Another week, another attack on British Jews; and rather than synagogues being petrol-bombed in the middle of the night, now it is ordinary Jews being stabbed in broad daylight. It’s been described as this country’s biggest national security emergency for almost a decade by the UK’s terrorism watchdog. Finding a solution will mean some hard questions, not just for government and police but for wider society too.
The immediate move is, of course, more policing and more funding for security. The first job of government is to protect its people, and this should be done without question. Prosecutions should be expedited through the courts, as they were with the riots that followed the Southport attack. But physical protection is, in a way, the easy part.
Cutting off the supply of antisemitic attacks is harder, and breaks in two directions. The Heaton Park synagogue attack was carried out by a supporter of Islamic State. Recent attacks in London have been claimed by a new group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), which looks very much like it is an Iranian-backed operation. This includes Wednesday’s Golders Green attack, though it is not yet clear whether HAYI is responsible. The policy solutions to these two sources of violent, Islamist antisemitism are different, but not unconnected.
If a hostile state is orchestrating violent attacks on British soil then there must be a forceful diplomatic response. If that state is Iran, then it is impossible to see how the Iranian ambassador can remain in this country. The government has promised to legislate so that it can proscribe state-linked entities.
The other source of threat is the sheer weight of violent incitement and hatred swirling in the air above Jewish communities right now. For two and a half years, since the 7 October attacks, Jews in this country have experienced a growing wave of violent, hateful language that lands, one way or another, at our door. Much of this is linked to anger over Gaza and, on the surface at least, directed at Israel. You might be thinking that hating Israel is not the same as hating Jews, and in theory, you are right. In practice, it often does not divide that neatly. When incitement against “Zionists” reaches a certain point, attacks on Jews follow.
The government has an important role to play in this. Kanye West was prevented from performing at Wireless festival because the government denied him a visa. Venues that host antisemitic artists should lose Arts Council funding. A whole-society approach to tackling antisemitism means exactly this: pulling every lever available to set a standard that violent incitement and antisemitic extremism are no longer tolerated. It’s a low bar, but that’s where we are.
