Letters - 25 April 2025
From risk assessment to offering help
Risk assessment
Few things put the safety of Jews at risk, in this country and around the world, as much as false claims of antisemitism against individuals and organisations, as a ploy to suppress political dissent. A case in point is the letter from Ol Rappaport (11 April), in which he seeks to defame the group Youth Demand as antisemitic for resisting the entirely-contrived use of the Public Order Act on the grounds of ‘preventing harassment of Jews on their way to the nearby West End synagogue’ on the same day as the Palestinian demonstration on 18 January.
Three points need to be made. First, the nearest synagogue to Broadcasting House (Central Synagogue and not (New) West End) is 300 yards from the planned starting point, and not on the route of the march.
Second, services on Shabbat (Saturday) are held at 9:15am and 7pm, not at any time that coincides with the demonstrations.
Third, and most importantly, to my knowledge there has never been any ‘harassment of Jews’ at Palestinian demonstrations – that is, unless for someone who considers any criticism of Israel to be harassment. Indeed, there are hundreds of Jewish demonstrators who take part at every demonstration and they are always made welcome by other demonstrators.
These are the kind of discredited talking points which we expect to see in the right-wing gutter press. It is deeply disturbing to see them repeated by Quakers, and given a platform in the pages of the Friend.
Antony Rawlinson
Shared demand
Ol Rappaport’s letter, which states that Youth Demand and those who support them are antisemitic, is in ignorance of the facts. There was never any question of the members of Youth Demand or the Palestine Solidarity Campaign harassing British Jews on their way to the synagogue on 18 January.
Firstly, the proposed route of the march went nowhere near the synagogue. Secondly, the route of the march had been approved by the Met Police two months before and agreed. The late decision by the Met Police to ban the march used the excuse that it would have caused disruption at the synagogue could only have been a way to stop peaceful protest. The Met Police acknowledged themselves that there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue attached to any of the marches. Indeed Jewish people have been joining the marches in their thousands.
There is nothing remotely antisemitic on the Youth Demand website. Their demand is that the UK enacts a trade embargo on Israel, which I and many others share.
Rae Street
