A collective of radical Black Jews, Black non-Jews & non-Black Jews challenging bullshit, building solidarity and celebrating our cultures & histories.
Our solidarity is our strength. Our unity will win. ✊🏿✡️ 🇵🇸
Thank you to everyone who joined us outside the German embassy last night. It was an incredible evening of defiance and learning.
Over a thousand Jews on the Jewish bloc today, proudly in our kippot and kefiyeh. Some have brought olive branches. This is the biggest it's ever been.
On the streets of London today, Jews stand with Palestine. ✊🏿✡️
Hello. We were at this protest, alongside other Jews and Jewish groups. We spent the entire time being thanked for our presence, and proudly held our banner alongside our Muslim family. We are building solidarity. You are providing ideological cover for a genocide.
London today, vast numbers of people in this crowd are there to celebrate murderous depravity & to incite the eradication of Jews from Israel.
And people (pretend to) wonder why Jewish people want a home of their own.
Police are attempting to arrest Jews in prayer.
We shout “let us pray” for Palestine.
The police have confiscated copies of our speeches.
GET YOUR COP HANDS OFF OUR JEWISH COMRADES
For those who aren't paying attention: there is a redefinition of Jewishness taking place - at the state, political and community level - where anti-Zionist Jews are being defined out of the category of Jew.
This is part of the redefinition of Jewishness that is taking place.
Jews who oppose Israel and/or are anti-Zionist are excluded from the category of Jew, and therefore excluded from Jewish spaces/institutions & protection against state violence, discrimination and antisemitism.
The Jewish bloc is over 3000 strong today. Several Jewish BJA members have brought their parents. The shift is no longer just among young Jews: the genocide is crystal clear for all to see. Free Palestine. ✊🏿✡️
✊🏿Black Jewish Alliance are shutting shit down with
@SistersUncut
!!
Christmas is cancelled. We will not stop shutting shit down until Israel stops the genocide.
Shabbat Shalom and Free Palestine 🇵🇸
The scale of Jewish solidarity on the Palestine
#CeasefireNOW
march today is unprecedented.
This is what
@SuellaBraverman
doesn't want you to see. She will never divide us.
✊🏿✡️
They were scheduled to host a fundraiser for Israeli army reservists, hosted by Douglas Murray. The event was cancelled after protest, with workers refusing to staff the event despite being offered triple pay.
Shocking and disgusting they tried to buy support for genocide.
"We know this language. When we hear the language human animals, and children of darkness, we as Jews must stand on the side of freedom".
@BarnabyRaine
✊🏿✡️
Whilst trying to do our morning prayer, protesting peacefully for Palestinians,
@metpoliceuk
&
@BTP
attempted to violently break us up and arrest those leading the prayer. It's only when we, with support from commuters, chanted "let them pray" that they stopped.
Nico Froehlich, photographer & lecturer, assaulted a Black Jewish member of BJA at the East Finchley protest this week. As she was assembling our banner, he stamped her hand to the ground, trapping her and breaking our pole. These misogynist racists don't speak for our Judaism.
Racists and fascists in East Finchley last night, protected by
@CST_UK
, telling a Black woman protesting against the genocide in Gaza to "go back to your own country".
This is the collaboration between Zionists and the fascist far-right, as they partner in support of genocide.
This is part of the redefinition of Jewishness that is taking place.
Jews who oppose Israel and/or are anti-Zionist are excluded from the category of Jew, and therefore excluded from Jewish spaces/institutions & protection against state violence, discrimination and antisemitism.
On Sunday, a group of Jews from Na'amod and
@JAFPmcr
joined the March Against Antisemitism in Manchester.
We were distressed to be blocked from the main march by
@CST_UK
and the
@JewishMCR
who would not let us attend with our banners.
This article describes all anti-Zionist Jews, 25% of US Jews, and even more young US Jews as "useless Jews. Superfluous".
Superfluous.
Zionism is a gateway to fascism.
