One of the many reasons I hate wokers is because they indulge so shamelessly in what Bebel coined ‘the socialism of fools’ – anti-Semitism – under the convenient cover of sticking up for the Palestinians. Pretty much all socialism is for fools these days and as we see the Tories ditch misogyny, racism and austerity (Chancellor Sunak ‘Soak the rich!’ – Sir Keir Starmer ‘No!’) we have seen anti-Semitism cross the floor too. This is not the sniggering Jew-hatred of the smug Surrey golf club; this is where the pampered and resentful spawn of the bourgeoise get down to the rapper Wiley, MBE, he of the profoundly inclusive tweets like ‘Jews would do anything to ruin a black man’s life’.
Think of the pro-Palestine social media activity of the American models Gigi and Bella Hadid and the British singer Dua Lipa, who dates their brother Anwar Hadid – also a model. The tweets of this pretty posse recently proved too much for The World Values Network, a pro-Israel organisation run by the razzmatazz Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who saw fit to take out a full page advert in the New York Times with photographs of the three young women looking mildly dismayed – as if they’d been served regular rather than almond milk – superimposed on an image of Hamas rockets with the words ‘Bella, Gigi and Dua: Hamas calls for a second Holocaust. CONDEMN THEM NOW.’
Your average Islamic state is so lacking in diversity and inclusivity that it makes Rhodesia look like Narnia.
Miss Lipa was having none of this, declaring on Twitter ‘I utterly reject the false and appalling allegations… falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations of who I am and what I stand for. I stand in solidarity with all oppressed people and reject all forms of racism… I believe that everyone – Jews, Muslims, and Christians – have the right to live in peace as equal citizens of a state they choose.’ She may well be sincere. But it is the declared objective of the democratically elected Hamas to transform their country into an Islamic state.
Another one! There are 45 of the things already, and very few are known for diversity, inclusivity or indeed allowing Jews and Christians to live as equal citizens. We hear a lot about Israeli apartheid – but in Muslim countries, both Muslim women and non-Muslims are second-class citizens. Why isn’t that apartheid too?
Recent events in the Middle East – basically Hamas wanting to kill most of the Jews in Israel, and most of the Jews in Israel stubbornly refusing to hold still and be killed – have got the chorus line hopping over here too, causing Dame Maureen Lipman to resign from the actors union Equity after it backed a pro-Palestine demo at which anti-Semitic banners were displayed. Tracy-Ann Oberman revealed that she had received messages from young actors telling her that they didn’t want people to know they were Jewish, such is the current climate of hostility in the profession. It’s like being back in the 1930s, with anti-Semitism on the rise all through Europe and Hollywood having to christen (literally) the actress Betty Weinstein Perske as Lauren Bacall.
Show-business types are notorious for their desire to get drunk, sleep around and be homosexual. I’m not knocking it – it’s what makes them so much fun to hang out with. But why then are they throwing their weight behind a movement wherein music is haram and ‘break a leg’ isn’t a blessing but something Hamas might do to gays? No matter what contortions a performer might have learned at circus school, you cannot support both gay rights and a Palestinian state; the only place in the entire region where people are free to be gay is Israel. As for women’s rights, the Morality Police in the Palestinian Territories have arrested women for laughing. Admittedly that’s not going to be a problem for the terminally po-faced Hadid chicks. But as we’ve seen from the fate of Iranian women and Afghan schoolgirls, your average Islamic state is so lacking in diversity and inclusivity that it makes Rhodesia look like Narnia.
I daresay that Gigi, Bella and Dua want only the best for the residents of the strife-torn region. But if Palestine ever is free ‘from the river to the sea’ it won’t be ringing with the sound of Dua Lipa songs and adorned by ad campaigns featuring the Hadid sisters. It will be a place where gay men must live a lie or face execution and where women are treated like a cross between children and chattel. But that won’t bother the showbiz supporters of Palestine – they’ll already be looking around for the next conflict where they can step in and screw things up even more with their #BeKind hashtags – and their hearts full of illogical loathing for a people, the Israelis, to whom bravery consists of a bit more than doing two performances on a Saturday.
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