Rally Against Anti-Semitism in Parliament Square Attracts Thousands

LONDON – A rally organized by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) held in Parliament Square on Sunday afternoon attracted over 3000 people, both Jews and non-Jews.

The theme of the rally was solidarity against anti-Semitism and participants held banners proclaiming, “Together against anti-Semitism” and “Solidarity with British Jews”. Billed as a non-political event, inevitably a certain amount of politics crept in, not least in the change in the speaker lineup in the immediate run-up to the event. Some of the speakers were considered to be verging on prejudiced in their attitudes to other minority groups, and after some people said that they would not be able to attend if those people were speaking, a revised list of speakers was issued.

Speakers at the event included Jews, Christians, a Hindu and a Muslim, all of whom gave powerful messages on the danger of allowing anti-Semitism to creep into public life unnoticed. Robert Rinder, a lawyer, media personality and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor said that what starts with the Jews, “ends up as a malignant force in society as a whole… what starts with a [controversial and later removed] mural ends up in murder.”

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of CAA, said, “We stand here to say that Britain is better than this. We stand here to ask all of the people of our country to stand with us.”