, the claim that atrocities were committed in the heat of war is false. There was no war in Kafr Qasem, no uprising, no revolt. It was a sheer bloodbath.

Unlike the massacres that are associated with the Nakba, it was perpetrated after the israeli state was established. It was deliberate, planned, calculated, a cold-blooded murder against workers returning from their fields not having heard that a curfew was imposed over their village. After the massacre, Kafr Qasem was subjected to military cordon and media prohibition, which imposed debilitating isolation after the massacre. No one was allowed in or out of the village and a tight gag order was placed on the news. Twenty-two days after the massacre, news finally reached the world.

 

And the israelis crimes continue – their barbaric dream is parallel to ISIS, where they wish to establish a “jewish kingdom” from the Nile to The Euphrates!

Rest assured! The Crusaders were expelled from Palestine after 90 years of occupation. So shall the new “jewish crusaders” be expelled. It’s a matter of time. 

Free Palestine!

Women on the Front Line!

Women on the front line in the deadly “no-man’s land” of Gaza’s “buffer zone”

source

“Then the Israeli snipers called me on the speaker, saying, ‘You, the woman with the keffieh, if you approach the fence again we will shoot you in the head’.

In the deadly no-man’s land of Gaza’s buffer zone, a small group of Palestinian protesters hidden by black smoke, braved Israeli sniper fire and reached the perimeter fence. Tearing a piece away they made it back to safety, holding their trophy.

The stunt was remarkable given the deaths of nearly three dozen protesters in recent weeks at the hands of soldiers firing across the border fence.

Since the start of the Great Return March four weeks ago, in which Gaza’s refugees are demanding the right to return to their lands now inside Israel, 32 unarmed protesters, including a child, have been killed by Israel’s sharpshooters ranged on the other side.

But this stunt was all the more remarkable given that those who carried it out were women.

Further up the buffer zone other women stood in front of protesting men, trying to provide cover for them against Israeli fire on Friday. One of the women, Taghreed al Barawi, said they did this because “women are less likely to be shot at than men”, although their sex has not protected the 160 or so women who have also been wounded during the last week of the buffer zone protests.

“Then the Israeli snipers called me on the speaker, saying, ‘You, the woman with the keffieh, if you approach the fence again we will shoot you in the head’. But I am not afraid and next time will burn their flag and raise ours.”

Taghreen al Barawi said she had “this feeling of strange courage” as she got closer to the fence. She also spoke of being inspired by Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old West Bank teenager, currently being held in an Israeli jail after she slapped an Israeli soldier outside her home.

Pictures of women in the front line of an Arab uprising are not surprising at first sight – women played a lead role in the Arab Spring, and, as in the case of Ahed Tamimi, are increasingly in the forefront of West Bank protests too.

But in Gaza’s traditional Hamas-run society, as well as living under Israel’s siege, women are also subject to repressive social codes which mean spontaneous public protest

“I would be Ahed if I could,” was a cry heard from many Gaza women after the teenager’s recent sentence was passed. “She is strong, she is beautiful, she is courageous,” said two veiled students, staring adoringly at Ahed’s portrait – wearing jeans, hair uncovered – on a wall outside Gaza’s Islamic University.

Also emblazoned on the wall were portraits of former Palestinian leaders including Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas.

It is not, however, only the social taboo which until now has prevented these women from protesting as Ahed did.

Since Israel’s decision in 2005 to withdraw its troops from bases inside Gaza, redeploying to the perimeter with a blockade at sea and control of the skies, it has been even harder for ordinary Palestinians to resist in the way Ahed Tamimi did.

In the days of the old intifada any Palestinian could land a stone on a soldier with no trouble, as the soldiers were in amongst them. “Now we can’t be like Ahed because we can’t even see a soldier, never mind hit them with stones. We never get close enough to kick or punch. If only we could,” a young man complained.

For those in Gaza this inability to see or hit back at the enemy has created a uniquely desperate despair, which has spilled out into the buffer zone protests of recent weeks. Perhaps for this reason, Hamas understood it could not hold back any protester and allowed women to protest too.

As the marches have continued and the death toll has risen, some in Gaza have withdrawn support for the uprising, saying the protesters are simply “committing suicide” by throwing themselves in front of Israel’s bullets.

But others, including many young women, are determined to continue until the climax on 15 May.

“What do we have to lose? We are dying in Gaza under siege. Why not die in the buffer zone protesting instead. At least there’s a chance our message will be heard,” said Intimah Saleh, 27, protesting with her mother who cooks food for those on the front line.

Asked whether she thought the women of Gaza would produce an Ahed Tamimi, she said: “Of course. But we have many Aheds here.”

And asked whether Ahed could be a future Palestinian leader, a group of teenage boys laughed and said: “No. The Israelis will not allow it. Before that happens they’ll make sure she’s shot.”

• ATW Comment: Palestinians should not care if the “israeli’s allow it!”  Ahed Tamimi would be the best leader in the future! Abbas and his thugs need to drop dead!

Israeli police a danger to Palestinians

Israeli police are a danger to Palestinian public safety

 A video of an Israeli police officer assaulting a Palestinian man may have gone viral this week, leading senior officials to condemn it. It also served as a reminder that police violence is a part of everyday life for Palestinians in Israel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE2pY-L27kA&feature=youtu.be

The now-infamous video of an I卐raeli police officer beating a Palestinian man in East Jerusalem, which began circulating on social media on Thursday media, won’t leave me. I am trying to figure out precisely why these images are so disturbing and stomach-churning. After all, anyone who knows even bit about the reality in the eastern part of the city knows there is nothing new here. After all, the police’s violent, frightening presence in Palestinian areas is part of everyday life here.

