The fear Scottish Jews have been experiencing involves not only hostile individuals and groups they encounter in their personal experiences, but organizations and government agencies, which have turned a corner in an alarming way against Israel, with implied and real consequence for Scottish Jews:
“I used to be comfortable as a Jew in Scotland, but not any more. The reason is quite simply the antipathy of many Scots towards Israel, fuelled by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, that has been growing over the years and has now tipped into anti-Semitism.” (F, 60s, Edinburgh)
“The Scottish Government needs to address its obsession with Israel – it is an obsession! The Scottish Parliament passes more motions on Israel, doesn’t condemn by comparison what’s happening in Syria, Libya, Nigeria. I could go on, going round the world, all the things it’s not exercised about. That is a serious distortion of perspective, it has no effect on Israel but it certainly has an effect on Jewish people here.” (M, 60s, East Coast)
“The aggressively worded e-mail I received from my MP in response to my challenging him over Gaza last summer, upset me and unnerved me. I began to fear that anti-Semitism was being legitimized by such attitudes within Government. It is incredible that the police had to attend our synagogue to reassure us of their support at that time.” (F, 30s, Edinburgh)
The editors of the survey noted that in both the new and the 2012 inquiry they asked the same introductory question: “What’s good about being Jewish in Scotland?” In contrast to the previous inquiry, when nearly all respondents were able to say something good about being Jewish in Scotland, no fewer than 13 survey respondents (11%) felt unable to give any positive response:
“Nothing.” (Anon)
“I don’t find anything that is good about being Jewish in Scotland.” (F, 60s, Glasgow)
“Nothing really.” (F, 60s, Glasgow)
“I’m struggling to answer this.”
(F, 40s, Glasgow)
