Open Letter to Ja4P

Because you asked for it.

Dear Ja4P.

You asked me to write to you, so here’s an open letter.

Your aims - to challenge disingenuous claims of antisemitism used to silence support for Palestinian liberation, and to fight censorship and anti-Palestinian racism in the UK culture sector and creative industries - are honourable. Also - to engage and pressure institutions complicit in genocide and apartheid, and to fight censorship and anti-Palestinian racism in the UK culture sector and creative industries - these are fantastic aims. More power to you, and thank you for your organizing!

Now please understand that the predatory group, UK Lawyers for Israel, will come for you if you do anything of note, and anything that garners mass attention like the thing you did at the Royal Albert Hall, with these explicit aims, will get them. In advance of doing anything else, I suggest you take this hard-learned advice - draw up a strongly worded, legal-referenced, anti-racist statement and post it on your website.

A good example of this is on The Cultural Salon website here.

You may specifically want to name antisemitism in the context of your organization, and your circumstances as a British organization of antizionist Jews, but if you name this specific racism, you may also want to name every form of racism. Be clear about not tolerating antisemitism, and you are bulletproof from such accusations, but leave out a full list of all the other bigotries, and it probably won’t feel satisfying.

Okay, now to the philosophy of Jews who are organizing for Palestine.

But let’s start with the British part of your intersectional identity. The British part of this is beyond relevant, and the specific British angle of your Jewishness is of note in the context of Palestine, so I suggest you examine this aspect equally.

Walter Rothschild would be a good place to start.

I suggest reflecting on the Zionist charge that antizionism is a form of absolution for the British Empire’s crimes. Reflect on this charge, and answer it wisely. Don’t ignore or sidestep these barbs. Use them as philosophical gym machines, to strengthen your own understanding of the place and role first of British Jews in the liberation struggle, and then specifically respond as artists after that, simply because the Jewish identity is front and centre in your org’s name. You can identify the logical fallacies better than the average punter because of all the aspects of your intersectional identities.

Marshal McLuhan was wrong - the medium is NOT the message. The message comes first when it comes to political art. The message is built from a foundation of ideas, and these ideas need careful quiet ideation. After that, the medium delivering this message could be anything - clowns, pole dancing, whatever. But without a substantial message, something important to say, a new angle to the debate - why are you doing this work?

What is the why? -

Is it to show the world that not all Jews stand with Israel? Is it to say ‘not in our name’ so the rising fascists will be softer on British Jews when they turn sour? Is it to show a genuine solidarity with Palestine, or with your British Palestinian friends, or to rebel as a reaction to your horrible Zionist uncle, and your cousin who just ‘made aliyah’ because he got sucked into a right-wing sinkhole on the internet, and is now in the West Bank living in stolen land?

That’s the basic flavour of movements like JVP. I mean, everyone in the West Bank on October 30, 2023 absolutely loved that first big, mass action in Grand Central Station, but after this initial reaction to the bombardment of Gaza, there wasn’t any pivot or tweaking of the message. It stayed with ‘not in our names’ as the main memo.

That’s why they seem bizarrely centered, when seen from here. Really, sometimes it *looks* like saving your own skin, and saying you’re different from the majority of the ‘other’ Jews. That you, yourself, are nice. Not all Jews etc. Think that’s also the basic point of Zionist Jews, actually. The Jerusalem Post seems to think this, too, a weird confluence of opinions. Not comfortable, but true.

But Ja4P is a new initiative, and diverse too, in terms of the age spectrum, and creative practices, and degrees of political knowledge, and openness to critique and advice, also. That’s why some of you will outright reject this letter, while others will politely skip, and a few will contemplate the value of this advice, which is based on a deeper understanding of the whole situation of the global advocacy movement, and the role a small but mighty band of highly creative British Jews might most powerfully play, if they stop to think. Pause to breath, and do something of magnitude, which could be a little, tiny thing in space and time, but deeply considered first.

One act for one person, perhaps, that produces just the right amount of shame to help heal their inner fascism, and stop the flow of cash from their bloated wallet. Or a tiny work of great beauty and inspiration that drives a policy change for someone open to it already, but who needs ideation and inspiration that they can’t otherwise access. An approach of targeted efficacy, instead of big-ness for the sake of big-ness, but equally it could be a giant public work that delivers this same kind of finessed message to the multitudes, and their publicity machine beyond.

Who is your audience? And this goes together with asking - what is your aim?

How exactly do you hope to impact the conversation?

For example, your positionality means you could do powerful work to refute logical fallacies that the UKLI are running on. Rather than hiding from their crosshairs, they could be your target.

Your positionality could be used to speak truth to power in your own community, and a part of your community does indeed mean arts institutions. Maybe the Rothschild Foundation could work at this nexus, not sure how they stand on Palestine, but worth a look, and if they’re okay after all, perhaps continue on this general path of inquiry, i.e. British Jews in the UK in powerful positions in the arts who support the Zionist State, especially the ones with deep historical business activities. Folks who invested and profited from the very start, as Brits, and as Jews.

Marks and Sparks remains the most recognizable actor on that stage, and is a beloved family member to so many British Jewish Zionists even if they’re unaware of exactly all of the massive intertwining of this retail giant, from the creation of Sacher Park from the pockets of their founders, to the outfitting of the Hagganah by this British clothing giant. Their public relations team is defending their reputation by pointing at current trading, but the original formation of the entire company was to support the formation of a Zionist State in Palestine. That’s the reason Flora Benenson Solomon led the ‘leftist’ Zionist activities to create ‘unity’ between the locals and the new immigrant Europeans.

