Thank you for making all of our voices heard
Sunday’s March Against Antisemitism in central London drew tens of thousands of people from the Jewish community and their allies across the country, calling on the authorities to act against hate before it’s too late.
The march, organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism with the support of all major Jewish communal groups and numerous non-Jewish organisations, began at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand before passing along Whitehall and ending at Parliament Square.
As marchers passed Downing Street, they stopped to sing the national anthem. How unlike so many other marches that we’ve seen over the past year in London.
On this march, there were no violent attempts to gain access to Downing Street or desecration of national monuments, there were no masks or glorification of terrorism, no fireworks or racist rhetoric.
This is how the Jewish community and its friends march. This is what a real peaceful march looks like.
At Parliament Square, a rally was held featuring numerous non-Jewish speakers who emphasised how the battle against antisemitism implicates not just the Jews but all of British society.
At Parliament Square, the crowd was addressed by Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, who said: “The fight against antisemitism puts Jews on the frontlines of the battle for the future of the West. It is a long frontline with many flashpoints, but should any part of it fail, the entire defence fails.
“We owe it to future generations to raise our voices against this tide of extremism and bigotry, and reject appeasement, so that we might bequeath them the bright future that once was ours. Last year we gathered to say that we are one United Kingdom, united against antisemitism. Today we have a warning to the authorities: act against hate, before it’s too late.”
The full speech can be watched here.
The other speakers were not Jewish. They wished to express their considerable concern at the surge in antisemitism and extremism in Britain and to emphasise how this affects not just Jews but all of us.
The highly-respected military figure and senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Major Andrew Fox, said: “When I turned on the television on 7th October and saw extremists celebrating the attacks in Israel—on UK streets—I could not believe my eyes. Since then, we’ve seen weekly marches in London keeping extremism in the public eye. This is not just a fleeting moment or an isolated problem. It is a movement of hatred that threatens the very fabric of our society.”
Our brief interview with Major Fox can be watched here and his full speech at the rally can be watched here.
Lorin Khizran is a heroic nurse from the Druze village of Yarka in the north of Israel who found herself working around the clock on 7th October treating the wounded. She spoke at the rally, saying: “Since I have been in the UK, I have heard a few Jewish families say there might not be a future in a generation’s time…The people marching on your streets, taking over your campuses, spewing their hate on social media, are changing absolutely nothing in the Middle East. They’re simply showing us who they: racists.”
Her full speech can be watched here.
Rev. Hayley Ace, the trailblazing cofounder of Christian Action Against Antisemitism, said at the rally: “We have to try and reach people who don’t realise this ideology that is coming for the Jews is coming to attack everyone. To see Jew-hatred explode after 7th October, the most brutal awful day for the Jewish people, as a Christian, is truly heartbreaking. We are in this together.”
The full speech can be watched here.
Mark Birbeck, the courageous founder of advocacy group Our Fight UK, told the crowd at Parliament Square: “When people say they want to ‘globalise the Intifada’, they mean it. The fight against antisemitism, the fight against extremism—it’s our fight. We need to fight against extremism before it’s too late.”
His full speech can be found here.
The crowd also heard music from renowned Cantor Stephen Leas and Israeli rock icon Aviv Geffen.
Meanwhile, we asked the peerless Allison Pearson, co-founder of British Friends Of Israel and Daily Telegraph columnist, why she joined the march. She told us that it is because this is not just a battle for the Jews: it’s for everyone.
News coverage of the March Against Antisemitism has been extensive, with write-ups in newspapers from the Mail to The Independent and reports on the BBC to GB News, broadcasts on LBC and even reporting for foreign outlets as far as Sky News Australia.
The March also drew significant attention online, and it trended on X (formerly Twitter).
Over the past year, antisemitic hate crime has quadrupled, and Jews are now the most targeted faith minority in the country, despite our minuscule numbers. The regular Palestine protests have unleashed a tidal wave of antisemitism that has left no part of our society unaffected. Jewish people feel like we’re drowning.
The turnout on Sunday – in spite of the stormy weather – demonstrates how strongly British Jews feel and, quite frankly, how desperate we are.
We want to thank in particular those who came from outside of London to ensure that this was a truly national march against antisemitism.
We also wish to thank everyone who kept us safe on the day, including frontline police officers, the terrific professionals from CST, our stewards and our amazing volunteers, thanks to all of whom so many thousands of us were able to participate.
The turnout would have been even higher had weather conditions been milder, as we know from so many of you who kindly wrote in to tell us how much you had wanted to be able to join.
All of the pictures from the March Against Antisemitism can be viewed here.
None of this is possible without your support, and we have a lot more to do.
If you wish to make a donation to help cover the costs of the March Against Antisemitism – including security and stewarding, publicity and placards, staging and logistics – you can do so by clicking on the button below.
All donations of any size are enormously appreciated to help defray the costs of this historic event. Only with your support can we continue to make our voices heard and ensure that the authorities finally take action against antisemitism.
With extremism changing our country before our eyes, we all took a stand on Sunday to uphold our country’s values and demand action to secure the future of Britain’s Jewish community.
But time is running out. The authorities and two governments have dragged their feet for over a year now. They must finally act against hate before it’s too late.
Image credit: Stuart Mitchell/Campaign Against Antisemitism
