Jewish community fears a rise in anti-semitism

Other members of the local Jewish community have said they dread the prospect of another ‘Free Palestine’ demonstration in Town in the New Year, after feeling intimidated by the first event held by the recently-formed group Guernsey4Gaza on Saturday.

Locally-resident Jewish woman Jasmine Cohen said she knew of families who were too frightened to go into Town on Saturday and who were becoming increasingly worried about outwardly identifying as Jews.

‘They have taken the mezuza off the door. They won’t put the menorah in the window. They are scared, terrified really. They have changed their lives,’ she said.

The Guernsey Press has spoken to other Jewish families who, on condition of anonymity, admitted they had taken steps recently to be less public about their ethnicity and religion.

Police confirmed yesterday that they were making ‘ongoing enquiries’ into a complaint that Saturday’s demonstration included chants such as ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.

The latter is a controversial slogan which has been variously interpreted as a call for the freedom and liberation of Palestinians living under occupation, and as a genocidal demand for the destruction of Israel.

Local resident Darren Vogel, a vice-president of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, said it was chilling to hear those words on the streets of St Peter Port, especially considering the history of Jews being deported from the island during the Second World War.

‘What does “Free Palestine” mean? Free of what? It’s a reduction of “From the river to the sea” and it’s about getting rid of Jews,’ he said.

‘There are not many places in the world to have got rid of Jews, but Guernsey did, and so there is a particular resonance here.

‘Part of our comfort of living here is that Guernsey faced that history and moved on.

‘To have a group coming into Town and being allowed to shout that they want to be free of Jews, that is hate, although I don’t believe they all understand the history of what went on in Guernsey.

‘Anti-semitic chants are being laundered and sanitised on the streets of Guernsey and presented in the media as calls for ceasefire. The reality is that if Palestine laid down its weapons there would be peace, but if Israel laid down its weapons there would be a massacre.’

Organisers of the Guernsey4Gaza demonstration, which attracted nearly 150 people at its peak, have insisted their objectives were peaceful.

The centrepiece of their event was unfurling lengthy sheets of paper bearing the names of more than 6,000 children killed in Gaza since Israel launched an air offensive and invasion after being attacked on 7 October by Hamas terrorists who largely control Gaza.

Mr Vogel showed the Guernsey Press material which he claimed provided evidence calling into doubt the peaceful intentions of a small number of the demonstration’s key backers.

‘We went through the list of 32 people who had publicly identified that they were supporting this demonstration and three of them have posted anti-semitic messages or images, including celebrating 7 October.

‘One was showing an Isis flag,’ he said.

Another Jewish woman living in Guernsey, Sandra King, went into Town on Saturday to show that she would not be intimidated. But she was concerned about the possibility of more Guernsey4Gaza events.

‘Now they are marching down the street, but what happens next?’ she asked.

Mrs Cohen said she ‘would not have announced’ she was a Jew if she had come into contact with the demonstrators.

‘If this was to grow in Guernsey, I would feel alienated.

What’s underneath it is always Jew hatred,’ she said.