Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, recently stated that some pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London send a message 'that feels like anti-Semitism,' highlighting a dangerous trend in British public life: the conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of the Israeli state.

Rowley suggested that protest organizers deliberately route marches near synagogues to intimidate British Jews. While genuine intimidation must be taken seriously, Britain is entering troubling territory when protests against the destruction of Gaza or opposition to Israeli state violence are treated as inherently suspicious and anti-Jewish.

The issue is no longer just how Britain combats anti-Semitism, but whether it can distinguish between hatred of Jews and opposition to Israeli government policies. This distinction matters enormously for both Palestinians and Jewish communities.

For Palestinians, this moment is painfully familiar: their catastrophe was always treated as secondary. Now, as Gaza is devastated before the world's eyes, Palestinians in Britain find that even speaking about their grief and loss is increasingly treated as discomfort requiring management.

For over two and a half years, the world has witnessed scenes from Gaza described by experts as ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and genocide. Entire neighborhoods have been erased, families wiped out, hospitals bombed. Yet in Britain, political and media discourse focuses less on the destruction than on the supposed threat posed by protesters.

Hundreds of thousands have marched demanding a ceasefire and an end to British military support for Israel. The demonstrations include Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists, and Holocaust survivors. However, large sections of the British establishment continue to frame these marches as uniquely menacing and anti-Semitic.

There is a profound difference between anti-Semitism and discomfort, between hatred and political dissent. Automatically treating protests against Israeli military actions as hostility towards Jews implies that Jewish identity is inseparable from the conduct of the Israeli state. This is neither fair nor accurate.

Many Jewish people in Britain have publicly opposed Israel's war on Gaza. They understand that criticizing a state is not the same as hating a people. Criticism of Russia is not treated as hatred of Russians; opposition to American wars is not framed as hostility to Americans. Only when it comes to Israel does this distinction repeatedly collapse.

If people are constantly told that protests against Israeli actions are anti-Semitic, some will inevitably associate Jewish people with those actions. This risks deepening tensions rather than protecting Jewish communities.

Political leaders and police authorities must confront anti-Semitism directly but also defend the democratic right to oppose war crimes and protest mass civilian slaughter. Suppressing pro-Palestinian protests will not reduce tensions. What Britain is witnessing on its streets is not simply anger but moral horror at what many believe is a genocide unfolding in real time.

Source: www.aljazeera.com