UK: synagogue attack exploited to call Gaza protests “un-British”

The UK’s Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski has denounced the attack on a Manchester synagogue as “horrific,” urging for solidarity across communities, but he has also accused the UK government of exploiting tragedy to suppress dissent against the genocide in Gaza, as reported by Middle East Eye on October 3rd.

Polanski emphasised the personal impact of the attack, having attended a school and a synagogue in the same community. But while the violence has left him shaken, he stressed that the response must be one of unity, not division. “We need community cohesion and we need people to stick together,” he said.

Polanski reserved his sharpest criticism for ministers and political leaders attempting to fold antisemitism into discussions about Palestine in order to silence protest. UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was branded “deeply irresponsible” for drawing direct links between language around Gaza and rising antisemitism, while UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s claim that pro-Palestine demonstrations, following the attack in Manchester, were “fundamentally un-British” was described as incoherent and inflammatory.

For Polanski, such rhetoric is part of a broader state strategy. In recent months, the government has intensified efforts to criminalise solidarity with Palestine, from the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, to repeated attempts to portray mass demonstrations in London as hotbeds of extremism. Millions have marched against the genocide in Gaza, yet politicians routinely frame these protests as threats to public order rather than expressions of conscience.

Polanski warned that weaponizing antisemitic violence to delegitimise opposition to genocide only deepens division while deflecting attention from Britain’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide. The UK continues to license arms sales to Israel and share intelligence, making it an active partner in the assault on Gaza. “I’m less concerned about the policing of language and civility, and I’m more concerned about the actual bombs that are landing on people,” he said.

While acknowledging the need for sensitivity toward Jewish communities in the wake of the Manchester attack, Polanski insisted grief must not be manipulated into silence. “Speaking as a member of the Jewish community, I wouldn’t want anyone to feel like they had to be silent about a genocide that’s happening,” he said.

There is more at stake than simply a debate over language. The question is whether Britain’s political establishment will continue to exploit tragedy to curtail dissent, or whether communities can come together in solidarity against both rising antisemitism and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Middle East Eye, Maghrebi.org