A British advocacy organization has justified the murder of two British-Israeli civilians, one of them a minor. The two, Rina and Maia Dee, aged 15 and 20, and their mother were shot and killed on Friday, April 7, when a gunman fired on their car in the Jordan valley. The young women reportedly moved from their home in London with their family to Israel in 2014. They were residents of Efrat, located in the Gush Etzion area, which is part of the West Bank. (The statements by CAGE and MPACUK quoted here were made during the three-day period in which Lucy Dee, the mother of Rina and Maia was in a coma, and not yet dead. For this reason the statements refer to two, rather than three fatalities.)
Islamist civil society groups excusing the murder of Jews is not just antisemitic, but it also encourages impressionable Muslims that this thinking is okay.
Wasiq Wasiq, counter-terrorism analyst
CAGE, a London-based Islamist advocacy group that claims it is an “organisation striving for a world free of injustice and oppression,” took to Twitter to justify the killings of the young women from London.
“So this presumably educated British parent had allowed herself and her children to enter an arena where violence and resistance to her occupation of the land of others was justified,” they wrote, adding, “If they were all adults when they moved, then woe unto them for following the racist ideology of Zionism through to its conclusion of expulsion of Palestinians from their own land.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPAC UK) called CAGE’s comments, “A clear explanation of the context behind the deaths of the 2 Brits in Occupied Palestine. So of course Zionists come out in force to throw mud, to cover up the simple reality: if Israel cared for the safety of its citizens, it would end the siege & occupation of Palestine.”
It’s terrorism pure and simple. No other word for it.
Ian Austin, House of Lords
The London-based Jewish Chronicle condemned support for the killings saying, “The notion of blaming Jews for their own deaths has a long and foul history — as long a history as the antisemitism of which it is a traditional part. The murder of Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee last Friday was just that: acts of murder. The murderers have no excuse, no justification, no explanation for their actions.”
British counter-terrorism analyst, Wasiq Wasiq condemned CAGE’s rhetoric. “The West has been criticized for allowing civil society groups to promote extremist rhetoric under the radar, a point made by William Shawcross in his review of the government’s counterterrorism program Prevent,” he told FWI, adding “Islamist civil society groups excusing the murder of Jews is not just antisemitic, but it also encourages impressionable Muslims that this thinking is okay. It clearly isn’t, and the government must look to address this.”
Lord Ian Austin of the House of Lords condemned the support for the killings, declaring on Twitter, “It is utterly sickening to see people respond to the shooting of child, her sister and their mother by saying, “oh well, you know, the settlements are illegal, it’s their own fault”. It’s terrorism pure and simple. No other word for it.”
Susannah Johnston is Focus on Western Islamism’s investigative reporter.