A Jewish family in a supposedly progressive neighborhood of Bristol, England, is seeking to relocate to a new area after facing rising antisemitism, especially since Hamas’s October 7 massacre and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, British outlet The Sunday Times reported last week.
A family in their neighborhood found out that they were Jewish and asked, “Well, you’re not Zionists, are you?”
The family stated that it has seen a gradual increase of “a permissive culture of antisemitism” since the massacre began, with the final straw coming when a local school canceled a visit by a Jewish MP, with the school’s head of diversity being revealed by The Times to be a supporter of the October 7 massacre.
The school’s diversity head, Saima Akhtar, said that Hamas terrorists were “heroes fighting for justice,” and told people to ignore “media attempts to paint Israel as a victim” as early as October 8, 2023, The Times reported.
This development led the family to worry about their child attending this school, and to search for a home in a more “neutral neighborhood.”
The family’s father, who works for a local charity, told the outlet that he saw parents wearing keffiyehs at local playgrounds and school gates, and that his family was forced to confront the Israel-Hamas War during their daily walk to school, including “bloody hand prints” and “declaring a genocide in Gaza.”
“The small Jewish community is being ostracised in an organized way,” he said, comparing the treatment of the city’s Jews to how black and Asian minority groups were treated in the past. “It is being done by [those on] the Left and ‘polite society’ isn’t doing enough,” he said.
His child had “already experienced hassle from another pupil over Gaza” at their elementary school, leaving them in tears, he was cited as saying.
It was “perfectly normal” for people to talk about their racial heritage and which protests they had participated in, he commented.
UK Jewish family says they were ‘tested’ to see if they were Zionists
“People are regularly testing you. There are very few spaces where you are not getting it in your face with the Gaza conflict. We are not Israelis, but it’s pumped into our lives like it’s happening” close by, he said.
“We believe in a two-state solution, but the only way you can navigate this neighborhood is to say you believe in the destruction of Israel. People lose their minds if they suspect you have any sympathy for Israel’s right to exist,” he added.
A local union secretary for the aforementioned school stated she was proud of forcing the school to cancel the MP’s visit, and noted that they also successfully pressured to remove a speaker employed by Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli-owned security company, from a July conference. “We are not here to play,” she wrote on social media.
Bristol is also the city where Elbit Systems’ UK subsidiary is based, and has seen recurring vandalism by pro-Palestinian protesters, including Palestine Action.
