We must do better

‘Anti-semitism is an old, old hatred ...Yet far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don’t see it or they don't want to see it.'

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Statement of principle I: attacking people because of who they are is always wrong.

Attack someone because they are Jewish? Wrong.

Because they are Muslim? Wrong.

Christian, Hindu, Sikh? Atheist? Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Statement of principle II: Criticising someone’s beliefs is not wrong.

Criticise them because they support Israel’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon? Fine.

Because they support Reform UK? The Greens? Donald Trump? Vladimir Putin? Mojtaba Khamenei? By all means.

Note: I said criticise, not attack. You can attack an idea as much as you like, but in my book, you don’t attack someone because of what they believe. Isn’t that what Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights means?

‘Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion … Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.’

In other words, I am perfectly entitled to believe that Palestinians have a right to a State of their own, wholly or partly on land currently controlled by Israel, but my right to manifest that belief may be restricted in the interests of public safety or to protect the rights and freedoms of others.

You, on the other hand, are entitled to believe that Jews control the world or that Islam is a religion that encourages the abuse of children or the slaughter of non-believers. Your right to manifest those beliefs, however, is similarly circumscribed.

In the past six weeks alone, there have been no fewer than six attacks on Jewish targets in north London. Last October, two people were killed in an attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester.

But, as you may not have noticed, a week ago, a 58-year-old man was arrested following reports of racist abuse and death threats made toward worshippers at a mosque in Liverpool.

A week before that, a man pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to charges of rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault after subjecting a woman to racist and anti-Muslim abuse during a rape attack in her own home.

And last month, two 18-year-old men were charged with planning terrorist attacks targeting a mosque in Cardiff.

There are nearly four million Muslims in the UK, more than ten times as many as Jews. Yet according to Home Office figures published in The Guardian tonight, there were nearly ten times as many religious hate crimes recorded against Jews per 100,000 population in 2024-25 as there were against Muslims.

We used to be taught that ‘live and let live’ was one of the principles that could be categorised as a ‘British value’. But now, with the rise of identity politics, and the expectation that we must all choose a label to wear, we seem increasingly to be retreating into our own, self-defined silos.

I am not persuaded that banning pro-Palestinian marches or proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will make any difference to the spread of anti-Semitic attacks.

Nor do I believe that the rise in the number of such attacks could be reversed by deporting all Muslim immigrants who have arrived in this country by irregular means.

After all, how many such immigrants were here in 1947, when anti-Jewish riots spread through several British towns and cities following the killing of two British soldiers in Palestine by a Jewish terrorist group known as the Irgun? (Its leader, Menachem Begin, went on to become prime minister of Israel and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 after signing a peace treaty with Egypt.)

Or, if you want to wind the clock back even further, how many ‘illegal’ Muslim immigrants were involved in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, in which British Fascist followers of Oswald Mosley were confronted by Jewish anti-Fascists?

Not to forget, of course, the York Massacre of 1190, when an estimated 150 Jews died during anti-Jewish violence.

All of which is to say that anti-Semitism long pre-dates the advent of multi-culturalism or an increase in immigration. But it is not to deny that there has been a sharp, and frightening, surge in anti-Semitic attacks over recent months, a surge that depressingly, seems not to be acknowledged by many anti-racist campaigners who are less careful than they should be not to conflate being Jewish to supporting Israeli actions in Gaza.

Hamas, which organised and carried out the slaughter of more than 1,000 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, in October 2023, does not deserve the support of anyone who calls themself an anti-racist. It is perfectly possible to condemn Israeli actions in Gaza (and yes, I agree that those actions can be characterised as genocidal) while still condemning Hamas for its many years of attacks on Israeli civilians.

Keir Starmer was right when he said in his broadcast from Downing Street tonight: ‘Antisemitism is an old, old hatred. History shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back. Yet far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don’t see it or they don’t want to see it.’

We must do better.