Why fight against antisemitism is part of a wider struggle to stop humanity descending into hell
The growing trend to treat people not as the individuals they are but as members of large groups based on ethnicity or religion must be resisted at all costs
In an interview, Labour MP Joani Reid, the new chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, has talked frankly about the problem with this insidious form of prejudice on the political left. “Obviously, it was at its worst when Corbyn was leader, and I thought I either have to actively do something to support this community and fight against the hate that they were experiencing, or I had to leave the party,” she said, adding: “I think the party's done everything that it can to tackle it.”
Reid also warned that antisemitism is getting worse in Scotland, partly driven by social media. UK-wide figures suggest she is right to be worried, with the Community Security Trust reporting nearly 2,000 antisemitic incidents in the first half of this year, a record number. For context, there are just 280,000 Jewish people in the whole country.
A corrupting idea
Clearly, events in the Middle East have inflamed tensions in Britain. However, anyone blaming Jewish people here for the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government should consider how much influence they themselves have on any other foreign government or even their own.
The tendency to blame innocent people for the actions of others thinly connected by a shared religion was infamously displayed by Rupert Murdoch in 2016, when he wrote: “Maybe most Muslims [are] peaceful, but until they recognise and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.” And when false reports emerged about the identity of the person who stabbed three children to death in Southport earlier this year, some responded by attacking mosques.
Such connections can only be made if you regard people not as individuals but members of large, identity-based groups of one kind or another. The fight against antisemitism is part of a wider movement – liberalism – that struggles against this corrupting idea and seeks to defend the right of everyone, regardless of religion or ethnicity, to be judged, as Martin Luther King once said, on the “content of their character”.
To fail to do so is to walk towards hell on Earth – last experienced in its full horror during the Nazi Holocaust.
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