The flags of St George and the Union Jacks that were raised all over England last year by anti-immigration activists and self-proclaimed UK patriots were not seen very often in London neighbourhoods, with two prominent and enthusiastic exceptions.
The first was not surprising. The Isle of Dogs in east London is home to Millwall and other gritty wards where hard-right activists have always had a foothold – this was where the British National Party (BNP) elected its first UK councillor, Derek Beackon, in 1993.
The second bastion of flag-flying performativity from populist right-wing activists was more curious. Golders Green Road, just northwest of Hampstead Heath, is the main commercial thoroughfare that bisects London’s biggest Jewish community, traditionally more associated with forces of political moderation in the UK.
Yet from the railway bridge at Pita restaurant all the way down the hill to the junction with North Circular Road, dozens of English and UK flags fluttered from every street lamp and pole. It was a visual reminder that in recent years, the more anti-Islam elements of Britain’s hard-right cohort have found common cause with some Jewish people who, years ago, might have been considered the right wingers’ political foes.
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The most striking thing about it all was that for many months, the Labour Party-controlled Brent Council didn’t dare to take down the flags, lest it provoke local tensions with members of a community that had backed that party for years.
The flags were left up on lamp-posts deep into winter to flutter themselves to shreds in the wind and rain.
Activists of a slightly different shade descended on the area 3½ weeks ago.
After Israel assassinated Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei by bombing his Tehran compound, hordes of anti-regime Iranians and noisy backers of the old shah dynasty danced down Golders Green Road with British Jews draped in Israeli flags.
This week, local jubilation at the Iranian leader’s demise was replaced by fear. In the early hours of Monday, three masked men were seen on CCTV walking to a parking area outside Machzike Hadath synagogue, just a few yards off Golders Green Road. They torched four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity.
London’s Metropolitan Police is investigating the arson as an anti-Semitic hate crime but the inquiry is being led by anti-terror officers, following an unconfirmed claim of responsibility by an Iran-aligned Islamist group.
This neatly encapsulates the new geopolitical backdrop to the old ethnic resentments that have always worried Britain’s Jews.
Mark Rowley, the head of the Met, told the dinner of a Jewish security group this week that 264 more officers were being deployed to protect the Jewish community in London. Labour home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the arson was a “wicked crime”.
The political reassurance had a cross-party theme. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was due to meet community leaders on Tuesday in Stamford Hill, another north London district where many orthodox Jews live.
Arguments over anti-Semitism are common in British media but in recent weeks were closer to the bone.
The Guardian newspaper was forced to change the wording of a piece by sports writer Jonathan Liew, who also occasionally tackles other topics. He wrote that a once Jewish-owned Gail’s bakery outlet had committed an “act of high-street aggression” by opening near a Palestinian cafe in Archway, north London.
Many on Britain’s political right accused the newspaper of facilitating stupid bigotry. Days later, some of the right indulged in similarly dumb rhetoric, albeit fired at a different target. Tory shadow justice minister Nick Timothy said a Ramadan prayer event by Muslims in Trafalgar Square was an “act of domination”. Badenoch backed him.
Official data shows that acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in Britain, where shock also lingers over the murderous Manchester synagogue attack last October. But Jews are not the only ones who fear growing bigotry. Muslims experience it too.
Those fears appear to have some basis in reality. The data also shows that 45 per cent of police-recorded hate crimes are targeted against Muslims, well ahead of any other group in society.
A British man has been charged after allegedly entering a mosque in Manchester last month with a hammer and axe. It is alleged he was stopped by local Muslims.
The British government has adopted a new non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hatred drafted by a working group, which rejected the old term of Islamophobia. A debate rages on the political right over the impact of this on freedom of speech.
Meanwhile, the argument also continues over how to protect Britain’s Jewish community from spiteful acts of anti-Semitism from those who seem to believe that the actions of the Israeli government give them free rein to target Jews thousands of miles away in retaliation.
As ever, London remains a basket of the microcosms of conflicts happening elsewhere.
[ Mark Paul: Flag row reaches London's Isle of DogsOpens in new window ]
