Four days and nights have passed since Hamas slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israeli citizens with unimaginable savagery. Tonight, on the concert hall steps at the top of Buchanan Street, 300 of Glasgow’s multi-generational Jewish community have gathered to mourn and to pray for peace in the Middle East.
Where there might have been fury and a call to bloody arms there is only silent grief. Glasgow’s Jewish families are bound together by family, faith and an intense devotional and protective instinct forged in two millennia of rejection by the world.
It means everything to them that this vigil has been organised by non-Jewish friends and that among them are some of us who have come to know them; to love them and to value their presence in Glasgow. This city would be diminished without them.
Each speaker quietly reminds us that the unprovoked pogrom carried out by Hamas in Israel is the worst event in this people’s history since The Holocaust.
On the steps behind them there is only one Israeli flag and perhaps two more in the throng below. You were expecting a much more muscular display and something, perhaps, that might speak of vengeance. Instead there was only that unimaginable grief and a resignation born of permanent exclusion and being made to feel other in those countries of their birth. Soon, the darkness is pierced by the flickering of a hundred candles, signifying hope, perhaps that the blackest night can never overcome the smallest light.
And you’re reminded once more why the Israeli state had to be established in Palestine. Quite simply, there was nowhere else to go for a people who had found themselves cast out by society in every European country where they had sought to settle in numbers.
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The following day, I’m in the home of Sammy and Vicky Stein on Glasgow’s Southside. Both are active members of the Glasgow Friends of Israel Group. You’ll have seen their little stall down near House of Fraser on Buchanan Street. Each week it bears the same legend: Pro-Israel. Pro-Palestine. Pro-Peace. There are Palestinian flags alongside the Star of David.
If you’re looking for confrontation and ultimatums, you won’t find them at Mr Stein’s house. “On several occasions,” he tells me, “we’ve reached out to the people who run the pro-Palestine stalls adjacent to us. But they’ve never been interested and on one occasion we were told that we shouldn’t be allowed to fly the Palestinian flag.
“But it’s important that we do this. For us, having a Palestinian state living in peaceful co-existence beside Israel is the only way ahead.” Later that night Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s First Minister will attend a service at Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue where he will tell members: “Your grief is my grief and that he “stands in solidarity with Scotland’s Jewish people”.
He will embrace members of the family of Bernard Cowan, who was among those murdered by Hamas. More hope. Mr Yousaf’s parents-in-law are currently trapped inside Gaza City as Israel gathers its forces to strike back at Hamas.
Even amidst this evil, Sammy Stein refuses to lose sight of eventual peace and a reconciliation of sorts. Is there a heightened sense of fear among Glasgow’s Jewish community, following outbreaks of anti-Semitism in London?
“It’s more apprehension, than fear,” he says. “I don’t expect there to be any real trouble in the weeks ahead. Traditionally, this has never happened in Glasgow. On Saturday we’ll get a bit of aggression at our stall during the big pro-Palestine march. But I don’t think that’s targeting the Jewish community; it’s against what they think we stand for.
“I want Palestinian people to have a homeland because that’s the way to have peace. I want to ensure there’s no reason for the Palestinians to attack Israel. That means giving them a homeland side by side with Israel.
“For many years we’ve tried to work with the Muslim community. We’re both minorities; we both have the same problems. When you get anti-Semitism you also get anti-Muslim feelings. In fact there’s probably more Islamophobia than anti-Semitism.”
Much of his anger following the Hamas slaughter is directed at those whom he accuses of deliberately disseminating falsehoods about the history of this Middle East conflict. And how Hamas, encouraged by bad actors across the region – especially Iran – want to destroy the prospect of any normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Yet, he’s also critical of the Netanyahu administration in Israel for its attitudes to Gaza. “In Israel,” he says, “It’s not about Left and Right; it’s about being pro- or anti-Netanyahu. Around 50% of the population are against him and there have been demonstrations opposing him for the last nine months.
“There is a misconception about Gaza. They call it the biggest concentration camp in the world. But is it? There are a small number of cities like Gaza city which are densely populated. There are also areas on the coast where Hamas leaders live lives of luxury and other areas which are entirely uninhabited.”
He rejects wholeheartedly the concept of Israel as an apartheid state occupying Gaza. “There have been no Israelis in Gaza since 2005,” he says, “so how can we be occupying it? The apartheid claims are made by people who’ve obviously never been there. It simply isn’t true.
“I was in Israel last year after Covid and on our arrival at the airport we all needed injections from 30 or 40 stations. All of them were manned by Arabs because the Israeli Arabs are intrinsic to our medical and pharmaceutical infrastructure. Everywhere you go there are Arabs and Israelis mixing with each other: festivals; at the beach; at concerts. It’s simply another lie.”
Three days after the vigil for Glasgow’s Jewish community the Concert Hall steps are hosting a rally for Palestine. They might as well have taken place on different planets. The grief and solace of 300 souls on Wednesday night has been replaced by the sound and fury of 3,000 on Saturday afternoon.
This was more anti-Israel than pro-Palestine and there was little talk of peace. Israel was genocidal; Israel was an apartheid state; Israel was illegally occupying Palestine. Barely a week had passed since the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Israelis, including babies and the elderly and infirm.
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There is an agony of conflicted emotions. These are my political and cultural tribes, representing values handed down through generations: peace, justice, solidarity with the oppressed; fury at institutional wealth and power. Within five minutes I’d encountered several people I admired and respected: Chris, the MP; Derek the memorabilia specialist; Cat and James and Jonathon, the radical activists with hearts of gold.
They might as well have taken place on different planets. The grief and solace of 300 souls on Wednesday night has been replaced by the sound and fury of 3,000 on Saturday afternoon
And yet, I felt compelled to retreat back down Buchanan Street to check out the Glasgow Friends of Israel tent and make sure this little group were all okay. To stand with them. Sammy Stein greets me. “Everything’s fine,” he says. “We’ve had a bit of buffeting, but nothing too terrible. We can cope.”
After 2,000 years of being slaughtered; threatened and shunned they have become specialists in coping. And an old fury rises at those who still want to expunge the only place they’ve ever been allowed to call home.
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