British Jews were murdered for praying - and still, the country looks away
On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Jews in Manchester went to synagogue to pray and never came home. They were murdered for being Jews. In Britain.
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This atrocity did not come out of nowhere. It was the result of years of appeasement, inertia and indifference. Islamist extremists have been allowed to radicalise openly, to glorify terrorists in full view of the authorities, to hijack our streets week after week.
Politicians have offered platitudes, police have failed to enforce the law, universities have tolerated hatred, broadcasters have platformed it, and regulators have looked away.
The Jewish community knew it was just a matter of time before the reality of globalising the intifada came to these shores, yet its repeated warnings were ignored. Now Jewish blood has been spilled on British soil.
The lesson is clear: if you reward terrorism, you get terrorism; if you appease the mob, the mob comes back for more. The murders in Manchester were not unforeseeable; they were inevitable. On 7th October 2023, Jews were massacred in Israel and that same day mobs marched in London.
On 2nd October 2025, Jews were massacred in Manchester and again, within hours mobs marched in both Manchester and London.
These are not coincidences. This is a pattern.
Meanwhile, the double standards are glaring. After the Southport terrorist attack, protests were banned overnight. Yet when Jews face intimidation in London, suddenly nothing can be done and the authorities are reduced to begging the purveyors of hatred to show some compassion
Why are Jewish concerns – and now lives – treated as negotiable?
The blood of British Jews is on the hands of politicians who rewarded terrorism, police chiefs who allowed hate marches to run unchecked, universities that permitted campuses to be transformed into hotbeds of antisemitism, broadcasters who amplified the propaganda of Hamas, and regulators like the Charity Commission, the General Medical Council and others who have failed to act.
Enough. The time for words is over. On Thursday 9th October at 19:00, we will gather outside Downing Street to demand action.
Britain must decide if it truly wants to keep its Jews or if they are expendable. The answer cannot wait for another atrocity. It must come now.
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Stephen Silverman is Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism
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