Why were Glasgow’s Jewish people intimidated on their saddest day?

Glasgow’s Jewish people have been contributing massively to the city’s economy and culture since they arrived here more than 200 years ago. They’ve been conditioned perhaps by the suppression of their faith and culture over many centuries to keep their heads down and never to take any offence. This perhaps is why they have avoided gathering in numbers since last October.

There’s another reason why they hesitate to be overtly Jewish in public. On most weekends since October 7 some say the centre of Glasgow has become off-limits to them. They know that to venture north of St Vincent Street as it cuts across Buchanan Street is to encounter large groups of people, among the more benign protestors, telling them that their country of origin should be erased from the face of the earth or, “from the river to the sea” as it’s now called.

I’ve witnessed volunteers on the little Glasgow Friends of Israel stall on Buchanan Street being harassed and threatened since October 7. Yet, they insist on trying to maintain a peaceful and friendly dialogue.

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Since last October, I’ve been told by several of them that they no longer feel safe living in Glasgow and have taken to removing anything that marks them out as Jews. There is a bitter irony in all of this. For Glasgow was one of the few cities during and after the Second World War which opened its arms unquestioningly to Jewish refugees fleeing the terrors of the Third Reich. Many of those who were at Kelvingrove are directly descended from the Holocaust generation.

Even so, they were entitled to feel safe gathering to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas slaughter. Surely on this day of all days they could expect to be left in peace to mourn their dead and to say prayers for the safe delivery from captivity of the remaining hostages. This was a sacred occasion for a community still in pain at what happened last October 7. They still struggle to understand why in the decent Scotland they love, the events of October 7 have been all too often erased from political and civic discourse.

Among all of the states in the Middle East, Israel’s values are most closely aligned with Scotland’s. It is a well-established liberal democracy in which all minorities: religious, sexual, ethnic are free to come and go about their business. Women are treated as equals, as are members of the gay community. Unlike several of the countries which surround them, these groups are not tortured or thrown from tall buildings for being themselves.

Yet, still they were harangued by a group of around 50 pro-Palestine protestors so loudly that the handful of speakers in front of Kelvingrove struggled to be heard. One of those speakers was Colin Cowan, whose brother, Bernard was murdered by Hamas on October 7.

Effectively, they were being told once more that they weren’t welcome here and that they had no right to be respected. Why did these protestors choose to harangue Glasgow’s Jews on this solemn day when they’ve had free rein to indulge their loathing of Israel on countless occasions throughout the year?

Smoke and flame rise after Israeli air forces target a shopping centre in Gaza last October (Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Many of those Jewish people I’ve encountered in the last year are no supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu. They support a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis and want Israel to live peacefully with its Arab neighbours … but not at any cost. They are torn between horror at the vengeance being exacted on Palestinian civilians and an expectation that the Israeli government’s primary responsibility is to safeguard its citizens by defeating Hamas and Hezbollah and targeting their strongholds.

It’s been made clear to them in recent statements that both these groups and their chief sponsors in Iran believe that the mass murders on October 7 were justified and that they were good. As a Christian I have no option but to continue to believe that Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre is disproportionate. Furthermore, it virtually guarantees the emergence of two more generations of Palestinians radicalised into violent revenge for the Israeli government’s retaliation.

Yet, what can I know of this? I’ve never encountered the slightest degree of jeopardy in my life. My personal security and comfort has been guaranteed by Britain’s wars of empire and by a state which thought nothing of slaughtering 25,000 German citizens over three days in February, 1945, for no other reason than to weaken the resolve of ordinary people to continue a war which had already been won and lost.

I know something, though. I know how my government would respond if a foreign aggressor kidnapped, raped, tortured and slaughtered hundreds of UK nationals and then gleefully posted images of their final agonies on social media. And I know that the vast majority of us would quickly get over any of our moral and ethical misgivings.

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At Westminster earlier this year, Open Doors, a respected NGO which supports Christians worldwide, chronicled the extent to which Christians are persecuted across the globe.

It found that in 2023, around 365 million Christians were subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination” compared to 340 million in 2021. The vast majority of the thousands of Christians killed for their faith each year are murdered by Islamist death squads in Nigeria.

You’ll never see any protests about this here, though. Many of those participating in the weekly anti-Israel marches might be reluctant to raise an eyebrow either about Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, owing to their opposition to NATO.

Some of us are choosy about what upsets us. And the Jews and their lands have always been fair game. It’s why anti-Semitism is rightly described as “the longest hatred”.

Kevin McKenna is a Herald writer and columnist. This year is his 40th in newspapers. Among his paltry list of professional achievements is that he’s never been approached by any political party or lobbying firm to be on their payroll