Opinion
As Jews we should be outraged that Britain is not doing more to help refugees
September 3, 2015 16:24
1 min read
This could have been you. This could have been your family. In another time, during another war, while other people suffered this fate.
These are humans, escaping death, poverty and the destruction of their homelands, risking everything they have to search for safety.
Not for benefits, not for jobs or streets paved with gold. They come because the alternative is horrifying.
The notion that this is the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War is by now widespread and widely accepted. And we should be outraged that Britain is not doing more to help.
Around 70,000 refugees from Nazi-occupied territories were welcomed to our shores before the outbreak of war, including 10,000 unaccompanied children.
Those who came then and also during and after the unimaginable atrocities of the Holocaust - were they “pests”? “A swarm”? “Cockroaches”?
Were Holocaust survivors “Skinny people looking sad”, as Katie Hopkins called refugees in The Sun five months ago?
Are we “under siege”, as the Daily Mail alleged last month?
Of course not. There are around 126,000 refugees living in the UK, just 0.19 per cent of the total population (64.1 million people).
This in a country which is 6.8 per cent urban. In England, the percentage of urban areas which are actually built on rather than left undeveloped is just 2.27 per cent.
We have the space. Do we have the humanity?
In the next few weeks, with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we will sweep away the old, welcome in the new and pray for forgiveness.
We will ask for compassion from those we’ve committed wrongs against, and try to live better, more sympathetic lives.
Having fled from persecution more times than we count, Jews must not abandon their responsibility as humans just because our lives in Britain are relatively free from discrimination.
We must stand up for those who have done nothing wrong, who are suffering as we have done. If we don’t, there will be no forgiveness from future generations.