A False Binary

Two men were killed outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur. Terrorism, knives, chaos on the holiest day of the Jewish year. But the shock deepened when it emerged that one of the victims was not slain by the attacker at all, but by police gunfire. The only bullets fired that day came from the very officers sworn to protect. A tragic accident, perhaps, but one that shatters the easy story of good versus evil.

And while Manchester grieved, Gaza bled. Seventy-seven Palestinians were killed in the same 24 hours. Not an exception - part of a relentless tally running into tens of thousands. To speak only of Manchester and ignore Gaza is not balance. It is selective vision.

Netanyahu prefers it that way. His line is neat: every pro-Palestinian protest is anti-Semitism in disguise. And our Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has echoed the refrain, branding such protests “dishonourable” and “un-British.” It’s a convenient sleight of hand: smear dissent, silence critics, and you never have to answer for Gaza.

Here’s the difficulty. A straight Palestine Action protest, held now or weeks from now, can always be spun as insensitive. The timing will forever be measured against Manchester’s grief. No matter how long it is deferred, critics will line up to claim that Jewish victims are being disrespected. The ground is rigged before the first placard is raised.

But a dual protest changes everything. A march against the banning of Palestine Action and against the killing of innocent Jews is not a slight to Manchester’s dead. It is recognition of them. It honours the synagogue victims and Gaza’s victims in the same breath. It shows that it’s possible - indeed necessary - to hold two truths in your head at the same time: that the murder of Jews in Manchester is abhorrent, and the killing of Palestinians in Gaza is equally intolerable.

Yes, there are bad actors on both sides - those who cloak Jew-hatred in the Palestinian flag, and those who hide Gaza’s destruction behind Jewish grief. A dual protest strips them of cover. It denies Netanyahu and Mahmood the easy headline. It insists that all human life carries equal worth.

That is why a dual protest would not be insensitive. It would be the most sensitive protest possible: one that grieves for Manchester, grieves for Gaza, and refuses to be herded into a false binary. Stop the stabbing. Stop the bombing. Stop the killing - everywhere.