I went on the anti-war march along with, according to the organisers, 2 million others. The news say it was 1 million. Even with 1 million, it was the biggest peace demonstration in Britain's history. Most people held placards that were simply anti-war or anti Bush and Blair. There were also some about oil. And of course, there were also some that were anti-Israel. Most of those said, Freedom for Palestine, Security for Israel: a sentiment I can agree with. But at the very end of the march, when it was dark and we were hungry looking for somewhere to have dinner, I saw two people holding up a placard that equated 'Zionism' with Nazism. I walked into a bunch of discarded placards trying to read it.
I wanted to cry then. I wanted to go up them to say it's not true. You don't understand. Let me try to explain it to you. I know the Palestinians are living in "third world" conditions when Israelis live in the "first world". I agree it's disgusting and must be changed soon but Zionism is not Nazism. It is not about superiority. It's about an idea of homeland that is at the very heart of the Jewish religion - as physical land as well as metaphor. But I didn't. Instead I went to dinner at a Syrian/Lebanese restaurant and overheard conversations on the other tables about racism and anti-Muslim feeling and harsher treatment through the criminal justice system of Muslims. Stuff I know. But I sat there afriad that conversation would turn at any moment to hating 'people like me'.