DDU has supporters from across the political divide. We recognise that people will draw different political conclusions following the events of recent days. Nevertheless, we feel compelled to make an ethical statement. We believe that, if it ever was such, Hamas has now abandoned any claim of being legitimate advocates for Palestinian interests. Its actions seem also to have given the green light to some within Britain to explicitly voice what has, largely, remained implicit. That is to say; identity politics, or more specifically, its race-based variant epitomised by the Black Lives Matter group and other so-called anti-racist groups, is in perfect alignment with the oldest racism in town – anti-Semitism.

While some openly celebrated the massacre of Jews as being decolonisation in practice (in the process grossly insulting previous generations of people fighting for national sovereignty), some Jewish schools in London have closed to ensure their pupils’ safety on this Hamas-inspired ‘day of rage’. If reports are accurate this has already claimed a teacher in France, murdered by a supporter of the Gazan terror group. This is not the crybully calls of the seven people who said they felt psychologically unsafe in the presence of someone voicing DDU’s beliefs, this is evidence that in today’s Britain and on the continent, some people still feel they face a real threat of violence because of their religion. In a secular liberal democracy like Britain, this is unacceptable. DDU aims to expose and challenge all forms of racist ideas in Britain, whatever faux-progressive guise in which they appear.

Update: 23 October 2023
We are glad others are showing solidarity with Jewish people facing anti-Semitism here and elsewhere in the world: see British Friends of Israel.