https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/insulting-and-counterproductive
Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, London, calling for the government to protect the crew of Madleen, June 9, 2025Jewish campaigners condemn Starmer’s claim that demonstrations against genocide are ‘un-British’
JEWISH campaigners have condemned Sir Keir Starmer’s “insulting” claim that demonstrations against genocide were “un-British.”
The Prime Minister’s remarks, made today, came ahead of several student protests on the anniversary of October 7, and the national march for Palestine this weekend.
An inter-university march set off in the capital from King’s College at 2pm, before passing the London School of Economics, University College London and ending at the gates of SOAS.
Joining them was Mark Etkind, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who said: “As we speak today, weapons made in Britain are contributing to the deaths of children and others in Gaza — that has to stop now in order to save those lives, so these brave student protesters have to keep demonstrating until that genocide stops.”
He accused the government of having slandered the students, making them out to be insensitive to October 7, “while ignoring the obvious fact that their priority is to … oppose the ongoing conflict which Britain unfortunately is complicit in.”
Rallies also took place in Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the institution’s principal emailed students warning them to “think carefully about their actions” ahead of the protest.
Edinburgh’s Justice for Palestine Society called it a “blatant attempt to suppress campus discourse on an ongoing genocide.”
Writing in the Times, Sir Keir said it was “un-British to have so little respect for others,” echoing comments made by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who described Palestine protests held following Thursday’s attack on a Manchester synagogue as “fundamentally un-British.”
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, media officer for Jewish Voice for Liberation, said: “Those who protest are in despair at our government’s abject failure to take any kind of meaningful action to make the bombing, shooting, burning and starvation stop.
“For leaders of that government to accuse protesters of ‘un-Britishness’ is both insulting and counterproductive.
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