"This is what it is like to be Jewish in Britain today"

(Taken at pro-Hamas demonstrations in Dublin and London.)

From my own experience as an identifiably Orthodox Jew, since the beginning of the operation in Gaza I have had things shouted at me like ‘death to the Jews’, ‘Hamas should finish where Hitler left off’ along with the usual spitting and angry looks which I’ve become accustomed to. However, yesterday it went a bit further. I attended the demo in Kensington High Street. Walking back to Gloucester Rd tube as was suggested by the Community Security Trust and Metropolitan Police, there was visibly high security on the route. I saw two friends to the tube station and decided I would walk to a friend’s house a mere 3 or 4 minute walk away since he had told me to stop by to say hello to him and his wife.

As usual, I wasn’t holding any kind of political symbol, flag, banner or placard and was just wearing my yarmulka. As I was about to ring on the doorbell I was set upon by two Asian youths (one wearing a keffiya and one wearing a badge with the Palestinian flag on his jacket) who punched me in the head, threw me to the ground and continued to kick and punch me in the head and other parts of my body until I managed to shout loud enough causing them to flee. I bashed on the door of my friend’s house, sat on the kitchen floor with blood coming out of my head and badly bruised elsewhere. Thank G-d, my injuries were not serious and the paramedics were happy for me to go and stay at a friend’s house until the morning so someone would be able to keep an eye on me. As for my friend who is living with his wife and 10-month old baby, the police have suggested that they go away for a couple of days since there are lots of ‘unknown’ people in the area who could make the place unsafe.

Anyhow… this is what it is like to be Jewish in Britain today.

(letter to "mad" Melanie Phillips)

If anyone is interested in the facts, there have been over 50 antisemitic incidents reported to CST in the past 12 days. This is a higher rate than during the first two weeks of the Lebanon war in 2006, which currently stands as the largest ’spike’ in antisemitic incidents we have ever recorded in the UK.

(Dave Rich of CST, which records anti-Semitic incidents in Britain, in a comment on a Harry's Place thread)

As bad as each other?

In the UK, the main political magazines are, on the left, the New Statesman, and on the right, the Spectator. On the websites of both in recent days, there have been illuminating posts that illustrate the different types of racism on left and right.

On the New Statesman's site, a request for suggestions as to what the NS should make the subject of a major investigation led, right from the get-go, that the power of 'the Jewish lobby' and 'Zionists' be investigated. And this wasn't just crazies, either. When the political editor commented that some suggestions weren't worthy of being taken seriously, several apparently sane and well-adjusted commenters made comments such as "Why shouldn't we discuss the power of the Jewish lobby in the media? They do seem to have disproportionate power in economic and social affairs as in the US." (@gcarth). 

Meanwhile, in the last day or so, on Stephen Pollard's Spectator blog, an entry about the ethics of selling golliwogs in the UK in 2008 has displayed flashes of raw racism under the knowing and oh-so sophisticated  'oh, what PC nonsense' comments, such as the delightful 'Hmmm - how about a golliwog equipped for housebreaking, carjacking or a mugging...." from one Bill Corr. 

It's easy for bloggers to bang on about the far Left and its slimy anti-Semitism, which is now deep in the DNA of the SWP, for example; it's important to remember the equally nasty casual racism on the right.