The battle of Cable Street was led by working class Jews, joined by colonial subjects from Ireland, Caribbean & Asia, as well as trade unionists and other ordinary people from the East End. The political establishment, including the Board of Deputies, said stay home.
Britain has not seen a gathering against antisemitism of this size in almost a century, since the Battle of Cable Street.
We are proud to come together to say: This is the United Kingdom: United Against Antisemitism.
#MarchAgainstAntisemitism
It should not be difficult to understand or recognise that this is an intimidating atmosphere for Jewish people on their way home from work.
Many have had to turn back.
Chants ‘From the river to the sea’ are calling for the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state.
Enough.
Just us casually bumping into Selma James at the
#WaterlooSitIn
Selma is a lifelong feminist activst, who's work has raised up working class women of colour across the world. One of our Jewish inspirations! ✊🏿✡️
#CeasefireNOW
#FreePalestine
BJA STATEMENT ON GIDEON FALTER & CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTISEMITISM.
✊🏿✡️
Black Jewish Alliance is a member of the Jewish Bloc. The Jewish Bloc is a diverse collective of Jewish organisations and individuals who have been attending the Palestine solidarity demonstrations in London.
The anti-semitism on the streets of London yesterday has unleashed a wave of Islamphobia & xenophobia. When the door is opened to one racist, they all come piling in. This is why solidarity must be uncompromising. This means:
This confirms that
@antisemitism
is a racist organisation. His 'counterfactual' is actually the daily experience of Black people in the UK: we are systematically targeted by police simply for being "visibly Black". CAA feel that experience should be mocked on national TV.
Rich white Jews tell us antisemitism is the "only respectable racism" in the UK, meanwhile Black people are:
❗️7 times more likely to be killed following police restraint.
❗️5 times more likely to experience violence from police.
❗️ 8% of those killed in custody - 3% population.
We must keep fighting for Palestinian liberation.
⚠️ Ceasefire now
⚠️ Stop arming Israel
⚠️ End the occupation
Normalising genocide against Palestinians and denying Palestinians the right to life and land normalises violence everywhere.
None of us are free until were all free.
Black-Jewish Alliance formed to build solidarity and disrupt the polarisation between Jews and other racially marginalised communities. There is a long history of connection between our struggles and we refuse to leave our Black, Muslim and Palestinian family behind. 1/4
@LCCLondon
@UAL
@guardian
can you explain why one of your photographers, who you have employed to shoot Black events such as Notting Hill Carnival, spends his weekdays assaulting Black Jewish women?
"[At points] Ive wondered if there will be a free Palestine in my lifetime... I remember my ancestors kidnapped from the shores of Africa... I remember my great-grandma who survived Nazi Germany. I remember them because without their resistance I would not be standing here today"
This is why, for example, Jewish people are 13 times more likely to be expelled from the Labour party. Instead of this being recognised as structural antisemitism, because they are mostly left-wing and anti-Zionist Jews, it doesn't count as discrimination.
Partial footage of the East Finchley attack by Nico Froehlich against our members, both of whom are Jewish women, one being Black. The footage captures part of the incident, but not the most violent assault.
We are aware Nico released a statement denying the incident happened.
Rabid antisemitism. Defining anti-Zionist Jews out of Judaism.
Many of our Jewish members go to shul. Some don't. We are all Jews. We are all anti-Zionists.
We will not be defined out of our religion, culture, history and traditions by racists.
"They have abandoned very much of their Jewish identity. They don't go to shul at all. It's become a purely cultural thing around a bowl of chicken soup."
This shocking clip shows Labour GE candidate Luke Akehurst, a non-Jew, launching an antisemitic rant about non-Zionist Jews.
We are witnessing a new wave of holocaust revisionism - being driven by the far-right and allies in mainstream Jewish media. The purpose being to use Jewish trauma to facilitate a 21st century genocide.
