by Brendan O’Neill, Spectator
Someone shouting “Fuck you, Jews”. Another telling the Jews they’re baby-killers. A man suggesting the Jews should “go back” to their homeland. A bloke telling Jews they’re “the most hated people in the world”. Where did this verbal mauling of Jews occur? At a neo-Nazi parade, perhaps? Actually it was at Pride in London.
Yes, the Pride parade on Saturday was scarred by what the Metropolitan Police are calling “anti-Semitic verbal abuse”. The rainbow-coloured shindig that claims to be all about “tolerance” was shockingly intolerant of Jews. Pride London will show that “love always triumphs over hate”, said London mayor Sadiq Khan. Tell that to the gay Jews who were subjected to gross outbursts of hateful invective.
They were shocking scenes. Jewish groups, having felt excluded from Pride in recent years, held their own Pride party in Soho. This infuriated attendees of mainstream Pride. One approached a Jew in a rainbow-hued Star of David T-shirt and said to him: “You kill Arab children, you kill gay children.” Then came the suggestion that the Jew should leave Britain. “Go back to your Zionist homeland”, he was told, “because it won’t last much longer”.
One woman barked the same question over and over at the Jews: “How many babies did you kill?” It’s the 21st century and the Jews of England are one more having to negotiate mobs accusing them of murdering innocents. Then came the most disturbing scene of all: a woman appeared to cry “Fuck you, Jews” as police officers just stood about.
Pride needs to account for this blurting of Blackshirt-style insults on its supposedly “inclusive” march. At the very least it needs to make clear there is no room for “anti-Semitic verbal abuse” at its gatherings. If it doesn’t, that might be interpreted as permission for Jew hate. It might be taken by some as a green light to yell abuse at these “most hated people”.