by Norman Fenton, TCW
LAST Sunday AJEX (The Jewish Military Association) held their annual Cenotaph parade in Whitehall. This is to commemorate Jewish men and women who served in the British armed forces, especially during World War II. The march is always held the Sunday after the national Cenotaph event.
Approximately 35,000 Jewish volunteers from what was then British mandatory Palestine served in the British Army in WWII. They were from what was called the Yishuv which evolved into the Israel Defense Forces after Israel’s independence in 1948. The number in this so-called ‘Jewish Brigade’ was proportionally higher any other community in the British Empire, even though the British ‘White Paper’ of the time stopped any Jews fleeing the Nazis from entering Palestine. As Yishuv leader David Ben Gurion (who was to become Israel’s first PM) said in May 1940: ‘We will fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there were no war.’
In addition to the Jews from Palestine, many British Jews who served in the Army emigrated to Israel after 1948. So, the Jews of Israel made a significant contribution to the British war effort, and this contribution has always been well recognised at the AJEX parade, including a contingent marching under the Israel banner. Until this year . . .
What was different about this year’s march was that the organisers seem to have decided that there should be no obvious signs of association with Israel, other than the small sign of the Israel contingent. This meant not just no Israeli flags, but also nothing incorporating the Israeli flag.