I am following Britain’s so-called “Flag Wars” from afar. But in a global village, in the era of global jihad, the distance between England and Israel doesn’t seem so great.
The “Flag Wars” moniker is being used to describe a surge of national pride in England, where residents in a small but increasing number of neighborhoods have taken to flying the Union Jack (British flag) and the Cross of St. George, England’s patron saint, on lampposts and buildings.
Known elsewhere as “Operation Raise the Colours,” the flag-raising is a grassroots initiative that spread through social media, starting in Birmingham and picking up wind through Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, and London, among other places. The BBC has reported that St George’s crosses have also been spray-painted onto traffic circles in some areas.
The flags’ phenomenon can be seen alongside the protests outside the “migrant hotels,” facilities funded by the British taxpayer that house illegal immigrants, most of them young, Muslim men. These men have been arriving by the boatload on British shores, at a rate of 50,000 in just over a year – not from war-torn countries, but from France, which they reached having crossed much of Europe in search of more advantageous socio-economic conditions.
Some see the impetus for the Flag Wars as stemming from the initiative of the Birmingham City Council to display Pakistan’s green and white colors on the local library in honor of the country’s Independence Day earlier this month. (The fact that India’s Independence Day coincides with Pakistan’s – both marking the end of the British Mandate period in 1947 – was overlooked in a city with a large Muslim minority.)
Others think the Flag Wars were born out of the case of 12-year-old Courtney Wright, who was sent home from her school in Warwickshire for wearing a Union Jack dress to her school’s “Culture Celebration Day.” The school somehow thought the dress was inappropriate for a day meant to celebrate “the rich cultural diversity” within its gates. Simply being British is, apparently, not something an English schoolgirl is meant to celebrate. Following an uproar, the school apologized to Courtney and she got nationwide media exposure, allowing her to deliver her prepared speech on British values of “fairness and politeness.”
Spiked editor Tom Slater noted that: “While Birmingham City Council was quick to take down the England flags… a leaked email has revealed local officials were so scared to remove the ubiquitous Palestine flags that have emerged in the city since the Israel-Hamas War began that council workers were given extra security.”
Similarly, in the London neighborhood of Tower Hamlets, which also has a large Muslim population, Mayor Lutfur Rahman openly pushes a pro-Gaza agenda. Palestinian flags were allowed to fly without interference while the English colors were swiftly removed, with officials citing local bylaws and public safety.
The fact that mayors are elected on campaigns relating to Gaza is itself telling. If New York elects Zohran Mamdani as mayor, don’t expect him to give prominence to the Stars and Stripes.
Several years ago, a mayor of the Negev town of Sderot, under severe rocket fire from Gaza, told me his greatest wish was to be the sort of mayor who could worry about garbage, sewage, street maintenance, and local schools. These are the sort of issues mayors in towns thousands of miles from Hamas rockets and terror tunnels should be concerned with, not promulgating blood libels against the Jewish state and encouraging the current wave of antisemitism.
But I do not advocate tying Israel’s fate, or the fate of the Jewish Diaspora, to the far-Right. If there’s anything Jews and moderate Muslims can agree on, it’s the shared struggle against those who would ban male circumcisions, prevent availability of kosher/halal meat, and forbid wearing religious head coverings in public – that, and exposing the dangers of Islamist extremism.
Lack of national pride at Palestine protests
THE UK, US, EUROPE, and Australia are awash with protests dominated by Palestinian flags and black-and-white keffiyehs. They ignore – or justify – the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and mega-atrocity in which 1,200 were slaughtered and 251 taken hostage. Noticeably missing are national flags and national pride. It is mainly at Jewish-led rallies against antisemitism and events calling for the release of the hostages where you find demonstrators proudly raising national flags.
While pro-Palestinian supporters march through the free world calling for an end to the Jewish state – “From the River to the Sea” – in Syria’s beleaguered Sweida Province, hundreds of Druze this month rallied carrying multicolored Druze flags and also Israel’s blue-and-white Star of David.
Under attack from the Sunni jihadists, the Druze have no illusions about Hamas. Any population that suffered the curse of ISIS control can testify to the similarities between the Islamic State and the barbaric rape, mutilation, kidnapping, beheading, and burning people alive carried out by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and their fellow terrorist invaders on October 7. The savagery is eerily echoed in the attacks on the Syrian Druze.
Australian journalist Erin Molan earlier this month interviewed Roman Abasy, a refugee from Afghanistan, who said it was “traumatic” to see the Taliban flag flying during a huge pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney. The flag represents what Abasy and his family escaped from, and made him wonder how safe they were in Australia. The Jewish community has been asking itself the same question.
The world is obsessed with Gaza. Even the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published this week ultimately relied on Hamas’s own skewed data, figures, and methodology, not used elsewhere.
While there are pockets of hunger in Gaza, caused by the Hamas theft of and interference with food supplies, the disastrous famines in places like Sudan, Yemen, and parts of Africa are underreported. In many cases, the wars that triggered the famines were started by jihadists – emphasizing the old adage: “If you can’t blame the Jews, it isn’t news.”
British journalist Nicole Lampert Brockman pointed out an upcoming attraction in the village of Moseley, organized by the West Midlands branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The group is calling for people to participate on September 14 in the “Moseley Takeover Festival.”
“Help us transform Moseley Village Square into Al Mawasi Village in Gaza,” declares one poster. It sounds more ominous than inviting. If the participants really want to identify with life under the Hamas Sharia-abiding regime, women would be required to dress, head-to-toe, in black; no dogs, no Jews, and no LGBTQ allowed. And forget British beer and pork sausages – they’re haram (forbidden under Islamic law).
Is this what local villagers really want? A real “takeover” could come sooner than they expect, thanks to events like these.
The name “Mosley” (with a slightly different spelling) has unfortunate associations for many Brits. Sir Oswald Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930s. His militia, known as the Blackshirts, happily styled themselves on Mussolini’s and Hitler’s thugs.
In what came to be known as The Battle of Cable Street, on October 4, 1936, there was a showdown in London’s East End when more than 100,000 people, mainly impoverished Jews and the Irish who also lived there, along with trade unionists and Communists, prevented Mosley’s BUF forces from parading through the area.
Although far from the level of solidarity seen in that response, there has been a pushback against the pro-Hamas rallies in some places. British Col. Richard Kemp, a firm supporter of Israel, noted that a Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest against Barclays Bank in Hampstead, London, was blocked this week when “hundreds of Jews, Christians, and others turned up to protect the Jewish community and the bank.”
Photos showed the counter-demonstrators carrying British flags and placards that read: “Terrorist supporters off our streets!!!” “Jew-hatred is un-British,” and “UN blocks food aid, Hamas steals the aid, BBC blames Israel.”
In Portsmouth, too, footage circulated on social media showed counter-protesters wrapped in St. George flags, staring the pro-Palestinian demonstrators down.
The English flags did not come out of the blue, nor are they gently waving in the breeze. They are blowing in strong crosswinds – part of a culture clash or even a clash of civilizations.
Israel is fighting for its own survival, but also the future of the free world. If citizens are too ashamed or too scared to show their own true colors, they might as well raise a white flag instead.