Failure to tackle protest risks rise of British anti-Semitism, say Israelis

Britain’s failure to act decisively in the face of anti-Israel protests in the country has been questioned by an Israeli official, asking “at what point does inaction become anti-Semitism”

Representatives of the Jewish state have been repeatedly dismayed by the lack of response from the Foreign Office and other Government departments to Israel’s requests for support to combat campaigns that threaten its diplomats or seek to disrupt events involving Israel.

“You have to wonder at what point does inaction become anti-Semitism,” the official told the Daily Telegraph. “If Israelis of an Argentinian background threatened the British ambassor in Israel to the point that he could not make speeches, we would be getting demands from the Foreign Office to step in. Yet the government has done nothing to prevent the threats we face since it took office.”

The comments come shortly after Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s Strategic Affairs minister, told The Telegraph that “disguised anti-Semitism” was more virulent in Britain than any other major Western country on the eve of a visit to the Holy Land by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary.