'Jews shouldn't be attacked for expressing their views in public.'
So says Daniel Lowe, an orthodox Jew from Hendon beaten by two Palestinian-supporters after leaving a protest outside the Israeli Embassy last week.
The situation has moved the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Semitism to introduce an Early Day Motion in Parliament , '....call[ing] on Government and civil society to assiduously assure every community that will not tolerate attacks, abuse or hostility aimed towards Jews, Muslims or anyone else on the pretext of the ongoing situation in Gaza.' In nearly every incident, the perpetrators have referenced the intervention in the Gaza strip as justification for these actions, some of which have occurred during or adjacent to the anti-Israel protests of the past week. Certainly, the tone of the anti-Israel protests which have been held over the past few weeks--initially billed as anti-war demonstrations-- has been increasingly dominated by extremist-Islamist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and the aggressive intimidation of police and counter-protesters.
Despite the dramatic increase of anti-Semitism in Britain--which the CST estimates as roughly twice the amount of attacks as those recorded during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict--this development has received limited coverage from the national media. Reports have appeared in the BBC, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times, Guardian and the Independent, but have been subjected only to limited analysis. Riazat Butt's exploration of this issue in the Guardian declines to list any details of anti-Semitic attacks which have been recorded, whilst the BBC explores the subject only in reference to a letter by Muslim leaders rejecting anti-Semitic violence against British Jews. Indeed, the Jewish Chronicle appears to be the only national publication exploring the tide of anti-Semitism at length, and published four articles on this subject in one day alone.
The absence of media attention to this issue suggests a worrying disconnect between the priorities of the mainstream and the heightened threat to Britain's Jewish community. The media's reticence on this topic--coupled with the strangely muted coverage of the increasingly extremist Pro-Hamas public demonstrations--suggests a degree of squeamishness in suggesting a link between the Muslim Britons who have been the leading opponents of Israeli policy, and rising incidents of anti-Semitism. A related fear may be that footage of 'Middle England' and provide fodder for groups such as the BNP to tar all British Muslims with the same brush. Whatever the case may be, it is in the public interest to be informed about this development, both for security purposes and in the interest of spearheading a full and frank public discussion of the issue.
