Anti-British sentiment

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Results of 2014 BBC World Service poll.
Views of the United Kingdom's influence by country[1]
Sorted by Pos-Neg
Country polled Positive Negative Neutral Pos-Neg
 Pakistan
39%
35%
26 4
 Spain
41%
36%
23 5
 Turkey
39%
30%
31 9
 China
39%
26%
35 13
 Mexico
40%
25%
35 15
 India
43%
27%
30 16
 Germany
51%
34%
15 17
 Peru
41%
21%
38 20
 Brazil
45%
25%
30 20
 Russia
44%
16%
40 28
 Chile
45%
15%
40 30
 Indonesia
59%
26%
15 33
 Israel
50%
6%
44 44
 Japan
47%
2%
51 45
 Nigeria
67%
22%
11 45
 United Kingdom
72%
23%
5 49
 France
72%
20%
8 52
 Australia
73%
18%
9 54
 South Korea
74%
14%
12 60
 Kenya
74%
10%
16 64
 Ghana
78%
9%
13 69
 Canada
80%
9%
11 71
 United States
81%
10%
9 71

Anti-British sentiment is prejudice, fear or hatred against the British Government, the culture or the people of the United Kingdom, or its Overseas territories.

A view of shops with anti-British and pro-Independence signs, Valletta, Malta, c. 1960

Argentina

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Anti-British feeling in Argentina stems mainly from the Falkland Islands dispute and the Falklands War in 1982 with the United Kingdom. Due to this, anti-British and anti-NATO protests and acts of vandalism do erupt.[2][3] In 2014, Top Gear, a British TV show, were attacked by a mob of angry citizens whilst filming in Argentina for having the number plate 'H982 FKL', which was interpreted by some as a reference to the Falklands War.[4] The BBC show claims that the car was not chosen for its licence plate.

India

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In the Indian independence movement, this sentiment was common.[5] Up till today, resentment still lingers and is used as a justification for extreme views.[6]

Iran

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Anti-British sentiment, sometimes (incorrectly) described as Anglophobia, has been described as "deeply entrenched in Iranian culture",[7] and reported to be increasingly prevalent in Iran. In July 2009, an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Britain "worse than America" for its alleged interference in Iran's post-election affairs. In the first half of the 20th century, the British Empire exerted political influence over Iran (Persia) in order to control the profits from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. As a result, British influence was widely known to have been behind the overthrow of the Qajar Dynasty in the 1920s, the subsequent rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the successful coup d'état overthrowing prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.[8][9][10]

On Monday 9 August 2010, the senior Iranian minister and Iran's first vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi declared that the British people were "stupid" and "not human". His remarks drew criticism from Simon Gass, the British ambassador in Iran, and also from the media in Britain.[citation needed]

In November 2011 the Iranian parliament voted to downgrade relations with the UK after British sanctions were imposed on Iran due to its nuclear programme. Politicians reportedly shouted "Death to Britain".[11] On 29 November 2011, Iranian students in Tehran stormed the British embassy, ransacked offices, smashed windows, shouted "Death to England" and burned the British flag.[12]

Parts of the Iranian media campaigned against the reopening of the British Embassy in Tehran in August 2015, referring to Britain as an "old fox" – a term popularised by the Indian-Iranian writer Seyyed Ahmad Adib Pishavari (1844-1930) – and accusing Britain of having provoked protests against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.[13]

Ireland

There is a long tradition of anti-British sentiment, and often more specifically Anglophobia, within Irish nationalism. Much of this was grounded in the hostility felt by the largely Catholic poor for the Anglo-Irish gentry, which was mainly Anglican. In post-famine Ireland, anti-English hostility was adopted into the philosophy and foundation of the Irish nationalist movement. At the turn of the 20th century, the Celtic Revival movement associated the search for a cultural and national identity with an increasing anti-colonial and anti-English sentiment.

A feeling of anti-English sentiment intensified within Irish nationalism during the Boer War leading to xenophobia underlined by Anglophobia. In 2011, tensions and anti-English or anti-British feelings flared in relation to the proposed visit of Elizabeth II, the first British monarch to visit Ireland in 101 years. An anti-Queen demonstration was held at the GPO Dublin by a group of Irish Republicans on 26 February 2011, and a mock trial and decapitation of an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II were carried out by socialist republican group Éirígí. Other protests included one Dublin publican hanging a banner declaring "the Queen will never be welcome in this country"[14]during her visit.[15]

Israel

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The relationship between Israel and the UK is generally regarded as close and warm,[16] and as a strategic partnership of the two nations.[17] According to the a BBC World Service poll in 2014,[1] five in ten Israelis (50%) have favourable attitudes to the UK. Only 6% of Israelis hold negative views towards the UK, the second lowest percentage after Japan.