I’ve found the worst paragraph in this execrable piece of Holocaust revisionism. According to this ‘leading British historian and peer’ the Nazis did not deliberately murder children!
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
There is a genocide happening in Gaza.
This is creating a two-tiered Judaism in the West, where some Jews get protected from the state for being good, Zionist Jews, whilst the bad anti-Zionist Jews can be victim to old-school, red-baiting McCarthyite antisemitism without consequence.
If we didn't march, if we didn't boycott, if we didn't disrupt, if we didn't shout for Palestine the world would continue on as normal.
The world can never rest while Palestinians face genocide. Join us ✊🏿✡️
It's also why the
@metpoliceuk
can attack a Jewish prayer service in solidarity with Palestine and there be no outcry from the media, nor Jewish institutions. What other group of Jews can British police assault without uproar from within the community?
While the state allows Israel to commit genocide live to the world, and Israeli diplomats advocate for apartheid on national TV, the police arrest Jewish peace activists for lawful protest using the 'pain compliance' technique.
Horrifying doesn't begin to describe where we are.
Violent arrest of Jewish activist protesting at a fundraiser for Israel at Royal Society of Arts, with Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Hotovely just now!! Near Charing Cross station.
@netpol
.
@BenJamalpsc
: "At every single march there are thousands of Jewish people marching..."
Gideon Falter: "There are not. What rubbish"
"... they are warmly welcomed at every demonstration"
"... I don't want to continue having a conversation with Ben Jamal"
Since you love playing the game of guilt by association here's a long compilation of Israel's leaders, officials, military, supporters, & protesters expressing their intent to commit genocide in Gaza.
One day perhaps you'll reflect differently on your support for mass slaughter.
Hey Twitter! We're a collective of folks rooted in both Black and Jewish traditions of spirituality, resistance and organising! We love our people and we're here to challenge discourses that speak about us, without us!
Words cannot describe how angering and disgusting this is.
23,000 Palestinians are dead and we have been dragged into this war not to defend Palestinian life, but to defend the profits of big businesses.
Utterly dark and depraved.
The UK and US have carried out targeted strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen.
The safety of UK vessels and the freedom of navigation across the Red Sea is paramount and that is why we are taking action.
As the UNSC has made clear, the Houthis must halt attacks in
This. Is. Old. School. Systemic. Antisemitism.
It is part of the demonisation of Jewish identities considered opposed to the Western political status quo.
It shows up as rampant unchecked discrimination against left wing, anti Zionist or otherwise progressive thinking Jews.
Amazing statistic buried in this discussion with Emily Dische-Becker. Jews comprise less than 1% of Germany's population. They comprise close to 30% of the people cancelled in recent years by state-funded German institutions for alleged antisemitism
Black-Jewish Alliance formed 2021 in response to attempts to divide Black folk & Jews. The urgency of our work, and size of our membership, is growing so we are working on letting you know more about who we are.
Watch this space for news about offline & online events & more ✊🏿✡️
Last week the Jewish bloc was hundreds deep 🔥
Let’s make it bigger today
✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼
Join us at the Jewish bloc 11:30 at Cleopatra’s Needle.
Shabbat shalom
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
- Full solidarity to all Jews who experience anti-semitism anywhere.
- Fully rejecting anti-migrant narratives that rely on racist tropes of violent Brown men.
- Rejecting calls for more policing in communities who primarily experience racism through state violence.
Watch here as one of our co-founders, Aviah, talks about why her Judaism compels her and other young Jews to organise as part of the Jewish bloc, fighting for a free Palestine. ✊🏿✡️
"We march as a Jewish Bloc because we feel its important our voices are heard"
At every one of our national marches for Palestine we have been joined by a sizeable Jewish Bloc demanding a
#CeasefireNOW
and a
#FreePalestine
Here some of those who have joined the bloc explain why
There is actually a problem with the notion of the holocaust as a singular evil & it's got absolutely nothing to do with the victims & their claim to suffering but everything to do with the perpetrators & their claim to benevolence...
