British Jews see uncertain future as Labour expected to win big

 

Incumbent UK PM Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer

British Jews, along with the rest of the citizens of the UK, flocked to the polls on Thursday to elect their representatives in Parliament. The election was called for July 4th by Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who dissolved the Parliament in May amid rising dissatisfaction with the country's current leadership. The polls are expected to close at 10:00 p.m. local time, and the results will begin to come in as the night progresses.

According to public opinion polls, the UK Labour Party is expected to win in a landslide, with the latest poll, published on Wednesday, giving them 39% of the vote, ahead of the ruling Conservative Party which according to the survey took only 21%.

As the Brits flock to the polls, Arutz Sheva-Israel National News spoke with Chaim, a Jewish university student from London, about the local Jewish community's feelings about the current election and what the average British Jew is looking for when voting for a candidate.

Chaim says that as a Jew in Britain, it is important to him to vote for a candidate that would fight antisemitism in the UK, "both within their own parties and within society, both classical antisemitism and antisemitism that often pops up when Israel is at war."

He explains: "When I say antisemitism I mean proscribing the rest of the terrorist groups that they somehow haven’t gotten round to doing, ⁠properly dealing with political violence and university encampments, and ⁠properly enforcing the law against protesters in London."

The second important attribute for a member of Parliament according to Chaim, is someone who "understands that Israel sometimes has to defend itself even if it doesn’t necessarily want to go to war."

He adds: "I’m not saying that it’s perfect, but I think that when we see some political parties giving a disproportionate amount of focus on Israel, when in reality it is not that big of a country, and unlike America, they probably aren’t listening to the government of the United Kingdom as much as they are the government of the US. It’s particularly concerning when we see some of the parties want a “ceasefire now”.

He is also looking for the UK to point out anti-Israel bias in the UN more.

Personally, Chaim says he voted for the Conservative Party. "Lots of people who supported (former party leader Jeremy) Corbyn are still in the Labour Party. And the Labour mayor of London could’ve done more about antisemitism in his city I think." on the other hand he says "The image that sticks in my head is immediately after the 7th of October Rishi Sunak coming down to a Jewish Kinloss Synagogue and saying that he’s going to stand with us."

With this, he notes that while “I am aware that the Conservative Party has done lots of condemning things and has met with University vice-chancellors and the union of Jewish students, I would like to see more concrete action in relation to anti-Semitism, especially on UK campuses." He adds that he is also disappointed with the Tories’ failure to pass the anti-BDS bill before the election, leaving it to a Prime Minister who will probably stop it.

Labour, which has been one of has been one of British Jewry's biggest woes in past years but has of late managed to purge many of its more antisemitic elements, is expected to dominate the election. The final YouGov MRP gave the left-wing party 431 seats, a 212-seat majority over the Conservatives’ 102 seats.

Despite Labour’s reform concerning antisemitism in the party, Chaim believes that there are probably elements within the party and definitely within the wider hard-left movement that are still antisemitic.

Regarding the chances that Keir Starmer may be the next Prime Minister, he notes: “For some time, we have known that a Labour government is coming, it is definitely the mainstream opinion that the Labour government will come and it’s concerning. I don’t think there’s much anxiety about the current leader of the Labour Party I think however that is uncertainty about what would happen after him.” This said, he thinks a lot of Jews, at least within his circles voted for the conservatives.

The student explains that “the Jewish community relies on the government for funding for security outside Jewish schools and synagogues. We have an exemption for Sunday trading hours and for ritual slaughter, I wouldn’t want to see that changed and that is what I am more concerned about,” and adds: “Whilst there is concern about Israeli arms embargo, much as I may want our government to stand up for the peace, stability, and security of Israel, I don’t think the government has that much of a say, but I’d like it to use it positively.”

Much attention during this election cycle was put on Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK. Chaim ensures that the party would not get far and notes that as for a Jewish voter, “It could maybe be an option, but they are unlikely to get a seat near where I live, so it's light to just be an indirect vote for Labour. They did pledge to ban protests more, which would attract Jewish voters.”

On a personal note, he adds that “one of my friends is even standing for the Reform Party where I live. However, for the London Assembly/Mayoral elections.”

Overall, he points out: “I think Jews on the hard-right are more likely to vote for Reform than Jews on the hard-left are to vote for Green because Reform is perceived as less antisemitic. With figures like Suella Braverman (Conservatives) going on the pro-Israel marches alongside rhetoric that comes from them, I am not so concerned about serious antisemitism within hard/far-right.”

As a Jewish student, Chaim has experienced antisemitism both on and off campus. “At my university, police are not doing enough. I reported chants of ‘From London to Gaza we'll globalize the intifada’ and the police were slow to act. By law, they have to inform the police six days in advance if they want to hold a procession (not a static assembly), and at my university, they didn't but the police didn't do enough to stop it. I was also called Islamophobic by a professor for saying that ‘From London to Gaza we will globalize the intifada’ was antisemitic”

He described how anti-Israel protesters have held mass encampments and stormed and occupied buildings on campus.

“I feel like my university and Student Union are not willing enough to stop these things. We have also seen the lecturers' union back the protest publicly,” he recounts and adds that socially things are “a bit off” on campus and because of the protests he has been avoiding going in as much as possible.

Off-campus he relates: “I had a guy just come up to me and yell he then walked away, I reported it to the CST (Community Security Trust) and Police, and I haven't heard from them since.”

Chaim believes that to hamper the anti-Israel protests and antisemitic the UK government must proscribe foreign terrorist organizations that have yet to have been proscribed as such. Doing so would make it illegal to openly express support for such organizations, which many of the protesters do. “The fact that these organizations have not yet been proscribed boggles the mind,” Chaim concludes.