The firebombing last week of a synagogue in north London is part of a grim escalation of attacks on Jews here in the UK. I know all of you who signed the October Declaration, directly after the heinous Hamas massacres of October 7th, and who have so generously supported British Friends of Israel will share my sense of dismay and even helplessness. According to a recent poll, one in five Jews is considering leaving Britain in the next five years. It is a damning indictment of the way antisemitism has been allowed to spread unchecked over the last two and a half years. In particular, there is a perception of two-tier justice with police seeming to take anti-Muslim hatred more seriously than antisemitism. It is hard to believe that our own citzens are living in fear and that even primary schools now resemble Alcatraz so high is the threat of an attack.
I have spoken at many Jewish events and I can tell you that the work of BFoI is hugely appreciated. I resist the word “gratitude”. Those of us who support our Jewish brothers and sisters, many of whose grandparents came here and sought refuge in the “kind country” (as the late great Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called Britain) are doing what any civilized person should do. No, Israel is not perfect and many Jews are uneasy with some tactics of the Netanyahu government. The war on Iran is controversial although the January massacre of up to 40,000 Iranian protesters, many of them young people, by the regime is too soon forgotten. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the worst country in the world for women, gay people and anyone who longs to be free – the very opposite of Israel. As the late Sir Tom Stoppard said when he signed the October Declaraton, will this not, in the end, be revealed to be a conflict between civilization and barbarism?
The barbarians are real, I’m afraid. And some of them are living among us firebombing synagogues. We need to take firm action against them as a country.
One thing you can do as an individual is attend a rally in central London on Sunday 10th May at 1pm. Standing Strong: Extinguishing Antisemitism is an opportunity to show solidarity with the Jewish community and fight extremism. I will be there along with Jan Macvarish, Lord Young and other representatives of British Friends of Israel. We will email again in the coming weeks to arrange a muster point where you can stand with us under the British Friends of Israel banner.
Meanwhile, here is a piece I wrote for the Telegraph about recent terrible events. It ends with a plea to British Jews to stay here and it celebrates the wonderful and quite extraordinary contribution Jews have made to Britain.
Allison Pearson
I was at a friend’s party the other evening when a woman around my age came over and introduced herself. Instead of shaking my hand, the stranger hugged me and said how grateful she was for al the support I and the Brtish Friends of Israel had given her and others like her. When she pulled away, I saw that her eyes were full of tears. “I was born here,” she said, “and I’ve always thought of myself as British first and then Jewish. But now I know I’m Jewish first.”
This is a painful realisation for so many Jews in our country who have never before had to worry about their ethnicity or religion. Our oldest, flawlessly-integrated minority is suffering amidst a truly shocking epidemic of antisemitism. Correction. I am no longer using that word. Call it what it is. This is racism of the most hateful and monstrous kind, raising spectres of the murderous past. In the aftermath of the October 7th massacres, criticism of Israel’s response to the rape, murder and kidnapping of its men, women and children by marauding barbarians has morphed into an escalating campaign against Jews here.
The attempted firebombing of the Kenton United Synagogue in north-west London on Saturday was just the latest in a heinous wave of arson attacks. Last month, masked men set fire to four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in Golders Green. Life-saving vehicles that helped the whole neighbourhood for goodness sake – and there was abundant goodness in that caring community. Four people were subsequently charged by police. Last week, a synagogue and the former premises of a Jewish charity, both in north London, were attacked. Two people have been arrested in connection with an attempted arson attack at Finchley Reform Synagogue. On the same day, a Persian-language media organization opposed to the Iranian regime was also attacked. Three people have been charged with “arson with intent to endanger life”. Unsurprisingly, the evil Islamic Republic, with its stated aim of annihilating Israel and the Jews (before coming for the rest of us), has been implicated in the attacks.
All this while British Jews are still reeling from an assault on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur in which two men were killed as a result of action by a terrorist called Jihad al-Shamie. When he carred out the lethal attack Jihad (clue: it means Holy War) was out on bail after being arrested on a rape charge. In Two-Tier Kier’s Britain, Islamist rapists are allowed to wander around freely and murder Jews while a Northampton childminder and bereaved mother who posts one furious, swiftly-deleted tweet about illegal migrants, is remanded in custody and jailed for 31 months. The introduction by our craven government of an “anti-Muslim hostility” definition is set to make protesting about this kind of double standard even harder.
Jews I speak to are upset, frightened, angry, bewildered. Not here, surely this can’t be happening here, not in the land the late great Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called “the kind country”? One in five British Jews tell pollsters they are planning on leaving the UK in the next five years. I know a middle-aged couple who left for Israel recently saying that a new government which took a hard line on mass immigration and integration might improve matters, but it was too far away and too risky to wait.
Thankfully, many are still defiant and know that this is their home. Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, says the community is feeling “anxious but resilient I’m hearing people who are nervous about sending their kids to Jewish schools or coming to synagogue, but one also hears exactly the opposite,” he said. “There are people who are saying ‘we won’t be cowed, we’ve been here since the mid-17th century and we’re not going anywhere.”
I’d like to think that was true. But how can they feel safe when every other day brings some fresh report of Jewish students threatened by pro-Palestinian protesters on campus or disgusting graffiti sprayed on kosher restaurants? A football match involving Israel in the West Midlands was disgracefully called off after police caved in to “community tensions” (ie anti-Jewish bigotry). There have even been sickening examples of NHS staff posting pro-Hamas sentiments.
