This seeming nonchalance about antisemitism is a problem for all of us

Need single-sex rape crisis services? Stop weaponising your trauma! Your event was vandalised and your speakers attacked? Oh, boo-hoo! Want to defend women’s rights, particularly for those uniquely suffering and marginalised? Stop playing the victim, bigot!

There’s obviously far more to it, but the ‘gender wars’ offer salient lessons. Like others, I’ve long seen obvious parallels with the worrying rise of antisemitism across the UK, amidst a wider atmosphere of anti-Israeli fervour. This is either downplayed, outright denied, or justified with reference to the war in Gaza, particularly since October 7 th 2023.

You don’t need any specific standpoint on the Israel/Hamas conflict to oppose antisemitism. Yet, as with genderism, an ‘all or nothing’ sentiment is routinely deployed by activists. I see a knee-jerk annoyance from many when this is raised. It’s difficult to be part of (what one feels is) a just cause when confronted by its nefarious elements.

The rise in antisemitism in the UK is denied on several grounds, ordinarily by people engaging in it. Always, it is underpinned by double-standards: Israel is a uniquely evil country; British Jews must take responsibility; crucially, they must not antagonise those who wish to hurt them.

The examples – even just from the last week - are too numerous to recount, fully. On the day the Israeli hostages were released, actor Tracy-Ann Oberman – awarded an MBE for services to Holocaust Education and Combatting Antisemitism - tweeted ‘You told yourself it was ‘complicated.’ Hostages. Children. Rape. Murder. And you said nothing.’

BBC broadcaster Richard Bacon retweeted with two sentences broadly supportive of the hostage release, before countering ‘How do you feel when people talk about the 20,000 children that died violently? Have you spoken about that?’

Oberman reminded Bacon she had family and friends caught up in October 7th , while others noted – correctly – that on a day of huge relief at the return of hostages, this was both vile and inappropriate haranguing.

It mattered not. Bacon repeated his question. This one British Jewish woman must be held accountable, and he, Mr Bacon, must spread virtue. He was ‘very badly affected’ by the Israel/ Hamas conflict. ‘It all keeps me awake at night,’ he claimed, before repeating his question once again.

Does it, though? Does it really keep Bacon and others awake? I’ve seen countless such claims from out-of-touch celebrities and writers. ‘Anyone else struggling to maintain a work-life-watching-genocide balance?’ one writer posted recently. They’ve said nothing since the ceasefire announcement, and, as with others who’ve spent two years marching, nothing about the hostages.

Antisemitism isn’t new. Like misogyny, it’s very old, always morphing through time. ‘It’s not hatred of Jews, it’s hatred of Zionists,’ is the regular, modern justification. But, when you prod such sentiments further, all this appears to mean is ‘anyone who thinks Israel has a right to exist’. Little comfort to the majority of British Jews who believe this, who see a casual conflation of hatred of Israel with hatred of Jews, and who are now afraid to be ‘obviously Jewish’ in public.

What’s particularly grotesque is seeing antisemitism coming from feminists, some of whom deny or downplay the sexual violence against Israeli women by Hamas on October 7 th 2023.

Last week saw an event at the London School of Economics, where academics discussed the problem of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).

The event was only possible with heavy police presence, as loud protests erupted outside. An open letter from the LSE feminist society called the event ‘egregious,’ claiming discussion of Hamas’s actions on October 7 th simply ‘weaponizes sexual violence to excuse genocide.’

I’m struck by similarities between these and the root accusation so many gender critical feminists – most prominently JK Rowling – faced in 2020 when speaking about the need for single-sex spaces and services for women. They too were accused of ‘weaponising’ their ‘trauma’ for nefarious reasons. Their terrible experiences weren’t bad in their own right, no.

They were just deploying them to justify transphobia. Genocide is a rather bigger accusation, of course. Though, how many times have feminists been accused of wishing a ‘trans’ one? Last week also saw the FiLiA feminist conference in Brighton dealing with this heady mix of lunatic trans-activism outside the building, and antisemitic fervour inside and out. Jewish women reportedly walked out of an opening speech where a speaker led the crowd in chants of ‘Free Free Palestine!’ Another speaker was found to have tweeted “I unapologetically love Hamas” and “I will love the martyrs forever.”

FiLiA have since released a statement thoroughly distancing from such sentiments, recognising wrong-doing, and contacting the Charity Commission for guidance to review their processes. They are right to have done so. This isn’t purely a FiLiA or feminist problem, or a virtue-signalling celebrity problem. Nor is it a problem for British Jews to solve.

These trends and justifications, this seeming nonchalance about antisemitism is a problem for all of us. Those with a sense of history know why. As veteran feminist author Joan Smith reminds us, too, seeing feminists fail to recognise how women in all conflicts face sexual violence “is a travesty of the universal ideals of feminism.”

Antisemitism is here. It always has been. Like misogyny, it is an age-old hatred that causes deep harm, while allowing the ‘progressive’ to feel good about himself.