In the early days of coal mining, canaries were placed in mineshafts to warn miners of the build-up of dangerous gases that affected the birds shortly before the humans, giving the miners a chance to save themselves. If the canaries fell silent, there was no time to lose.
It has long been said that Jews are civilisation’s canaries in the coal mine. That adage has been proven right almost exactly as many times as it has been ignored.
While miners had no trouble grasping that if the canaries ceased to breathe, soon they would too, it seems harder to explain the truth of the warning that “What begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews”.
Many in Britain have noticed that something is awry lately. Extreme ideologies are increasingly expressed more confidently, with young people espousing politics that cast Britain as the villain and those who wish our country harm as heroes.
Society’s canaries have warned of these dangers for over a decade. When we founded Campaign against Antisemitism in 2014, it was amidst a wave of hatred fuelled by Islamist and far-Left extremism, and emboldened by police and regulators that were more likely to appease than use their powers. That wave of hatred and appeasement never subsided; it has built up, not organically, but through the determination of well-organised extremists whose entryism and propaganda our institutions are too gentle to repel.
A decade ago, we had to take the Crown Prosecution Service to court before they grudgingly prosecuted a brazen neo-Nazi. Now, we see the authorities repeatedly arresting Iranian dissident Niyak Ghorbani for holding up a sign stating that “Hamas are terrorists” in case it offended supporters of that proscribed terrorist organisation.
I watched in shock a decade ago as a BBC presenter interviewing a Jewish woman about the murder of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris, interrupted her observation that “Jews are a target now” to exclaim “Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands”. Now, the BBC serves up scandal after scandal, from broadcasting Bob Vylan’s death chant and rant about “working for f---ing Zionists”, to the revelation that the BBC paid licence fee money to the family of a senior Hamas terrorist.
Whilst many will be aware of some of this, few will know that in just the past fortnight, we have seen a Jewish mother and her daughter rammed by a man on a scooter shouting abuse, a Jewish man shot with an air rifle, a nanny confronted by a man demanding that she hand him the Jewish child in her care, faeces daubed on synagogues (yes, multiple synagogues), a Rabbi’s home defaced with a swastika, a local council cancelling a museum’s display of Jewish heritage over “safety concerns”, and so much more.
I cannot emphasise forcefully enough how much life has changed for Britain’s Jews in the past two years alone. The canaries are in an extremely bad way.
Britain’s Jews are not known for complaining. In fact, we canaries have been in tremendous health for most of my lifetime. My grandparents found refuge in this great country and built a life for my family. They taught us all to appreciate and contribute to this green and pleasant land, and be thankful for and part of its world-renowned tolerance, decency and respectful debate.
The question now is not whether Britain’s Jews will thrive, but whether they will thrive here. When Britain’s integrated and patriotic Jewish minority questions whether it has a future in the UK, that should ring alarm bells.
We are already seeing evidence that anti-Jewish hatred is spilling into anti-British hatred. For years, Palestine Action targeted Jewish-owned businesses and terrorised our community. They openly published manuals explaining how to set up a ‘cell’ structure, obtain burner phones and cause maximum damage with pickaxes. Police and politicians refused to treat them as a criminal gang.
Only when these well-organised thugs and extremists broke into Brize Norton and wrecked RAF jets were they proscribed. Were that the end of the matter, one might consider the initial inaction to be a misstep with minor consequences, but now Palestine Action’s supporters overwhelm police in mass demonstrations because they apparently want the right to sabotage our military’s equipment.
That is why anti-Semitism is so dangerous, and why its hatred never ends with Jews: it is because anti-Semitism enables one to hold deranged beliefs. This is increasingly evident amongst young people. Our YouGov polling published today by The Telegraph shows that whereas 21 per cent of British adults now hold four or more Antisemitic views (such as that Jews cannot be trusted or have too much power), that figure rises to 40 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds. One in 10 of our young people now have a favourable view of Hamas, and 19 per cent think that the medieval rape, torture and murder of the October 7 atrocity was “justified”.
If this continues, the canaries are not going to make it, but only a fool would think that these bigoted and perverse views extend only to Jews. That is why the fight for a Britain in which Jews have a future is also the fight for Britain itself.
As Britain’s March Against Antisemitism gathers this Sunday at 1pm at Hallam Street and Weymouth Street in Marylebone, we will fly the Union Flag, demanding an end to appeasement and double standards, and a return to law enforcement. If Britain, which has given so much to humanity and to my family, continues to atrophy, it will be a tragedy for mankind. We hope that you will join us.
