Have you ever heard of a rally where a massive police presence was needed to protect the protestors instead of managing them? Have you ever heard of a rally requiring airport-style security with metal detectors and bag searches? What about metal bollards to prevent car rammings? This was what it took to hold a solidarity rally for British Jews. If you want a single image that captures the state of antisemitism in once-tolerant Britain, it was the queue to get through security at “Britain Stands with British Jews.”
With antisemites kept away by the huge security presence, the counter-protest amounted to a lone antizionist Jew standing on the pavement near the security gates, holding a placard extolling the virtues of antizionism. No one was shouting at him. They looked at him in disbelief and muttered amongst themselves. Then a woman walked up, holding a placard of her own – “Antizionism Is Racism.” She knew him. She treated him warmly, asked how he was. “What are you doing here?” he asked. She showed him her placard and his demeanour changed. “Can I give you a hug?” she asked. “No,” he answered. She shrugged, told him to take care, and walked off.
The Chief Rabbi opened proceedings with a rousing speech, calling for the banning of the IRGC and the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador to rapturous applause. Then came Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary – a man most people didn't recognise. He had been sent by a government that has failed the Jewish community, and couldn't even muster a big name to represent them. McFadden spoke quietly. It was the voice of a man who knew that he had been sent as fodder to the front line. The boos rang out. But as his speech went on – particularly further back where he could be heard better – applause began drowning out the booing, most notably when he promised to fast track prosecutions and ban hate preachers. It could have been a lot worse.
Kemi Badenoch received a very warm reception. She has been an outspoken supporter of the community at a time when many were scared to speak out. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey appeared to howls of jeering laughter – a leader whose inflammatory positions on Israel had real-life consequences for British Jews. But he showed up and faced the music, and his speech was well received.
I can't say the same for the Mayor of London, who avoided the event entirely, preferring to tweet his “solidarity”. I wish the Green Party leader or another senior representative had to face the music too – to get direct feedback from the community they arguably pose the greatest threat to. After strong election results Richard Tice represented Reform, despite his appalling dismissal of anti-Black racist comments from a candidate in his party earlier that day.
Perhaps celebrities and artists would have been a better choice than politicians. Boy George's film was loudly welcomed. The solidarity expressed in speeches from Muslim and Christian representatives was moving. As always, Kurds and Iranians were out in force.
But the crowd was overwhelmingly Jewish. A More in Common poll published last week found that 40 per cent of Britons said Britain would be neither better nor worse off if its Jews left the country. When four in ten of your fellow citizens are indifferent to your departure, a solidarity rally was never going to be a mass movement. So where were all the anti-racists and their organisations?
I have heard criticism that the rally was too right-leaning. This is revealing. Because of course Jews can never be the perfect victims. They always have to have sinned somehow, always need to have ruined their own victim status, always need to seek absolution from the non-Jewish arbiters of morality. They sit in pious judgement demanding we contort ourselves to their whim, even as we are violently attacked. No one blinked when celebrities backed an anti-far-right march that froze out Jewish groups. The "Together Alliance" partnered with organisations accused of antisemitism. The community of the good will be in a position to criticise the political complexion of a Jewish solidarity rally when they clean out their own house and offer Jews unconditional support.
If progressives wanted greater representation at the rally, perhaps they should have shown up in greater numbers. Their support for the Jewish community has been conspicuous by its absence. And let's be honest with ourselves; we are all desperate to find reasons why the good folk of Britain didn't show up for us.
While commentators debated whether our rally was politically impure, this is what was happening on the streets: a visibly Jewish schoolboy punched by an adult shouting racist abuse. Visibly Jewish women whipped with a belt by a man shouting racist abuse. This is the country we live in. And the people who should be outraged are arguing about whether Jews deserved solidarity at all.
Maybe it's time we stopped waiting for solidarity from people we are never going to get it from. Perhaps it's time to ask whether the tactic even works. After all, weekly anti-Israel demonstrations didn't change a single thing in Israel or Gaza. Maybe what we needed from this rally was reassurance that people cared – when we already know they don't. I'm not sure what was worse: the security or the apathy.
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