Jews have not been safe since Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7, and “we have seen where the unchecked growth of antisemitism has led in the past,” Michael Gove, UK secretary of state for leveling up, housing and communities, said in a speech on Tuesday. “We all know that what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.”
Gove, who is also minister for intergovernmental relations, added that “History tells us that the dismantling of the right of Jews to live, like others, on their own terms leads, inevitably, to the destruction of Jewish lives.”
Yet at a time when everyone is “encouraged to be our whole authentic selves, to celebrate our identity, to be out and proud—there is only one group told they—and they alone—can only be tolerated on terms set by others,” Gove said. “Jews.” He added that it is “genuinely dangerous” for people “to be openly, clearly, proudly, Jewish” near anti-Israel marches that have proliferated worldwide.
“It is a classic antisemitic trope to set the terms on which Jews will be accepted. Safe, provided they live in their ghetto. Safe, provided they don’t get above themselves. Safe, provided they don’t contemplate the use of force in self-defense,” he said. “Until, of course, they aren’t safe anymore.”
Gove said that legislation making its way through the House of Lords aims “to prevent universities from enabling antisemitism by endorsing the antisemitic BDS campaign,” or the boycott, divestment and sanctions anti-Israel movement.
The U.K. cabinet member called on colleges, schools, government agencies, the National Health Service, and local government entities to “sign up to a charter against antisemitism, adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism and make clear that antisemitic agitation will be met with clear disciplinary action.” (The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance created a widely-used working definition of Jew-hatred.)
“We must say to every Jewish citizen in this country—your safety is the best guarantee of our security, your freedom to live as you choose the only way we can be certain we remain a land of liberty, your future is our future,” he said. “We said ‘Never Again.’ And that is a promise we will never, ever, disavow.”