Thread by @SussexFriends

A very personal thread but just feels like the time to say it

8 years ago when I first got heavily involved in pro-Israel advocacy following the antisemitic attacks on a local Israeli owned shop, I was often asked a single question

“Why don’t you you just go and live in Israel?”

My answer was always that I would go when I choose to not because I feel like I’ve been forced to.

I stand by that but recently it is becoming harder to believe that some time soon I might not be forced to leave.

Yesterday I saw a thread from @Real_M_Scott in which he had come to the hard decision that for the sake of his family he felt his only option was to leave the U.K.

A Jewish family being forced to leave the U.K. because of his concerns over antisemitism and the threat it poses to him and his family.

Let that sink in

This is beyond sad and should serve as a warning of what is to come for many in the Jewish community and is a damning indictment of the current climate in the U.K.

Just to be clear and to remove any ambiguity I’m talking about Jew hate on the left not the right!

We have lived with right wing antisemitism for decades. It has always been there but as far as I’m aware it has never got so bad as to force Jews from their homes and for many, many others to be considering leaving.

In recent months we have heard more and more from those within our community that they are seriously considering leaving these shores or those like @MLewisLawyer who have actually made that hard decision to go. All cite rising antisemitism as the cause of their concern

Yesterdays election of a person who clearly has questionable views & the support she garnered from MPs we considered friends, might well be the final straw for many more

Jews leaving the U.K. because they fell it no longer the safe, tolerant, welcoming place we all hoped it be!

So yes, I stand by my opening comments.

I refuse to be forced out of the country I love by a small number of Jew haters who would be delighted to see me and indeed our entire community gone.

However if you ask me to say categorically that will be the case this time next year or even in a few months I’d be lying if I said it was.

At present and in this climate who knows where we’ll be in a years time.

I would suggest I’m not alone in thinking like this!