It’s time to stop dismissing Jewish fears

Hatred, often in the guise of “anti-Zionism”, has festered for years and surged following Hamas’s massacre of Jews on 7 October 2023. Jews around the world are traumatised by events, not just thousands of miles away, but in the streets, campuses, workplaces and public spaces of their countries, including Britain. On the day of the Manchester attack, spontaneous “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations sprung up. Concern for Palestinians motivates some protesters but those who mobilise them include Islamists and other violent ideologues who find nothing more energising than dead Jews, and the Palestinian cause a convenient vector.

Here are two simple facts: first, British Jews are not the Israeli government and should not be conflated with it. Second, the overwhelming majority of British Jews have a profound connection to Israel – through religion, history, culture and family ties.

Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and the world’s only Jewish state. Zionism, the movement that secured Jewish self-determination in our homeland, is the greatest achievement of the Jewish people since biblical times. Most British Jews are Zionists. The Zionists accepted UN resolution 181 in 1947 that mandated both a Jewish state and an Arab state. It is Zionists who will find a secure peace with the Palestinian people. To rail against “Zionists” reveals either shameful ignorance or hostility to Jews, stoking antisemitism.

Jewish schools, synagogues and communal events need extensive security with good reason. Without that security, led by the Community Security Trust (CST) and bolstered by community volunteers, the death toll in Manchester would have been higher.

Soul-searching is needed among those who wittingly or unwittingly feed an atmosphere that makes antisemitic violence inevitable.

From Glastonbury, where a singer chanted “death to the IDF” after launching an antisemitic rant to the national broadcaster that aired it. The same BBC that has refused to call Hamas terrorists even after its members hacked, raped, shot and burned their way through the south of Israel. From Gary Lineker sharing content depicting “Zionists” as rats to those who call for an intifada, which both Jews and antisemites hear as a call for anti-Jewish violence.

We will no longer accept it. On this there is broad consensus among Jews, but there needs to be broad consensus among the wider public.

The authorities need to do more to clamp down on calls for violence. The term “hate-marches” to describe the pro-Palestinian rallies that have dominated our streets is sadly accurate. Where Jew-hatred is normalised, anti-Jewish violence is incubated.

The father of the Manchester attacker praised the Hamas terrorists who carried out the 7 October attackers as “God’s men on earth”. We need honest conversations and concerted action to address the prevalence of Islamist ideology and the support for jihadism that undoubtedly exists within many pro-Palestinian campaigns.

We do not, however, need bigots of another stripe using the fears of the Jewish community in their own campaigns to vilify British Muslims. We do not need a far-right minister in Israel’s government, Amichai Chikli, using the attack to trumpet his support for the anti-Muslim street demagogue and bigot, Tommy Robinson.

And we do not need Jewish suffering manipulated as a talking point by those wanting to paint a lurid picture of “broken Britain” for their own political gain.

The Jewish community appreciates the support from successive governments for the CST. But we can also profoundly disagree with the timing of the government’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood, as I do, without accusing Sir Keir Starmer of supporting terror or denigrating his heartfelt response to the Manchester attack as “crocodile tears”.

We should be clearheaded about the tolerance, respect and decency that makes Britain great and has enabled Jews to thrive here. Throughout much of Jewish history authorities enabled, ignored or carried out acts of hatred and violence against Jews. Last week, police neutralised the attacker within seven minutes of being called.

Nevertheless, mainstream Britain needs to take Jewish fears seriously and engage with determination and moral courage about the hatred we face. Muslim communities also need to speak up about the malignant forces that ferment hate and violence in their name. Those who would murder Jews won’t stop with Jews.

We celebrate what is good about this country, but demand more from our leaders and fellow citizens to ensure that the Britain we love prevails. If not, I fear the echoes of Maurice Ogden’s The Hangman will be felt by us all: “First the alien and then the Jew… I did no more than you let me do”.

Mick Davis is a past chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council and co-founder of The London Initiative

Photograph by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images