I am in danger of being classed as an extremist and terrorist. As is my friend, Natasha Walter – Jewish, British, writer, redoubtable feminist and founder of Women For Refugee Women. Also Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, my trusted friend of over 30 years and my Punjabi neighbour, an old GP, now 76. So too millions of other good citizens.
All of us have attended marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. So now I fear we are about to be cast as enemies within if Michael Gove, in my view one of the most devious and destructive of senior Tory ministers, has his way. Gove, now the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, is pushing for a new definition of “extremism”, ostensibly to protect the “UK’s system of liberal democracy”.
The Government’s existing definition of extremism is “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”.
Gove is expected to set out the new definition this week. It will reportedly increase the number of groups or organisations who can be classed as extremist. Gove claims some of the weekly Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are run by extremists. His new definition is designed to make marchers nervous about possibly “lending credence“ to antisemites and dangerous radicals. It’s pernicious.
Those breaching the definition will be excluded from meetings with ministers, senior civil servants, local authority reps, advisory boards and denied project funding. There have been no public consultations.
What Gove wants, Gove pushes through. As he did with Brexit, as he did when he brought Dominic Cummings into the heart of government, as he did when the Government awarded contracts to a polling company owned by his former colleagues, and much else besides.
He does all that, manages to slither away from any accountability, and asks us to trust him, like Kaa in The Jungle Book.
You need to understand the reasons for this undemocratic and illiberal move: rousing xenophobic fear is a way of getting the public to be panicked into voting for the deeply unpopular Tories. Gove, a self-proclaimed “proud friend of Israel”, wants to get pro-Palestinian protestors off the streets.
The West-backed Israeli government, on a mission to destroy Hamas – a justifiable objective after 7 October – mercilessly punishes all Palestinians. Thousands of bombs have been dropped on Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making good on the “complete siege” his defence minister promised in the days after the 7 October attack: “No food, no water, no electricity, no fuel, no medicine. We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”
Leaders from both our main parties still back this cruel regime. The majority of British people want an immediate ceasefire and aid provision for Palestinian victims.
All we can do is protest, exercise that inviolable right. Spooked by these manifestations of democracy in action, Gove and others with power and influence are trying to regain control, first by whipping up fears, then using illegitimate means to curtail our rights and censor our views.
Robin Simcox, the Government’s anti-extremism commissioner, darkly notifies us that London “turns into a no-go zone for Jews every weekend”. And yet, in a letter to i, reader Nabeela Shah, who went on a march, wondered why all the humanist, gay, Jewish and Christian men, women and children she saw could be extremists. It’s a question we all ask, every weekend.
The demonstrations have been emotionally raw and, in spite of some antisemitic chants, remarkably civil. As Natasha Walter, who walked with friends of all backgrounds in one march, writes: “It was much like any other big London demonstration, peaceful in the sense of being non-violent, but loud, crowded and passionate… my initial apprehension that I might be walking into a situation where I would be unsafe was totally unfounded.”
That’s what our Tory masters find particularly intolerable. Disruptive marches would give them an excuse for intensifying state control over all our lives. Environmentalists, antiracists, women against police brutality and others are increasingly persecuted; unions are being bullied, the left slandered daily; institutions are routinely terrorised for alleged political bias or antisemitism. Science Secretary Michelle Donelan has just been forced to pay damages (using public money) after libel action was taken by two academics she accused of “sharing extremist views”.
I don’t deny that some Muslims self-segregate and among them a number are drawn to jihadist ideologies. They are a minority, but still of concern. The rest of us cherish the values Britishness bestows upon us, particularly the right to free expression and democratic integrity.
Hearteningly, Gove’s attempt to redefine extremism is already raising concerns it will be too extreme, not only by the usual civil rights groups and activists, but by three previous home secretaries, including the scary Priti Patel, as well as the Countryside Alliance and survivors of terrorist attacks. They have signed an open letter warning against senior MPs politicising anti-extremism measures “for short term practical advantage”.
Gaza has become a touchstone of how repressive the UK is becoming. And Gove is the agent of new authoritarianism. He is more dangerous than silly Lee Anderson, overambitious Boris Johnson or the increasingly desperate and chaotic Rishi Sunak. Kaa could prevail and take over his party. Think of that and shudder.
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