MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
There's been an increase in antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom, and politicians there are accusing each other of being responsible. Tomorrow, Britons are voting for town councils and two regional legislatures. Campaigns are usually about things like trash pickup, but this year, they are dominated by allegations of hate speech. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The word antisemitic has lost all meaning.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: This video shows a woman sitting in darkness musing about antisemitism. She criticizes Zionism and repeats conspiracy theories.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The leaders of Israel and Gaza conspired to carry out what happened on October 7 for financial gain.
FRAYER: And descends into hate speech.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The money-grubbing thieves have built mountains of money over centuries. Jewish cockroaches.
FRAYER: The woman then identifies herself as Jewish. And this is a campaign video released by the centrist Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party. The speaker is reading rival candidates' own words, not candidates on the far right, which has a long tradition of antisemitism. They're from the upstart left-wing Green Party, which is forecast to win votes away from Labour. The backdrop is 2 1/2 years of public outrage spilling into the streets...
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Six, seven, eight.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Israel is a terrorist state.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) One, two, three, four.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Occupation no more.
FRAYER: ...Over Israel's actions in Gaza, the arrests of thousands of mostly peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters and a spate of attacks on British Jews.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police declare a terrorist incident in London's Golders Green. Two Jewish men, one in his 70s.
FRAYER: When Prime Minister Starmer visited the site where two Jewish men were stabbed last week, he got heckled...
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Keir Starmer, Jew harmer.
(BOOING)
FRAYER: ...By members of the Jewish community accusing him of failing to keep them safe.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Keir Starmer, Jew harmer. Keir Starmer...
FRAYER: Chanting Keir Starmer, Jew harmer. The prime minister's wife is Jewish. The leader of the opposition Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, wants Starmer to ban pro-Palestinian marches. Here she is on the BBC.
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KEMI BADENOCH: Of course, we believe in free speech. Of course, we believe in the right to protest. But these are no longer protests. They are now being used as a cover for antisemitic activity.
FRAYER: Others, including the environmental Green Party, accuse Starmer of cracking down too much, violating free speech by outlawing support for some pro-Palestinian groups. The greens are also the only major political party in the U.K. that is led by a Jewish person. Their leader, Zack Polanski, also spoke to the BBC.
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ZACK POLANSKI: I am both pro-Palestinian and I'm Jewish. And I care about Jewish safety. There's no conflict in those positions.
FRAYER: Polanski has suspended party members for antisemitic comments and been the target of ant semitic cartoons himself.
CHARLEY BAGINSKY: At the moment, it feels like every conversation that we have is about antisemitism.
FRAYER: Rabbi Charley Baginsky is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
BAGINSKY: For the first time, I tell my kids they can't go to walk the dog wearing Hebrew on their clothes.
FRAYER: Stephen Bush is Jewish and Black and has written about that in his Financial Times column.
STEPHEN BUSH: Antisemitism is almost like a bride with the wedding train of racism kind of coming behind it.
FRAYER: Now, he doesn't think municipal elections will hinge on antisemitism. It is a serious issue rooted in hate and violence, but it's been weaponized for social media outrage, he says.
BUSH: It's much harder to work out whether or not someone can successfully run a local authority than it is to prune their social media for whether or not they've said vile things.
FRAYER: For Rabbi Baginsky, on one hand, she's glad antisemitism is getting so much attention. But on the other hand...
BAGINSKY: When people are just using it for their campaigns, what happens when one party is seen to be pro Jews and another party is seen to be pro parts of the Muslim community and anti-Israel rhetoric, which spills into antisemitism.
FRAYER: She says she's worried it threatens the social cohesion that anchors democracy in this country. And that is worth focusing on, she says, in addition to trash collection.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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