Oct. 11 was worst day for UK antisemitism - 'some of the warning signs are there'

“Everywhere has a problem with antisemitism; there’s no sector or area that is untouched by it…” 

This stark statement came from the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom’s Antisemitism Policy Trust (APT), Danny Stone MBE, when asked whether the political sphere has a race-hate issue.

The head of the influential charity spoke to Paul Calvert of Bethlehem Voice Radio, following an unparalleled set of circumstances in British politics, trumped only by the antisemitism scandal in the Labour Party in 2019.

“...but yes, politics has an issue,” Stone continued. “In the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a Liberal Democrat councillor who was expelled from the party and then arrested for comments that she made about Jews, referencing Jews as ‘vile’. 

“There was a Conservative councillor, possibly a former mayor, that the party had to take action over. [Then] there was a candidate for the Labour Party in an area of England, known as Rochdale, where there were concerns about some antisemitic conspiracy theories that the candidate had voiced.” 

Specifically, the candidate, Azhar Ali, suggested that Israel was itself responsible for the Hamas invasion and subsequent atrocities. After he was withdrawn from the list, the by-election votes went to the known antisemite, George Galloway, who was shockingly re-elected as a Member of Parliament - “a dark day for the Jewish community” - the Board of Deputies of British Jews announced, on March 1.

Stone was awarded an MBE for services in Combating Hate Crime on the 2017 New Year’s Queen’s Honours List. The Trust exists to educate decision-makers, especially within the UK Parliament. It provides the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, and to the Advisor to the British Government on the issue, Lord Mann. 

Over the past decade that he has led the APT team, Stone has witnessed many problems in politics. 

“It’s an entirely cross-party issue,” he emphasized. “So each party has had its own specific issues, and sometimes those are complex or multi-layered. [It] can be with members of Parliament, it can be with local councillors, it can be with activists, it can be online, on social media.” 

Dame Louise Ellman, DBE, who resigned in 2019 after 22 years as a well-loved Member of Parliament for Liverpool Riverside, cited many troubling examples, including an antisemitic graphic reposted on social media by a Labour colleague, Naz Shah. The image had basically called for the ethnic cleansing of Jewish people from Israel.

Ellman was the last MP to resign, as she bravely stood against the toxic culture that had infected the party she loved. As early as May 2016, the party had suspended 56 members for allegedly antisemitic statements. The BBC’s investigative show, Panorama, dedicated a whole program to the testimonies of traumatized Jewish whistleblowers, in July 2019.

“I’ve been very clear that antisemitism is a cross-party problem,” repeated Stone, “but certainly in recent years, when the Labour Party was in a crisis of antisemitism, they had repeat incidents. They had institutional failures in respect of dealing with those incidents.” 

“Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, antisemitism has become mainstream in the Labour Party,” Dame Ellman wrote at the time of her resignation in October 2019. “Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out.”

Because this issue was given repeated news coverage at the time, Stone explained that MPs were more regularly exposed to the discussion about antisemitism, which meant that they gained a much better understanding of this form of racial hatred. 

Regarding the present Gaza conflict and the correlating attacks on British Jews, Stone is optimistic that MPs, several years after the Corbyn crisis, will now better understand the negative impacts on the Jewish community. He is also more hopeful that this deeper understanding will lead to open discussion as to what action MPs can take.

Regarding the rise in antisemitism in the UK since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres, Stone quoted the figures of the Community Security Trust (CST), a group that has been carefully recording every reported incident of Jew-hatred since the mid-1980s.

“For 2023, the number of antisemitic incidents it recorded was 4103,” he said. “That is the largest number of incidents that has ever been recorded by the CST since it started recording incidents, but about two-thirds of those incidents occurred after 7th October.” 

The increase in incidents started on Oct. 7 itself, and the highest number of daily incidents recorded by the CST took place on Oct. 11, just four days after the Hamas attacks and, crucially, before the Israeli response to those attacks. 

“So the CST analysis is that it was the Hamas attacks which inspired the antisemitism, not the Israeli response,” Stone explained. 

“And remember that in the UK, Jews number 270,000 odd people according to the census. That’s half a percent of the population. And those incidents, each one doesn’t just impact the individual who is subjected to the attack or the abuse, but impacts them, their family, their wider community, their friends, and so on and so forth. So the ripple effects of 4,103 incidents against this tiny community has been significant, and the Jewish community in the UK is feeling very, very vulnerable as a result.”

Regarding the large, pro-Palestinian marches that have been a feature of London weekends since Oct. 7, Stone said: “I have been surprised. I’m not surprised that there is an outpouring of support for Palestinians. I understand why people want to go and march, and I understand some of the feelings of some of the protesters. What shocked me has been how frequently one can find antisemitic placards, chants or activity in, and amongst, those protests. We’ve had more than 600 arrests." 

“There have been placards that have depicted blood libels, ancient conspiracy theories, outright antisemitism. We’ve had the genocidal chant, ‘From the river to the sea’, repeated, and indeed projected onto Big Ben, onto the Elizabeth Tower, which stands as part of Parliament. And there have been a number of intimidatory tactics used in some of these marches. So I've been deeply, deeply concerned about those aspects of the marches."

“I try very hard to be clear that not every individual who's on the marches is hateful. They’re certainly not anti-Semitic. People have a right to protest. It’s important that they do. But there are important elements that need to be recognized and dealt with severely by police and other relevant authorities.”

Calvert noticed the Palestinian slogan, ‘From the river to the sea,' had been projected onto perhaps London’s most famous landmark, the iconic Big Ben clock. He asked whether the statement is, in itself, antisemitic, considering it refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. 

