Jews are talking about leaving and Starmer must take some of the blame

I was struck last week by a tweet from the barrister and writer Jamie Susskind. He is not a man prone to hyperbole. But his post summed up what so many of us – almost all, it’s safe to say – are feeling: “I never thought I would hear friends or family speaking of moving cities, moving schools, even moving country by reason of being Jewish and what it means. I don’t think people understand how bad it is.”

It’s that second sentence that gives the post its frisson. The point is not just that we are talking about moving and, yes, even leaving. It’s that we are doing so in isolation. Like Jamie, I don’t think there are many non-Jews who really understand how bad it is and how many of us are having these discussions.

In that context, let’s turn to the prime minister, who has shared his thoughts on the five-year anniversary of the EHRC report with JC readers. He undeniably deserves credit for his actions over it. His very first speech as Labour leader was about the need to tackle Labour antisemitism, and he has been vigilant in doing so.

He has “implemented the EHRC’s action plan in full, without any qualification or hesitation”, as he writes. He withdrew the whip from Corbyn when the former leader refused to accept the report’s findings.

But the point that matters about the antisemitism given its flourishing under Corbyn is how it has now spread far beyond the Labour Party. It’s not even just the regular hate marches through the streets of London; there are similar marches in other cities and smaller but no less poisonous demonstrations in shopping centres and community centres across the country.

It is striking how often Labour MPs are speaking alongside some of the worst culprits.

What does Sir Keir do about elected Labour politicians allying with hate merchants? Absolutely nothing. They get a free pass, every time.

Sir Keir and the Labour Party have played so little part in defeating what he calls “this poison” of antisemitism. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has behaved as if he were prosecuting counsel at the International Criminal Court. Wes Streeting, widely tipped as Sir Keir’s likely successor, has repeated accusations that Israel is guilty of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs select committee, also blithely accuses Israel of genocide.

In its fear of that growing sectarian vote, Sir Keir’s government has pandered to the idea of Israel as a uniquely evil rogue state to be condemned and punished.

He has backed the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

He has restored funding to Unrwa, which employed some of the October 7 terrorists. He has introduced a partial arms embargo on sales to Israel. He has rewarded Hamas by recognising a putative Palestinian state. And in his rhetoric, such as his recent reference to Israel’s “unimaginable” destruction in Gaza, he has further fuelled that idea of Israel as uniquely evil and a rogue state.

The hypocrisy is blatant. Sir Keir has nothing to say about the destruction wrought by British forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya – wars we opted to join. But when Israel’s military reacts to a terrorist invasion, he is suddenly – uniquely, one might say – outraged.

All this feeds the toxicity of the marches. On Sir Keir’s watch they have been given licence to chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a phrase which Sir Keir told the JC he considers antisemitic – and to incite the murder of Jews with calls to “globalise the intifada”. How does portraying Israel as a rogue state and doing little about the hate spouted on demonstrations amount to playing his part in defeating antisemitism?

Sir Keir writes that he has “pledged to do even more to give our Jewish communities the security they deserve. This work is under way with up to £10 million in emergency funding”.

The money is welcome. But handing over cash to defend a community under incessant verbal attack, while doing little about those who foment and take part in the attacks, is the definition of wrong-headedness. And it leads, inevitably, to physical attacks, as we saw in Manchester on Yom Kippur.

The prime minister clearly understands the issues. He did good work in tackling much of the antisemitism within Labour itself.

But in the bigger picture, not only has he done nothing to tackle it, his words and his actions have made things far worse.