Letter: Rishi Sunak’s slur of antisemitism will not deter people like me from criticising Israel

Sunak’s anti-semitism slur

As a law-abiding, retired school teacher, it came as a great surprise to discover last week that I was part of the ‘mob’ that is threatening democracy – if you can believe our prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

Last Wednesday, while addressing police chiefs, Rishi Sunak claimed Britain was tipping into ‘mob rule’ and announced a new crackdown on Gaza protest marches. Then on Friday he followed this with an astonishing set of attacks on those of us who refuse to sit quietly as the children of Gaza are murdered. In addition, he dramatically raised the profile of one MP among 650, by saying it was ‘beyond alarming’ that Mr Galloway had got elected – this from a PM who feels unable to lead his own party to electoral victory. I have no doubt that Mr Sunak knew that by promoting Mr Galloway, he could harm Labour and that this was his motivation.

Politics is not simply the act of putting an X on a ballot paper every few years, we have a right to question the actions of our MPs and government and to protest when they alarm us. As a British citizen, I feel enormous shame when I see our government supporting (or at best, not opposing) what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Some in the Tory party are attempting to label criticism of Israel or questioning its current structure as antisemitic. This nonsense is insulting to the decent Jewish population of this country who support peace in Palestine.

I hope that the residents of Palestine, Jewish and Muslim, can find a path out of their sectarian conflict in the same way, we in N. Ireland found peace through the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Sunak’s slur of antisemitism will not deter people like me from criticising Israel and because I object to the murder of school children in Gaza by Israeli soldiers, I will continue to attend Gaza protests when they occur.

Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6