So far, all that’s been done is local tabling outside their shops every now and then by the PSC, which just frightens the loyal Jews and middle-classes who love their bagged salads and underwear. What does that achieve beyond de-legitimising the struggle and pissing off a few mums, without dropping seeds of reasonable doubt along with hard facts? If your inner bias is Zionist, it does not help free your mind. But quietly shared factual statements based on solid, evidence-based research could really do the work of leveraging the M&S machine to share the truth we live. To follow the money.

As artists, you know how to slip new ideas of compassion into the brains of the lost. I suggest you approach this subject with compassion for the lost humans, scared at this inflection point, lost in the Jewish Chronicle rabbit hole and genuinely afraid. They’re open to you, if you seem nice, in a way they’re not to your non-Jewish counterparts. It might be possible to lead with these bits of your identity, if that’s your audience. The shoppers who provide money at the checkout.

In terms of Zionists on the right at ‘that’ time in history, Hitler stands the tallest, but his Jewish colleagues in Germany were the most powerful within their own tribe, as enablers of the Haavara Agreement, and ideological influencers who helped their Fuhrer to resolve his indecision about whether Jews were a separate people or not.

The fact that the Haavara Agreement transferred German funds to Palestine when the British were enriched by them also has enough BDS weight around it to create several artworks. The fact that Bank Leumi was the recipient, when it was the British-based Anglo-Palestine Bank surely still has resonance also, to illuminate the whole picture.

But Ja4P isn’t a historical group, your remit is to make big splashes that resonate with the general public, I think, so perhaps low-hanging fruit like AirBnB and Spotify work better. It just all depends on the WHY for your activities.

If the ‘why?’ is to actually Free Palestine, maybe de-fang the Zionist Jewish machine’s logical fallacies, and leave it to non-Jews to deal with non-Jewish targets, seeing as the Jewish part of you identity is front, left and centre in your choice of name, mission, and demographic. Not conflating antizionism and antisemitism is a start, but beyond this is the fact that antisemitism IS antisemitic when it’s conflated.

Suggest you pick up a copy of Mohammed El-Kurd’s beautifully written paperback, ‘Perfect Victims’ as inspiration for how to approach this question.

And, to learn the role of Palestinian in your fight, in solidarity and support of Jews. Basically, they’re busy, it’s not their work to personally support your learning curve. That’s the role of Palestinians supporting you.

But this work is urgent and necessary, however much this letter covers stuff you know, so how do you decide what’s right, and what’s nearly right?

Navel-gaze. That’s what artists do, and also artists research the facts before making the kind of artwork that hangs on the tarnished walls of the Tate, before making the kind of feature film that gets to be screened at the Curzon, wherever it’s from. You’re in a position to make potentially extraordinary art - public art that is exceptional, and could change the course of history, a little bit. Why not?

So, secure your narrative with great care. (UK) Artists for Palestine are already doing this, which is why I encourage Ja4P to dig into the J - to differentiate and diversify, as you’ve chosen to segregate. But without centering the J in a way that would be wrong. Very subtle and nuanced work, actually, this balancing act.

It could be simply being Jewish and doing art, or addressing the Jewish community as Jews, or addressing non-Jews as Jews who support Palestine, or… figure out your angle.

Maybe the Blavatniks would be a muse for your masterpiece, as someone suggested, but their Britishness is weak, as British-Russian Jews who are interested in Soviet-era Jewry. They still could work, but if you’re trying to focus on British Zionists, and the intersection of the British in Palestine plus the logical fallacies of Zionism, you might stumble on the tripwires of Societ-era brutality as well as Nazi-era fascism.

All depends who you’re trying to advocate to, and why. If it’s the Jewish community in Britain, you can surely find a juicy, beloved, long-time member of the arts community, and shine the light that’s been avoiding various cobwebs spun over a century, at least.

Also you might want to consider WHAT EXACTLY you are pissed off about, as artists who surely care about other artists. This was my own approach to the entire question of showing up for Palestine. I am an artist supporting other artists, from a position of relative power that they are excluded from. That’s why I do what I do.

So that’s all from me at this juncture. You want a second opinion and Palestinians to critique your plan, ahead of launch? You got it. Inspired by the F16s piercing the air and the call to prayer outside my window as I typed this missive to you, I will do what I can to support your own ideation process, and invite you to show your love here as a first step in recognising my voluntary labour here is for Palestinian cultural workers in the West Bank who have no desire to perform for you - instead they are also laser-focused on make relevant, exciting, essential cultural work for their own communities who are, alas, often kinda broke because they don’t get the benefits of the British and Jewish resources that are offered to you, and even you are mostly struggling as artists at this time in history, even in London. So. Please do think of us kindly, and if you ever decide that advocacy without fundraising is an empty gesture, we are waiting for you.

We can re-distribute your good intentions and turn them into artworks here, and that will probably inspire a circle of inspiration that adds fuel to your own fire.

Thank you for your consideration of all of this. Shared fondly, and with gratitude for all that you’ve done, are doing, and intend to do. Good to know you’re showing up as best you can, and are doing this despite the personal barriers in your lives.

In solidarity and friendship,

Mina