Prince Harry has penned a new opinion piece in The New Statesman urging people to stand firmly against antisemitism and warning that silence allows hate and extremism to flourish
The Duke of Sussex has expressed his alarm about the “deeply troubling” rise in antisemitism throughout the UK in a recent opinion piece. Harry stressed the importance of “legitimate protest”, revealing that he felt compelled to speak out because in his view staying quiet allows “hate and extremism to flourish unchecked”.
Penning his thoughts in The New Statesman, he drew attention to recent “lethal violence” aimed at the Jewish community in Manchester and London, declaring that “hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice”.
Harry also acknowledged the “deep and justified alarm” concerning the extent of casualties in Gaza and Lebanon but insisted people must be more “clear” about where their anger is directed.
The Duke wrote: “We have seen how legitimate protest against state actions in the Middle East does exist alongside hostility toward Jewish communities at home – just as we have also seen how criticism of those actions can be too easily dismissed or mischaracterised.”, reports the Mirror.
“Nothing, whether criticism of a government or the reality of violence and destruction, can ever justify hostility toward an entire people or faith.”
He recognised he had grown from his own “past mistakes”. In January 2005, aged 20, Harry was photographed wearing a Nazi uniform to a party. The article criticises the lack of subtlety in much of the media discourse following the recent surge of antisemitic incidents in the UK. The duke expresses his concern over how polarised public debate has become, cautioning that it exacerbates the confusion that “fuels division”.
Harry recognised that the impulse to speak out, protest and demand an end to suffering was “human and necessary”, but stressed that people must understand that the “onus falls squarely on the state – not an entire people”.
Despite frequently referring to “the state” throughout the piece, he does not mention Israel directly at any point in the New Statesman article.
Harry penned: “We cannot ignore a difficult truth: when states act without accountability, and in ways that raise serious questions under international humanitarian law – criticism is both legitimate, necessary and essential in any democracy.
“The consequences do not remain contained within borders. They reverberate outward, shaping perception, inflaming tensions.”
During an investiture ceremony on Wednesday, the daughter of Holocaust survivors disclosed that the Prince of Wales told her it is crucial to “preserve the truth” as she was awarded an OBE.
Speaking to the Press Association after the ceremony, Dr Bea Lewkowicz said William “pointed out that, especially now, it is important to, kind of, preserve the truth, because we live in this era of digital media” with “Holocaust distortion and rising antisemitism”.
Harry concluded his piece with an appeal for “unity” and called on people to take a firm stance against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred “wherever it appears”. “When anger is turned towards communities – whether Jewish, Muslim, or any other – it ceases to be a call for justice and becomes something far more corrosive,” he wrote.
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