Reclaim our streets – Stand for equality, justice and freedom for all

SPSC calls on all our members and supporters to attend the demonstration on Saturday 27 June at 1 pm in Montgomery Street Park, Edinburgh. 

Palestine is at the heart of the current struggle against the rise of the far-right on our streets. The state of Israel is an ethnonationalist regime driven by a deeply racist and genocidal ideology. Time and again, Israel proves they are an occupier and settler colonial project hell-bent on erasing indigenous populations by any means necessary.  

By their ideology and methods, Israel not only inspires, but also provides support, training, funding and even weaponry to far-right regimes, organisations and agitators such as Tommy Robinson. 

The surveillance, policing and military measures used to oppress and kill the Palestinian people are being sought by governments across the world who hope to create their own ethno-states, or at the very least repress any dissenting voices who speak against their investment in genocide. Israel courts the likes of Farage and Robinson to ensure support from what they think is a growing movement as they lose “liberal” supporters.  

The world is awake to the fact that Zionism is racism, and Israel is a racist state supporting and being supported by those who lie and spread disinformation, sowing division and hatred in local communities to bolster their personal power and line their pockets. 

The ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing - the dehumanisation, mass killing, torture, starvation, control, destruction - that Israel carries out against the Palestinian people is the direct result of the protection and almost complete impunity it enjoys. 

The normalisation and conflation of Zionism and the state of Israel with Jewishness and Jewish communities, not only by our government and establishment but by civil society, including anti-racist organisations, has led us to where we are now. This must end – it is antisemitic and dangerous while eroding the credibility and integrity of our movement when we must be strong and united as we face the challenges ahead. 

We must challenge all forms of racism wherever it appears, stand together with communities under threat, and fight the far-right activists motivated by hate and division. 

We are in this for the long term and to make a difference, our work must go deeper, so we appeal to partners and those groups and organisations that consider themselves to be part of a wider anti-racist movement to: 

• Turn up and stand together as communities under attack 
• Adopt the Anti-Palestinian Racism Framework 
• Follow members of the British Medical Association and drop the IHRA working definition of antisemitism 
• Become an Apartheid Free Zone to endorse and implement boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel