The 7 October Hamas attack opened a space - and antisemitism filled it. British Jews are living with the consequences
A few weeks ago, my teenage son was in a library revising for his exams. A woman sat down opposite, looked at the star of David necklace he has recently started wearing and glared at him. Then she placed her water bottle between them with its “Boycott Israeli Apartheid” sticker turned to face his way.
She didn’t speak to my son. She didn’t ask what he thinks about Israel, Gaza, Netanyahu or Hamas. She doesn’t know whether he has friends or relatives who have been taken hostage or killed (he doesn’t), or if he has been on any pro-Palestine marches (he hasn’t). Whether it is antisemitic or not to boycott Israel is beside the point. She seemed to be triggered by the simple sight of a Jew. There’s no more basic expression of racism than that.
As microaggressions go, it’s not much. However, when Muslim women – for example – are harassed for wearing a hijab, it tends to come from people with far-right sympathies. In contrast, this woman had an “antifa” sticker on display. I’m also an anti-fascist. When the neo-Nazi terrorist David Copeland was planting his nail bombs around London, I was the contact for the mole inside the far right who identified him to the police. Something has gone badly wrong in the intervening years if this is how some young anti-fascists now react to Jews.
The idea that Jews are local proxies for Israel, answerable for its deeds and suitable targets for the anger it attracts, can be lethal. In Zurich, a Jewish man was stabbed repeatedly in the street. In Berlin, a synagogue was firebombed. In Canada, shots were fired at Jewish schools. In London, a group of Israelis were attacked by a gang who heard them speaking Hebrew and asked “Are you Jewish?” Perhaps my son was lucky it was only a sticker.
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