I'm not Jewish, but I've been mainly watching and occasionally commenting on these threads because I work for a Jewish charity, and as such have many friends and colleagues within the community
I'm not Jewish, I don't actually know any Jewish people, I don't think there are any Jewish kids at the school where I teach. My area is not very multicultural.
But, I visited Auschwitz when I was at uni and it was just awful. Indescribably awful.
Ages ago I also read Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures with Extremists. What was notable was how many of the extremist groups he spent time with had a problem with Jews. Up till reading that I'd figured that antisemitism was done, ended with the Holocaust when we all realised what had happened. But it was a right wing extremist problem. The New World Order conspiracy theorists.
Then came Corbyn. A Jewish political commentator whose opinion I really respect started talking about antisemitism in the Labour Party. Other people were saying it was a hatchet job by the right-wing press to smear him.
So I looked into it. I spent a half term on twitter reading Asa Winstanley stuff, Jewish Voice for Labour, all the 'antisemitic witch-hunt' stuff, things being said about Luciana Berger, by who, and what else they were saying more privately, looking at the things that Labour members were posting that were being reported and brushed off by the Labour Party. I looked at what Corbyn was doing, saying, who he was hanging out with. I read up a lot about the Left's problem with antisemitism and why it's an issue for even people who would consider themselves anti-racist.
I came away from that half term genuinely sickened. Depressed with the state of humanity. MN had a lot of antisemitic posters crawling out of the woodwork at the time too. I reported posts about conspiracy theories, holocaust denial and so on that seemed to inevitably crop up in any discussion about Jewish concerns with Labour.
Then it all died down a bit. During covid there were a few posters who were posting conspiracy theories about e.g. the vaccines being used to control people etc. A bit of digging and they meant the Jews. Of course.
And now this. I totally understand that there are many, many people with genuine concerns about the situation in Gaza, and rightly so. But it is also obvious that some are using it as an excuse to once again have a go at Jews.
And I get that the manifestations of antisemitism can sometimes be tricky to spot if you're not au fait with the tropes, because it is different to other forms of racism. But some of these are blatant and yet people are still denying it. Or arguing when it is pointed out by people who know better. Behaving differently to how they would if it were other forms of racism.
A rise in antisemitism is bad. They're kind of the canary in the coal mine. Divisions in society are being stoked (and not just against Jews, Muslims too, immigrants, anyone who can be othered). But history tells us when people tell us that they want to kill Jews, they really should be paid attention to and dealt with.
I've posted on a few of these threads. As I said, I'm not Jewish, I don't know if Jewish posters think I should stay in my lane, (please let me know if so) and what is going on in Gaza is horrific, but what is going on here and in other places around the world as a result in terms of antisemitism is really worrying and needs to be properly discussed without denial or shouting people's concerns down.