British Jews protest rising antisemitism at a demonstration last summer. Photo: Twitter

A leading British Jewish columnist has charged British media outlets with hypocrisy for decrying the rise in antisemitism on the one hand, while contributing to its escalation through biased reporting about Israel on the other.

Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Alex Brummer noted that the “campaign of abuse and delegitimization of Israel has been relentless through successive military campaigns in response to terror and rocket attacks. It reached a crescendo during the seven-week Operation Protective Edge operation in the summer of last year.”

Brummer declared it “troubling” that media outlets contributing to this perception are “now laudably publishing articles decrying the rise of antisemitism in Britain and anti-Jewish violence and death in France.”

“What they singularly fail to do is join up the dots and recognise they have contributed to abuse and violence against Jews as anti-Zionism has transmogrified into antisemitic acts,” Brummer said.

Brummer argued that traditional forms of antisemitism have played virtually no role in the escalation of antisemitic violence and opinion.

“It is not the old tropes of ‘Jews chasing money’ that led to the tragic violence in Paris,” Brummer said. “Nor did they cause the surge in antisemitic incidents in the UK that made it impossible for Jews in Pinner [a heavily Jewish London suburb] to go to shul without being subjected to abuse. It was deeply biased reporting from the Middle East that turned Palestinians into permanent victims and Jews into oppressors.”

Said Brummer: “What is really objectionable is that the very same media that for decades has jabbed its finger at Israel, demonizing the Jewish state, is now rushing to the barriers as the defenders of Jews against antisemitism.”