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Israel supporters caught telling disabled people to ‘f*ck off and die’ at DWP protest

As parliament is set to vote on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts to chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits, people were out protesting again on Monday 30 June. However, in a shocking display of far-right abuse, a group of pro-Israel supporters was also there. And they hurled abuse at disabled people – telling them to “fuck off and die”, calling them “lazy scum”, and screaming “fuck disabled people”.

DWP cuts: no concessions, here

The Canary has been documenting the Labour Party’s planned cuts to DWP benefits like Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit. Most recently, as we reported Keir Starmer has offered concessions to Labour rebels over the DWP cuts. More than 120 Labour MPs have mounted a major rebellion against the proposed cuts. And, countless disability organisations and activists have repeatedly warned that the cuts will decimate the lives of disabled people.

Ahead of the vote on Tuesday 1 July, Starmer reached out to rebels with a desperate attempt to win their support. The government has proposed a major reform to PIP. As ever, it’s worth nothing that PIP has a 0% fraud rate and is not an out of work benefit. That’s in spite of the fact that this raft of disability cuts are being presented as getting disabled people into work. Now, Starmer has proposed the following ‘concessions’:

  • everyone currently on PIP will use the old points system, whilst new claimants will be subject to the overhauled points system
  • universal credit (UC) health element – the Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA) component – will now rise alongside inflation, but again this appears to apply only to existing claimants, and those that meet the DWP’s new ‘severe conditions criteria’ as new claimants
  • increasing spending on employment schemes

Of course, these are not concessions at all. This is because new claimants and those transitioning from other benefits like Child Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will still be hit by the cuts.

Protest

So, on 30 June disabled people went to parliament to protest the DWP cuts:

However, at the same time there was a group of pro-Israel supporters there.

Reportedly, because former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn came to speak at the disabled people’s demo, the Israel supporters thought it appropriate to throw abuse at them:

This included the following:

And:

And:

Standard, from far-right Israel supporters

It’s well documented that far-right Western settlers in Israel have a penchant for chanting ‘death to Arabs‘. It is also well documented that nearly half of all Israelis support ethnic cleansing in all but name. However, far-right, UK-based Israeli supporters calling for death to disabled people at a DWP protest is a new one.

The Canary has witnessed first hand at protests the blurred lines between racist Israeli supporters and the far-right. They are often the same thing. So, it’s not surprising that they would have extremist eugenicists in their ranks, either.

Disabled people are fighting for their basic rights – and in some cases, their lives. Genocidal Israeli supporters, who would happily see countless dead Palestinian children, now turning on disabled people in the UK is hardly a surprise.

Featured image via Taking the PIP – screengrab

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.