𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Racists love arson. British Nazis conducted a firebombing campaign against Jews in the 1960s. My mother’s family home was on their list. The hatred behind that threat has gone mainstream – and now there is another firebombing campaign. Three Jewish sites attacked in a single week in London. This is not simply a spike — it is a campaign of hate that has been allowed to build for years. There were multiple arrests. Then police charged a 17-year-old for a petrol bomb attack on Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, north London. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed the government “won’t relent in our fight against antisemitism and terror”. We thought, perhaps, things were finally turning.

But that relentless fight lasted until later the same day, when the suspect — who had just pleaded guilty — was released on bail to be sentenced in June. He was charged with arson not endangering life. He told the court he didn’t know it was a synagogue. The judge sent him home with conditions. A petrol bomb through a synagogue window, and he has effectively been allowed to walk free, at least for now.

Imagine another minority group being targeted this way. There would be solidarity marches on the street, a national outcry, emergency debates in Parliament and social media flooded with profile frames and hashtags.

Would bail be granted to someone who admitted setting fire to a mosque? We already know that twice as many hate crimes against Muslims result in conviction. And we know what happened to people convicted of setting fire to migrant hotels.

How can the Jewish community trust the process, report things and go through the proper channels if this is what the proper channels look like. What is the point?

The hate marches, the exclusion, the spray-painted slogans, the university campuses where Jewish students don’t feel safe… and now the attacks.

It’s hardly a surprise given the way in which Jews have been systematically dehumanised for years. The abject failure to deal with it meant that violence was always going to follow. From the government to the CPS, institutions have consistently taken the path of least resistance at every turn.

All of this has been going on to near silence from self-described anti-racists – many of whom are busy fantasising that these attacks are a ‘false flag’ by Israel.

As I write, reports are emerging of a religiously aggravated arson attempt on a Jewish-owned shop in Watford.

The firebombers are still out there, but the people who should be condemning them are busy deciding it never happened.

Like the institutions that have consistently failed us, they didn’t light the match. But they built the conditions in which it could be thrown. These are the arsonists of our society. And the racists love it.

Alex Hearn is Director of Labour Against Antisemitism