Antisemitism is a campaign issue in UK regional vote : NPR
After a series of attacks on Jews in Britain, politicians are accusing each other of anti-Semitism ahead of local elections.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
There has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK, and politicians are blaming each other for it. Tomorrow, Britons will vote for city councils and two regional legislatures. Campaigns usually focus on things like picking up litter, but this year they are dominated by allegations of hate speech. NPR’s Lauren Frayer reports from London.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The word anti-Semitic has lost all meaning.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: This video shows a woman sitting in the dark thinking about anti-Semitism. She criticizes Zionism and repeats conspiracy theories.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The leaders of Israel and Gaza conspired to carry out what happened on October 7 for profit.
FRAYER: And it descends into hate speech.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Money-hungry thieves have accumulated mountains of cash over the centuries. Jewish cockroaches.
FRAYER: The woman then identifies as Jewish. And it’s a campaign video released by centrist Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party. The speaker reads the rival candidates’ own words, not those on the far right, who have a long history of anti-Semitism. They belong to the left-wing Green Party, which is expected to win votes against Labor. The backdrop is 2 1/2 years of public outrage spilling into the streets…
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (chanting) Six, seven, eight.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (chanting) Israel is a terrorist state.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (chanting) One, two, three, four.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (chanting) The occupation is no more.
FRAYER: …About Israel’s actions in Gaza, the arrests of thousands of mostly peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters and a wave of attacks on British Jews.
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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: Police declare a terrorist incident in Golders Green, London. Two Jewish men, one in his sixties.
FRAYER: When Prime Minister Starmer visited the site where two Jewish men were stabbed last week, he was heckled…
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (singing) Keir Starmer, Jewish harmer.
(BOOOING)
FRAYER: …By members of the Jewish community accusing him of failing to ensure their safety.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (singing) Keir Starmer, Jewish harmer. Keir Starmer…
FRAYER: Sing Keir Starmer, Jewish harmer. The Prime Minister’s wife is Jewish. Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch wants Starmer to ban pro-Palestinian marches. Here it is on the BBC.
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KEMI BADENOCH: Of course, we believe in freedom of speech. Of course, we believe in the right to protest. But these are no longer protests. They now serve as a cover for anti-Semitic activities.
FRAYER: Others, including the Environmental Green Party, accuse Starmer of cracking down too hard, violating free speech by banning support for certain pro-Palestinian groups. The Greens are also the only major political party in the UK led by a Jewish person. Their leader, Zack Polanski, also spoke on the BBC.
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ZACK POLANSKI: I am both pro-Palestinian and Jewish. And I care about the safety of Jews. There is no conflict in these positions.
FRAYER: Polanski has suspended party members for anti-Semitic comments and has himself been the target of anti-Semitic caricatures.
CHARLEY BAGINSKY: Right now, I feel like every conversation we have is about anti-Semitism.
FRAYER: Rabbi Charley Baginsky is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
BAGINSKY: For the first time, I’m telling my children that they can’t go walking the dog wearing Hebrew clothes.
FRAYER: Stephen Bush is Jewish and black and wrote about it in his Financial Times column.
STEPHEN BUSH: Anti-Semitism is almost like a bride with the wedding train of racism sort of following her.
FRAYER: Now, he doesn’t think the municipal elections will hinge on anti-Semitism. This is a serious problem rooted in hatred and violence, but one that has been used to spark outrage on social media, he says.
BUSH: It’s much harder to determine whether or not someone can successfully run a local authority than it is to prune their social media to find out whether or not they’ve made vile remarks.
FRAYER: For Rabbi Baginsky, on the one hand, she’s happy that anti-Semitism is getting so much attention. But on the other hand…
BAGINSKY: When people just use it for their campaigns, what happens when one party is seen as pro-Jewish and another party is seen as sympathetic to parts of the Muslim community and anti-Israel rhetoric, which turns into anti-Semitism?
FRAYER: She says she fears this threatens the social cohesion that anchors democracy in this country. And that’s worth emphasizing, she says, in addition to trash collection.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London.
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