The United Kingdom’s Growing Antisemitism Problem

H amas’s horrific October 7 terror attacks have sent antisemitic shock waves across the globe. Some of the most prominent displays of this rising illiberalism have occurred in the United Kingdom, where innumerable “pro-Palestine,” anti-Israel marches and demonstrations, replete with Nazi and other antisemitic imagery, have filled London streets. Possible hate crimes have drawn police investigations, as Jewish Londoners have felt compelled to hide their identities for safety. Protesters recently depicted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a pig, called the BBC “an arm of the Zionist propaganda machine,” and alleged Zionist control of the government.

While these marches have drawn extensive coverage, the appalling experiences of Mike Freer should also be a wake-up call for Western policy-makers. Freer, a Conservative member of Parliament, has represented Finchley and Golders Green, a constituency in north London, since 2010. Encompassing much of Margaret Thatcher’s former seat, this is a heavily Jewish district — approximately 21 percent in the 2021 census — and its MP is a staunch supporter of Israel. Why does that matter? On January 28, Freer announced his decision to stand down at the upcoming 2024 general election, not because of illness or a planned retirement, but because of increasing threats to his life.

Since his election to Parliament in 2010, Freer has been repeatedly targeted by extremists for his vocal support of Israel. Freer was forced out of a constituency meeting in 2011 by a group called “Muslims Against Crusades,” as perpetrators decried him as a “Jewish homosexual pig” and invoked the stabbing of a fellow MP the previous year. The organization was later proscribed as a hate group by then–home secretary Theresa May. In 2021, the terrorist Ali Harbi Ali repeatedly stalked Freer’s constituency office, contemplated attacks on other leading pro-Israel MPs, and ultimately murdered MP David Amess, a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel. This past December, Freer’s constituency office in Finchley was burned in an arson attack, and in early February, a man was arrested for a threatening call to the MP.

Given this steady campaign of intimidation, the growing safety risks, and the unimaginable psychological burden on Freer (who is not, in fact, Jewish) and his husband, it’s no wonder he’s chosen to stand down. But that a long-standing elected official and junior minister can be hounded out of office — in one of the freest and most powerful nations on earth — is almost unthinkable. While figures across the political spectrum expressed regret at Freer’s plight, not all have found the incident unwelcome. In a now-deleted tweet, the Labour city councilor for Freer’s borough found a political upside in his decision to retire. Looking beyond Freer’s case, the tide of antisemitism continues to rise across the British political landscape.

Since his election as Labour leader, Keir Starmer has worked to erase the scourge of Jeremy Corbyn–era antisemitism from the party and overcome the extensive failings documented in the 2020 Equalities and Human Rights Commission report. Nevertheless, the Israel–Hamas war has brought many of these challenges back to the forefront, especially for members of the Labour Left.

Last month, MP Kate Osamor was suspended from the party after calling — on International Holocaust Memorial Day — for the Israeli action in Gaza to be considered as a genocide. While she ultimately avoided suspension, MP Apsana Begum posed for photos with the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, an organization that demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy to “demand Israel end its violent imposition of . . . occupation, apartheid and colonisation over the Palestinian people.” MP Tahir Ali was forced to apologize after declaring that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had “the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands” for supporting Israel. MP Andy McDonald was suspended in October for referencing “from the river to the sea” during a pro-Palestine march. The Labour Party was forced to withdraw its support for Azhar Ali for the February 29 Rochdale parliamentary by-election, following his comments that Israel was warned about the 10/7 attacks but “deliberately took the security off, they allowed . . . that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.” Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, a staunch Corbyn ally, remains suspended for saying that, though “many types of white people with points of difference” experience prejudice, Jews “are not all their lives subject to racism” and that, “in pre-civil rights America, . . . Jewish people . . . were not required to sit at the back of the bus.” Lastly, Corbyn himself is barred from the party, with no right to appeal, given his failure to tackle the intraparty antisemitic culture.

Starmer’s Israel challenge extends beyond his left flank of MPs. An October poll found that 42 percent of Labour voters disapproved of the leader’s handling of the Israeli–Palestinian issue, while another found just 9 percent of Labour voters were more supportive of Israel. While polls predict a Labour victory in this year’s general election, a January 2024 report noted the party’s ongoing efforts to shore up Muslim voters — a critical voting demographic — over concerns on Gaza policy. Beyond England, Labour’s Scottish equivalent has backed calls for a full cease-fire, as its chief rival, the Scottish National Party, is demanding the British government put further pressure on the Israeli government. The leader of Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party is boycotting the traditional Saint Patrick’s Day visit to the White House over U.S. support for Israel, while new Sinn Féin first minister Michelle O’Neill plans to use her Washington tour to “oppose Israel’s apartheid regime.”

Antisemitism is creeping beyond politics. At the BBC — the world’s leading public news service — accusations of antisemitism among its employees are on the rise; Gary Lineker, the corporation’s highest-paid news presenter, has been called out for ongoing anti-Israel comments. Scheduler Dawn Queva called Jews “Nazi apartheid parasites” who funded a “holohaux,” among other horrific social-media rantings, before being fired in February. A contestant on The Apprentice was chastised for calling Zionists “a godless, Satanic cult.” As this has been going on, Jewish BBC employees have expressed concerns about “indifference or a shrug by management,” as well as rising dissatisfaction over the corporation’s Gaza coverage. A Jewish MP has even suggested that the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza war is “directly putting Jews in this country at risk.”

Meanwhile, British universities have seen skyrocketing cases of antisemitism. A Leeds University rabbi and IDF reservist was even forced into hiding with his family following rising antisemitic threats. A leading academic called for the Jewish Labour Conference to be blown up. U.K. law firms have been accused of silence in response to campus antisemitism. A Football Association council member resigned after claiming that “Hitler would be proud” of Netanyahu. Tragically, several U.K. Jewish schools have closed amid rising security concerns, while police had to investigate December claims that Jewish children were denied boarding on London buses. All is not well in the U.K.

An anti-Israel tide is sweeping the British Left, portending major challenges for a key democratic U.S. ally. Before her firing as home secretary, Suella Braverman called for a much tougher approach to counter and police antisemitism and to safeguard the Jewish community. But after 14 years in power, rising threats to pro-Israel MPs, and a record number of antisemitic hate incidents across Britain, it seems the Conservatives are not countering this tide, either. These failures to confront antisemitism are imperiling not only British Jews but liberty and democratic values.