OPINION
The Prime Minister has no backbone when it comes to standing up for the Jewish community (Image: Getty)
The voice on the other end of the line was freighted with concern: ‘Was I OK? Were the family holding up? Had we thought about leaving?’ You might assume I was the one asking the questions given I was calling a friend in Israel from my home in Manchester. Actually, the very opposite was true. She was worried about me. But this is what happens when the UK, the country you were born in, where you've lived your whole life, starts to feel hostile because you are Jewish.
There’s something profoundly wrong when those living in Israel, with the ever-present threat of missile strikes from Iran, the Houthis and Hamas, feel they’re in a safer place. Certainly, I have never felt more vulnerable as a Jewish person living in this country than as I do today. These are, after all, times of spiralling antisemitism. Mainstream Jew hatred has become commonplace, seeding itself on campus, within public bodies and hitherto trustworthy institutions such as the NHS and the BBC.
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Look at last weekend’s Glastonbury outrage when punk-rap duo Bob Vylan called for “death to the IDF” and the crowd chanted along with them. Hate marches flood our cities every week, with parts of London described as “no-go zones for Jews”. Among Jewish friends, there are constant discussions: Should we remove our Stars of David or other signs of our identity? (as Jewish schools have instructed pupils to do).
These are not abstract fears. They’re real. A Jewish-owned business in Manchester was daubed in red paint; Jewish teenagers have been stabbed at a London Tube station. Every day, Jewish WhatsApp groups share stories of antisemitic outrages. At least in Israel you know your enemy. Here they are festering in places we presumed safe.
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How did it come to this? Is this just because antisemitism is a light sleeper – allowing hatred to ooze through the cracks at any opportunity with Israel's post-October 7 troubles a convenient trojan horse? Partly, yes. But it’s also clear who should be shouldering huge responsibility for the climate that makes Britain’s Jewish community feel vulnerable: our government – principally a spineless Prime Minister and clueless Foreign Secretary.
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Little wonder when Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli recently declared that “without a dramatic change of course by Britain's political leadership I can see no future for Jewish life in England”, he struck a terribly painful chord.
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Keir Starmer is a man driven by electoral strategy rather than true integrity. In order to manage anti-Israel sentiment within Labour’s own ranks and appease the pro-Palestinian voices he refuses to show strength. (Let’s not forget Starmer also served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – campaigning twice for him to be Prime Minister).
How else to explain decisions to impose sanctions on democratically-elected Israeli politicians or suspending arms licences to Israel, an ally – when this tiny country, the size of Wales, faces an existential threat from surrounding enemies.
So desperate is Starmer to avoid offending a particular voting bloc that when October 7 hostage Eli Sharabi was released, looking like an emaciated concentration camp survivor – and whom I had the privilege to hear speak recently in Manchester – our Prime Minister in his statement failed to condemn Hamas. This, despite the fact that Eli’s wife Leanne, a British citizen, and their two daughters were murdered by Hamas.
And as we know, Starmer failed to make clear his position on Israel’s justifiable strikes against Iran’s terror regime – bleating about de-escalation as if there is moral equivalence between the two sides. All of which emboldens and gives succour to those who hate and leaves the Jewish community of this country horribly exposed.
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But this isn’t just a matter for the Jews. For even if you disagree with Israeli policy in Gaza, you should care that your fellow citizens here, in what is supposedly a liberal, pluralist Western democracy. What’s more, a weak prime minister isn’t just bad for me – it’s bad for you too (as his screeching U-turn on the Welfare Bill demonstrates).
The irony is that the Jewish community in this country is law-abiding and patriotic. When my grandfather fled persecution in Ukraine at the turn of the last century, he was so grateful for the sanctuary afforded to him by Britain that he signed up to fight for this country in the First World War. Equally there are countless fine, upstanding Britons who deplore the hate marches, the antisemitism, the seeming immunity of those who intimidate and preach hate under the guise of free speech.
So to answer my friend’s question, I’m not okay. And until this Government recognises how it exposes the Jewish community, I and many others won’t ever be. At least here.