To watch the mobile phone footage and hear the testimony of survivors is to have one’s own faith in humanity tested to the point of destruction. Parents murdered in front of their children. Women and girls raped as their family members were forced to watch, powerless to intercede. The elderly abducted and taken into captivity. The depravity of the Hamas attack a year ago today cannot be overstated. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Yet instead of universal condemnation of the terrorists alongside sympathy for the victims and that most cherished of progressive mantras, “solidarity”, Jews in Britain and around the world have faced an unprecedented eruption in hatred. Indeed, it began on October 7 itself, as Israelis were still being butchered by Hamas and the Israeli Defence Force was yet to even respond.
Life for Britain’s Jews has changed since that day. Antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, is now both pervasive and normalised. Anti-Muslim hate in the UK has also risen to the highest total in more than a decade. There were over 5,500 antisemitic incidents recorded in the UK between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2024. That is three times the figure from the previous 12 months, according to the Community Security Trust.
Yet even these numbers are an understatement. One-third of Jewish adults in Britain said they suffered an antisemitic incident in the nine months following the October 7 attack, according to a new survey published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR). Moreover, the peak came in the days following the Hamas massacre. This suggests that to many in Britain, October 7 served as a signal, a permission structure, to celebrate mass murder in Israel and abuse Jews in this country. Meanwhile others, usually so quick to show their support for historically persecuted minorities, were silent, simply because the victims were Jews.
Saturday saw the latest pro-Palestinian march in the capital. In addition to calls for a ceasefire, there was the usual visceral hatred of Israel and support for terrorist organisations which propose the murder of Jews everywhere. Little wonder, the JPR has found that two-thirds of British Jews will avoid city centres when such demonstrations are taking place, “because they do not feel safe as Jews”. This is the new reality, and the response of the police and politicians has been little more than a collective shrug.
Attending a protest march calling for a ceasefire or supporting the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood is not antisemitic. But racism directed at Jews living thousands of miles from Israel does not help a single Palestinian. Rather, it indicates that it is not injustice that the perpetrators oppose, but the existence of Jewish people anywhere.
The suffering in Gaza has been immense. More than 40,000 have died according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants. Ultimately, the solution to the escalating crisis in the Middle East is political, not military. That means a secure Israel alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state. These are two peoples, each with the right to self-determination, to live in dignity, peace and pursue happiness. No matter what the fanatics may dream, neither Israelis nor Palestinians are going anywhere. Those cheering on from afar for the destruction of one side only serve to prolong the conflict and misery.
