Mick Hartley

Panorama on BBC tonight deals with the UK rise in antisemitism. There’s a featured piece this morning, as a prelude – Spat at, threatened and kidnapped: British Jews tell of rising antisemitism.

Until recently, Amanda, 47, always openly wore a Star of David pendant around her neck. The Jewish symbol is a proud part of her identity and she had never thought twice about displaying it. Now, she tells BBC Panorama, she is afraid it marks her out as a target.

“It’s hard to be openly Jewish sometimes in everyday life,” she says. “Living in the UK now for Jewish people is very uncomfortable.”

In a WhatsApp group of about 20 of her Jewish friends – many of them children or grandchildren of refugees from the Nazis, who once saw the UK as a haven from antisemitism – she says conversations have shifted from neighbourhood chat to more existential questions.

“There aren’t any Jewish people I know that haven’t got plans to leave,” says Amanda. “The first thing we all talk about is: What is the exit plan? Where are you going? What will you do? When will you be going? Or they’re already moved or moving.”…

Amanda is one of more than a dozen Jewish people from a range of UK communities who have spoken to Panorama – including an NHS midwife, a student and a musician who was kidnapped.

They describe a rising undercurrent of antisemitism across society. Police and policy experts tasked with tackling antisemitism believe this has helped create the conditions for the most serious anti-Jewish hate crimes in recent British history, including the Manchester synagogue attack that left two men dead.

In north London, recent targeting of Jewish premises has also heightened fears – including an arson attack last month on ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in Golders Green and attempted arson last week on a synagogue in Finchley Over the weekend, there were arson attempts on a business in Hendon and a synagogue in Kenton.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that provides advice and security for Jewish communities and monitors antisemitism in the UK, says it is receiving record numbers of reports of antisemitism.

Well yes, but who was responsible for the Manchester synagogue attack? Where is this hate coming from? Certainly the demonisation of Israel on the left – Palestine Action and the rest – is a huge part of this. But what about Islam? The only mentions of Islam in the article are for “Islamophobia” and “Islamophobic hate crimes” – because obviously, as per Jeremy Corbyn, we can’t have any discussion of antisemitism without bringing up Islamophobia.

And there’s this:

Community leaders from the Jewish faith and other religions agree on the importance of interfaith dialogue, but say this has become a lot more difficult since the the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza in which more than 72,330 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

“I think a lot of Jews are quite frightened of making those relationships with Muslims and Christians. People are more worried about security,” says Baroness Julia Neuberger, who was ordained in 1977 as the second female rabbi in the UK.

“And the other thing is that I think there’s increasing nervousness, unwillingness, unhappiness, particularly amongst Muslims, but to some extent amongst Christians too, about entering this dialogue, because they don’t know what to do.

“Are they supposed to talk about Gaza? Are they not supposed to about Gaza? How do you deal with all of that?”

Figures from the ever-reliable Hamas-run health ministry. Really? Perhaps some acknowledgement of the BBC’s own role in this rise in antisemitism, from its biased Gaza reporting, might be in order.

And this is the only mention of Muslims – that they, as well as Christians, are “nervous” about entering into dialogue with Jews. Hmm.

I realise the BBC will never say anything critical about Islam – it must be in their charter – but this determined looking away from the elephant in the room is just grotesque.