This Sunday at 1 pm, people will gather outside Downing Street to stand against antisemitism. Yesterday, I stood inside 10 Downing Street alongside fellow community leaders, senior ministers and civil society leaders to discuss how the Government can truly tackle this hatred, following last week’s horrifying attack on two visibly Jewish men in Golders Green.
Just over a month earlier, I had walked through the same famous door after four Hatzola ambulances parked outside a synagogue were firebombed, possibly by those with links to the Iranian state.
And only seven months ago, I met the Prime Minister when he travelled to Manchester, the city where I grew up, after two Jews were murdered by an Islamist terrorist at Heaton Park synagogue on Yom Kippur.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to know what to say. For two and a half years, we have warned about the staggering rise in antisemitism in this country.
Yet, antisemitism in Britain is not just rising; it is escalating into deadly acts of violence and terror.
In front of the full machinery of the state, the president of the Union of Jewish Students, Louis Danker, who represents the best of what the next generation of British Jews has to offer this country, laid the problem bare: “Britain has an antisemitism crisis. It is a crisis that everyone in this room is accountable for solving. The Jewish community needs you to meet this moment.”
He is right. British Jews are living through the most challenging period in my lifetime. Antisemitism is out of control in modern Britain.
While steps have been taken by the Government, particularly since the Heaton Park attack, it is clear that there is a major problem within parts of British society.
That is why, together with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and major organisations within the community, we set out clear, practical steps the Government must now take to address this acute moment of national crisis.
We are calling on the Government, with the backing of civil society, to:
- Protect British Jews against those who wish us harm
- Prosecute those inciting hatred through swift application of the law
- Partner with the Jewish community by recognising and challenging modern manifestations of antisemitism in Britain.
It also means increasing the Protective Security Grant to cover the expanding costs of guarding and security at Jewish locations.
I met the PM after an Islamist terror attack. The truth about Jew hate has been dodged - Keith Black
|Getty Images
Second, the Government must act decisively against those who threaten Jews from abroad. That means finally proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies operating in the UK and holding Iran accountable when their embassy calls for violence on British soil.
Third, there must be an end to the incitement at pro-Palestinian protests, where antisemitic hate speech is all too common.
The police must use the full range of public order powers available to them, including restricting or, where necessary, banning marches. Fourth, the law must be enforced swiftly and consistently.
The arrest and prosecution of those responsible for inciting hatred against Jews, whether on marches, online, in performances or in religious preaching, must be accelerated.
Fifth, the current postcode lottery in policing inflammatory chants must end. It cannot be acceptable that phrases such as “globalise the intifada” lead to arrests in some cities but not others.
Alongside this, the government must conclude the Macdonald review and fast-track the most urgent recommendations needed to expedite the prosecution and deterrence of criminal hate speech and public order offences. Sixth, there must be urgency in tackling extremism at its roots.
The Government should set out a clear timetable for the counter-extremism measures in the Protecting What Matters action plan, which includes new measures to tackle extremism within charities, schools and universities, and especially online.
The proliferation of antisemitism online is simply an epidemic, and there is practically no regulation or content management.
But beyond enforcement, there must also be recognition that this is not simply a crisis for the Jewish community, but a British crisis.
That requires honesty about where this hatred exists and who is responsible for propagating it. The most recent plots and attacks have come from extremists within sections of the Muslim community or from Iran or its proxies, while more broadly, antisemitism is driven by a toxic mix of Islamist extremism, far-left anti-Israel extremism, and the far-right.
It also requires a clearer understanding of how hatred of Israel can, and too often does, spill over into hatred of Jews.
This is not about foreign policy; it is about showing an understanding of how the conflict is exploited by extremists who reject the very existence of Israel, and the responsibility of politicians and civil society not to be complicit in that extremism.
Importing foreign conflicts into British politics must stop; it is a recipe for sectarianism and division. Because ultimately, this isn’t about the Middle East; it is about Britain.
It is about what it now feels like to be a Jewish child walking to school in this country. To wear a kippah on the tube. To be on security at a synagogue.
To decide whether it is safe to display your identity in public. This Sunday at 1 pm, people will gather outside Downing Street to stand against antisemitism.
It should not just be Jews who turn up. British values are being challenged by Antisemites, and we have to stand against it together.
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