Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom have expressed indignation this weekend about anti -Semitic songs led by artists at a flagship music festival that was broadcast live on British public television, but the community has long warned an alarming increase in hate crimes since Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023 on Israel.
Even before Saturday’s performance by the British Rap-Pop duo Bob Vylan-in which the singer “Death to the IDF sang [Israel Defense Forces]” – Jews in Britain have said that they no longer feel welcome, with reference to the government in tackling anti -Semitism.
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Anti-Semitic hatred on an anti-Israel protest in London. Anti -Semitism in the UK has achieved record levels since the Hamas Terror attacks on October 7, 2023. (Campaign against anti -Semitism on X)
Collier, who guarded “anti-Semitism in anti-Zionist activity, said that” Vylan was so lost so that he was really speaking for humanity when he called to the death of 100,000s of the young Israelians … The crowd that became singing with him, did not go wrong in the echoing of his calling of the call of the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the call of the call in the call of the call in the call of the call of the call in the call in the call in the call in the call in the echoën te Echoën. Crew internship that was the plug to add the plug, live coverage. ”
“The end product was a team effort that shows how Blind Mainstream UK has become for a genocidal anti -Semitic ideology,” he added.
According to the Community Security Trust, which registers anti -Semitic incidents in Britain, have attacks on Jews streamedWith approximately 3,528 incidents reported in 2024 and 4,296 in 2023 – the highest ever.
Hundreds of live a protest in the event of the National Jewish Assembly, the campaign against Anti -Semitsim and the British lawyers for Israel in the BBC Uitzendhuis on October 16, 2023 in London. The National Jewish meeting protests against the refusal of the BBC to label Hamas terrorists and comes after the recent attacks of the militant group on Israel. Hamas was prescribed in March 2021 as a terrorist organization by the UK. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
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An investigation into British Judaism published by the Campaign against anti -Semitism (CAM) In January 2025 showed that only one third (34%) believes that the community has a long-term future in the UK, and to half said they had considered leaving Great Britain in the past two years due to anti-Semitism.
The poll also showed that less than half of the British Jews (43%) feel welcome in the UK, where the majority says they had to hide their Judaism because of anti -Semitism. Less than a tenth said they believe that the authorities did enough to tackle and punish anti -Semitism.
Moreover, 92% said that they consider Israel’s bias against Israel as feeding the persecution of Jews in Great Britain. The BBC, the respondents said, was the worst in terms of the coverage of things of Jewish interest.
Anti-Israeli demonstrators hold a banner with the text ‘From the river to the sea’ in London in London on December 9, 2023. (Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“Comeing for violence must be a red line that forces the British government and the BBC to take all possible measures against these artists and to ensure that they do not have such a platform to spit their hatred and violence again,” he said.
The British Center-left Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Vylan’s performance, and said in a statement: “There is no excuse for this kind of terrible hateful speech” and evokes the BBC “to explain how these scenes were broadcast,” said media reports.
Danny Cohen, a former BBC director, wrote on Sunday in the Daily Telegraph that the BBC violated its own guidelines on hate -sowing speech and called on the government to take more action.
Bob Vylan Crowdsurfing for the West Holts podium during day four of Glastonbury Festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Palton on 28 June 2025 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty images)
“The BBC has repeatedly shown not to get his own house in order on anti -Semitism,” he wrote, with reference to, “Consistent Jewish hatred and bias of reporters on BBC Arabic” and a recently “debacle” around an affected documentary about Gaza.
The umbrella organization of the British Jews, the Council of Representatives, said in a statement that “Answers from the BBC would continue to look for how that hateful content could be broadcast and to ensure that this could not be a repeat of this in the future.”
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It also condemned the Glastonbury festival and said: “His claimed dedication to” Peace, Unity, Respect and Hope “calls hollow when the stage is used to promote hymns that evoke death.”
“What happened in Glastonbury is a symptom of a disease in British society,” says Nicole Lampert, a journalist and activist to anti -Semitism established in the UK. “For me, and I say this with great sadness like Brit and also as someone who has spent many years as an entertainment journalist, this starts with the BBC.”
A boy who wears a Kippah holds the British flag on a march against anti -Semitism after an increase in the UK, during a temporary ceasefire between the Palestinian Islamic group of Hamas and Israel, in London on November 26, 2023. (Reuters/Susannah Ireland)
Lampert said that the BBC, for which British pay through their taxes, offers “very little nuance in the report” of the conflicts in the middle east.
“There are meaning to be rules, which means that the BBC and his journalists are strictly neutral, but social media have shown that this is a lie,” she said, adding “every day to every Jewish group I am on, someone says,” I can’t stay here. “
In a position on X, the Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli insisted on British Jews to ‘leave the country’.
“The BBC has a long history of serious bias against Israel, but today a dark line was exceeded by calling for the murder of IDF,” he wrote, adding that “when such an incentive is normalized, those who do not act, those who do nothing to put it into the blood of the blood.”
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Just like the prime minister, the BBC has released a statement that said that “the live stream of the performance should” pull “and that the performance of Vylan” completely unacceptable “and” anti -Semitic sentiments “contain.
“Millions of people are tailored to Glastonbury this weekend about the output of the BBC, but one version within our live streams contained comments that were deeply offensive,” the BBC said.