Occasional criticism is also found. In Israel, anti-British sentiment may historically stem from British rule and policies in the mandate era, and in modern times from the perceived anti-Israel stance of the British media.[18][19][20][21]

Reacting to 609 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.K. in the first half of 2009,[22] and to the announcement of numerous UK organizations to impose a boycott on Israel,[23] some Israelis claimed that the UK is anti-Israeli and anti-semitic.[24][25] According to an opinion piece by Eytan Gilboa, "the British media systematically supports the Palestinians, and openly slants its reporting about Israel and Israeli policy. The left-wing Guardian and Independent newspapers regularly print accusatory, anti-Israel editorials, and their correspondents in Israel file biased, and occasionally false, reports. The supposedly prestigious BBC has long been a sounding board to trumpet Palestinian propaganda".[23] In 2010 Ron Breiman, a former chairman of the right-wing organisation "Professors for a Strong Israel", claimed in one of Israel's leading newspapers, Haaretz, that the United Kingdom has raised and armed Israel's enemies in Jordan and the Arab Legion and described the British media as anti-Israeli.[26]

Reacting to the UK government's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat because of Mossad's cloning of 12 British passports for an assassination operation in 2010, former National Union members of the Israeli parliament Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad accused British government of being "anti-semitic" and referred to them as "dogs".[27][28]

Spain

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Anti-British sentiments evolved in Spain following the ceding of Gibraltar to the British through the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 following the War of the Spanish Succession. In August 2013, Spain was considering withdrawing from NATO and forging an anti-British, anti-American, anti-NATO alliance with Argentina, adopting its strategy over the Falkland Islands.[29]

United States

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American protester stands on a Union flag, presumably associating BP with Great Britain

President Thomas Jefferson complained of an unreasonable hostility towards the British state by the people in the United States during the Napoleonic Wars, brought about by the American Revolutionary War.[30]

The anti-Tom novel Tit for Tat (written anonymously in 1856 by "A Lady of New Orleans") encouraged anti-British sentiment in reaction to Britain's positive reception of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.[31]

During the period of alliance between Britain and the United States, anti-British sentiment took another form. Fleet Admiral Ernest King had been noted for his Anglophobic views which affected his decision-making during the "Second Happy Time" (in the Battle of the Atlantic).[32] Joseph Stilwell, a four-star general in the China, Burma and India theatre of the Second World War was another noted anglophobe (for example, in this diaries he wrote, "Boy, will this burn up the Limeys!" when Myitkyina was finally taken). Curiously, he got on well with British military commander William Slim, even volunteering to serve under him for a time rather than under George Giffard. Slim noted that Stilwell had a public persona that differed from his private relations.

The LaRouche movement has a strongly anti-British stance, viewing the British monarchy and ruling class as an essentially criminal financial conspiracy.

In the 21st century, the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has come under attack by advertising executive Steven A. Grasse who published The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World,[33] although this work is partly tongue in cheek and forms part of a larger media project launched by the author.

Roland Emmerich's 2000 movie The Patriot drew controversy for demonising the British army,[34] and misrepresenting British forces depicted as engaging in savagery – such as the burning of a church with civilians inside – in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. Liverpool City Council went on to claim that the film misrepresented British officer Banastre Tarleton and sought an apology from the producers.[35] Other commentators noted that a similar incident was committed by German troops in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in World War II, and suggested that the film producers may have had, consciously or subconsciously, an anti-British agenda in changing the nationalities and relocating the event to an earlier and different conflict[36][37] and one stated that it was similar to a "blood libel".[38]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Argentina to see biggest anti-British protests for years
  3. Anti-Brit Argies firebomb HSBC
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. [citation needed]
  7. Jonathan Freedland, If this crisis can be overcome, think about the negotiations that matter, The Guardian, 4 April 2007. Accessed 24 November 2009
  8. Ali Ansari, Why Iran is obsessed with the British wily fox, The Times, 25 June 2009. Accessed 24 November 2009
  9. Tara Bahrampour, In Wake of Unrest, Britain Replacing U.S. as Iran's Great Satan, Washington Post, 17 July 2009. Accessed 24 November 2009
  10. Conference on "Iran and British colonialism", March 2008. Accessed 24 November 2009
  11. Iran MPs cry 'Death to Britain' in parliament, Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 November 2011. Accessed 27 May 2015
  12. [1]
  13. Parham Pourparsa, "Why is Britain an 'old fox' in Iranian media rhetoric?", BBC News, 25 August 2015
  14. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Sinn-Feins-Gerry-Adams-slams-Queen-Elizabeths-upcoming-visit-to-Ireland-117456423.html
  15. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. [The Telegraph: The cowardice at the heart of our relationship with Israel http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9740044/The-cowardice-at-the-heart-of-our-relationship-with-Israel.html]
  17. Sixty years of British-Israeli diplomatic relations' Organisation: Foreign & Commonwealth Office [2]
  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  22. Watchdog: British anti-Semitism doubled after Gaza war - Haaretz - Israel News
  23. 23.0 23.1 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3257290,00.html
  24. Why are the Brits so anti-Israel?
  25. UK Anti- Semitism
  26. End British obsession with anti-Israel propaganda - Haaretz - Israel News
  27. Times Online - 'Israeli diplomat 'spy' expelled over cloned UK passports'
  28. British Anti-Semitic Dogs - Israel
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  34. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. "Patriotic Liverpool up in arms over Gibson's blockbuster", The Guardian, 3 June 2000. Retrieved 19 January 2015
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