I was violently attacked, again. Is it time for me to leave the UK?
When even the great institutions of the UK are more likely to be standing against British Jews than standing alongside them, is it just time for me to pack up and leave?
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This is a guest essay written by David Collier, a British investigative journalist exposing extremism and antisemitism.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
A few nights ago, violent antisemitic thugs threw an aggressive chemical-based substance at my car causing substantial damage.
Unlike a previous “key” attack a few weeks ago — that may have arguably (although it wasn’t) been seen as random — this violent escalation is clearly a targeted hate crime directed against a vocal and front-line fighter of antisemitism in the United Kingdom.
Strangely though, that is not my biggest problem, nor is this essay really about the attack itself. When you take up a fight against bad people, you should expect those bad people to react as bad people do.
A more worrying problem is the wider environment that I find myself fighting inside. I am left wondering just who is on my side and what exactly I am left fighting for? When even the great institutions of the UK are more likely to be standing against British Jews than standing alongside them, is it just time for me to pack up and leave?
At some point during the recent attack, one or more Jew-hating thugs visited my house, maliciously and violently attacking the car parked outside. I am not sure exactly which aggressive chemical substance they used as paint stripper — and the police were not certain either — but I am not sure that detail matters.
Working away from home at the time, the surprise of this attack was met by my family the following morning. The car had been targeted from several positions, and the damage covered different parts of the exterior.
There can be no mistake here. My family spent the next day talking to the police. This was a targeted hate crime. An attack against me because of my journalism which exposes extremism and antisemitism.
I am in the United Kingdom fighting what I know to be a just, necessary, and moral fight. In any sane world, my enemies — the various anti-democratic, life-threatening monsters who all swim in sewers of extremism, conspiracy theory, and anti-Jewish hatred — would also be the enemies of not just the state, but of its institutions, and any decent, intelligent British citizen living within its shores. We should all be invested in the well-being of the democracy and value-driven soul of the UK.
It is also natural that, in a normal world, UK media would rush to make sure my story was told. A Jewish Londoner on the front line against anti-Jewish racism, and my car had been attacked with acid. It is likely that media outlets such as the BBC and The Guardian would pick up the fight for me and carry such a story for days in any normal world.
I am also a journalist. And I have been attacked because extremists do not like the result of my investigative work. In a normal world, politicians and media would rush to defend press freedom and would see a physical attack on a journalist at his home — as a threat against a pillar of our democratic values.
But this is not a normal world.
Sadly, the world of 2025 is anything but a normal world.
My investigative reporting has highlighted key problems, both with the infiltration of extremist ideologies into mainstream society, as well as a suicidal blindness on the part of the moderate majority, to understand or acknowledge the depth of the problems they are facing. The UK is pandering to a streak of tigers that will eat it alive.
Which means I am a Jewish fighter against antisemitism in a world in which the BBC (the British state broadcaster) does deal with Hamas terrorists and relies on journalists who want to “burn Jews.”
While considering someone like me an “untouchable,” elitist BBC journalists have no problem platforming those who support radical Islamic terrorism. My dad fought for this country. As did my grandparents. And the BBC journalists hold hands with terrorists and see me as the problem? Just when did this world become so messed up?
I live in a world in which dozens of Jewish representatives are so desperate to been seen as “good Jews” — they sell out the Jewish state for a piece of empty virtue signalling. Yet, as they place this mark above their own door saying, “Good Jew lives here,” they also help to place one above mine, marking my family as a target.
I live in a world in which our unions, universities, the health service, and even some schools have become hostile environments for Jewish people. And the response of our government is to rush to celebrate “Islamophobia” Awareness Month.
A world in which the UK’s press regulator stands up for those who equate innocent Israelis taken hostage with terrorists held in Israeli jails! This insane and self-harming reasoning would make Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester bomber, a “hostage” held by the British authorities.
A world in which self-appointed anti-extremist NGOs like “Hope not Hate” are obsessing over calling everyone “Far-Right,” while completely downplaying the Islamist threat.
A world in which Jewish children are scared to publicly identify as Jewish, while the UK government rushes to adopt a definition of “Islamophobia,” which will only make it harder for Jewish people to stand up against many of the extremists who target them.
The suicidal insanity never ends. I live in a world in which the police try to pretend jihad is some type of yoga class, and allow open provocations specifically targeting the Jewish community while arresting people for holding up a banner stating that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
Although I have been assaulted twice, attacked on numerous occasions, and have gathered more information on antisemitism in the UK than almost any other private individual, the government “tsar” for antisemitism, John Mann, has never once reached out to talk to me. It isn’t like I have been quiet.
Every single one of Mann’s posts on X that contain the word “antisemitism” over the last year has involved political point-scoring against the Right wing. The main target? The Conservative Party, as if they are the biggest threat that UK Jewry faces! And again, that isn’t really the issue. The real problem is that this ridiculous political skew is visible, obvious — and absolutely nobody cares. This emperor has no clothes.
The truth is that John Mann’s interest in antisemitism never really extended much beyond personal ambition, factional infighting, and ridding the Labour Party of the Jeremy Corbyn clan, and his recent refusal to attend an antisemitism conference in Israel, as if he somehow knows more about all this than “us Jews” (just another in a long list of weak and inexcusable actions that highlight he, nor the UK government, understand what modern antisemitism really is, nor how it is spreading).
And this is the reality of the UK’s fight against antisemitism. It is mostly performative, toothless, and meaningless box-ticking in a nation that has lost complete control of its borders and is running scared of a growing Islamist threat that nobody knows how to deal with.
And how about the so-called Jewish representative organisations such as the Board of Deputies? They certainly always run to ride on the back of my successes. But I have my life threatened on almost a daily basis — I am consistently targeted by toxic outlets such as PRESS TV — and the public support I get from our official Jewish leadership? Absolutely zero. They seem far more interested in ensuring the flow of invitations to the gala dinners continue to arrive, or engaging in “interfaith” with people that want to wipe Israel off the map, than they do in anything else.
The truth is that I am left fighting for a UK that won’t stand by me and does not seem to want to fight for itself. So, the question I ask myself is: What’s the point? Why not just get on a plane and go to Israel, where I lived from between 1987 and 2006? I (unlike most Brits) actually have a nation that will protect and defend me. Even though I was born in the UK, why stick up for a nation that does not even seem to want to stick up for itself?
The cowardly Jewish leadership do not actually represent the Jewish community; the police are lost; the education system is turning our children into “progressive”; dumbed-down clones; the government is acting like a band playing music on a sinking ship; and much of legacy media has been overrun by naïve, bloated, arrogant and decadent supremacists (or ex-Al Jazeera staffers) who together are spinning lies daily to their British audience.
So, why do I stay?
The answer is simple: both because I was born here, and this is where I can make a difference. I was brought up waving the flag and singing “God Save the Queen.” I have studied my history — and I know where capitulation, cowardice, and appeasement will lead. I cannot afford to turn my back.
My family members have fought for this country before, and I will continue to fight for it now. Even if I am attacked for it.
German Jews thought that they were German too because their ancestors had fought for that country in WW1. Didn't help them 1 bit.
The situation in the UK, like in Canada and Australia is getting very bad. Looking into alternative plans might not be a bad idea. Doesn't mean you have to run tomorrow. But it doesnt look like its going to be getting any better anytime soon. So hedge your bets.
Personally, here in the US, I make sure to keep our passports up to date. Always have.
I've been somewhat aware that the public safety situation in the UK for Jewish folks was iffy. This sounds more than just iffy. Take measures to protect yourself.