The tragic events in Norway last weekend demonstrate once again how terrible the consequences of racism and extremism can be. Like the Norwegians, we in this country pride ourselves on our long tradition of fairness and on our respect for minority communities. And yet even in modern Britain, prejudice and hatred continue to blight the lives of many. An issue which should give us special concern in North London, with our flourishing Jewish community, is the persistence of anti-semitism which survives despite all efforts to eliminate it.
For many years, I have been involved in efforts to combat anti-semitism. As far back as the late 80s, I lobbied Parliament for action to help Jewish Refusniks who were subject to prejudice and discrimination by Soviet authorities when they applied to emigrate to Israel.
But one of the most effective projects I have been involved in was the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism. Reporting in September 2006, this cross-party group of MPs produced authoritative research on the scale of the problem and its pernicious modern forms.
But we all know that such reports can often end up gathering dust on a shelf, without really changing anything. So a few weeks ago, I took part in a panel event at Woodside Park Synagogue to reflect on what had been achieved in the five years since the report’s publication.
It is clear that both the previous Government and the current one have taken the conclusions of the Inquiry very seriously. There have been three formal Government responses setting out progress on addressing the issues raised.
For example, when the Inquiry was hearing evidence from witnesses in Parliament, I was shocked to learn that most police forces had no procedures for recording anti-semitic incidents. An agreement has now been reached for all police forces to record anti-semitic hate crimes and the first official statistics on this have been released.
Extra security funding has been confirmed for Jewish schools. The Holocaust Educational Trust and their “Lessons from Auschwitz” project also continues to receive Government support and funding to take school children from across the country to visit the site of this notorious concentration camp. It is difficult to think of anything which could be more effective in combating anti-semitism than telling children about horrendous consequences it has had in the past.
However, there is still more to be done. Hate crime and anti-semitic stereotypes continue to flourish on the internet. Anti-semitism on campus was highlighted in the 2006 report and progress here has been harder than on many other issues covered by the Inquiry. Even more shocking, anti-semitism was recently revealed at the United Nations when a highly placed human rights adviser to the UN posted an anti-semitic cartoon on his personal blog. Sadly we need continued vigilance on this issue and I am committed to continuing my long-running campaign against anti-semitism in all its forms.