Mick Hartley

Trevor Phillips in the Times this morning:

For me, being caught close to Westminster station with a crowd of 40 or 50 young women singing “Free Palestine, Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” was a little eerie, but not exactly intimidating. The placards that I saw were mostly homemade with innocuous slogans. To the side of the crowd, parents kept a careful hold on excited toddlers. To my eye, last Saturday’s demonstration had the air of a family day out at a carnival parade, or an open-air panto perhaps. To me this was no “hate march”.

But I can’t see what others might see. Neither the marchers nor I were Jewish….

Well yes, but of course the phrase "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” is very far from being an innocuous slogan: it's calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Here's the "most recommended" comment:

I’m a Jewish person in London, and I can tell you that it is an incredibly intimidating environment for my community at the moment. I am avoiding central London like the plague – although I had to make a short trip to Oxford Street a few days ago, and was incredibly upset to see the torn posters of the hostages in Gaza. I am hiding my Star of David necklace in the street, for fear of being attacked (I am almost certain that I will receive abuse on the Tube if it’s seen). I haven’t been on Twitter for over two weeks, because the rampant and virulent anti-Semitism was affecting my mental health. I should be able to grieve with fellow Jews online about the horrific events of 7th October, without seeing scores of comments about the massacre being a Big Lie (it’s the modern-day equivalence of Holocaust denial). It’s got to the point where my family in Israel are beseeching me to move there – because they think I will be safer there. Don’t get me wrong – I am a strong supporter of the right to protest. I am just puzzled as to why 100,000 people don’t take to the streets every week to protest against Assad using chemical weapons against his own people, or for the plight of the Uyghur Muslims and young girls who are being killed by the ‘morality police’ in Iran. It is hard not to reach the conclusion that many of these protestors simply have a problem with Jews.