David Lammy and Keir Starmer are failing miserably in one basic duty of government.
David Lammy, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom (Image: Getty)
Since October 7th, many Jewish people in the UK have been forced to ask whether we still have a future in this country. Yes, we may love Coronation Street, the Royal Family, Harry Potter and the rolling English countryside. But soaring antisemitism following the appalling atrocities carried out in Israel on that terrible day is forcing us to reconsider whether it is safe to stay. It`s hard not to when Palestinian activists daub red paint on the premises of a Jewish-owned business close to my own home in Manchester. The threat feels very real.
What should offer a sliver of comfort is the belief that at least the Government has our back. Protecting citizens is, after all, a basic duty of any administration. And didn’t Keir Starmer, upon becoming Prime Minister, make bold and noisy promises about stamping out antisemitism in his party and beyond? Yet, counterintuitively, it is Starmer along with his incompetent Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, who are now pouring oil on the fires of Jew-hatred through hardline action against Israel. Not least this week – by sanctioning Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Of course, the Government may not intend to compromise the security of its Jewish citizens. After all, some of their best friends – yawn – are Jewish. Heck, Starmer even has a Jewish wife, (largely invisible as she may be).
But default is as bad as design. Lammy should realise that in this febrile climate it doesn’t take much to join up the dots between their condemnation of Israel and the succour it gives Jew-haters (remember that last month our Government even received a thank-you note from Hamas welcoming the UK’s position on the Jewish state).
When Starmer and Lammy sanction democratically elected politicians in Israel, they act in solidarity with those who attack Jewish people of this country. They may not be pulling the trigger, but they are handing the gun. Giving antisemites across the UK a gold-plated pass to indulge their hatred. Instead of repeating that the war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas laid down its arms and returned the hostages, the Government has inverted the moral compass, siding, in essence, with terrorists and nourishing those who propagate Jew hatred on our – my – doorstep.
Think this is an hysterical response? The figures already frame the argument. Earlier this year, the Community Security Trust reported that antisemitic incidents in the UK had reached their highest ever level. Of course it makes no sense that British Jews should be targeted for the actions of a foreign government thousands of miles away. But that’s precisely the point: this isn’t about Israel. It’s about hatred of Jewish people – with the war in Gaza offering pretext for hatred and intimidation in this country.
And forget that there is a separation between Zionism and Judaism. Israel, Zionism, and the right to Jewish self-determination are not political abstractions. They are fundamental parts of Jewish identity. If the Foreign Secretary doesn’t know this then he is even more stupid than he appears.
It is on his and Starmer’s head that every vile antisemite – rebadged as a “pro-Palestinian activist” – now feels justified. And that antisemitic harassment and intimidation is endemic on campus, in the NHS, across the BBC and in workplaces because of this .
And if you think this, though shameful, is just a Jewish problem you are mistaken. If we want a society that is pluralistic, peaceful and hate-free we cannot have a foreign secretary and prime minister who inculcate intolerance of its subjects. History shows: it starts with the Jews, but it never ends there. Right now those who are supposed to serve and save us are helping hate along instead.
