Israel-Gaza conflict: British Jews most fearful for safety since 1945, Chief Rabbi says
Chief Rabbi's stark warning comes as anti-Semitic offences have risen by over 1,000%
It comes amid the ongoing fallout from the Israel-Gaza conflict
One school pupil said "I have to hide my Jewishness"
The Chief Rabbi has said British Jews are fearing for their safety today more than at any time since the end of the Second World War.
It comes after a massive spike in anti-Semitic offences since the onset of the Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this month.
One school pupil in Leeds told ITV News on Thursday: “I have to hide my Jewishness. All the time I would express it, but now I have to keep it hidden because no one knows what’s going to happen to me.”
And Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis told the network: “The British Jewish community is in pain.
“There is a lot of anxiety and seeing so many thousands of people on the streets openly supporting the Hamas terrorists certainly has caused a lot of anxiety within in our community.”
Sir Ephraim was referring to marches attended by hundreds of thousands of people in cities including London, Cardiff and Glasgow at the weekend.
These marches were held as a show of support for Palestinians, not Hamas, the UK-proscribed terrorist organisation which killed 1,400 people in Israel during the initial assault in the conflict on 7 October. Israel responded with air strikes, raids and blockades on Hamas-run Gaza, which has said 7,000 Palestinians have been killed.
However, protesters at the marches chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a slogan which home secretary Suella Braverman has previously branded anti-Semitic and claimed is “widely understood” to call for the destruction of Israel. Jewish groups have also asked prosecutors to clarify if chanting the slogan is a criminal offence.
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Last week, police said anti-Semitic offences in London have increased 1,353% amid the war.
The Metropolitan Police said there had been 218 offences between 1 and 18 October, compared to 15 in the same period last year.
Sir Ephraim said the climate of fear among British Jews is comparable to the end of the Second World War, in which six million Jewish people had been murdered.
“The fear that's running through the Jewish community now, I think we haven't had since 1945.
“And we have gone through many challenges since that time. Certainly it is palpable right now.”
The Met added Islamophobia offences during the same period - 1 and 18 October - had increased from 42 last year to 101 this year, an increase of 140%.
A Tell Mama (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) spokesman has also said that between 7 October and 19 October, it had received 291 reports of anti-Muslim hate.
'Exhibition of Jew-hate'
Anger at the way the Met has handled protests in London arrived at the steps of its New Scotland Yard headquarters on Wednesday.
Hundreds of campaigners called for the force to rethink its policing policy on potential hate crimes and public order offences as the conflict continues.
It comes after Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley differed with ministers over how to police pro-Palestine protesters shouting “jihad” after a rally - unaffiliated with the march attended by 100,000 people - on Saturday in central London.
On Wednesday, the campaigners outside New Scotland Yard, who held banners which read “Act Against Hate Before It’s Too Late” and “Zero Tolerance For Anti-Semites”, claimed there have been too few arrests, lax policing, and excuses posted on social media for why certain chants and signs and phrases are not seen as hate crimes.
Gideon Falter, the Campaign Against Antisemitism chief executive, said the police must take tougher action to clamp down on issues including genocidal chants, anti-Semitic signs and calls for jihad against the Jewish state - particularly as a “March for Palestine” and other demonstrations are planned this weekend.
He described the tensions at last Saturday’s protest as “an exhibition of Jew-hate as rarely seen before on the streets of London” and accused the police of being “practically invisible, as they have been throughout the past two-and-a-half weeks”.
