Our poll tells of a Jewish community feeling betrayed by those trusted to protect us

In a Britain where I grew up “quite openly Jewish”, 59 per cent of us now hide outward signs of Judaism.

Our community is clear on whom it blames: two successive governments, the criminal justice system, and incitement in the media.

Almost all of us are dissatisfied with the BBC’s coverage. A huge 95 per cent demand an independent investigation into bias on matters of Jewish interest. A sizeable 72 per cent want to go further, backing the suspension of the licence fee pending that investigation’s outcome. And 57 per cent of us have even considered unilaterally stopping licence fee payments.

And while it took our nation’s top police officers two years to puzzle this out, 95 per cent of us consider the “globalise the intifada” slogan to be a call for violence against Jews. As two-tier policing becomes a many-tiered millefeuille (“death, death to the IDF” is allowed in Somerset, but sometimes not in London; “from the river to the sea” is only outlawed near a synagogue), British Jews are crystal clear: 88 per cent say that the authorities are failing to protect us, and only 10 per cent of us believe that reporting an antisemitic crime – with suitable evidence – would bring about a prosecution.

Finally, Jews are scathing of the government, and actually multiple political parties. Eighty per cent believe the current government has been bad for the Jewish community, and a resounding 93 per cent say that it does not do enough to protect us. After a revival of confidence in the Labour Party’s ability to tackle antisemitism, 81 per cent now say that Labour tolerates antisemitism among its officeholders, followed closely by the Greens at 76 per cent.

In the decade since CAA started polling British Jews, we have never seen such unanimity. This is our community crying out.

Despite Sir Keir Starmer vowing after the Manchester attack to do “everything in his power” to protect us, his tough-talking Home Secretary has yet to take the basic step even of using terrorism legislation to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood that is banned across the Arab world, or Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as they promised before the last election. She could do it at the stroke of a pen. Instead the government just released an “action plan” that simply reheats the same old meek policies, most of which predate not only the Manchester attack but also this government.

And despite Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley leading a chorus of police chiefs for two years saying that their hands are tied by weak laws, the law did not change when they finally decided to adopt a “more assertive approach” and arrest people shouting “globalise the intifada”, nor did their greatly-bemoaned powerlessness stop them from banning a UKIP march through Tower Hamlets a few weeks ago.

We are not stupid. If the police, prosecutors and judiciary can be sharply aligned to hold weekend trials and dish out severe sentences, as they did after Southport, we know that their inertia towards protecting Jews owes not to a lack of powers but a lack of will.

All this has unfolded against a steady drumbeat of incitement, most unforgivably from the BBC. Crowds at CAA’s demonstrations outside the BBC have been furious. The polling shows that this sentiment is shared by practically our entire community. From sending money to the family of a Hamas terrorist to beaming the now-ubiquitous chant of “death, death to the IDF” from Glastonbury into living rooms across the nation, the BBC has been at the heart of radicalisation. No wonder most of us are shunning the licence fee.

This has all combined to make Britain increasingly dangerous for Jews. In the past few days, police in London charged two men with membership of Hezbollah, while others are on trial for acquiring assault rifles and hundreds of bullets for a mass shooting of Jews. They deny the charges, but the cases serve as a reminder. The bullets in Bondi could equally have been here. Our leaders are out of time. The enemy is at the gate and will not relent unless this country stands up to them. At CAA, we will not relent either, but ultimately the authorities must get a grip.