“Not everyone who uses it is antisemitic, or intends to use it in an antisemitic way,” Stone clarified, “but there is no question that the phrase has been used to mean clearing all the Jews of Israel out of that space. It’s been used that way by Osama bin Laden. It’s been used that way by Hamas leaders. It’s been used that way by Saddam Hussein."

“The way I put it is, if you’re unclear about a chant’s genocidal intent, then why would you want to use it? There are far better phrases to use. Projecting it onto the Elizabeth Tower was a deliberate act of essentially trolling, of provocation. And so I think that there needs to be a more serious discussion about the impact of that phrase and its real meaning.”

Stone emphasized that the way language is used, as well as its context, can make the difference between a reasonable argument and a racist one. Referring to South Africa’s charge of ‘genocide’ against the Jewish state, Stone said the word is often used to describe the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but that people should be aware of the history of antisemitism, including the ancient blood libel against the Jewish people. 

“I think we need to be specific about the kind of the framing of what we’re saying,” he said, diplomatically. “And I do think there can be circumstances in which that word can be used in antisemitic ways - and there’s a wider backdrop that needs to be considered in reference to that charge - and why it is that it’s used less frequently in respect to other conflicts.”

Stone cited “significant problems” at British universities. 

“The Union of Jewish Students has reported across different campuses that there have been death threats sent to Jsocs (Jewish Societies). Jsocs have been intimidated. Zoom meetings, for example, have been zoom-bombed and people said antisemitic things. 

“Students on campus have had antisemitic incidents, like people shouting at them or abusing them.” Stone said that while there has been an increase in the number of incidents, this fact alone is not the only concern. “It’s this kind of chill factor,” he explained. “It’s the idea that Jewish students aren’t free to express themselves as Jews on campus.” 

Stone referenced the “very wide-ranging and broad report” by the British Government’s Advisor Lord Mann which recommends positive actions universities can take to combat race-hate on campus. 

“But there is this problem and there’s no getting away from it,” he added. “And whether that is speakers coming on and saying antisemitic things, antisemitic incidents or attacks on individual students or Jewish societies, it is there. And the Union of Jewish Students is having to work very hard to ensure that Jewish students in their various universities feel supported and can take action where these cases arise.

Calvert asked about the general act of ripping down hostage posters in the UK.

“I think to tear down a poster...” Stone began. I think that there is one of these moments when I do training on antisemitism. I make this point about the conflict and I say, ‘Don't hold people collectively accountable. Don’t expect them to have a view on the conflict.’ But one of the things I say is, ‘Be kind.'

“And it strikes me that to tear down a poster of a hostage, on a human level, let alone the Israel-Palestine conflict, whatever people think about this, or Hamas, to tear down a poster of somebody that has been kidnapped and held hostage, at a human level, that is really deeply troubling. 

“I mean, there was a case in the CST incidents report, of a [hostage] baby that had had a Hitler moustache drawn onto it, and just the kind of the depravity of someone doing that, that Holocaust inversion, the actual act of doing it… I find that deeply, deeply upsetting.”

While Stone himself said he feels safe in Britain - a country where the Jewish community is very well integrated - he said there is also “a real palpable fear,” and that “some people are considering leaving the UK because they are very deeply worried about the situation.” 

“People feel that in a number of sectors following the 7th October attacks, that the response has been poor, or that the incidents have been so numerous - or certainly high profile - that, you know, it no longer feels safe out there. And particularly when it comes to, let’s say, poor policing, or issues with the judiciary that tends to undermine confidence in the institutions that are there to keep people safe.”

Stone said he knows of fellow British Jews who fearfully covering their kippah (head covering) or putting away jewelry, such as Star of David necklaces.

On the positive side, he pointed out that Britain has “some of the best race relations laws in the world.” Working closely with parliamentarians and government officials also means the policy influencer can hold the negatives alongside the positives: “Government and opposition parties have been robust, outspoken and very clear about their opposition to antisemitism. That’s hugely important. I have been doing training across lots of different sectors: the NHS (National Health Service), government, local government and the cultural sector. 

“And many times it’s because there are individuals there, Jewish or not Jewish, who want to take a stand against antisemitism. But it’s important that people in their organization or their sector or their department receive training on antisemitism. It makes me feel kind of confident that there are good people out there who care about this and want to take action.

“I think we have a number of reasons to be confident in our safety in the UK, but I do think that there are problems and I do understand why people are concerned, and some are fearful and want to leave.”

The APT is busy countering the lies and misinformation by holding events and issuing important briefings. The trust is covering different aspects of antisemitism, and is making an impact in the education sector, the online harm policy space, and on the issue of conspiracy theories, which was the theme of their presentation at the political party conferences this year.

Joint events are also held with the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism. A recent event was held for academics, universities and others who have been researching antisemitism on the internet, under the banner of the ‘Decoding Antisemitism’ project. The seminar included a look at the antisemitic response online, following the Oct. 7 attacks. 

When asked whether he is hopeful for the future, Stone replied: “I think it is an uphill battle. I think that there is a massive job to do in education. I think we’ve got a real problem with online safety, and I think that’s bigger than antisemitism. That’s about mis- and disinformation. It’s about polarization. It’s about data. I think that is going to be one of the defining problems of our century. So I am really significantly worried about that…”

While the APT’s chief doesn’t think direct comparisons with the rise of Nazism are helpful, he concedes that “there are some early red flags and warning signs of a direction of travel, which is why it’s so important that there be a zero tolerance approach by governments and police and others across society.”

He said this issue should concern “every individual,” since “antisemitism is a threat to national security, to democracy.” And, despite his calm and non-alarmist approach, Stone admitted: “Some of the warning signs are there.”

Find out more about the APT at www.antisemitism.org.uk or on 𝕏 at antisempolicy.

Click below to listen to the full interview.