A Guardian article written by Geneva Abdul reporting on Saturday’s anti-Israel protest in London (“London protest calls for Gaza ceasefire and boycott of ‘Israel-linked’ brands”, Dec. 26) noted one UK group, called Sisters Uncut, which helped organise the demo.
Hundreds of people have marched along Oxford Street in London calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a boycott of “Israel-linked” brands, as traffic in the busy shopping district was brought to a standstill days before Christmas.
“There can be no Christmas as usual while a genocide is happening,” the organisers and activist group Sisters Uncut wrote on social media on Saturday, calling for the boycott of brands including Puma, HP and Axa.
“When we disrupt the flow of capital we strike at the heart of the brutal occupation. We will continue to shut it down in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” the group said, sharing videos of protesters armed with Palestinian flags and placards beneath Carnaby’s glittering decorations while chanting “shut it down” outside Puma.
What the Guardian didn’t reveal is that Sisters Uncut, which claims to be a feminist group opposed to sexual violence, not only hasn’t said a word about Hamas’s rape, sexual mutilation and murder of Israeli women and girls on Oct. 7, but actually issued a statement which appeared to justify the barbaric antisemitic violence against women committed by the proscribed terror group on that day.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) posted the following:
Britain deserves a #HateFreeChristmas.
Shops were forced to close today due to an anti-Israel protest on London’s Oxford Street, organised by feminist group Sisters Uncut.
The group claims to take action against gender-based violence, but apparently not for Israeli women. pic.twitter.com/27oBeEVPwX
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) December 23, 2023
The statement by Sisters Uncut quoted, titled ‘Aren’t Palestinians women too?’, can be read in its entirety here, and, as CAA noted, includes the following:
Moreover, if you view their X feed, you’ll see they never once called out Hamas’s Oct. 7 ISIS-style barbarism. In fact, their first Oct. 7 related tweet was published on Oct. 16, and it not only gave Hamas a pass, but accused Israel of committing genocide.
🇵🇸🚨 UK people can write to your MP asking them to take action against isra*l's ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
There are three templates below. A tailored email is always more effective.
📢https://t.co/yXZkDFSlae
📢https://t.co/0fmMpyOGvm
📢https://t.co/2e9tIP8PZ0— Sisters Uncut (@SistersUncut) October 16, 2023
In addition to the Guardian’s failure to provide any relevant information on Sisters Uncut, their journalist managed to avoid using the word Hamas, or mentioning the Oct. 7 massacre, throughout the entire article. As you can see in this sentence, it seems that she really went out of her way to omit referencing the worst antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust – the event which Israel ‘retaliated’ against.
Protesters outside two Zara stores chanted “while you’re shopping, bombs are dropping” and “Zara, Zara, you can’t hide, stop supporting genocide” referring to Israel’s retaliatory campaign, which has killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry, most of them women and children.
We’ve complained to Guardian editor about this egregious omission.
How about fighting back, not with words alone but with acts. The immigration and
taking of power in Europe by islamists and antisemitic muslims should stop.
The way governments treat them with velvet gloves (out of fear by the way) is a
scandal .
We don’t need them also because quite a lot of them kill. Allowing them to march
in our streets manifesting against Israel and Jews is something we should be
very ashamed of.