The appalling consequences of Hamas’s barbaric acts of terrorism against Israel on 7 October, and the escalation in the conflict that ensued in Gaza, are of course being felt directly in both places. But in a world of social media polarisation and real-time disinformation, with close connections between Israeli and Palestinian diasporas with their relatives and friends in the Middle East, the conflict is also affecting the lives of Jews and Muslims around the world.
Here in the UK, incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism have spiked in the three weeks since the Hamas atrocities. The Community Security Trust (CST), which collates reports of antisemitism in the UK and provides security advice and training for Jewish schools and synagogues, recorded at least 805 antisemitic incidents between 7 and 27 October; the highest ever recorded in a 21-day period, and more than those recorded during the first six months of this year. Tell Mama, which does the same for Islamophobia, recorded 291 incidents of anti-Muslim hate between 7 and 19 October, a sixfold increase on the same period last year.
It is important to avoid unduly stoking fears at a time of heightened sensitivity. There are those who would argue that the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia undermines any sense of the UK as a healthy, multi-ethnic liberal democracy. That is too alarmist. There are politicians who have shamefully risked aggravating intra-community tensions, such as the Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall when she claimed Jewish Londoners are frightened by Sadiq Khan’s “divisive attitude”, refuted by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. But the big picture is that while those from a minority ethnic background unquestionably face structural discrimination, Britain has become a more inclusive and less racist society over recent decades.
That will be scant comfort to those experiencing the Islamophobia and antisemitism linked to the conflict. Incidents reported by the CST include a visibly Jewish man being taunted with threats of “kill him” on the London Underground, posters of Jewish men, women and children held hostage by Hamas being defaced or removed in London, Manchester and Leeds, and graffiti featuring swastikas. Tell Mama has recorded incidents including a man shouting “Hamas terrorist” at a Muslim woman in the street.
The protests against the bombardment of Gaza that have attracted tens of thousands of people to London for the third weekend running make this a particularly intimidating time for Jewish people living in the capital. Of course people have a democratic right to peacefully protest against Israel’s response to the terror attacks on its soil; there are many British Jews who themselves have been highly critical of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But in London and elsewhere in the UK, there are examples of protest crossing the line into antisemitism and active support for Hamas’s atrocities: individuals pinning images of paragliders to their jackets after the terrorists who murdered and kidnapped young people at an Israeli dance festival, and carrying pro-Hamas placards. At a Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstration in London, protesters chanted “jihad”. The CST has also recorded 64 antisemitic incidents on British university campuses, more than it did in the whole of 2022; and at a Bristol university rally, pro-Hamas literature was handed out.
This antisemitism may be perpetrated by a small minority, but against a backdrop of vocal protest it has created a frightening climate. It should shame us all that the chief rabbi has warned that British Jews are more fearful for their safety than any time since the Second World War. There are of course strong feelings on all sides but Islamophobia and antisemitism are always utterly inexcusable and it should be entirely possible to express a view without engaging in either.
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