MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The United Kingdom faces an antisemitism emergency. That's according to the top government terrorism adviser. Last week, two Jewish men were stabbed in an area of London with a large Jewish community. That follows a string of arson attempts in the days since the Iran war began and an attack on a synagogue last fall that killed two people. To get a better understanding of what is happening here, we have called Brendan McGeever. He is co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism in London. Mr. McGeever, welcome. And what went through your mind when you heard about the attack just last week in Golders Green there in London?
BRENDAN MCGEEVER: The first thing that went through my mind after that attack was shock but not surprise. The awful stabbing of two Jewish men is one incident in a series of attacks on Jewish people and property that have taken place in England over recent days and weeks. Indeed, the government's adviser on terrorism, Jonathan Hall, called this the biggest single national security emergency that Britain has faced in nearly a decade.
KELLY: When we lay out these recent instances of antisemitic attacks, is there data that confirms how isolated or widespread it is?
MCGEEVER: Looking at the data that is available, is society en masse turning against British Jews? No, I don't think that it is. There's some data that suggests that there is a rise in the more everyday type of antisemitism, so abuse, name-calling, particularly online slurs. But alongside that picture, we have a different picture. For example, if we look at antisemitic attitudes in Britain, that data suggests that antisemitism is, in fact, flatlining or possibly even declining and has been for over a decade.
KELLY: Do you have a theory for why those two lines seem to be headed in different directions?
MCGEEVER: Well, at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, we've put forward the concept of the reservoir. That reservoir of antisemitism consists of a series of tropes and narratives about Jews from which people can draw from with ease to explain political events in which Jews have become a figure or a symbol. We know for certain that whenever there's an escalation of violence in Israel, Palestine, we see a rise in recorded and reported incidences of antisemitism in Britain. So evidently, there is a correlation. The precise nature of that relationship is not yet entirely clear.
There is widespread agreement that holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitic, but that conflation is made routinely in politics. It's made when the government speaks as if pro-Palestine protest makes Jews feel unsafe, when, in fact, Jews are divided on that issue. So the government, when it intervenes on antisemitism, is wrong to assume that Jews are of one voice.
KELLY: So I hear you being critical of some political leaders and their messaging on this. What about their actions? Prime Minister Keir Starmer is putting more money towards combating antisemitism - 25 million pounds last week toward protection and security, some more money this week toward tackling antisemitism in schools, supporting Jewish communities and so on. Is the government doing enough on that front?
MCGEEVER: It is good that the government has that energy and resources to address the issue. Whether these are the right responses is a different question. Securitization - that is, making Jewish buildings and Jewish people more secure - is important, but on its own will not address societal antisemitism. To that, we need to have a program of education, and it is good that the government has announced measures that are more focused on education rather than simply securitization. However, once we get into the detail of those programs of education, those programs of education are tightly wedded to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which is a contentious and contested definition. I think it's safe to assume that the effectiveness of that education is going to be limited.
KELLY: I'm speaking to you from Washington. Here in the United States, we're also tracking a rise in antisemitic incidents and attacks. Do you see parallels or do you see something unique, different happening there in Britain?
MCGEEVER: The challenges and complexities that we face here in Britain are reproduced in other parts of the world where there are multiple forms of racism that are not being addressed evenly and with consistency by governments. And certainly in the United States, we can see how antisemitism has been broken off from a wider antiracist politics and addressed - in some ways, even to attack - antiracist politics. We desperately need a way of addressing antisemitism that is consistently antiracist. And that's the case in Britain. And with the different dynamics in play, it's also the case in the United States.
KELLY: We've been speaking with antisemitism scholar Brendan McGeever from London. Thank you very much.
MCGEEVER: Very good to talk to you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
