Putting Human Rights First


April 10, 2015
Sarah Benton

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By Ben Samuel
April 2015

One of my political awakenings was when a Sunday-School teacher of mine told me to write to my MP about internet privacy and emails being intercepted by the government like phone calls. The same cheder teacher also once told me , I think it was on Shabbat, how devastating it would be if the flow of oil was cut off. This made me see the Middle East in terms of oil when previously I had quite an Israel-centric view of it from school. The same teacher encouraged my study group with a rousing call to stand up and be counted as those who say “Yes to peace. No to terror.” This was before they built the wall in the occupied Palestinian territories. I did not know then there was no accepted definition of a terrorist. For instance, the USA definition carefully excludes acts committed abroad by the army.

I went along to the Board-organised “Yes to peace. No to terror” rally with my family. (30,000 British Jews in peace protest) It was May 2002. I made banners which I still keep in a drawer, and a big badge, which said “peace” in Israel’s three official languages. We were at the back of Trafalgar Square and I guess Jews for Justice for Palestinians were in the corner. My mom pointed them out or I would not have known who they were. We could hear the roar of counter- protestors some distance away, and youth groups singing. I could not hear a bloody word any of the speakers were saying until it got to Bibi who spoke to us directly in the square. “He knows how to use a mic,” said my Mom. Since that moment I learned how to use a mic.

ben samuel
Above, Ben Samuel with the JfJfP banner.

If JfJfP were overshadowed at the rally I did learn they stood for human rights. So I became a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians because I believe in human rights. I first remember the Palestinian cause when I cut a Stop the War sticker in half in the canteen at school, with a pair of scissors. I cannot remember how I learned about it but it might have been from the story I just told about my mum or the Internet or Limmud, where Rabbi Arik Asherman, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, spoke about olive-picking. I felt what Bibi was saying was racist. At the time, the leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas, who became the biggest force on the left wing of British Politics, was highly supportive of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and I felt I had to tag along with this perspective.

I was at university and a member of the Jewish and Israel Society. There was a growing Palestine Society and around that time I stood in students’ union elections and got elected to the Board of Deputies, along with the UJS president and five other students. I did not see any contradiction. My maiden speech at the board of deputies was a quick point of information about the Day for Darfur. I was representing a campus plastered with posters which said “Genocide is a dirty word. Stop it at the click of a mouse.”

Standing in the 2015 general election in Hendon, London NW4, I have Jewish and Muslim hosted meetings as well as four other engagements so far. But I have to balance non-election issues such as Israel against real local issues, and global issues such as climate change.

My baptism of fire came from the Jewish Chronicle. The first question was what’s the craziest protest you’ve ever been on? Answer, climate change, climate change, climate change. What are your three key priorities? Encouraging more people to vote, and not stay at home. I did not get to spit out the other 2 priorities which are securing people’s homes and popular education. More young people? Yes. Are you the youngest candidate? I got a few facts through and was bombarded with various important issues that I would imagine JC readers would be concerned about. And yet my parents are JC readers and I think the last thing they want on Shabbat is to be worried about whether their local MP candidate is “anti-Israel” (or in my case, not anti-Israel.) I think there has to be some public interest, some sense of duty, to the media, like the BBC but also serving local communities and different cultures. I very much hope my Israel message will not descend into dirty politics like it did in this seat in 2010.

What I told Hendon mosque is this. In terms of local issues the number one thing is housing. Hendon has been named by the Conservatives as a priority regeneration area. In Israel-Palestine you have similarities to here in London; unaffordable rents, land grabs, families being moved to where they do not desire to go, home demolitions, even demolitions of entire estates. You also have the sort of technology involved in construction that causes pollution, and structures which create fuel poverty. Obviously there are no true comparisons but my aim is to engage the community in their community here and not let the conflict become a focus of my election campaign. I am therefore saying as little words as possible about Israel, but taking lots of actions.

One thing I did quite effectively was challenge the outgoing MP on Gaza (he has a 33% chance of winning). At a meeting packed with Conservative supporters of Israel, I told him about an exchange I had on Twitter. The mere mention of Twitter made him uneasy because of some of the things he has been told on it. “Matthew Offord pack your bags,” seems like the kind of thing any MP should learn to put up with. Anyhow when I asked him about Gaza his minder said, “You don’t need to answer. Just ignore him.” It is quite typical of their style to avoid situations where they might come into contact with actual democratic debate, I think.
In London, I think Israel acts as a distraction which allows my opponent off the hook if his supporters can claim he is “good on Israel”. One time I attended a Q & A that was totally un-balanced and the whole thing descended into a horrible debate on Israel and Hamas when we had our MP and Phillip Hammond there.

I also think there are similar issues with the media constantly asking “but is it good for the Jews?” which has gone from a slogan to a frame of mind. My Grandfather made the trip from Israel to America because he wanted to have a Jewish identity but not an Israeli identity. He then got citizenship so he could vote in the gay marriage referendum but let’s not go there.

In conclusion regardless of the fact that I have a consistent policy, line, and ideology, I am the only one of the Hendon candidates at the Muslim hustings who is able to pronounce the name of Benjamin Netanyahu. Maybe that is why they call him Bibi.
Two of the three Green candidates for the Barnet seats are JfJfP signatories

Pledge. Vote. Revolt.
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Link 
Ukip and Green Party can tip the balance in Hendon

Interview in Jewish Chronicle, March 15, 2015 (the UKIP candidate in Hendon is also Jewish).

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