Also, there's an unconscious anti-Semitic effect here: a woke instinct to highlight, correctly, the not talked-about-enough historical suffering of POC has somewhere in it, I think, an unspoken critique of the conventional sense of the singular evil of The Holocaust.
On Saturday we march again to demand an end to Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
We'll be there with the Jewish bloc, meeting at the blue plaque on Old Jewry, EC2R 8DN at 12pm. ✊🏿✡️
One of our Black Jewish members, whose family is connected to the horrors of the Holocaust, was recently asked by someone associated with her shul if she was 'really' Jewish; because she dared challenge genocide.
It is horrifying what is being done to the soul of our community.
We are devastated to learn of the untimely passing of Benjamin Zephaniah. He was a stalwart of the British Black liberation movement: solidarity was at the core of his work, throughout his life.
"Today the call [for liberation] which once echoed from the enslaved people of Haiti stretches today to the people of Gaza"
Barnaby, a member of Black Jewish Alliance, sounding the rallying cry for oppressed people everywhere at last weekend's march for Palestine. ✊🏿✡️
What is being implied (aside from minimising the reality that we are present at these protests in our hundreds) is that anti-Zionist Jews aren't 'real' Jews. Our presence can't make you feel safe, because in your mind we are not as authentic as you.
Only a white person who thinks Jews of colour dont exist could say this. Our collective includes Caribbean Jews and African Jews. We have had shabbat dinners *in the last few weeks* with Nigerian Jews and South American Jews, been to shul with Asian Jews.
Jews of colour exist.
Great that Benjamin Zephaniah remembered the Palestinians, but didn’t he forget one group of people in this poem about the makeup of Britain? Here’s a hint: Disraeli… (casts a different light on the final couple of stanzas)
As a visible and vibrant Jewish and Black organisation within the Jewish Bloc we will continue to march in solidarity with our Palestinian and Muslim siblings in struggle, to raise our voices against the genocide in Gaza, and for a free Palestine. ✊🏿✡️
Campaign Against AntiSemitism cancelling their counter protest tomorrow is a continuation of their stunt to get Palestine solidarity marches banned. Why?
Gideon Falter, CAA and their disingenous media tour intended to stoke the flames of anti-Palestinian racism & division.
There is a genocide taking place, and the salient news story is supposedly people in London who don't like too many brown folk protesting, or having their political views about the actions of a country challenged.
Growing numbers of Jewish families are considering fleeing London for abroad because of rising antisemitism in the capital
#frontpage
The Campaign Against Antisemitism says some Jewish residents have even left already over fears for their safety
To those who say "Islam is a religion not a race, you can't be racist to Muslims" hate to break it to you but 'race' isn't what you think it is. Race is a set of shifting, socially constructed meanings written onto our bodies, structuring who accesses power vs who is oppressed.
Thank you for the outpouring of solidarity & support ✊🏿✡️
Black women & anti-Zionist Jews who show up for Palestine should not fear violence from Zionists & the far right.
We are collecting witness testimonies & are considering next steps to defend the right to protest genocide
Nico Froehlich, photographer & lecturer, assaulted a Black Jewish member of BJA at the East Finchley protest this week. As she was assembling our banner, he stamped her hand to the ground, trapping her and breaking our pole. These misogynist racists don't speak for our Judaism.
Let diverse Jewish voices for
#Palestine
be heard demanding a
#CeasefireNOW
Join the Jewish bloc 11.30 on Saturday at Cleopatra’s Needle WC2N 6NU - on the river side about 200 yards east from Embankment station We will join the march as a bloc at 12.15
@NaamodUK
@PSCupdates
The Jewish Bloc has provided a space for Jews to voice their horror at Israel's actions in Gaza, and we welcome hundreds and sometimes thousands of Jews to every Palestine solidarity demonstration.
