Hatred cannot win – but we need support and action
If the state treats a coordinated campaign of intimidation as anything less than a national security threat, it is choosing complacency over protection
Over the last few days, I have developed a new morning ritual. My first instinct upon waking up has been to check my phone to see if there has been another incident overnight. On four occasions in recent weeks, British Jews have woken up to yet another attack on our community. Ambulances, synagogues, and educational charities have been targeted. Institutions that sit at the very heart of Jewish life in Britain. The only thing that is shocking about this is how normal it has become.
This latest spate of arson attacks is not random. It is designed to scare our community. After more than two and a half years of rising antisemitism, British Jews are living with a heightened sense of fear and anxiety. It is rational that some will question whether we still belong in this country.
Yet, even in the face of this intimidation, we continue to be defiant and resilient. The morning after the attempted attack on Finchley Reform Synagogue, Cantor Zoe Jacobs said “we will not be deterred by these cowardly acts”. Rabbi Yehuda Black echoed this sentiment after his synagogue in Kenton was attacked, saying “we must not be deterred by what is taking place. It must not in any way affect who we are as Jews.”
And they are right. We must not let this hatred win. We cannot allow it to define us. But we need support and we need action.
We know that the Iran-linked Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia group has been claiming responsibility for these attacks. Although this has not been verified, there are clear signs of coordination or, at the very least, the encouragement of copycat incidents. Only last month, it was reported that several synagogues, a Jewish community centre and a Jewish primary school appeared on a list of targets found on the devices of Iranian-British nationals arrested on suspicion of spying on Iran.
We must be clear on what we are dealing with here: a hostile foreign state is using its intelligence services and network of proxies, including criminal gangs, to gather intelligence on British citizens, in order to attack them here on British soil. That is not just a threat to the Jewish community, it is an attack on our country as a whole.
It has now been almost a year since the then Home Secretary promised to create a new power of proscription to cover state threats such as the IRGC. That commitment must be expedited and emergency legislation to proscribe the IRGC must be introduced without delay.
Ultimately, whoever is responsible, these attacks are another reminder of the presence of people in this country who are willing to act violently on their hatred of Jews.
For too long we have accepted this and, with government support, built our communal infrastructure behind higher walls, with thicker doors.
Security is necessary but it cannot defeat antisemitism; it simply drives it into the darkness, forcing those who hate Jews to target empty buildings in the dead of night. But if those who hate Jews are willing to attack ambulances, synagogues and educational charities, where will it end? As we saw just six months ago in Manchester on Yom Kippur, anti-Jewish hatred has deadly consequences, and it feels like it is only a matter of time before a tragedy of that nature happens again.
Ultimately, whoever is responsible, these attacks are another reminder of the presence of people in this country who are willing to act violently on their hatred of Jews
In recent months, the government have introduced several vital, albeit long overdue, measures to combat extremism, alongside legislative changes to protect Jewish communities from disruptive and intimidatory protests. But there is no single lever the government can pull to end this surge of hatred. We are too far down the road for that.
It is incumbent on every right-minded person in Britain to stand up to anti-Jewish hatred, to stop it in its tracks before more Jews are killed on the streets of Britain. The vast majority of our fellow Brits rightly find the levels of anti-Jewish hatred appalling, but a silent majority offers little reassurance. An attack on British Jews is an attack on Britain and its values which we must face together.
- Russell Langer, Director of Public Affairs, the Jewish Leadership Council
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