At the New London Synagogue in North London, Rabbi Jeremy Gordon says some regular congregants have stopped attending services, while some Jewish schools have told pupils not to wear outward identifiers of their religion.
Across the Thames in south London, “Islam is evil” was daubed on at least 10 bus stops along a route passing primary schools. Mariam, a school governor who, like others, requested not to be identified in full, fearing online reprisals — said she worried children would see it. “It’s just a normalization of hate in their area,” she said.
In this city of 300 languages that has claim to being the world’s most diverse, a war that’s pitting Israelis and Palestinians against each other a continent away suddenly doesn’t feel so distant. Many Britons have friends and family in the region — including Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose in-laws are in Gaza.
On Tuesday night, an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City that killed hundreds laid bare the toll on ordinary civilians caught up in the conflict. Israel and Palestinian militants are trading blame for the blast, and the competing narratives are only likely to harden positions as disinformation and bitter wars of emotive words spread on social media.
“We hear the pain on both sides,” said Laura Marks, co-founder of Nisa-Nashim, a UK-based network for Jewish and Muslim women. She cited accounts of girls in the capital having their hijabs tweaked and a rabbi being spat at.
Britain’s mainstream politicians displayed remarkable unity following Hamas’s brutal incursion into southern Israel this month. The Houses of Parliament were lit up in Israeli colors, and the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party expressed full-throated support for their ally’s right to self-defense.
But on London streets, fractures have appeared. Amid a rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, British Jews have taken to hiding cultural symbols, while many Muslims say the UK political response isn’t paying enough heed to Israel’s duty to protect the approximately 1 million Gaza residents it’s told to leave their homes.
Just under 2 miles from Gordon’s synagogue, leaflets taped to a phonebox near Edgware Road call for information on missing Israelis. It’s a reminder of the impact on southern Israel, where at least six Britons died in Hamas’s attack.
