The rise in anti-Semitism over the past year has made him doubt the future for Jews in Britain, the director of BBC television, Danny Cohen, said.
Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, he said: “I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK as I’ve felt in the last 12 months. And it’s made me think about, you know, is it our long-term home, actually. Because you feel it. I’ve felt it in a way I’ve never felt before actually.
“And you’ve seen the number of attacks rise. You’ve seen murders in France. You’ve seen murders in Belgium. It’s been pretty grim actually. And having lived all my life in the UK, I’ve never felt as I do now about anti-Semitism in Europe.”
He was attending a two-day conference at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on the ability of comedy to drive forward social change. He took over as BBC director in 2013.
During this summer’s Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in July there were more than 100 attacks against Jews in the UK – more than twice the usual number. The rise in anti-Semitic incidents prompted Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party and son of Holocaust survivors, to call for “a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism in the UK,” last month.
Even before the latest explosion of anti-Jewish violence and hatred, Jews all over Europe were neither comfortable nor secure. A poll taken in 2013 showed that “Fear of rising anti-Semitism in Europe has prompted nearly a third of European Jews to consider emigration because they do not feel safe in their home country.” To avoid distorting the data, the poll “focused on eight countries that account for more than 90 percent of Europe’s Jewish population.”
The reasons for these sentiments were amply on display when a series of anti-Israel demonstrations across Europe promptly degenerated into open anti-Semitism.