At a time when antisemitism is plainly on the rise, Britain likes to believe that it at least understands the problem and is prepared to police it. The law is clear. The rhetoric is firm. Yet a series of recent Jewish Chronicle revelations points to something more troubling: an institutional failure not merely to confront antisemitism, but even to recognise or properly acknowledge it.
Such failures are especially grave when they occur in institutions entrusted with enforcing the law and educating the next generation: the Crown Prosecution Service, universities and schools.
Following our investigation last week into ten cases of alleged antisemitism in which prosecutions were delayed, mishandled or dropped altogether, further concerns have emerged from within the CPS’s own oversight mechanisms. JC reporting has revealed deep unease among Jewish community representatives sitting on hate crime scrutiny panels. Members report that antisemitic incidents are often minimised, rationalised, or reframed as “political views.” Furthermore, their concerns are frequently dismissed, and transparency regarding rejected cases is insufficient.
The result, as panel members have warned, is a chilling loss of confidence among British Jews that the law offers them equal protection.
Academia has become another battleground. While universities are designed to test ideas, many now enforce a specific orthodoxy regarding Israel. This dynamic was laid bare at a recent Jewish Chronicle panel, where Professor Michael Ben-Gad argued that accepting the “Gaza genocide” narrative has become an ideological litmus test for scholars.
In education, the JC has exposed similar blind spots. Ofsted cleared Brunel Bristol Academy after it blocked a visit by the Jewish, pro-Israel MP Damien Egan but said they didn’t consider that decision in their inspection. Baroness Spielman, a former Ofsted chief inspector, has since warned of a broader failure in schools to recognise antisemitism when it is “cloaked in activism”, particularly on issues relating to Israel.
These failures are especially worrying because of their cumulative effect. Education and academia shape the assumptions of future leaders; the justice system is meant to protect minorities when prejudice turns into abuse. When antisemitism is normalised in classrooms and campuses while prosecutions falter and oversight bodies equivocate, the damage is not abstract but threatens not just Jews but Britain’s liberal democratic society.
That threat is not diminished because these failures are informal rather than embedded in law. On the contrary, prejudice rooted in institutional practice is harder to challenge and more difficult to correct than legislation. Whatever the explanation – whether ideological zeal, ignorance or a fear of confrontation – the damaging effect is the same.
Breaking this pattern will require more than statements of concern. Prosecutors, inspectors and educators need clearer guidance, better training and the confidence to apply existing standards without political equivocation. Oversight and enforcement must be real, not performative. Above all, government must insist that antisemitism is recognised and confronted as readily as any other form of racism.
When institutions decline even to identify, let alone confront, antisemitism, they ensure that the problem will only deepen, eroding confidence in the state’s willingness to defend equal citizenship. That is not a drift Britain can afford to tolerate.
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