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| So wrong when racism compels doc to quit UK |
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ANTISEMITISM is now so rampant in the UK that it is striking fear in Jewish people across the country, shaping daily life and personal security for a community that has been part of this country for centuries.
A recent video from an ITV News special report showing Jews in Golders Green being targeted simply for being visibly Jewish is shocking and disturbing. It marks a breakdown of the basic norms that allow minority communities to live safely in Britain - norms that should guarantee equal treatment and security for all citizens. Something has fundamentally shifted. The video footage also features a Jewish NHS doctor who feels compelled to leave the UK with his family because of open hostility. In it, he reports that colleagues have said “they will not point blank treat somebody who comes from certain areas of the world.... if they are dying in A&E, if they are from Israel, then they will not treat that person”. This raises serious concerns about public safety and professional standards and racism allowed to go unchallenged. Repeated statements routinely put out by the government and police - “antisemitism has no place in our society” - following attacks on the Jewish community are empty and meaningless without accompanying strong action, and do nothing to reassure Jews without a clear commitment to root this out at police, government and institutional level. The question is no longer whether antisemitism exists but whether the UK is willing to confront it with the seriousness it demands and whether British Jews can rely on the same protections and impartiality that every citizen should be able to take for granted.
Hana Kovler, To read more on this story, subscribe to our new e-edition. Go to E-edition.jewishtelegraph.com.
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