Notes From The Underground: British Tube Driver Leads Anti-Israel Chant

In Britain a Tube (metro, subway) driver was dismayed that he had to miss the pro-Palestinian anti-Israel demonstration in London — 100,000 people gleefully participated in the event — because he had to work, but he managed to do his bit for the Cause of Palestine by having a little call-and-response with passengers, as he shouted “Free, Free, Palestine” and “From the river to the sea/Palestine shall be free,” and passengers, up and down the train, then repeated the same words in unison back at him. Many passengers joined in, but others did not, and they were made distinctly uneasy, angry, and even afraid, at the vehemence of the chanters who were essentially calling for Israel’s disappearance, which implies, of course, the expulsion or mass murder of Israeli Jews.

“Free Free Palestine” @TfL London Underground Tube’s driver lead the passengers in a chant, he said I wanted to join the protest but couldn’t get the day off. #LondonStandsWithPalestine #Palestine #Israel #غزة_تستغيث #فلسطين_الان pic.twitter.com/62jx8xLtyz

— Farid Ahmed (Qureshi) (@FaridQureshi_UK) October 21, 2023

More on this Tube driver’s version of a sinister frolic-and-detour — very much more frolic than detour — can be found here: “Police investigating London tube driver who whipped up passengers to chant pro-Palestinian slogans including ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,'” by Elizabeth Haigh, Daily Mail, October 21, 2023:

A London tube driver who sparked outrage today by urging passengers to chant pro-Palestinian slogans as they headed towards a protest in solidarity with Palestinian civilians is being investigated by police.

Video circulating online appears to show the Central Line driver leading a chant of ‘Free, free Palestine’ for the hundreds of people packed tightly into busy train.

It comes as the Met Police said around 100,000 people had taken to the streets of London to peacefully demonstrate by 2pm on Saturday.

Others aboard the train told MailOnline the driver told his passengers that he wanted to join the protest, but hadn’t been able to get the day off, before encouraging them to chant: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’

This chant is a controversial form of protest which some argue is inherently anti-Israeli and antisemitic – something which Palestinians and their supporters deny….

Amongst the passengers was Wendy Henry, who said: ‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The driver wanted to whip up anti-Israeli feelings, and the atmosphere turned very ugly, very quickly.

‘The noise in the carriages from the pro-Palestinian demonstrators was deafening and aggressive. The driver should have been concerned about safety for all the passengers yet he set about encouraging intimidating and hostile sloganeering.

‘Transport for London should launch an immediate investigation into his actions. His whole intention was to whip up mob feeling. Although I felt very angry, I wasn’t that surprised this was happening in Sadiq Khan‘s London.

She continued: ‘I have lived and worked in London for over forty years and it’s fair to say I have never felt so vulnerable and isolated.’

But many of those onboard disagreed, and video footage showed the driver being cheered and applauded by passengers who appeared to be in good spirits.

The driver was “cheered” and “applauded” by so many of the passengers because he agreed with them, agreed that Israel had to go, in order for “Palestine to be free from the river to the sea.” The herd instinct, the madness of crowds, the ill-concealed antisemitism on display on the Central Line of the metro, in old Londinium.

Pro-Palestinian protesters in central London also chanted ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, despite the ongoing controversy around the slogan’s meaning.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously branded the slogan antisemitic and claimed that it is ‘widely understood’ to call for the destruction of Israel.

While Jewish groups including the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust, have asked prosecutors to clarify if chanting the slogan is a criminal offence.

However, those who defend the slogan describe it as a ‘long-standing protest chant’ that calls for a homeland for the Palestinian people.

Nonsense. What the chant led by the driver called for was not just a “homeland” for the Palestinian Arabs — the Arabs apparently are in great need of a 23rd Arab state, and a second one in Palestine (all of eastern Palestine is part of Jordan) the world is prepared to accommodate them — but ineluctably for the disappearance of the only Jewish state and its replacement by “Palestine.”

Minister for London Paul Scully said staff should ‘focus on the day job’ and warned against stoking tension in the capital.

He said: ‘At a time when there’s not enough emphasis on the difference between the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas and the legitimate concerns of Palestinians in Gaza, it’s really important that Londoners don’t stoke the tension in our capital where Jews live peacefully alongside Muslims….

Do “Jews live peacefully alongside Muslims” in London? There is not a single reported instance in which Jews have mocked, much less physically assaulted, Muslims, in the city, but there have been many attacks on Jews by Muslims, and not only in London. Perhaps the Board of Deputies can provide Minister for London Paul Scully with a detailed list of those assaults.

Of course the Tube driver should be fired forthwith. He had no business making a political statement of any kind, to a captive audience of passengers, in a public space, and inviting them to join him in a chant expressing a desire to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian Arab polity. He had encouraged those passengers to participate in his call-and-response, knowing full well it would cause others on the train to feel anguish and fear. If he had said something even as mild as “Vote Labour” or “Vote Conservative,” he would have been sacked; what he did was much worse — he had insisted on leading a chant that could mean only one thing: the politicide of the tiny Jewish state and the likely murder of many of its people.

He needs to be given the boot. And not wellies, please. Make them hobnailed.