I’ve always envied the ‘Orange Order’ in Belfast. Because they have… Marching Season!!! Like their own season, solely to march down the streets wearing bowler hats and orange sashes, just to upset, annoy and provoke the Catholics. Well, there’s probably some deeper meaning but it’s mainly to provoke the Catholics. And who can blame them? It’s almost as if the blossoms have all dropped, the geese have flown, the Marchers can come out.

Jews don’t get a season. We don’t deserve one. We just get a day now and then for our marches. Not to provoke the Catholics, specifically, but to protest against antisemitism. Today was that day. And in the glorious sunshine, we donned our flags, grabbed a placard and… errrr… marched.

Well, not at first. First you have to bump into 34 people you haven’t seen for absolutely aaaaaaaages, darling, and show them pictures of your grandchildren. Though mine then arrived and spoiled that pleasure completely. Then you have to wait for the ‘start’ of the march, because the Chief Rabbi is there along with… Richard Tice?? Yes, an odd little duo. They weren’t actually together, even Mr Tice can’t get within 20 yards of the Reb because of his security. Normal people can, but no-one connected to the Reform Party. Nice of him to drop by anyway, because supporting Jews is not a vote-winner. And as the number 2 person in ‘the next governing party’, he’ll know that he may have gained the admiration of our nation’s 250,000 Jews, but he instantly lost the votes of our 4million Muslims. You do da maffs.

People came from far and wide. Some as far as Edgware, just to come and march. There were people in wheelchairs. And I had to question them as to whether ‘rolling’ should be including in the term ‘marching’? I know it seems pedantic, but what would they do in Belfast?

We marched to the BBC and sang horrible songs to them. Were they listening in there? Doubtful, but we’ll find out later in their news reports. If they say: “this bunch of Jews came here today and sang ‘shame on YOU, BBC’ and so we’re repositioning our stance on the horrible way we’ve been reporting from Gaza, condemning Israel for things they haven’t done. I’m so glad those 15,000 passed by and showed us the errors of our ways”.

But the fact of the matter is; antisemitism is not just ‘here’, because it’s always ‘here’. It’s just that now it’s coming to the surface again. I understand that people feel terrible about the horrors in Gaza. But attacking bearded men in black hats walking the streets of Hackney will not save even one starving child. Yet the ‘hate’ has spread from hating Israel to hating all Jews. According to a report today, 1 in 5 Brittons is antisemitic. I would say that is a vast understatement. Those 1 in 5 would all, like Jeremy Corbyn, maintain that they ‘have no problem with Jewish people, I have Jewish friends!!!’, but the answers to the survey questions would have told a different story.

I’m not a paranoid person, I’m the opposite: stupidly complacent and naive with a strong belief that ‘humanity is wonderful’. But I hear all the time, as we sit in our lovely comfortable homes, people who say: “is this what Germany looked like in 1932?”

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

So we marched. A march of love and peace and enjoyment. And hope.

Happy Marching Sunday

A xxxx