The response of the Government and the authorities in general has been pitiful. After the Kenton synagogue attack, London Mayor Sadiq Khan parroted the usual “they will not divide us” platitudes. As writer and comedian Davd Baddiel posted on X: “Confused as to why politicians say, on another attempted arson attack on a Jewish building, ‘these terrorists are trying to divide us – and will not succeed etc’ Are they? I’d say that divisiveness is not the object. I’d say it’s trying to kill Jews.”
Such bluntless is as refreshing as it is rare. There is a reason why antisemitism is the hatred the authorities dare not name. It undermines their narrative that “diversity is our strength” when, as Jews are discovering to their cost, too much diversity of the wrong kind can be devastating. After attacks that everyone assumes were carried out by radicalised Muslims, leaders like Khan do everything they can to obfuscate, conveniently placing the blame on free-floating “hate”. As if the British people in general somehow share the blame for a problem posed by Islamist fanatics.
The other strategy is to immediately segue from an attack on a synagogue to concerns about repercussions for Muslims, which haven’t happened. “Islamophobia” is their first resort. The broadcaster Mehdi Hassan once said, “Antisemitism in the Muslim communty is our dirty little secret”. Not something you will ever hear from the mouth of Sadiq Khan.
Imagine the furore if the recent spate of attacks on synagogues had been against mosques. Starmer would have called out the Army. Jews are just told to be vigilant and are thrown a lump of money to beef up security. One primary school I saw looked like Alcatraz. Heartbreaking.
All credit to Kemi Badenoch who rightly said there would be “a national emergency if black churches were attacked in the same way as Jewish synagogues”. As a black woman in this country, the Conservative leader said she had never seen the level of “racism and discrimination” that was being directed at the Jewish community. It really is that bad.
Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Nigel Farage fumed: “Jews in Britain are now living in real, physical danger. .. That is a national disgrace. The Government is not just asleep at the wheel it is wilfully ignoring a crisis unfolding in plain sight.” The leader of Reform UK wanted to know why there has been “no real attempt to address the root causes: the religious indoctrination in mosques, the unrelenting bias against Israel in the media…”
You can tell this is deadly serious because even the BBC has suddenly started running concerned stories. On Monday night, Panorama had a special report: Antisemitism: Why British Jews Are Afraid. One cause the reporter forgot to mention was the BBC’s own role in stirring up hatred of Israel and Jews. I can’t think how that got left out.
In May last year, Radio 4’s Today progamme interviewed a UN official Tom Fletcher who said that 14,000 babies will die in Gaza in the next 48 hours if Israel’s blockade isn’t lifted. The interviewer did not query that extraordinary 14,000 figure nor did they ask, Where are all these starving babies? The horrifying BBC story spread around the world and was cited in Parliament. But it wasn’t true. The UN admitted it was a “misrepresentation” and Tom Fletcher said in future he would need to be “more precise” with his words. It was actually a blood libel against the Jews that was given huge airtime by the national broadcaster.
No wonder Jews often cite the BBC as a reason they are leaving Britain. I attended one Holocaust memorial event where the mere mention of the BBC’s International Editor, Jeremy of Arabia Bowen, caused booing and jeering. I am in no doubt that the BBC has blood on its hands. The new Director General should urgently release The Balen Report, which was written by senior broadcast journalist Malcolm Balen in 2004 after examining hundreds of hours of BBC coverage of the Israeli-Palestnian conflict. It was commissioned after persistent complaints from the public and the Israeli government of allegations of anti-Israel bias. We can guess why it hasn’t been published.
Jews are among our most valuable and patriotic citizens. If you start naming all the ways Jews have contributed to national life, it’s hard to stop. Fashion, textiles, jewellery, hospitality, hotels, restaurants, smoked salmon (thanks to my friend Lance Forman). Department stores (bless Mr Marks and Mr Spencer), suit hire (Moss Bros), commercial property, Black cab-driving, bookselling, psychotherapy, medicine, banking, law, architecture, pop music (Amy Winehouse from an Ashkenazi Jewish family in north London), classical music, academia, philosophy, advertising, publishing, history (David and Anna Abulafia) journalism and politics (Disraeli, Nigel and Dominic Lawson), cookery (Nigella!), comedy, novels, children’s fiction (The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Judith Kerr) comic novels (Howard Jacobson take a bow). Play-writing – Harold Pinter, Arnold Wesker, Tom Stoppard – where would British theatre be without Jews? Sir Nick Hytner, Sam Mendes, Nancy Meckler, Jonathan Miller – amazing Jewish directors all. British TV- Lew Grade, our greatest showbiz mogul, Michael Grade, Professor Sir Simon Schama (he can fit in at least three other categories), Stephen Poliakoff, Jack Rosenthal, Kay Mellor, Maureen Lipman, the fringe that is Claudia Winkleman. Artists – Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossof, David Bomberg, Lucian Freud – the history of modern British art was painted by Jews.
Jews shaped the country we live in. Why should they leave? Millions of us don’t want them to go, although we are too quiet about it, I dare say, but go they will if this vile hatred is allowed to spread unchecked. If cowardly politicians continue to appease those who hate them, and who hate us too. If the Jews leave Britain, it won’t be Britain any more because we will have lost not just them, but us.
Warm regards,
British Friends of Israel.
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