On Thursday, a terrorist attacked a synagogue on the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur. On Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday, demonstrations went ahead against Israel despite the police and politicians appealing for them not to.
A big concern regarding the regular demonstrations about Israel has been that legitimate protest about Israel’s actions in Gaza so often spills over into overt antisemitism. Many Jews feel intimidated by those marches and were already arguing before October 1st that they give space to an increasingly violent and racist ideology which was always likely to lead to actual violence against Jews.
Now, after September 13th there was a strong response from national Christian leaders, including an open letter challenging match organisers and those involved, especially Christians.
From what I can see, there was less overt Christian symbolism and Christians weren’t given the same platform presence. However, there have still been Christians involved in demos and the problem on September 13th was not just about a Christian presence. So where is the strong Christian response. As one who spoke up about September 13th, I want to see others joining with me in stating clearly that:
We must not give space to antisemitic intimidation. It was wrong to put on those demos, especially the ones in Manchester. It was grievous to see police resources distracted from protecting synagogues and reassuring the Jewish community. We should not hear antisemitic chants on our streets, including “from the river to the sea.”
Faithroots 