{"id":566544,"date":"2026-05-05T00:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566544\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T00:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:32:11","slug":"a-test-of-our-values-starmer-to-call-for-whole-society-response-to-rising-antisemitism-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566544\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A test of our values\u2019: Starmer to call for whole-society response to rising antisemitism | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Keir Starmer will call for a whole-of-society response to rising antisemitism on Tuesday, saying that it is not enough simply to condemn the scourge, but people \u201cmust show it\u201d through their actions too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Before a roundtable event at Downing Street, the prime minister will call for action on all forms of antisemitism, after a knife attack against the Jewish community in Golders Green last week, a spate of serious arson attacks and the terror incident in Heaton Park in October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sarah Sackman, the Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2026\/may\/04\/golders-green-mp-sarah-sackman-lack-solidarity-liberal-left-jewish-community\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said there had been a \u201clack of vocal solidarity\u201d from parts of the liberal left<\/a>, including some anti-racist organisations, in the face of rising antisemitism across the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">No 10 will host representatives from across society including business, charities, health and culture, higher education and policing, for talks with the Jewish community. Starmer is expected to say they all need to refuse to platform hatred or turn a blind eye to extremism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cLast week\u2019s terrorist attack in Golders Green was utterly appalling. But it was not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of rising antisemitism that has left our Jewish communities feeling frightened, angry, and asking whether this country, their home, is safe for them,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThese disgusting attacks are being made against British Jews. But, make no mistake, this crisis \u2013 it is a crisis for all of us. It is a test of our values. Values that are not guaranteed, but are earned. Every single day, through our actions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cSo, it is not enough to simply say we stand with Jewish communities. We must show it. And that responsibility lies with each and every one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Starmer will also convene minsters for the latest Middle East response committee, this time focused on the domestic security implications of the conflict, in particular the heightened threat to Jewish communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government has announced an additional \u00a325m in funding to increase police patrols, enhance security at synagogues, schools and community centres, and place specialist and plainclothes officers in communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Golders Green stabbings have intensified calls for action, coming within weeks of other antisemitic incidents in the same area. The police are investigating whether these incidents involved criminal proxies acting for Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sackman, who is also the courts and legal services minister, said there has been an outpouring of support since last week\u2019s knife attack in her constituency, with messages from Christian and Muslim faith leaders. The incident had \u201cclearly resonated\u201d with people, she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cFor a minority community to come under this sort of sustained level of threat and attack purely for our identity, you would expect in the normal run of things for anti-racist organisations, for trade unions, for cultural leaders to speak out,\u201d she told the Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI think what has been notable is, for some time now, a lack of vocal solidarity from the moderate majority. You would expect our anti-racist movement, who quite rightly come out vocally, regularly for other minoritised communities to have responded in kind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Last week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/may\/02\/moderate-majority-fight-against-antisemitism-british-jews\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">she wrote for the Guardian<\/a> saying Jewish people wanted to go about their daily lives \u2013 working, taking their children to school and practising their faith \u2013 free from fear. Sackman wrote that she now finds herself gripping her daughters\u2019 hands more tightly, adding that many British Jews feel exhausted and afraid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhere are the marches in solidarity and support of our Jewish community? Where is the response of the liberal left? Where are the anti-racists, the trade unions, civil society, our friends and neighbours?\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhere are the leaders of the powerful tech platforms who have allowed hate to proliferate via their algorithms? Where are the university chancellors, the leaders of our cultural sector and the NHS managers who must urgently root out hate in their institutions?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer will call for a whole-of-society response to rising antisemitism on Tuesday, saying that it is not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-566544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}