I know this reality well. I know it from the rows of detained Palestinians who are made to stand against a wall, which I see at least twice a day in this city. I know it from the beatings during protests, from the Border Police jeeps that drive wildly in the Palestinian neighborhoods. Too many times have I almost been run over by one while crossing the street. I am guessing they must have thought I was Palestinian, and no police jeep will slow down to allow a Palestinian the right to cross in these areas.

Perhaps it is the fact that none of the Palestinian men present try to intervene or strike back as they watch the officer’s depraved behavior. They just stand there and take it. But the fact is that the officer could very easily claim that his life was in danger, meaning these men would quickly find themselves in court as the attackers. The statistics show that they are right.

Between 2011-2014, in more than 93 percent of cases in which citizens filed reports against the police, the Police Investigation Unit either refrained from opening an investigation or closed the case without taking action against the offending officers. Among the 11,282 complaints filed between 2011-2013, only 306 cases (2.7 percent) led to criminal trials, while only 374 (3.3 percent) led to disciplinary hearings. In 2014, only 2.5 percent of complaints turned into a trial, while three percent led to a disciplinary hearing. The rest of the cases were either closed due to lack of evidence or public interest — or were never investigated in the first place.

In 2016, 2,945…

Read More

Donald Trump: History Repeating Itself!

Donald #Trump (a Tramp really) and his bashing of Muslims, however disturbing, seems to be borrowed from America’s antisemitic history. Nothing new. He’s seeking votes and his “supporting” polls are nothing new!

“23 percent of respondents in one 1945 survey saying they would vote for a congressional candidate if the candidate declared “himself as being against the Jews”

In the first half of the 20th century, Jews were discriminated against in some employment, not allowed into some social clubs and resort areas, given a quota on enrollment at colleges, and not allowed to buy certain properties. Antisemitism reached its peak during the interwar period. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, the antisemitic works of Henry Ford, and the radio speeches of Father Coughlin in the late 1930s indicated the strength of attacks on the Jewish community.

In 1915, during World War I, Ford blamed Jews for instigating the war, saying “I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers.”[14] Later, in 1925, Ford said “What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose—a power that has no country and that can order the young men of all countries out to death'”. According to author Steven Watts, Ford’s antisemitism was partially due to a noble desire for world peace.

In a 1938 poll, approximately 60 percent of the respondents held a low opinion of Jews, labeling them “greedy,” “dishonest,” and “pushy.”[24] 41 percent of respondents agreed that Jews had “too much power in the United States,” and this figure rose to 58 percent by 1945. In 1939 a Roper poll found that only thirty-nine percent of Americans felt that Jews should be treated like other people. Fifty-three percent believed that “Jews are different and should be restricted” and ten percent believed that Jews should be deported.[25] Several surveys taken from 1940 to 1946 found that Jews were seen as a greater threat to the welfare of the United States than any other national, religious, or racial group.

Political antisemitism also was high during the war years, with 23 percent of respondents in one 1945 survey saying they would vote for a congressional candidate if the candidate declared “himself as being against the Jews” and as many as 35 percent saying it would not affect their vote. Jews also noted the influence of antisemitism when the U.S. State Department opposed efforts to lower immigration barriers to admit Jews and other refugees fleeing the Holocaust and Nazi-occupied Europe.

Source

Thousands march in Gaza protest – London, Aug 9, 2014

Around 20,000 protesters marched through London waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans

By Anna Roberts4:55PM BST 09 Aug 2014

Thousands of demonstrators descended on the streets of central London this afternoon to protest at the bombing of Gaza by Israeli forces.
Waving placards and the black, white, green and red flag of Palestine, the marchers converged on the BBC’s Broadcasting House near Oxford Circus.

Chants of “Free, Free, Palestine” were shouted across London’s busy West End as marchers then made their way to Hyde Park to be addressed by speakers including George Galloway and Diane Abbott.

Organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War, the march passed peacefully, according to most onlookers. Pupils from Ed Miliband’s old school, Haverstock, in Chalk Farm, north London, joined the march, accompanied by a samba band.

Yasmin Rackal, 17, said: “People shouldn’t stand by and watch an injustice. I have little brothers and sisters and if I was in that situation I would want people globally to fight for me.”

Sanum Ghafoor, 22, had travelled from Luton to take part. She said: “It is a massacre of the Palestinians, and the world is staying quiet. The British Government keeps supporting the Israeli establishment.”

One Jewish marcher said he was appalled at the “horrific” images of dead bodies and bombed-out homes being beamed out of Gaza.

But Dan Rosenberg, 43, said while many of his Jewish friends felt the same, they were too afraid to join the march for fear of being abused.

The father of two from north London, said: “It is horrific what is going on in Gaza. It is collective punishment. I don’t know how any human being can stand back while this is happening.

“But it is difficult being here. We have seen the anti-Semitic attitudes and you feel very threatened and scared, but we feel we have to stand up and represent.

“Even standing here we feel quite uncomfortable. You hear people say they think the Jews run the media. Those beliefs are unpleasant, ignorant and racist.

“I have Jewish friends who wanted to come but they felt uncomfortable being here.”

A public appeal for money launched on Friday night to help thousands of Gazans has raised more than £4.5m in less than 24 hours.

The Department for International Development has pledged to match the first £2m donated by the public to the Gaza Crisis Appeal, which will help pay for food, water and shelter