Whichever party wins next month’s general election should be ready to fight antisemitism by reviewing the policing of anti-Israel protests and expressions of Jew-hatred online, according to the Jewish Manifesto issued by the Board of Deputies this week.
It must also support Israel’s security and right to defend itself, while also pursuing a long-term “two state solution” to Middle East peace.
In an introduction to the manifesto, the Board’s new president Phil Rosenberg notes that “far from an outpouring of global sympathy”, the aftermath of the terrorist massacre of October 7 October has seen “an avalanche of global hatred directed against Jewish communities; on our streets, online, on campus and even in our politics. Indeed, the sharpest rise in antisemitism in the UK came in the days after the attack, before Israel had responded.”
The response, he goes on, should be to “build an optimistic alliance across people of all faiths and none to stand up for a cohesive society that does not import conflict, but exports peace instead “. The Board, he says, will be judging candidates according to this overarching criterion.
