British Jews, pro-Israel supporters to rally in London against hate

(JNS) Tens of thousands of British Jews and pro-Israel supporters from across the United Kingdom are expected to gather on Dec. 8 in London to raise awareness of an alarming uptick in antisemitism.

The March Against Antisemitism 2024 comes after a record-setting number of incidents of Jew-hatred, including violence against children, across the United Kingdom, coupled with massive anti-Israel protests in the center of London following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Over the past year, antisemitic hate crime has quadrupled, and Jews are now the most targeted faith minority in the country, despite our minuscule numbers,” a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is organizing the event, told JNS. “Week after week, our capital city and other urban areas have become ‘no-go’ zones not just for Jews but for many British people, the majority of whom say that Palestine protests put them off going into town. These regular protests have unleashed a tidal wave of antisemitism that has left no part of our society untouched. Jewish people feel like we’re drowning.”

The last major pro-Israel rally took place in London on Nov. 26, 2023, when as many as 60,000 people filled the city streets after anti-Israel protesters gathered for the eighth week in a row.

According to the Community Security Trust, which represents the security needs of the Jewish community, in the first six months of 2024, there were 1,978 instances of Jew hate recorded across the United Kingdom, the highest January-to-June total ever reported to the organization, dwarfing the previous record of 1,371 incidents in 2021.

In the last two weeks alone, Jewish children on their way home from school were attacked when their bus was pelted with rocks and garbage, and several teens managed to board the bus to yell expletives at the kids. A Jewish girl was hospitalized after being hit in the head by a glass bottle thrown at her from a balcony.

As the spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told JNS: “Extremism is changing our country so we must take a stand for our values and demand action to secure the future of Britain’s Jewish community. We believe that the British people continue to stand with us, and we will be marching together in solidarity on Dec. 8.”