Who are Glasgow Friends of Israel?
Glasgow Friends of Israel who are part of Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland are a Zionist group and not a Jewish group. Over the last three years or so GFI have been embroiled in an attempt to frame SPSC as antisemitic. There have been numerous articles about this in the main stream press (Shock Zionist U-turn at GTC Sutherland hearing | Free Speech on Palestine | Get involved | Articles (scottishpsc.org.uk)) (Pro-Israel lawyer appeals fine and diversity training order | Friends of Israel | Civil society | 1967 till today | Complicity | Articles (scottishpsc.org.uk)).
The debacle has resulted in their members being found to be in contravention of their career governing bodies at recent hearings of the Law Society of Scotland and the General Teaching Council Scotland. These people tried to frame us for the hate crime of antisemitism and as such are no role models for an anti-racism march.
The Israeli embassy in London have stated on their website that they “work closely with activists Scottish Friends of Israel” and it is widely known that Israel has just sworn in the most right-wing, racist and anti-Arab government in the country’s history. One of their ministers Ben Givr has called “for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel”. This is the government that GFI will be promoting to the people attending the SUTR march in Glasgow on the 18th of March.
In campaigning for justice for Palestinians we are in touch with many Palestinians in Scotland who tell us that they can no longer join the SUTR march because of the presence of GFI and the flying of Israeli flags on the march. How can we call this an anti-racism march when an ethnic minority in Scotland feel excluded from this event. The footage of the Israeli flags on the SUTR march have in the past gone viral on social media as right-minded people the length and breadth of the country have shown their disgust and incredulity at the sight.
Below are pictures that went viral on Twitter of Israeli flags at the Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) march and unbelievably they have become a fixture of the march.
The picture below was taken last year (2022) on the SUTR march in Glasgow.
Glasgow Friends of Israel have Christian Zionists as members and a core goal for Christian Zionists is the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. SUTR will be welcoming to the march once again an organisation that has enflamed hatred towards Muslims by calling for the Al-Aqsa mosque (third most holy site in Islam) to be demolished to make way for a Jewish Temple. Here are their tweets calling for the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque:
GFI are an organisation that are not afraid to put out disgusting racist tweets, here are some of their most vile. Here they are tweeting about the killing of Palestinians (unarmed) on the Great March of Return in Gaza in 2018.
Here they are tweeting about the young medic who was shot and killed by an Israeli IDF sniper on the Great March of return. In an article in the New York Times investigation (A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? - The New York Times). NYT reported that the killing of the young medic more or less amounted to a war crime by Israel. The ‘Pallywood’ refers to a trope/ conspiracy theory that Palestinians fake the footage of these killings.
Here GFI are stating that Palestinian refugees are somehow fake refugees:
Here is how they spoke about the Jewish leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband:
Israel's Occupation Forces are regularly accused of committing war crimes but here we have Glasgow Friends of Israel mocking and ‘pleased to see’ the blindfolding and beating of a young Palestinian by the IDF:
In this example GFI are mocking an anti-racist campaigner for Palestine:
Here they seem joyous that Katie Hopkins, a British far-right commentator, is visiting their beloved apartheid state:
The Palestinian struggle is an anti-racist on. Here is vile truth of what GFI think of peaceful protests:
Here they are calling those who support Palestinian rights ‘lovers of terrorism’ just because they are showing solidarity with Palestinians:
During the 2022 SUTR march GFI were caught on film being racist towards an onlooker who was filming the march (link below). One of the GFI marchers said to the Asian gentleman “are you filming for Hamas?”.
Even without the evidence in these tweets above, Glasgow Friends of Israel are ‘friends’ of a state that has been reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem as committing the crime of apartheid. GFI are proudly waving flags of this apartheid state on the SUTR marches. Make Glasgow SUTR march an apartheid free zone - where racist organisation are not represented.
“Are you filming for Hamas” – racist remark by GFI marchers on SUTR march 2022 Glasgow:
Pro-Israel groups at confusing 'anti-racism' march in Glasgow - YouTube