Mike Levine

By Ian Wright
This obituary for Mike Levine mainly concentrates on the development of his political ideas and activities, rather than his personal life and career. Michael (Mike) Robin Levine was born in August 1938 in London, the son of Dorian and Sadie, who were the children of Jews who had migrated from Eastern Europe to Glasgow at the turn of the century. Mike was born a month before the ‘Munich Agreement’, which promised to avert the start of war in Europe, but subsequently led to the Holocaust. Dorian […]

Palestine Action and the Terrorism Acts

Why it is important to remember....

This week (30 June 2025) the Labour government Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, began the process of proscribing the political group Palestine Action (PA) under the Terrorism Act 2000.[1] The following article considers the recent history of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (from 1974 to the present), and the attacks by UK governments on the legal defences of campaigners who carry out non-violent civil disobedience. It suggests, from the evidence, that rather than a supposed gradual extension of […]

Zionism And History

Reading the wrong lessons from the persecution of the European Jews

How can we explain the persecution of Jews throughout European history, culminating in the horror of the Nazi holocaust? The founders of the Zionist movement argued that the cause of the persecutions was an inherent and incurable anti-Jewish prejudice on the part of the people amongst whom Jews lived. The only remedy was the creation of a Jewish State. Mike Levine questions this thesis. He argues that antisemitic prejudice, although long-standing and widespread, doesn’t fully explain when and […]