Hamish Falconer’s empty words: The UK has failed to protect its Jews - opinion

Clearly, British MP Hamish Falconer, in his article entitled “Britain is committed to its Jewish community,” believes that you can. (He represents the constituency of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England).

The actual answer is somewhere between nothing and too little, too late.

The actions of the Labour government are both inadequate and wholly insincere. Since October 7, 2023, all that has been achieved has been to make Jews feel endangered, unvalued, and unprotected.

Up until then, Jews had felt comfortable with their dual identity as British/Jews. Many felt privileged and protected to grow up in a peaceful and cultured society post-World War II.

My own story was one where I had spent my professional life contentedly as a barrister and latterly as a judge. I felt wholly integrated into English life. It did not conflict with my Jewish life but rather complemented it. My thoughts of moving to Israel were subsumed by my time on the hamster’s wheel immersed in work.

All that changed on October 7. Within hours of the massacres in southern Israel, the weekly protests on the streets of the cities of Britain began. Chants such as “from the river to the sea” were replaced by the even more threatening calls for “global intifada.” The campuses of the most prestigious universities became campsites for those preventing Jews from getting to their studies. The list of untamed expressions of hate was endless, leading to the murder of two Jews in Manchester in an attack on a synagogue.

On a daily basis, our lives became ones where we were obsessed with a minute-by-minute following of the latest news. Our existences became darker and darker – and there was no respite.

For me, the worst aspect was how our non-Jewish friends failed to show concern for our physical or mental well-being. My best friends knew of our second home and strong ties to Israel. Some had been to our house here, but by and large they turned their backs on us.

The clear fact is that the power of the Muslim vote amongst the population in Britain has made the government terrified of upsetting them.

The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, occasionally trots out the fact that he has a Jewish wife. This should make him more ashamed of his appalling behavior.

On September 21, 2025, he led the recognition by the UK of a state of Palestine. It had no borders and no government. But worse than that, he did so without making it a precondition that the 52 Jewish hostages still being held in the tunnels of Gaza be returned.

Anyway, the consequences of all this for Jews such as myself and my wife is that we have not only been totally discombobulated (a wonderful word for unsettled), but I now regret having given my youth to the UK – I feel that they did not deserve it.

During the years since 2023, we have only felt calm and settled when in Israel, where we have been lucky enough to have a house that we used as a holiday home. And that is despite, for instance, spending much of the 12-day war against Iran in our bomb shelter.

We cannot change the situation in the UK, but can only change our own situation. We made aliyah eight days ago. That said, the trials and tribulations of Israeli bureaucracy are a wholly different story. But that is for another day.