#BattleFest2018: Understanding anti-Semitism today

Recording of a debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.

From racist attacks to ominous  propaganda, anti-Semitism appears to be  making a comeback in Europe. In the UK,  the Labour Party has been very publicly  split over how it deals with the issue.  In one respect, it looks like the simple  return of what has been called ‘the longest  hatred’. But while anti-Semitism has long  been seen as a right-wing phenomenon,  particularly since the Nazis, today’s anti-Semites are more likely to rail against Jews  in the name of the Palestinians, a favourite  cause of the left. Is hatred of Jews really on  the rise? Is it re-emerging in new forms? 

RICHARD ANGELL 
director, Progress; elected member,  TUC’s LGBT committee; formerly worked  for All Party Parliamentary Group on  Combatting Antisemitism 

DR STEPHEN LAW
philosopher; author, The War For Children’s  Minds 

BRENDAN O’NEILL 
editor, spiked; columnist, Penthouse; writer  the Sun and the Spectator; author, A Duty  to Offend 

JULIAN PETLEY 
professor of journalism, Brunel University;  editorial board member, British Journalism  Review; principal editor, Journal of British  Cinema and Television 

MELANIE PHILLIPS 
columnist, The Times; regular panellist,  BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze; author, The  Legacy and best-selling book, Londonistan 

CHAIR: JACOB FUREDI 
junior commissioning editor, Daily Mail