The most moving thing at the antisemitism rally? The non-Jews who came

As we walked up to the airport-style security for the rally against antisemitism, my non-Jewish friend Jane Price wondered aloud, ‘Why do they have this and not for the pro-Palestine demos?’

I explained that this was to keep out the people who wanted to hurt us, and stringent security was always required when Jews met in big numbers. The penny dropped. Airports, after all, only started their checking for weapons after a string of dangerous and deadly hostage attacks in the name of the Palestinian cause.

Jane was one of thousands of non-Jewish allies who joined their friends and neighbours at the demonstration on Sunday.

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An Australian journalist, she reached out to me to ask if she could accompany me to the event. ‘I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to join,’ she says. ‘7 October opened my eyes to a lot of what was going on. The Bondi attacks hit home. I wanted to show there were a lot of people who stand for decency.’

She was one of many. Marketeer Ewen Sturgeon attended with his Jewish girlfriend. ‘The UK should be a place where everyone feels safe to be,’ he said. ‘It’s what Britain stands for. The recent increase in antisemitism does not belong here.’

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Next to him stood Tiffanie Darke, a journalist who added, ‘I’ve watched my Jewish friends feel increasingly threatened and frightened over the last year, and it’s incredibly upsetting. I’m standing up for them, for all Jewish people and for Britain.’

There was a huge contingent of Iranians. Nadir Tahmesei waved a pre-revolution flag. ‘We are happy to stand with the Jewish people as they have stood with us,’ he said. People need to be aware of the extremism that is spreading all over the world. It needs to be addressed before it is too late.’

Heading the Iranian contingent was activist Lily Moo, who has been speaking up for the Jewish people since 7 October.

‘Iranians have always been allies of Israel,’ she said. ‘That has been in silence under the Islamic regime inside Iran, but loudly and openly in the diaspora. As we have witnessed over the past two and a half years, the lion and sun flag has flown next to the Star of David in countries across the world. Iranians will always be with our Jewish friends.’

Another staunch long-term ally is the Rev. Hayley Ace, who runs Christians Against Antisemitism and who took a day off church to be at the event.

‘There are many Christians who decided not to go to church today because they wanted to stand with the Jewish community,’ she says. ‘We feel just as strongly about this, that our country is unrecognisable. We had two Jews killed last year going to worship; it’s outrageous, and our country is unrecognisable. We need the government to do more than empty platitudes, which is what I feel they have been doing for the past two years. There are many Christians who feel like me.’

And it wasn’t just the Christians. A group called Feminists Against Antisemitism, started last year, held a stunning banner. Susan McDonnell, one of the group’s founders, said, ‘If we didn’t stand with Jews, how could I live with myself?

‘I really do feel that “never again” is now. I am appalled at the silence on the left in particular about the violence against Jews. And I have been particularly angry about feminists who haven’t spoken up. If you don’t sand up now, when will you?’

TV commentators and journalists Benjamin Butterworth and Albie Mankona may be on opposite sides politically but are united in their belief that more needs to be done on antisemitism.

‘As a non-Jew, I’ve been quite shocked in the last number of years to see so many friends spout casual antisemitism,’ says Benjamin. ‘And I think when so many people involve themselves in diminishing Jews in Israel, then without other people standing up for it, that becomes the norm.

There was a huge contingent of Iranians. Nadir Tahmesei waved a pre-revolution flag. ‘We are happy to stand with the Jewish people as they have stood with us,’ he said

‘As a gay person, I know all too well what oppression and stigma and prejudice can look like and how, actually, it’s the casual stuff that often hurts more than the explicit. And that’s why I think it’s really important to show solidarity, to come to events like this, because otherwise it becomes a trend and it becomes normal, and that’s what we’ve seen in the last few years.

‘As a journalist, I watched the unedited footage of 7 October a couple of years ago, and I’d never forgotten exactly what I saw and how brutal it was. And sometimes I wish that those friends that are casually accepting prejudice without them always realising could see exactly what Jewish people, Israeli people, have been subjected to, and then they might realise why the anxiety is so severe and why they need people to speak out.’

Albie added: ‘I’m here because for me, this seems like a very binary and straightforward decision between right and wrong. It is wrong that we are seeing extremely high levels of antisemitism in the UK and that Jews are being stabbed on the streets of this country, and that, since before this awful period, Jewish people have had to tolerate things that no other community has had to tolerate, such as security outside their school and security outside their places of worship.

‘I remember during Black Lives Matter, it really did feel like the entire country was behind the Black community in our moment of need, and I just don’t really feel that is the case with the Jewish community in their moment of need. So I wanted to come and show my support and also to make a very clear stand against anti-Semitic racism.’