The Battle of Golders Green High Street
In scenes reminiscent of the battle of Cable Street 72 years earlier, running battles were witnessed yesterday along Golders Green High Street as groups of Jews and Eastern European Migrant workers prevented the newly formed Jewish National Front from reaching Sollys and buying falafel and schwarma there.
The marchers from the front, who claim “not to like immigrants or indigenous populations” and wish to “reclaim Facist imagery from anti-semites” started their march at around 2.15pm on Sunday lunchtime drawing attention to themselves by chanting ‘Jewish, Fascist and Proud’ and allegedly intimidating a man wearing a kippah and a woman in Muslim robes.
Charedi Rabbi Motti Coleman whose car was at one point the only thing preventing the Front from marching on Warmans the Chemist recalled, “as they were trying to cross over the road from Lloyds bank to Café Nero, I placed my people carrier in the middle of the road blocking their path. I refused to move and by the time they had gone back to the traffic island to cross to the other side of Golders Green High Street, there were people trying to stop them passing any further.”
The marchers were met as they crossed the road by members of a Golders Green CST Patrol. The CST patrol did not have enough members to prevent the march from continuing but they were helped by Eastern European migrant workers who had been drinking at the White Swan and latterly by the Sunday afternoon lecture group at the Jewish Learning Exchange who managed to halt the march outside Steimatsky's where a tense standoff ensued for over 3 hours.
As more and more people from both sides arrived to join the march, Golders Green High Street became blocked for many hours with huge traffic jams stretching as far away as Brent Cross and Henley’s Corner. Sheila Caplan from Brampton Grove in Hendon said “I was sat in my car for four hours on the slip road trying to get out of Brent Cross. If I had only known the reason, I could have done more shopping.”
The Front was finally forced back towards Golders Green Station after a number of unsuccessful charges, joining both southbound and northbound Northern Line trains. Mitch Lewis leader of the Jewish National Front said that, “although the front had been prevented from marching on Golders Green and reaching Sollys, the day's events had been a success as the Front was firmly on the map.” He compared its launch to the success of the launch of Independent Jewish voices. Many members of the group had formerly been members of the now defunct Jews For Injustice For Everyone (JFIFE). The group had distributed a leaflet on university campuses entitled, ‘Middle East, the Final Solution’ which called for both the destruction of Israel and the transfer of the Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza’ and was subsequently banned from university Campuses at the 2003 NUS conference for being too contradictory for student politics.
Numerous letters had been sent to the Jewish News accusing the JNF and JFIFE of being self-hating Jews. Lewis argued, “that facism was a legitimate ideology that had been misappropriated during the 20th Century.” Lewis was also keen to distance himself from the JFIFE. ‘We are proud Jewish Nationalists, not self haters – actually for the most part our members are extremely self loving Jews’ he added.
Rabbi Motti Coleman claimed that the group was not good for Jews ‘Do they Daven? Do they keep Kosher? Do they have arranged marriages? No – they are just like the reform. Maybe they will destroy the Jewish people’ he said.
The march coincided with the relaunch of the notorious anti-semitic Nazi era magazine ‘Der Strumer’ by members of the front. The intention is, Ross said, ‘to reclaim the imagery and amend plots so the Jews don’t all have big noses and try to steal money. More Jews are going to be portrayed making generous philanthropic donations and wearing Youth Movement tops.
”Speaking from Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu disassociated himself from the front, after some marchers held up ‘We love U Bibi’ posters. It was reported that one lady in her late seventies was injured as a result of the march when she was hit on the head by a buereka and had to be taken to hospital. Doctors at the Royal Free, Hampstead said that the woman had suffered minor injuries but that they were keeping her in the hospital for overnight observation. The woman who did not wish her name to be published said that she had “never liked buerakas, and now I like them even less.”
