Riots show why British Jews must reject fake solidarity from the right

Last November, British politician and former parliamentary candidate Faiza Shaheen shared on Instagram three pieces of graffiti she saw on the London Underground in one day: “Death to Gaza, Death to Arabs, Death to Muslims,” read one. “FuckK Hamas Palestinian terrorists cowards, go fight for your country and get off our British streets,” read another. Finally: “Solidarity with the Hard Working English/British folk that don’t want their country invaded by foreign illegals and ignorant criminal men.”

The three scrawls exemplify the arc of how the British far right has been capitalising on the war in Gaza, and its uncomplicated journey from concerns about terrorism to outright, lurid xenophobia. The riots that have now erupted in the North West and London were organised by far-right white nationalists. The horrific murder of three children at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport was a pretext. But the violence was long in the making, cultivated over a decade and a half of divide-and-rule, xenophobic rhetoric that defined the Conservative Government’s time in office and infected even Labour campaigns; especially on immigration.

As Shabna Begum, the CEO of the Runnymede Trust, recently tweeted, “We’ve spent so long creating the tinder box conditions for this ‘outbreak’ of violence. Demonising Muslims, migrants, and asylum seekers have real-life (and death) consequences. Mainstream guilt is not concealed by finger-pointing at EDL as fringe/rogue elements.” 

Even more important than guilt is the question of responsibility and action. Finger-pointing is all very nice and well, but it is essential to ask what we can do better in our respective contexts—whether as reporters, politicians, or activists within our own communities.

The community in which I do much of my work is the UK Jewish one, and it grieves me to say that some of our community’s leadership, too, has contributed to the legitimisation of far-right politics that poses a danger to so many – including British Jews.

In the wake of the October 7th attacks - which killed 1,400 Israelis and sparked off the war that has so far killed at least 40,000 Palestinians - the far-right in the UK has redoubled its efforts to position itself as an ally of Jewish communities by embracing Israel. This phenomenon might seem bizarre given how inseparable white nationalism is from antisemitism; but it is precisely this accusation that these groups are trying to evade by ostentatiously embracing the self-proclaimed Jewish state – how can you call us racists and antisemites when we stand with “the Jews”? What’s more, to many of them, Israel is symbolic of the ethnonationalist ideal - if Jews can have a country, why can’t whites, the argument goes - and all the more appealing with the frank anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry so casually displayed by it officials abroad and policies at home. 

To give one example. In May, the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley showed the film Nova about the festival which Hamas attacked on October 7th. The screening sparked a demonstration by pro-Palestinian protestors and a counter-protest by the local Jewish community. Such protests happened before, around other films. But this time, the English Defense League - the EDL - joined in the Jewish protesters, waving  England and Israel flags and yelling racist slurs at the Palestine demonstrators. There have been numerous such occasions since.  

These worrying developments have been condemned by some Jewish leaders, and some of the most laughable attempts to whitewash white nationalism – like Tommy Robinson inviting himself to a march against antisemitism – were blocked. Slightly more polite far-right figures like Douglas Murray were invited to give talks in synagogues. And it needn’t all be outsiders, either: the Jewish press is publishing almost weekly diatribes about the ‘threats of Islamism’, fostering prejudice that borrows extensively from antisemitic tropes. 

Even before October 7th, communal leaders happily welcomed architects of policies that demonised migrants and Muslim communities: Theresa May, Eric Pickles, and Suella Braverman. From the Prevent programme to the anti-boycott bill, the ramifications of these policies, welcomed by our communal institutions, come at the expense of other minoritised and marginalised communities across the UK – and build up the platform of bigotry that allows for undisguised violence by the more overt far right.  

When anti-migrant, Islamophobic rhetoric is defended as necessary to protect Jewish communities, and when communal institutions indulge in this instrumentalisation of Jews, it breeds hostility and mistrust. This has only been accelerated by Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly when organisations like the CST, Board Of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council condemned the Palestine solidarity marches or called for them to be banned on the pretext of concerns for the safety of Jewish people, despite Jewish people consistently, visibly participating in these demonstrations, whether as individuals or as a block. 

But while we were busy mythologising central London as a no-go area for Jews, we’ve neglected to confront a powerful far-right movement - which spans from protesters who attack mosques and throw Nazi salutes outside Downing Street to the same politicians and public figures we have helped stay mainstream. 

This needs to stop today. If far-right agitators are to be believed, the last week was merely the beginning of an entire summer of violence. The Board of Deputies was right to condemn the Southport violence specifically. But reserving your ire against street goons is about as efficient as pretending the threat of far-right populism stops at Nigel Farage. Jewish institutions also need to repeatedly and uncompromisingly condemn their advocates and apologists. 

Above all, we need to firmly stop letting them exploit us. If you’re on the same side as the rioters in Southport, if you think the problem is immigration rather than xenophobia, if you’re toying with legitimising eugenics or trying to use October 7th to humanise SS death squads, it shouldn’t matter how much you support Israel or what lip service you pay to Jewish safety. Jewish progressives and progressives everywhere need to finally connect the dots and stand up against those who fuel anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism. Meaningful solidarity and coalition-building are the only antidotes to ethnonationalism.