Britain is Failing its Jewish Community

 By Henry Srebrnik, Fredericton Daily Gleaner

On April 29, two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, a Jewish neighbourhood in northwest London, England. The worst part: no one was particularly shocked. And Prime Minister Keir Starmer could only mouth the usual platitudes. He called it “deeply concerning.” He says that every time an antisemitic incident occurs. But things keep getting worse.

In fact, it was the latest in a surge of antisemitic attacks in London. An Orthodox Jewish man was harassed in the street and called a baby killer not long before. There was an attempted attack on the Finchley Reform Synagogue in northwest London April 15.  On March 23, ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire in Golders Green. Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the country’s chief rabbi, said it “proves that if you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe.”

Yet Starmer speaks in the vocabulary of bland press releases. He heads a Labour government whose tepid response results in virtual inaction. The Labour Party, once political home to a majority of British Jews, has taken the path of abandoning Jews in favour of seeking votes among an antizionist left that grows more powerful by the day. In fact, Labour’s main rivals are the Greens farther to their left.

The party had been led by Jeremy Corbyn, a leader who mourned terrorists and described Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends.” When Starmer became leader, he took it upon himself to declare to the Jewish community that antisemitism had been ripped out of the party “by its roots.” But is Starmer really all that better?

The prime minister has not summoned the heads of the universities where Jewish students have been spat at and chased. He has not used his office to name the radical Islamist ideology that has driven a series of recent terror plots. He has not demanded the banning of organizations whose leaders openly celebrated the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. He has not designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terror group in the country. He doesn’t stop his own MPs from joining the large pro-Hamas rallies.

Most political parties have condemned the hate. Conservative Leader, Kemi Badenoch described the assault in Golders Green as a “vile antisemitic terrorist attack.” There is one exception: the Green Party. Its leader, Zack Polanski, has signalled in recent interviews that he struggles to take antisemitism seriously. Polanski told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on April 22 that “there’s a conversation to be had about whether it’s a perception of unsafety or whether it’s actual unsafety, but neither are acceptable.” Polanski also criticized the chief rabbi for “claiming to speak for the Jewish community.” While Polanski is certain there was a “genocide” in Gaza, he is unsure that firebombing synagogues is a real form of unsafety.

He made the comments as he launched the party’s municipal election campaign in London. But details emerged of Green candidates who have likened Jews to the Nazis, praised Hamas, and claimed that antisemitic attacks are “false flag” operations designed to win sympathy for the Jewish community. Two Green Party candidates were arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred. One wrote that “ramming a synagogue isn’t antisemitism, it’s revenge,” claiming Israel was worse than Nazi Germany. Another called Jews “cockroaches.”

Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake suggested that “one look beneath the surface of Zack Polanski’s Green Party shows a poison party, toxic to its core.” Even the prime minister agreed that Polanski was “not fit to lead any political party.” But Polanski’s views play well with the young voters he is attracting from the Labour Party.

On May 7, more than 5,000 local council seats in England were up for grabs across 136 councils. Labour suffered heavy losses, so did the Conservatives, while the right-wing Reform UK made massive gains. The Greens also did well. Polanski’s party gained 441 seats for a total of 587, winning majorities in four councils, including inner London boroughs like Hackney and Lewisham They also made big gains in Manchester, going from four to 21 seats.

British Jews’ fear of antisemitic violence is not the result of an optical illusion, observed Andrew Apostolou, a Labour Party member and historian of the Holocaust. “It is a rational judgement that we are unsafe in our own country. Polanski may think that all those Community Security Trust people on patrol outside synagogues and Jewish events are just enjoying the great outdoors of North London. We know they are protecting us. We know the Green Party won’t.”

Josh Kaplan, a former journalist with the London Jewish Chronicle, has seen repeated examples of how Jewish life is being squeezed, both in the violent targeting of Jews, “but also in the creeping, insidious erasure of Jewish voices from every part of our very polite society. For the first time in my life, I experienced direct antisemitism.”

For three years, London in particular has been the scene of marches which have given a platform for virulent anti-Jewish racism that threatens the peace and safety of the Jewish community. The hate marches will continue. The arson attacks will continue. So, as Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, has stated, following the recent arson and stabbings, “This tolerant society that we knew, has pretty much disappeared for Jews.”