When members of Hamas entered Israeli territory and massacred more than 1000 people – many in the most horrific manner – it bore striking similarities to the pogroms that were inflicted on Jews for centuries in Europe.
Of course, Europe lost most of its Jewish population in the mid-20th century and we know why that was. Most who survived fled to the US, Canada or, as it became, Israel. Now, France has Europe’s largest Jewish population and the UK is second. Of the just over a quarter of a million Jews in the UK, about half live in London, and the large majority of those in North London, where I’ve always lived.
Most of them have friends and relations in Israel. They looked at what was done to Jewish civilians – men, women and children, shot, stabbed, burnt alive and kidnapped – and they hoped to receive wider community support, some sense of solidarity in the face of such barbaric crimes.
Hoped but did not expect, because things are different for Jews. My old friend, the comedian David Baddiel, titled his 2021 book Jews Don’t Count –meaning they are seen as too privileged to be victims of racism. It’s true that Jews in the UK, as is the case in a number of countries, are among the wealthiest and most influential of ethnic communities, but the price of that success is a kind of low-level tolerance, or at least languid acceptance, of outbursts of extreme antisemitism.
There is an argument that says it’s all to do with Israel – its policies towards the Palestinians, its settlers’ encroachment on the West Bank, its stranglehold on Gaza, and in the case of its most vehement critics, its very existence. Hence, after the massacre, a number of far left groups and individuals openly celebrated what they called this demonstration of “resistance” – as if slaughtering pregnant women and kidnapping Holocaust survivors were heroic acts. One student leader described the attacks as “beautiful and inspiring”.
One eye was also already on what Israel’s reaction would be. As I write, the expected invasion of Gaza has yet to take place, but will doubtless involve much killing (and any war crimes should be condemned). Yet, you don’t judge a crime by the reaction to it, regardless of its extremity. Yes, there is a historical context and legitimate Palestinian complaints, but you can’t contextualise the beheading of babies – not the day after it happened.
In any case, when terrorists have attacked Jewish schools in France, a kosher supermarket in Paris, a Jewish Museum in Belgium or a Jewish centre in Mumbai, killing any Jews they find, does anyone believe it’s really about Israel? Jews themselves certainly don’t. That’s why all Jewish schools in London have private security protection, as do synagogues and all conspicuously Jewish institutions.
Britain prides itself on being the least racist country in Europe, and in many respects it has good reason to be proud. The suburban rings of ethnic exclusion you see around many cities in Europe don’t really exist in the UK. And of all the European governments, Britain’s is the most ethnically diverse. The Jewish question, however, is more complicated.
It isn’t hard to find signs of Jew hatred, particularly on social media, where conspiracy theories about Jewish global power are almost commonplace. No one seems too bothered that antisemitic attacks went up by 300% after the massacre of Israelis, or that a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London was marked by calls for the total obliteration of the only Jewish homeland. The most visceral antisemitism is reflexively excused away as anti-Zionism.
Thus, a familiar complaint nowadays is that you can’t criticise Israel because it’s deemed antisemitic. But the truth is many Britons won’t show support for Jews because they’d be seen as pro-Israel. At least, that’s what they tell themselves.
