The Right Hon. Rishi Sunak

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

London SW1A 2AA

                                                                                                                     15th November 2023

 

Dear Prime Minister  

We are writing to protest at Suella Braverman’s description of the pro-Palestinian marches as "hate marches", and ask you to publicly reject it.  

 

The driving motivation of those participating in these marches is compassion for the Palestinians, who once again are being killed in their thousands by Israeli bombing. Of course, the protestors are angry at the Israeli government, and they are angry too at the UK government's “unqualified support” for Israel, and refusal to call for a ceasefire. But anger is not the same thing as hate, and it is dangerously misleading to conflate the two.  

We also object to the government's conflation, in many of its statements, of all Jewish people with the state of Israel. As you must have seen, many of those participating in the pro-Palestine protests are Jews, who belong to groups that range from the ultra-orthodox to the secular, and with members of all age groups. The demonstrators are expressing their anger at Israel, not their hatred of Jews. To conflate the two encourages inter-community tensions, and is utterly irresponsible.  

 

By contrast, acknowledging the fact that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators are fundamentally calling for peace and human rights, and recognising the existence of a broad range of opinions about the current actions of the Israeli government among British Jews, would go a long way towards preventing the Israel-Gaza crisis from becoming a cause of antisemitism and Islamophobia on the streets of Britain.  

 

We therefore ask you to publicly reject Suella Braverman's wilful misrepresentation of these demonstrations. She is needlessly stoking fear among Jews, and hatred and distrust of Muslims in the wider community.