The reality facing Jewish communities across the UK is growing bleaker by the day, as a surge of open, unabashed anti-Jewish hatred takes root, barely disguised as “protest.”
The recent string of horrifying incidents makes it clear that this campaign isn’t about “solidarity” or “activism”; it’s a coordinated assault on Jewish people and their presence in the UK by an unlikely group made up of Muslims, leftists, and prominent anarchists including an environmental protestor and a male escort.
The pretence that these are legitimate expressions of opinion is wearing thin, and anyone who continues to make excuses, from the police to the commentariat, is complicit in providing cover for anti-Jewish hate.
Take the incident last weekend outside the JW3 Jewish community centre in London. Here a group of yobs, cloaked in masks and armed with megaphones, gathered to hurl accusations of “murderer” and “babykiller” at attendees. Ironically, the event they’d picketed was hosted by the far-left Haaretz newspaper, an Israeli publication frequently critical of Israel’s government.
Jewish people going about their day were subjected to vicious harassment, including a protester taunting a Jewish woman moved to tears, sneering “shame on you with your crocodile tears.” Yet the police stood by, apparently prioritising the mob’s “right to protest” over the safety of those targeted.
If that isn’t enough to alarm anyone who values a just society, consider the actions of Palestine Action in Manchester. Activists from this group just stole a bust of Chaim Weizmann—the first president of Israel—from Manchester University. They proudly announced the theft, deriding Weizmann for “signing away” Palestine by securing the Balfour Declaration.
Weizmann, a chemist and a distinguished professor in the UK, symbolises the contributions Jews have made here. Yet his statue was desecrated in an act as far removed from “protest” as vandalism is from diplomacy.
This isn’t an isolated event but part of a coordinated escalation aimed at Jews. In June, anti-Israel protestors in St. John’s Wood in London daubed buildings they assumed were connected to Jews or Israel with red paint, mimicking blood.
I was not alone in hearing sinister echoes of Kristallnacht in 1938, when Nazi sympathisers vandalised Jewish businesses as authorities looked on. The same thing happened last week, with buildings in Hendon targeted this time: windows smashed, red paint daubed, Jews scared. We know where this leads, and yet the authorities remain largely silent.
When thugs are allowed to operate without consequence, they grow bolder. Kier Starmer knows this, of course, having made a big show of dealing with the ‘far right’ almost as soon as he came to office. But when videos show marauding bullies on the London Underground, chanting about “occupiers” and yelling at passengers that “Palestine is not your home” one has to wonder if anyone is still fooled by the act. How many “occupiers” are there on the District Line?
Last weekend, tens of thousands marched in London, banging drums and shouting for “Zionists” to leave Israel—a clear call for ethnic cleansing of Jews, but also a regular Saturday in Sadiq Khan’s London. Where were the voices that so quickly denounce other hateful incidents? Where is the outrage from the figures who routinely profess tolerance and equality? Their silence is revealing.
This hypocrisy is compounded by a double standard in policing. When “far-right rioters” took to the streets after the deaths of children in Southport, arrests were swift and harsh sentences handed down in record time. Yet anti-Jewish hate appears to be another matter entirely.
Even the horrifying incident a couple of years ago where activists with PLO flags drove through Jewish neighbourhoods, shouting “rape their daughters” and “F*** the Jews” through megaphones, went totally unpunished. One wonders what more they would have to say to prompt action. How do we balance this 21st Century equation of justice? Shouting rape threats at Jews through a megaphone in the streets is OK, but threatening on Facebook to blow up a mosque is not.
The Iranian dissident Niyak Ghorbani, who holds a sign stating “Hamas are terrorists,” is frequently arrested by the Metropolitan Police, apparently for stating a fact about a recognised terrorist organisation in inconvenient locations where their supporters might be upset by reality.
Such double standards are evident across British media, with the national broadcaster giving platforms to extremists who justify violence and spout anti-Jewish rhetoric, the BBC twice featuring a Professor from Tehran University who railed against Israel’s “ethno-supremacism” accusing Israelis of believing “they are the chosen people” who seek to colonise the “whole region”.
Did they challenge his anti-Jewish bile? No. the BBC’s star presenter Mishal Husain thanked him “very much”. This sort of media coverage of the Middle East conflict, entirely typical in Britain, leans into a hostility that normalises anti-Jewish sentiments under the guise of criticism, emboldening hate in everyday settings.
It’s no wonder Jewish people across the UK are beginning to feel that they are no longer safe, no longer welcome. The hate directed toward us is unmistakable, and the unwillingness of the authorities to respond compounds the sense of abandonment.
We know where this goes if left unchecked. Be warned: Jews may be the first target, but we will not be the last. If you don’t care about us, consider who this hungry beast goes for once there are none of us left.
It’s time to make a choice. Anyone terrorising Jews, vandalising Jewish property, or calling for our ethnic cleansing must be prosecuted with the same rigour applied to far-right rioters. The message must be unequivocal: there is zero tolerance for fascism, no matter the claimed identity or moral purity of its perpetrators.
Anyone who claims this is mere “free speech” or “activism” is either profoundly naïve or more likely, willingly seeking to provide cover for Jew-hate.
If British society values its principles of justice, equality, and freedom, then this cannot be allowed to continue. History has shown us time and again that unchecked hate does not end with Jews. It festers, grows, and ultimately devours societies from within. This is our wake-up call. We ignore it at our peril.