I was sent this image by a member of my family in Israel. He was delighted that an IDF soldier has written my name on a missile to be dropped on people in Gaza - all because I am a Jew who wants every human being to be free from the river to the sea.
An evening full of joy & sorrow, solidarity & fight. We sang Yiddish & Ladino songs of liberation. Broke bread, danced & plotted. Out of the horror of genocide in Gaza a new Jewish liberation movement is being born. Onwards toward freedom for Palestinians & Jews everywhere. ✊🏿✡️
Shabbat Shalom, family. We are going to a special dinner tonight, to be amongst our community. Where Judaism means peace and racial justice for all. We hope you all find rest and community this weekend. ✊🏿✡️
There are videos of decapitated and limbless bodies coming out of Rafah, after Israel bombed refugees in a tent camp.
In the UK, it is those of us protesting this massacre that face attack and violence.
It is surreal and terrifying the depths of depravity and wickedness.
Nico Froehlich, photographer & lecturer, assaulted a Black Jewish member of BJA at the East Finchley protest this week. As she was assembling our banner, he stamped her hand to the ground, trapping her and breaking our pole. These misogynist racists don't speak for our Judaism.
We have to understand the recent fascist mobilisations in the UK, the collaboration between far right and Zionist groups, as a reactionary response to our mass mobilisations for Palestine.
BJA formed because we know Jews will never be safe in a world where other racialised folk are not free. This has never been clearer than now. Jews will never be free of violence & fear in a world where Palestinians face genocide, occupation & apartheid. Free Palestine, always✊🏿✡️
Those who use the framework 'Jews Don't Count' need to ask themselves why a racist, xenophobic, fascist, Islamaphobe - Douglas Murray - has become, unchallenged, a respectable & celebrated defender of British Jewry, & the damage this does to cross-communal antiracist solidarity.
"Instead of looking to Israel to keep Jews safe, we look to solidarity, justice, freedom and equality for Palestinians and Jews everywhere."
A real alternative Christmas message.
I’ve been crying since morning nonstop till I saw this message from Alexei Sayle, a British Jewish comedian.
He restored me.
The best
#Christmas
message you will hear in these dark days
#Gaza
Fascists tried again in '77, this time targeting the Black community. Again, a broad anti-fascist coalition came out en masse to defend the community. On both occasions, the political establishment and police protected the fascists.
Since it was announced online (and visible on the ground today) the inheritors of this fascist tradition have been advocating for this march. Many of the politicians who have led the hostile environment, war on terror and other modern examples of UK racism also marched today.
Join us at the Jewish Bloc for the National March for Palestine on Saturday ✊🏿✡️
📍Whitehall - Outside MoD, SW1A 2ET
⏳11:45AM
💥 Bring your banners and anything to make noise
#StopArmingIsrael
#StopTheGenocide
It is unsurprising that CCA, an organisation with a track record of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric, is attempting to exploit this incident to stoke tension and division between Jews and other folks concerned about the slaughter in Gaza.
Those who at other times in history fought racism/fascism side by side are now utterly & bitterly divided. Now some view those who peddle racist policies and fascist rhetoric as their friends. It is depressing, but we must fight for the best of our antiracist traditions. ✊🏿✡️
We are proud, as a Black AND Jewish collective, of the moral leadership coming from the African continent, while the 'civilised' West continues to back genocide. Now we must take to the streets and use our collective power as citizens to stop the genocide and free Palestine ✊🏿✡️
💥 📣 Reminder 📣💥
Join Black Jewish Alliance as we march with our Jewish comrades for a Free Palestine.
Meet 11:30 Simon Bolivar statue
Graphic Art by
@becca_human
Campaign Against Anti-Semitism have a long history of racist provocation, where they attend Palestine solidarity events to film confrontations and generate outrage on social media and in national news cycles.
This, alongside Islamaphobia and anti-Palestinian racism, is their campaign model. Just this morning, Gideon Falter chose to spread the denilalist, anti-Black and racist myth that Black people are not racially targeted by police.