Is the penny finally starting to drop about anti semitism and hate marches?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/04/starmer-c al l-society-response-rising-antisemitism

I think we are now seeing the cumulative impact of the anti senitism that has built up over the last 3 years where there has been a permissive environment with politicians hesitant to intervene in events in the streets that have incubated anti Jew sentiment.

All political parties apart from the hate apologist Greens are now waking up to the fact we need better policing and perhaps legislation. I for one will acting a vote for a party that recognises hate marches for what they are and also willing to tackle the vile posts appearing on social media (and Labour have reacted too late too little). Enough is enough for a Jewish community that lives in perpetual fear.

Honestly, do not believe everything you read on social media.

I guess I should have said no one on Mumsnet is saying it's antisemitic to sympathise with Palestinian people or to criticise the Israel government, that I'm aware of anyway. Even within Israel some people will criticise their own government, as we criticise ours in the UK, and some were against the war.

It would be antisemitic though to blame Jewish people in the UK for what is happening in Gaza or to not care about them feeling intimidated by marches that are not always peaceful and where some extreme people call for uprisings against Jews around the world.

I guess I should have said no one on Mumsnet is saying it's antisemitic to sympathise with Palestinian people or to criticise the Israel government, that I'm aware of anyway.

Of course they have. Someone on this thread said the fact that Israel gets so much attention when there’s so many other causes to protest for- that’s antisemitism cloaked in anti Zionism ie if you care for Palestinians and give them more attention than some people think they are worth that's antisemitism. You can sympathise but not too much or too loudly or that makes you an antisemite.

It's all about Israel to some, Palestinians are just an aside. They can't imagine that people are protesting for Palestinians, they warp it into being all about Israel.

Some people are bizarrely obsessed with Palestine. I mean, councillors in England standing for positions which involve sorting bin collections and potholes running on a platform of 'support for Palestine'. It's a bit weird, don't you think?

An utter obsession with a conflict involving the world's only Jewish state where rallies and marches every weekend routinely involve displays of antisemitism might conceivably be fuelled in part by antisemitism, I suppose?

As I said, it's not antisemitic to sympathise with Palestinian people or criticise the Israel government.

As @noblegiraffe suggests however, it could be antisemitic to only care about the conflict in Gaza & no other conflicts and it could be antisemitic to attend or support marches every weekend that involve displays of antisemitism.

@FloralDeerPattern how is "Globalise the Intifada" which calls for uprisings against Jews around the world helpful to Palestinians or protesting "for them".

"So" Are you a teenager?

Antisemitism has risen massively and it's right that it needs addressing.

Does it? Is that a direct translation then?

As @noblegiraffe suggests however, it could be antisemitic to only care about the conflict in Gaza & no other conflicts and it could be antisemitic to attend or support marches every weekend that involve displays of antisemitism

Does every march involve displays of antisemitism? How are you measuring this 'care' that people have to prove that they have towards other conflicts to not be labelled as antisemtic? Is there some kind of purity test or how does it work?

Does this apply to all protests? Like the ones where people wave Israeli and Lion and sun flags and stab people and throw molotov cocktails? Do they have to have this purity test too or is it just people who march for Palestinians?

Pat McFadden jeered and booed while speaking at London rally against antisemitism
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, was jeered and booed as he spoke at the rally against antisemitism in London this afternoon. According to the Press Association, protestors shouted “shame”, “it’s your party’s fault”, “when will you act” and “Jew harmer” at Mr McFadden.
PA says that Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, was met with raucous applause and cheers and that Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, also received applause and praise when he spoke. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, “went on to stage to some jeers but the MC of the event told the audience he was here as a friend and the boos stopped,” PA says.
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who is Jewish, was not invited to attend – a decision that has been condemned by some campaigners.

No one on this forum knows who cares about any other conflict and the support they give in real life. It is a tiny snapshot.

Like I would presume that all the anti Palestinians on here support other causes also.

We all know what it means, not least the nutters who try to carry it out.

Probably not every march does but enough do for Jewish people to feel intimidated according to them, especially in large urban areas like London.

