One city, many voices
LAST Sunday, in Jerusalem, a Palestinian terrorist gunned down an innocent Jewish civilian in cold blood and tried to murder many more before he was shot dead by police.
The headline in the Manchester Evening News read ‘Palestinian shot dead after holy land killing’ and it’s not hard to see why my fellow Mancunian Jews and I were outraged. This headline twisted the truth on its head – it painted the murderer as the victim and made no reference to the racially motivated killing of an innocent Jew by a Hamas terrorist.
The repercussions go well beyond headlines, however.
The Jewish communities in Manchester and indeed the UK always suffer. Antisemitic attacks in the UK are at an all time high, with reported incidents in the first six months of this year up 49 per cent compared to the same period last year. In May alone, during the Israel/Hamas conflict, there were 628 attacks on Jews reported in the UK, an increase of over 400pc vs the same period in 2020 and the highest levels ever recorded in a single month.
In short, when conflict flares in Israel Antisemitic attacks go up here because some people hate Israel so much they want to take it out on British Jews.
As a result security has to be increased at our children’s nurseries, schools and Synagogues and proud Jews feel the need to hide their Jewish identities as they genuinely fear for their safety.
The perpetrators of these anti-Jewish attacks are, of course, the ones to blame but it means the UK media has a real responsibility to report the facts accurately, fairly and without any bias or spin so that their headlines cannot be misused to stir up more hatred.
This brutal murder hurt our community on a personal level too – Eli Kay wasn’t just another innocent taken in his prime, he was the grandson of our Rabbi Shlomo. This headline wasn’t just an affront to good journalism; it was an insult to the memory of Eli.
● The M.E.N fully recognises the issues raised above. We unreservedly apologise for the headline which, while written without any malice, was misjudged and inappropriate.