Jews believe they have no future in the UK. What could be more depressing?

For the Met, ‘keeping the peace’ appears to mean whisking the ‘openly Jewish’ away

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Recently, I was invited to sit in on a Zoom debate with members of the National Jewish Assembly (NJA). The motion was: “This Assembly believes that the Jewish community has a long-term future in the UK.” NJA chairman Gary Mond called first one speaker then another. Some were elderly and not familiar with the technology (“You’re on mute, Alan. Unmute!”). Most had lived in Britain their whole lives; a few had distant memories of fleeing persecution. But all of them, I think, had a tribal muscle memory of what this moment might mean; should we stay or should we go?

The faces on my screen looked anxious, perturbed, agitated, desperately seeking reassurance.

A younger bearded guy was clearly irate. Anti-Semitism was stalking the streets of our capital city. Vast pro-Palestine marches, which had taken place at least every other weekend for six months, began when the corpses of the victims of the Hamas attack of October 7 were still unburied. It was Jew-hatred, pure and simple.

The police have come up with multiple excuses not to arrest protesters, however badly behaved. They even employed a lawyer, previously filmed leading the blood-curdling “From the river to the sea” chant at an anti-Israel rally, to advise them on their response to the protests and invited him into their operations room in Lambeth.

The decision that faced the Jewish group I joined was whether to ride out the present troubles and hope for the best, or to make Aliyah (take up residence in Israel, an offer available to every Jew). Having witnessed attacks on Jews, the young bearded guy, who lived in Manchester, had made up his mind and his family’s bags were packed. “Look at the demographics,” he said. “The Muslim population is growing. It’s not safe for us.”

“But this is our home,” one woman protested. A second, joining us from Tel Aviv, advised everybody to get out while they still could. Even faced with the prospect of rocket attacks from Hezbollah, and the threat of war with Iran, she felt safer in Israel than in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Hearing people going about their blameless British lives discussing whether they were safe was oddly paralysing. I felt sad, helpless and outraged that our Government and the Metropolitan Police had not acted sooner to shut down the hate-filled forces which have made British Jews contemplate fleeing.

The motion was defeated. Only 30 per cent believed the Jewish community had a long-term future in the UK, with 43 per cent against.

Here were members of one of the UK’s most successful minorities; so brilliantly integrated, hardworking, patriotic, making such an invaluable contribution – from art to retail, medicine to music, finance to politics – that it was impossible to think of Britain without them.

By and large, they are exemplary citizens. How many Jews are in jail? How many on benefits? How many don’t learn English? How many launch terrorist attacks?

It is against this backdrop that we must view calls for Sir Mark Rowley to resign as Met Commissioner following an incident in which an officer described an anti-Semitism campaigner as “openly Jewish”. Gideon Falter, head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was wearing a kippah when he was walking alongside a pro-Palestine march and tried to cross the street. A sergeant blocked his way saying, “You are quite openly Jewish… I’m worried about the reaction to your presence.” He offered to walk Falter to an area where there were Israeli flags and said if he stayed, he could be arrested for a “breach of peace”.

For the Met, “keeping the peace” now appears to mean whisking the “openly Jewish” away in case “peaceful protesters” get antagonised and decide to tear them limb from limb. That’s not law and order; it is craven appeasement.

The first apology from the Met was passive-aggressive. It disapproved of the “new trend” of those opposed to the main protests “appearing along the route to express their views”. Tut, tut! As if that wasn’t bad enough, these naughty people “often film themselves while doing so” which “suggests they must know that their presence is provocative… and that they’re increasing the likelihood of an altercation”.

When a woman is raped, it is no longer acceptable to say, “She was asking for it” because she was dressed in a “provocative” manner. That’s called victim-shaming. No such scruples apply if the person is a Jew. According to the police sergeant, Jews are responsible for violence caused by their mere presence next to an anti-Israeli march. By that warped logic, it is Jews who must be arrested, not the screeching mob with genocidal slogans and recreational swastikas.

OK, I think I’ve got the policing strategy straight: “Be a good lad, Mr Falter, and stay well away from people who want your kind wiped out or you’ll only go making them kick off and create more work for the police. And we’re scared of them – there’s more of them than us.” Er, isn’t that called mob rule?

A defiant Sir Mark insisted that, while the use of the term “openly Jewish” was “clumsy and offensive”, his officers were “handling a difficult situation well”. The sergeant at the scene “clearly assessed that there was a risk of confrontation and tried to help Mr Falter find a different route”.

I don’t blame the sergeant, who did his best to be calm and helpful (he was just obeying orders). But Falter didn’t want to find a different route, did he? He wanted to cross the road like any free citizen in a free country. This proves the police are being disingenuous when they say the marchers are peaceful and not guilty of stirring up Jew hatred. That’s exactly what they’re doing, and no one dares stop them. Successive governments have ignored tensions with radicalised elements in the Muslim community, and it’s now such a tinderbox it terrifies the authorities.

Police in France moved swiftly to ban pro-Palestine marches because they knew they would generate public order disturbances and ethnic tension. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, declared “zero tolerance” of anti-Semitism and banned marches and Hamaslinked activities after celebrations of the massacres in Israel. Those nations showed strength and resolve in the face of the Islamist menace to the Western way of life.

Britain has let down her Jews, by contrast, and it is shameful.

Sir Mark Rowley should resign. He is weak, complacent and fatally confuses the “best tradition of British police trying to prevent disorder” with cowardly appeasement of the Hamas mob. It is hard to imagine any previous generation of coppers being so timid or unwilling to feel the collar of the actual villains. I hear the latest Rowley solution to this toxic mess is asking Jewish police officers to advise the Met on “cultural sensitivities”.

“That is woke nonsense,” snaps Mond. “All that is necessary is for the police not to tolerate Jewhatred.” Exactly. Those marches have done enough harm; they should be banned.