Gideon Falter is Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism
In the early days of coal mining, canaries were placed in mineshafts to warn miners of the build-up of dangerous gases that affected the birds shortly before the humans, giving the miners a chance to save themselves. If the canaries fell silent, there was no time to lose.
It has long been said that Jews are civilisation’s canaries in the coal mine. That adage has been proven right almost exactly as many times as it has been ignored.
While miners had no trouble grasping that if the canaries ceased to breathe, soon they would too, it seems harder to explain the truth of the warning that “What begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews”.
Many in Britain have noticed that something is awry lately. Extreme ideologies are increasingly expressed more confidently, with young people espousing politics that cast Britain as the villain and those who wish our country harm as heroes.
Society’s canaries have warned of these dangers for over a decade. When we founded Campaign against Antisemitism in 2014, it was amidst a wave of hatred fuelled by Islamist and far-Left extremism, and emboldened by police and regulators that were more likely to appease than use their powers. That wave of hatred and appeasement never subsided; it has built up, not organically, but through the determination of well-organised extremists whose entryism and propaganda our institutions are too gentle to repel.
A decade ago, we had to take the Crown Prosecution Service to court before they grudgingly prosecuted a brazen neo-Nazi. Now, we see the authorities repeatedly arresting Iranian dissident Niyak Ghorbani for holding up a sign stating that “Hamas are terrorists” in case it offended supporters of that proscribed terrorist organisation.
I watched in shock a decade ago as a BBC presenter interviewing a Jewish woman about the murder of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris, interrupted her observation that “Jews are a target now” to exclaim “Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands”. Now, the BBC serves up scandal after scandal, from broadcasting Bob Vylan’s death chant and rant about “working for f---ing Zionists”, to the revelation that the BBC paid licence fee money to the family of a senior Hamas terrorist.
Whilst many will be aware of some of this, few will know that in just the past fortnight, we have seen a Jewish mother and her daughter rammed by a man on a scooter shouting abuse, a Jewish man shot with an air rifle, a nanny confronted by a man demanding that she hand him the Jewish child in her care, faeces daubed on synagogues (yes, multiple synagogues), a Rabbi’s home defaced with a swastika, a local council cancelling a museum’s display of Jewish heritage over “safety concerns”, and so much more.
I cannot emphasise forcefully enough how much life has changed for Britain’s Jews in the past two years alone. The canaries are in an extremely bad way.
Britain’s Jews are not known for complaining. In fact, we canaries have been in tremendous health for most of my lifetime. My grandparents found refuge in this great country and built a life for my family. They taught us all to appreciate and contribute to this green and pleasant land, and be thankful for and part of its world-renowned tolerance, decency and respectful debate.
The question now is not whether Britain’s Jews will thrive, but whether they will thrive here. When Britain’s integrated and patriotic Jewish minority questions whether it has a future in the UK, that should ring alarm bells.
We are already seeing evidence that anti-Jewish hatred is spilling into anti-British hatred. For years, Palestine Action targeted Jewish-owned businesses and terrorised our community. They openly published manuals explaining how to set up a ‘cell’ structure, obtain burner phones and cause maximum damage with pickaxes. Police and politicians refused to treat them as a criminal gang.
Only when these well-organised thugs and extremists broke into Brize Norton and wrecked RAF jets were they proscribed. Were that the end of the matter, one might consider the initial inaction to be a misstep with minor consequences, but now Palestine Action’s supporters overwhelm police in mass demonstrations because they apparently want the right to sabotage our military’s equipment.
That is why anti-Semitism is so dangerous, and why its hatred never ends with Jews: it is because anti-Semitism enables one to hold deranged beliefs. This is increasingly evident amongst young people. Our YouGov polling published today by The Telegraph shows that whereas 21 per cent of British adults now hold four or more Antisemitic views (such as that Jews cannot be trusted or have too much power), that figure rises to 40 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds. One in 10 of our young people now have a favourable view of Hamas, and 19 per cent think that the medieval rape, torture and murder of the October 7 atrocity was “justified”.
If this continues, the canaries are not going to make it, but only a fool would think that these bigoted and perverse views extend only to Jews. That is why the fight for a Britain in which Jews have a future is also the fight for Britain itself.
As Britain’s March Against Antisemitism gathers this Sunday at 1pm at Hallam Street and Weymouth Street in Marylebone, we will fly the Union Flag, demanding an end to appeasement and double standards, and a return to law enforcement. If Britain, which has given so much to humanity and to my family, continues to atrophy, it will be a tragedy for mankind. We hope that you will join us.
Gideon Falter is Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism