Euan McColm: Palestine protests after Manchester synagogue attack look like victory parades for anti-Semites

Just hours after an Islamist terror attack on a Synagogue in Manchester left two people dead, thousands of people swarmed railway stations across the UK, clashing with police and demanding the eradication of Israel.

On Thursday, as Jews marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day in their calendar, cosplaying revolutionaries and good old-fashioned anti-Semites showed just why so many now feel unsafe in the United Kingdom.

Some chanted that it was time to “globalise the intifada”, a sentiment shared by Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who, earlier in the day, drove his car into members of the public outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue before leaping from the vehicle and stabbing bystanders. Melvin Cravitz, 66, and 53-year-old Adrian Daulby were killed in the attack while three more victims remain in hospital.

It later emerged that Daulby was hit by police gunfire as officers brought down Al-Shamie, who had been on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape. Worshipper Yoni Finlay was also shot by police, leaving him with serious injuries.

Of course, the political reaction to Thursday’s attack was swift. Words of sympathy and condemnation flowed. But many Jews were, perfectly understandably, unmoved. Where have the calls for calm been over the past two years as anti-Semites have swarmed major British cities on a weekly basis, calling for the deaths of Jews and the removal of their homeland from the map?

Almost two years after Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel, raping and murdering men, women and children and seizing hostages, antisemitism is on the rise. Police have turned blind eyes during a series of protests where Jew-hatred has been celebrated.

We’ve heard the chants – whether on-stage at the Glastonbury festival or on the streets of major cities – calling for the death of Israeli soldiers and we’ve seen the banners demanding the execution of “Zionists”.

One might have thought – or, at least, hoped – that the shocking nature of the attack in Manchester would have caused anti-Israel protesters in the UK to pause for thought. Instead, it emboldened them. While Jewish schools and synagogues increased their security arrangements, self-styled “progressives” screamed for the killing of members of the IDF and the destruction of Israel. When challenged, these protesters will tell you they condemn antisemitism – and “all racism” – but that is a lie.

Imagine for a moment that, on Thursday, a Jew had driven a car into worshippers outside a Mosque. If, hours later, thousands took to the streets waving Israeli flags and calling for the deaths of Muslims, the cells of every city’s police stations would, quite rightly, have been overflowing. But anti-Semitism – racism for the dinner party circuit – gets a by because the anti-Semite claims to be an “anti-Zionist”.

As videos shared across social media show, Police were, on Thursday, in no mood to act. Vicious Jew-hatred was indulged, yet again.

In a statement issued on Friday, Al-Shamie’s family said they fully distanced themselves from the attack.

“Our hearts and thoughts,” they said, “are with the victims and their families and we pray for their strength and comfort.”

Later it emerged, the murderer’s surgeon father, Faraj Al-Shamie, had said Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7 were carried out by “men of God on Earth” in posts on social media.

Some statements of sympathy are worth more than others.

On Thursday afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy visited Manchester where he was heckled by Jewish families.

Their anger was justified. The recent decision by the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine was a huge victory for anti-Semites. This was a concession to Hamas terrorists, defended by politicians of the left as a move that would improve the chances of peace in the Middle East, but, in reality, it has given the murderous actions of Islamist terrorists legitimacy. Simply rape and murder hundreds of innocent people and you, too, can get a seat at the table.

The anti-Semite says that criticism of the Israeli government is not the same as criticism of Jews and this, of course, is true. But we have not, over the past two years, heard mere criticism of the Jewish state. We have heard relentless calls for its destruction.

Pro-Palestine activists, who make the simple complex and the complex simple, have minimised – even denied – the October 7 atrocities, framing Israeli defence and retaliation as unprovoked aggression. And they were at it again, yesterday afternoon, gathering in Trafalgar Square to show their loathing of the world’s only Jewish state.

After the unpleasant displays of Thursday evening, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood spoke of her disappointment.

“I do think,” she told the BBC, "that carrying on in this way does feel un-British, it feels wrong.”

Later, the Prime Minister said protests planned for yesterday afternoon would cause “distress” to British Jews. But British Jews are no better than any other kind of Jew to those who turned up on Trafalgar Square yesterday afternoon.

The freedom to protest is a priceless one and those who gathered peacefully – if cruelly – yesterday afternoon were perfectly entitled to do so. They had the right.

They also have the right – perhaps even the duty – to pause and think about what they achieved beyond terrifying an already vulnerable and scared community.

Many British Jews, a lot of whom are descended from men and women who fled the Nazis and sought refuge on these shores, no longer feel safe in their home country. Nothing that may be taking place in the Middle East can justify

that.