OPINION: The Britain of old has become unrecognisable

It has been nearly two years since Hamas’ barbaric attack on 7th October 2023. Two years since some 1,200 people were murdered in the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Two years since some 250 people were taken hostage, dragged into Gaza to be held in unimaginably cruel conditions, designed to prolong their suffering.

And it has been nearly two years since that brutal assault, committed by terrorists, changed the Britain we know into a Britain that is barely recognisable.

In today’s Britain, just last week a swastika was sprayed on a rabbi’s home, a Jewish boy had reportedly been shot at on Shabbat by a thug with an air rifle, protesters outside the Israeli Embassy in London declared that “This will become the Embassy of Palestine”, the British wheelchair basketball team turned their backs to the Israeli players during Israel’s national anthem, a Jewish nanny with a baby was accosted in the street.

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We all now live our lives against a backdrop of inflammatory coverage from our national broadcaster, bile being spewed by our NHS doctors on social media, and our venerable arts institutions and universities — many of which Jews have contributed so much to — excluding or enabling the harassment of Jews.

Over the past three weeks, we have projected the testimonies of British Jews onto the BBC, National Gallery and King’s College London. They are powerful personal stories about the prejudice in the media, arts and education sectors that are all too familiar to us now.

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Antisemitism has become pervasive.

This is not the Britain that once prided itself on fairness, tolerance and safety for Jews — the Britain that we were so proud of too. Extremists will stop at nothing to intimidate us — and all too often, the authorities are looking the other way.

The rise of extremism in this country and the dismal appeasement of our law enforcement authorities have not gone unnoticed, however.

This country has long been renowned for its tolerance and sense of decency. That Britain is seething. It started silently, but there is an unmistakable change taking place. Our once-trusted BBC is increasingly seen as partisan. Our renowned police forces are being caught out time and again applying double standards.

The discontentment comes not from the extremes but from the silent majority that we have long wanted to believe might find its voice, and perhaps at last it is.

That is why Sunday is so important. There are a lot of people in our community who are feeling alone. There are so many outside our community who are angry about the failures to stand up for the values of this great country, and they are angry too about how we are being treated.

On Sunday, we will gather to show everyone the strength of feeling. If you have been crying out for the silent majority to speak, this is your moment. If you have been wondering whether our Jewish community will make a stand, this is for you.

We will stand together as one, people of all faiths and none, to demand that our broadcasters stop their incitement, that our police forces enforce our laws, and that the doctrine of appeasement that has rotted our national discourse gives way to a steely determination to fiercely tackle the extremists. That is what our country needs, it is what its people want, but our politicians will only listen if we show our strength of feeling.

Please join us on Sunday at 13:00 at the corner of Hallam Street and Weymouth Street in Marylebone. It is time to make our voices heard, before it is too late.

• Gideon Falter, chief executive, Campaign Against Antisemitism