Sunday’s rally against antisemitism took place behind metal detectors, bag searches and heavy police protection. That a public gathering against hatred required such extensive security measures to shield it from that very hatred was a bleak reflection of the state of modern Britain – and of the threat now faced by its Jewish community.
More disturbing still was the fact that, on the very same day, a man reportedly whipped Jewish women and girls with a belt in Stamford Hill. Antisemitism in Britain is no longer confined to the margins, nor to anonymous abuse muttered online or daubed on walls in the dead of night. It is increasingly visible, aggressive and, for many British Jews, inescapable.
The central question raised by the rally was larger than antisemitism alone. It concerned whether Britain remains capable of sustaining a shared civic identity, or whether it is sliding into a more fractured and sectarian politics that threatens the cohesion of the country itself.
Since October 7, Britain has witnessed almost weekly demonstrations ostensibly held in the name of Gaza – yet these marches have had, of course, no impact on events in the Middle East. What they have achieved, however, is the importation of a foreign conflict into British civic life in ways that have poisoned public discourse and fuelled hostility to the Jewish community. Chants such as “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” encourage violence and eliminationism – whatever semantic evasions are later offered in their defence.
Some on the far left are increasingly making common cause with reactionary forces under the banner of antizionism, embracing sectarian grievance as a political strategy. Nowhere has this been clearer than in the Green Party, which has cynically discovered that obsessive hostility towards Israel can function as both an organising principle and an electoral asset.
Among the councillors elected last week – including in local authorities home to substantial Jewish populations – were candidates who accused Israel of organ-harvesting, shared images claiming Donald Trump is “owned by Jews”, suggested Israel was behind December’s Bondi Beach terror attack, and compared Zionism to Nazism.
The mainstreaming of antisemitism through antizionism can also be seen in institutions that once prided themselves on promoting liberal values. Universities, cultural bodies and professional organisations too often treat extreme anti-Israel rhetoric not as a warning sign but as a marker of moral sophistication. The result has been an atmosphere in which Jewish students, artists, and academics increasingly find themselves intimidated or excluded. Polling suggesting that one in five students would not share a house with Jews should shame every institution that has allowed this climate to take hold and paints a grim picture of the country’s future leaders.
In parallel, Islamist extremism continues to grow as a threat not only to Jews, but to Muslims and wider British society. It fuels violence, encourages sectarianism and corrodes the freedoms and pluralism upon which democratic life depends.
The challenge, moreover, is not confined to domestic radicalisation. The UK faces sustained hostile acts from the Islamic Republic, which is plotting attacks against Jewish targets and Iranian dissidents on British soil. It is extraordinary that, despite this, the proscription of the IRGC has still not materialised, even though it has now been promised for parliament’s next session.
Equally difficult to comprehend is the continuation of normal diplomatic relations with such a regime and so the Chief Rabbi was right to argue on Sunday that the time has come to send the Iranian ambassador home.
Yet any serious response must go beyond policing alone. The task is not only to stop those who commit acts of hatred, but also to confront those who cultivate the world view from which such hatred grows. That means addressing Islamist ideology itself, including the influence of movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood that promote values fundamentally at odds with liberal democracy.
For this government, and indeed for any government that may follow, this will prove a defining test. The question is whether Britain retains the confidence to defend the principles that once seemed self-evident: decency, moderation, equal citizenship under the law and the rejection of all forms of sectarianism and extremism, whether political or religious.
Sunday’s rally demonstrated that many Britons still understand what is at stake – the question now is whether the country’s leaders do too.
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