When folks like Ash Sarkar, Yanis Varoufakis, Peter Tatchell, various BBC and Guardian journalists and seemingly the whole of liberal arts academia take to the airwaves or twitter to slam Israeli apartheid, to serve up fake history, to talk of Israeli atrocities as Israelis lie slaughtered on the ground, it has consequences. When Steve Bell serves up yet another blood libel cartoon in the Guardian and is not sacked it has consequences. Many British Jews now live in terror. Here is the testimony of one lady I know, now in her sixties, a most amazing, loving and wonderful woman who just does not deserve anything like this. She writes:
I must admit that I too find the BBC’s coverage totally appalling. I myself am scared, not only for my family in Israel, but even for myself. I have decided to cancel my trip to London because I am not going to remove my star of David necklace and yet am terrified to be seen with it.
Friends are telling me to admit to no one that I am a Jew.
I have been attacked 3 times for being Jewish. But in addition to the physical attacks when I was 5 years old I was told that I could not be in the school (C of E) nativity play because I was Jewish and at my secondary school, aged 12, I was told by a so-called class mate (!) that I should be turned into soap!
At 12 I had all my hair cut off by three teenage girls for being Jewish. Then in my first week at University a Palestinian boy in the Students’ Union attacked me – again for wearing my Star of David necklace.
Finally, five years ago in a town on the South Coast I was attacked when returning home from a meeting in the synagogue. That time it was not because I was a Jew but because (ironically) this young guy thought I had called HIM a Jew. He tried to strangle me until his friend stopped him and told him that I had merely replied to his ‘Have a nice evening!’ with the words ‘And you!’ which he interpreted as ‘Damn Jew!’ I have never been so scared in my life and I was too frightened to even say that I actually am a Jew, because I thought he would kill me. I have never been back to my synagogue since and have therefore lost something that was really important to me.
I was also told at the school I worked in recently that I should EXPECT to be hated by some people as not only did we kill Christ but I personally was also a filthy Israeli!
Life is scary.
Anti-Semitism, I am frequently told even today, is NOT ACTUAL RACISM because ‘you are all white!’ and ‘you are all privileged’. At the present time I would say the only thing ALL Jews have in common is we are ALL SCARED.
Ends.
There will no doubt be folks today saying in response to this “but what about those warplanes bombing Gaza” and similar things. But there can be now “whataboutery”on this. If a sixty year old woman is too frightened to wear a Star of David in London, too frightened to attend synagogue, if the Kids at Jewish schools are being warned not to wear a star of David as that WILL make them a target, something has gone horribly wrong in British society. Indifference to this issue is not good enough. If you believe the words Never Again, you stand up alongside the Jewish Community and are counted alongside the Jewish community.