Lord Eric Pickles speaks out on British elites’ hostility to Israel
Lord Eric Pickles, 71, is not himself Jewish, but he is as strong an advocate for the Jewish People and the State of Israel as you can find anywhere in the British government. Now a member of the House of Lords, the Conservative politician is a former MP and cabinet minister who was appointed by former prime minister Theresa May as her government’s anti-Semitism czar.
Lord Pickles is also the government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, co-chair of the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation, and chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, and in those capacities he takes a keen interest in matters affecting UK Jewry.
“Lord Pickles is a tremendous friend who consistently makes himself available,” says Joel Friedman of the Pinter Trust, a public relations body whose aim is to provide a credible voice for the chareidi community in the media and in government.
Lately, Lord Pickles has watched the massive pro-Palestinian rallies that have been taking place in Central London over the past few weekends with growing concern.
In one video clip, a masked protestor walking alongside a police officer could be heard shouting, “We’ll find some Jews there! We want the Zionists. We want their blood.” Although London’s Metropolitan Police has provided some 1,000 officers for these events, the number of arrests have been negligible, especially considering the open displays of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist rhetoric.
Taking to the Daily Telegraph, Lord Pickles made no bones about his disappointment with the police’s soft approach, saying that the police had “lost the plot” over their handling of the marches. He has also taken aim at how British media is portraying the Middle East conflict, and has been unsparing in his criticism of public figures and cultural institutions taking a “both sides” approach.
We caught up with Lord Pickles to discuss the police’s response and the constant battle for public opinion given the current situation.
After a pro-Hamas rally in Trafalgar Square, you criticized the police and called for far stronger enforcement. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley responded that the laws covering hate crime and terrorism didn’t allow police to make arrests, and that “jihad” has a number of meanings. Are the police correct? And do the laws need to be changed?
I need some persuading that police weren’t able to make more arrests than they did. If there are constraints to making arrests on the spot, there’s still more they can do, such as using CCTV to identify people. I’m not promoting incarcerating lots of people, but my worry is that unless there’s intervention, it gives people the license to go further and become more violent.
And as for the police saying that “jihad” can mean anything from a holy war to a hot cup of tea, I think they’re out of sync with what the ordinary use of the word is. You can’t have a police officer watching all that take place and then say to the Jewish community, “Look, don’t worry, jihad doesn’t really mean anything nasty.” You only have to look at that chanting to understand what it means, and if I was a Jewish person, I’d be very worried.
I doubt many people in the wider public support Hamas, and I am still convinced that the majority of the British pubic recognize that Israel has a right to self-defense, but the significant number who are prepared to come out onto the streets and attack Israel for defending itself are concerning.
The sign of a civilized society is one where people can show external signs of their faith without giving it a second thought, whether that’s Christians wearing a cross or Muslims and Jews wearing head coverings. When there are parts of our major towns and cities that Jewish people can’t go to on a Saturday, that’s very wrong.
