Letters to the editor, June 19 2026

NAMP’s response clarifies that the document in question does not represent its organisational position and that it was authored by an individual who is no longer serving in policing or involved with the association.

That does not diminish the just hurt and anger that many would have felt seeing those views expressed through a national police organisation on their website. We understand the shock it has caused and are supporting efforts to ensure complaints about its content are progressed through formal processes.

Let us be clear: there is no place for antisemitism in policing or in wider society.

The NPCC remains steadfast in our long‑standing commitment to tackling antisemitic hate crime, supporting victims, and working closely with trusted partners within the community such as the Community Security Trust to ensure the safety and confidence of Jewish communities.

Policing in the UK exists to protect all communities. We will continue to uphold that duty with fairness, integrity and respect.

Assistant Chief Constable Jon McAdam

National Police Chiefs’ Council

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Iran war

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Israel tied its war against Iran to the whims of a mercurial, strategically inept and ill advised president. Now we can all see the costly outcome. Trump entered this war without a clear plan for the long-term degredation of the regime. He was easily swayed by President Erdogan, perhaps the war’s real winner, who told him to forego a Kurdish invasion of Iran. He did not foresee how the regime would create global economic chaos by attacking its neighbours and blockading the Strait of Hormuz. Those failures are truly unforgivable and have led to this historic debacle. Israel must reckon with the fact that the Islamic Republic has survived, along with most of its missile capability and, for now, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Hezbollah and Hamas remain armed and dangerous, albeit with less power than three years ago. Yet Israel’s freedom of manoeuvre is limited, given its military and political dependence on the US. These are truly testing times, both for the US-Israeli relationship and the wider Middle East.

Dr Jeremy Havardi

Director, B’nai B’rith UK Bureau of International Affairs

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Holocaust education

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I have the greatest respect for Baroness Deech (Letters, JC, June 5) and, whilst I have long been an advocate for the planned Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, in light of the recent deterioration in the circumstances of the Jewish community in this country, her letter has given me real food for thought.

I think there are four key issues to be addressed:

1. I see a memorial in some form at the proposed Westminster location as the only way to direct the attention of a significant number of people to the facts of the Holocaust. An increasing proportion of people, young and older, has no or minimal knowledge of the subject. Calling this a “vanity project “ is disrespectful.

2. It would be marvellous to have a new Jewish Museum, but how many non-Jews would visit it?

3 Improved education in schools about Jews would be invaluable but how realistic is it that this would happen or have a material effect?

4. Jewish schools have expanded and improved markedly in recent years, but the result is that fewer and fewer non-Jewish children ever meet Jewish pupils. Interaction between young Jews and non-Jews is an essential element of the latter gaining knowledge of and respect for Jews and Israel. How can this happen if they never meet? Without this, I still believe that a conspicuous memorial is the best opportunity to promote awareness of the lessons of the Holocaust and that the relativisation issue must therefore be addressed head on.

Peter Bohm

London N20

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Britain’s record

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British Jews have indeed a lot to be grateful for, but in relation to Israel, Britain’s record is beyond abysmal; Lewis Herlitz (Letters, JC, June 12) is right to highlight it.

Britain’s betrayal of the Jews during the Mandate is a saga of persistent flouting of international law, opportunism and deceit. Unfortunately, it persists till this day.

As Prime Minister Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper doggedly pursue the travesty that is the two-state solution, they seek to justify their endeavour by quoting UN texts, where the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and sovereignty” are first mentioned and Palestinians conceived as “the authentic people of Palestine, which was the heir of the previous civilisations and whose Arab land was the cradle of the religions, doctrines and philosophies that have illumined and inspired mankind as a whole” until “as a result of the imperialist plot against them, was unable to achieve their independence”.

This is what the British public now imbibes, courtesy of its leaders: revisionist falsehoods parading as truth and history. Can we wonder, then, why Jewish people, the “imperialists”, are subjected to violence by those righteous “freedom fighters” and zealots for human rights and international law?

As they deliberately mislead the public and never consult such authoritative bodies as the UKLFI, for example (I checked), one cannot but conclude that the government’s statements serve to erase Britain’s past misdeeds to create a new reality, where the “oppressed” Palestinians at long last receive justice – thanks to Britain and her like-minded friends.

Eda Spinka

London NW4

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Talking to children

Amy Schreibman Walter’s article about explaining antisemitism to her six-year-old son made me wish my father had talked to me about this subject (‘We talk to our children about antisemitism as a fact of life’, JC, June 12).

He was Jewish and experienced antisemitism, as did I. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s.

Instead, the subject of his Jewishness was not discussed at home.

He didn’t like talking to me about it. My mother, who was gentile, told me more about my father’s origins than he did.

An explanation of how to deal with antisemitism from other pupils would have helped me.

Robin Arnfield

Canada

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Jewish roots

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Sathna Sanghera’s book on George Michael is of particular interest in Bushey, where Bushey Museum and Art Gallery has a small display case about Wham (The well-concealed Jewish history of George Michael and Wham!, JC, June 12).

Both George and partner Andrew Ridgeley went to school here and Andrew’s mother Jenny taught my children at primary school.

His Jewish father Albert, originally Alberto Zacharia, and family left Egypt after the Suez crisis.

Barry Hyman

Bushey Heath

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I cannot understand why the JC and the Jewish Genealogical Society (Revealed: The Jewish story behind the latest royal wedding, JC June 9,) are so obsessed with celebrities who may have had Jewish ancestors.

It seems to me that all these people married out of the Jewish faith and their descendants are lost to the Jewish community. This happens with our present and recent generations too, and it is the saddest news to hear of a child or grandchild marrying “out”. Ninety-nine out of a hundred will be lost to our people, and it is nothing to celebrate. We are a shrinking nation as it is, so let’s call it out rather than glorify in it.

Ariella Lister

Mill Hill