Hilary Frances Aked - Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity

This book expertly maps out the key figures supporting and defending the Israeli apartheid regime in Britain whilst also illuminating how the British government remains deeply complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. It is an invaluable addition to the literature and whilst it focuses on pro-Israel actors, Aked explains that Israeli regime and supporters strategies are a direct response to over a century of Palestinian resistance. This book thus not only makes an important academic contribution but also a political one to a struggle that is ultimately for freedom and justice.

Yara Harawi, author of The Stone House

Friends of Israel is a meticulous study of the organisations seeking to reverse widening support for the Palestinian cause in Britain. On a topic that is fraught with exaggeration, distortion, and propaganda, Aked proceeds with precision and nuance, giving us a much-needed, authoritative analysis. Grounded in anti-racism, Friends of Israel paints a complex picture of Zionism in Britain, giving readers the tools to oppose both anti-Semitism and Israeli apartheid.

Arun Kundnani, author of The Muslims Are Coming!

At last, a thoughtful, meticulously researched study of the well-organised disinformation campaign against Palestinian rights and BDS and for supporting Apartheid Israel in Britain. In a work comprising the multiplicity of aspects of the Israel Lobby work in the British public and political spheres, Hil Aked offers the means for deconstructing Zionist myths, innate in British discourse since the Balfour Declaration, if not before. A must for anyone interested in understanding and countering this oppressive influence.

Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, author of An Army like No Other

In this compelling analysis and history of Britains sordid relationship with Israel, we come to understand the individuals and organisations committed to endless occupation and violence against Palestinians, along with those courageous enough to imagine a humane alternative.

Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory

Not only the definitive study of political influence, state propaganda and lobbying by British actors on behalf of Brand Israel, but also a passionate defence of the universal application of anti-racist principles. Hil Aked has grasped the indivisibility of the fight against Israeli Apartheid and the fight against anti-Semitism. A lucid and thoroughly courageous intervention that will stand the test of time.

Liz Fekete, Director, Institute of Race Relations, author of Europes Fault Lines

No one who reads Hil Akeds meticulously researched book can be left in any doubt about how Israels friends operate to subvert British popular perceptions and the British political process in favour of Zionism. An essential and timely expose of an important and hitherto neglected subject.

Ghada Karmi, author of Return

Those who support Palestine in Britain know too well that they are targeted by a well-oiled and ruthless campaign. This is the first book that examines closely and meticulously this campaign of suppression and silencing. Now more than ever before, it is important to learn how Israeli propaganda and pro-Israel lobbyists in Britain operate. Hil Akeds brilliant book is a must-read.

Ilan Pappe, author of Ten Myths about Israel

This book is as urgent as it is a long-awaited critique of the Zionist movement and all those in government and civil society who support and defend Israeli apartheid, or work to dismiss and vilify solidarity with Palestinians. Hil Akeds is a brave intervention in addressing a topic considered taboo in part due to a concerted effort by pro-Israel advocates to resist, and make dangerous, critical scrutiny. This book deserves to be widely read and will be treasured by all those who support the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

Nadine El-Nany, author of (B)ordering Britain

Friends of Israel

The Backlash against
Palestine Solidarity

Hil Aked

In solidarity with Palestinians everywhere struggling for freedom,
justice and equality;
and for my family, and chosen family, with love.

First published by Verso 2023

Hil Aked 2023

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Verso

UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG

US: 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

versobooks.com

Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-765-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-767-3 (US EBK)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-766-6 (UK EBK)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Aked, Hil, author.

Title: Friends of Israel : the backlash against Palestine solidarity / Hil Aked.

Description: First Edition Paperback. | London ; New York : Verso, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022056878 (print) | LCCN 2022056879 (ebook) | ISBN 9781786637659 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781786637673 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Zionism Great Britain Public opinion. | Propaganda, Zionist Great Britain. | Propaganda, Israeli Great Britain. | Boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement Great Britain. | Economic sanctions Israel. | Great Britain Public opinion.

Classification: LCC DS149.5.G4 A34 2023 (print) | LCC DS149.5.G4 (ebook) | DDC 320.540956940941 dc23/eng/20230105

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022056878

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022056879

Typeset in Sabon by Biblichor Ltd

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Contents

List of Tables
and Figures

Tables

Figures

This book departs from the premise that Palestinians are struggling for freedom, justice and equality against the oppressive violence of a state practising settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. For many decades, Palestinians have been saying that Israels regime constitutes apartheid, defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as inhuman acts committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.

Between 2020 and 2022, Israeli human rights groups Yesh Din and BTselem, followed by leading international NGOs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, reached the same conclusion.

I wrote this book because I believe that all actors civil society organisations as well as governments working to shore up support for Israeli apartheid, or to marginalise and repress solidarity with Palestinians, ought to be held publicly accountable and should not be immune to criticism. Their actions cause harm, albeit indirectly. To try to illustrate this harm, each chapter of this book opens with anecdotes juxtaposing the activities and narratives of the Israel lobby or Zionist movement (terminology I define and explain in what follows) with the reality, as lived by Palestinians. The book focuses on pro-Israel actors, so it inevitably decentres Palestinians to a certain extent. However, it situates the Israeli government and Zionist movements strategies as responses to a century of Palestinian resistance.

Israels government is only able to sustain its apartheid system due to the impunity it is granted on the international stage. In particular, Britains role in and responsibility for Palestinians oppression has historically been, and remains, pivotal. Yet to examine and critique pro-Israel organisations is not to argue that their activities are the only, or even the main, reason for Britains alliance with Israeli apartheid. On the contrary, as we will see, the Zionist movement and the state of Israel itself were supported in the early years due to their perceived utility to the British Empire. In a sense, this dynamic of dependency remains, though today more so in Israels relationship to US empire. The book does show, however, that the Israel lobby today plays a supporting role in maintaining Israeli apartheid, alongside the British, US and, of course, Israeli governments.