Facing antisemitism: the struggle for safety and solidarity

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Current approach to tackling antisemitism not working, our report with the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism shows. 

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Antisemitism is deeply embedded into our common culture; it exists as a reservoir of racist stereotypes and narratives about Jewish people, which are normalised and widespread. Antisemitic incidents have spiked over the last year, particularly in response to the events of October 7th 2023 and the ongoing violence in Gaza. Yet, discussions around antisemitism have become highly politicised in ways that have been detrimental to Jewish communities’ safety and wellbeing. 

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Particularly damaging is the fact that these politicised discussions have inhibited the possibility of forging anti-racist solidarities with other communities that have been subject to the rise in far-right violence, and to the mainstreaming of racist rhetoric and policies.

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Facing antisemitism highlights that:

• Antisemitism is hardwired into UK society; 
• Current methods of defining, measuring and reacting to it are deeply contested and politicised;
• The arguments that anti-Zionism always equates to antisemitism prevents meaningful and productive action to eradicate antisemitism in the UK;
• Like other forms of racism, antisemitism in the UK consists of hateful attitudes and individual incidents but also institutional and structural racism;
• The UK must move beyond framing and discussing antisemitism in ways that pit communities against one another, prohibit solidarity and encourage division;
• Combating antisemitism must be  undertaken as part of wider anti-racist initiatives, including building alliances with other racialised minorities.

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The Runnymede Trust urgently calls for a different approach to combating antisemitism, including from the government and wider anti-racist organisations.

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Dr Shabna Begum, our CEO, said:

“The last year has been incredibly difficult for many Jewish communities here in the UK. The shocking rise in religious hate incidents is often only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of hostility and insecurity that many Jewish people will have experienced. At the same time, we have witnessed a deepening of division in the mainstream which has polarised and confused the issue. Rather than continue to insist that we are each others’ adversaries, and with the far right rising as a clear and visible danger to us all, we need  an anti-racist solidarity that attends to antisemitism and racism in all its forms. Our government and political leaders need to stop using antisemitism as a convenient battleground on which to score wider political points, and instead attend to the deep danger and harm that antisemitism inflicts on Jewish people.”

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Professor David Feldman, Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Antisemitism and co-author of the report, said:

“Antisemitism today is a stain on British society. Across the political spectrum, current approaches designed to tackle the problem are not working. The significant funding given by governments to protect Jewish people specifically makes Jewish communities feel safer in the short term, but has given rise to perceptions that there is a hierarchy of racisms in the UK. This is divisive. These divisions have been made worse by the conflation of anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism when this is not justified. At the same time, the left has too often failed to recognise antisemitism, let alone address it.

“Policy makers and activists must integrate action against antisemitism within a broader anti-racist strategy. We need to build alliances between Jewish people and other racialised minorities. In pursuing these goals we must employ a 360-degree anti-racism. That is to say, anti-racism must inform what we do, not only when confronting antisemitism in the UK but also when we address the status and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, the Occupied Territories and Israel.”

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