Pretending that 'globalise the intifada' isn't calling for violence against Jews doesn't wash anymore. Thankfully.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, conflating antisemitism and criticism of Israel's undoubtedly illegal action in Gaza makes antisemitism easier. It's like the boy who cried wolf. Obviously I know that a Jewish man, marching with 100s of other Jewish people, protesting over our government's complicity in a genocide is not antisemitic. I know my close friends and family who do join these marches are people who would call out any racism, who would- and have- intervene if they witnessed antisemitism. I know they are not antisemitic.

So when people say criticising Israel is antisemitic or marching is antisemitic, I assume they don't know what antisemitism is. When pro Israelli lobby groups say the Jewish head of genocide studies at Brown University doesnt know what hes talking about describing Israel's actions as genocide, i doubt their honesty. When Richard Tice deflects a question about a reform Councillor who said Nigerians should be melted down to fill potholes by saying he's going to an event on antisemitism because that's what people care I about, I suspect an agenda. So now, I need to see it for myself to believe it.

But obviously I do see it. There is a clear rise in hate crimes, nationally and locally towards Jewish people. The statements by some green party candidates were vile and criminal. Diane Abbots comments that ajews weren't sent to the back of the bus so didn' tknow real racism, crossed a serious line.

For anyone who's educated themselves on antisemitism- for example of why Georgette Heyers depiction of Jews is deeply antisemitic- we know that there's a large hooked nose trope in antisemitism and that Nazis played on that in caricatures. So the 4 recent depictions of Zac Polanski with an exaggerated hook nose are antisemitic. When he changed his surname at 18 back to his family's Jewish name (which they had changed because of antisemitism) because he was proud of being Jewish and people refuse to accept it, it's antisemitism.

I'm not ignoring antisemitism, I'm not failing to see antisemitism, I'm judging the evidence differently. When the media tells me antisemitism is on the rise, I think the call is coming from within the house. And I think the argument that "criticising Israel's actions is antisemitic" is deeply antisemitic- because being Jewish does not mean being responsible for the actions of Israel's government or being pro genocide- and drives antisemitism. I don't think that's accidental. I think a lot of people say it in good faith but I think some say it to stoke division and prevent scrutiny.

"When the media tells me antisemitism is on the rise, I think the call is coming from within the house."

What do you mean by this?

So when people say criticising Israel is antisemitic or marching is antisemitic, I assume they don't know what antisemitism is.

Whereas I see people pretending that chanting slogans calling for people to rise up and kill Jews, or to eradicate the world's only Jewish state isn't antisemitic.

Netanyahu has used the phrase. Is he antisemitic?

He used it to talk about the eradication of Palestine. Which is obviously also unacceptable.

Funnily enough, pro-Palestinians tend to understand what it means perfectly when he uses it.

I don't think you understand antisemitism.

Like the ones where people wave Israeli and Lion and sun flags and stab people and throw molotov cocktails?
There have been no molotov cocktails or stabbings at any protests where Israeli and Iranian flags are flown. However, there have been stabbings of Jewish people going about their daily business, as I am sure you are aware @FloralDeerPattern

When the media tells me antisemitism is on the rise, I think the call is coming from within the house
What do you mean by this? Jewish people are making up the antisemitic attacks? It sounds remarkably like victim blaming @Eskarina1 and there is ample evidence of the exponential rise in anti semitism suffered by British Jews.

if you can’t see a link then nothing I can say will “prove” it to you. I think the fact that as a visibly Jewish person I would be afraid to be in central London is enough. Additionally, the fact that the holocaust memorial in Hyde park had to be covered in advance of a protest says it all.
anti semitism is an ever evolving hate, it’s nothing new and covering it up with anti Zionism is the facet of this generation.

Well said 👏I also feel very intimidated when in central London and a pro Palestinian march is in progress. Frankly it would be more appropriate for these protests to be static, and easier to police, rather than have people marching through London.

This would mean people still have freedom to protest without disrupting central London and costing the Met Police millions. Today there was a static demonstration outside Downing Street supporting British Jews. Around 200K attended, peacefully.

I mean the media is deliberately stoking antisemitism

If you could show that there was an actual link between the marches a the rise in antisemitism then great. Except I don't think anyone has ever done that.

The irony of this… you just know that if any other minority group said they were experiencing persecution due to marches the Greens and most others on the left would be falling over themselves to take this ‘lived experience’ seriously.

But, as David Baddiel put it ‘Jews don’t count’.

Really? Why? What possible reason? And how? You think the media is antisemitic? Or deliberately provoking people to it?