On a day when Jaya joins me on the school run, after picking Joshua up from Kings we stop off at a BP/Asda service station. I get a black coffee and the kids share a sandwich and chocolate bar in a £3.75 meal deal. It is now a ritual. Today as I waited for my coffee to pour another Kings boy came up to Joshua and started talking.
Somehow we got onto the fact that Joshua was off to his Welsh lesson and that he is increasingly bilingual. The other kid piped up that he spoke two languages as well: English and Arabic.
It was at this juncture that I realized that despite it being only 6 above zero I was wearing a T shirt I bought after October 7 with a Star of David on it and the words “You don’t need to be Jewish to stand up for Israel, just Human.” The kid was staring intensely at my T-shirt.
So where do your family come from? Said I, hoping desperately that he was a Christian from Aleppo but he was not. Palestine said he and at that point his Dad bundled over and started staring at my shirt too. I touched him on the arm and said “I think we must agree to disagree” and we parted ways. It was clearly very awkward indeed. The look on the kid’s face was one of horror, as if I was wearing a shirt featuring Greg Wallace.
I am embarrassed on two counts. One it may cause issues for Joshua if the kid is told that we are evil Jews, though, as it happens, we are not, we are Christians but also just humans.
And secondly I feel a bit ashamed for not being a bit more strident. I should have said that I bought the short after October 7 and left it at that.
Jews have not felt as threatened in the UK as they do now for 80 years. If I waive the right to support them and the Jewish state I am a coward. And, on this matter at least, I am not.
Somehow we got onto the fact that Joshua was off to his Welsh lesson and that he is increasingly bilingual. The other kid piped up that he spoke two languages as well: English and Arabic.
It was at this juncture that I realized that despite it being only 6 above zero I was wearing a T shirt I bought after October 7 with a Star of David on it and the words “You don’t need to be Jewish to stand up for Israel, just Human.” The kid was staring intensely at my T-shirt.
So where do your family come from? Said I, hoping desperately that he was a Christian from Aleppo but he was not. Palestine said he and at that point his Dad bundled over and started staring at my shirt too. I touched him on the arm and said “I think we must agree to disagree” and we parted ways. It was clearly very awkward indeed. The look on the kid’s face was one of horror, as if I was wearing a shirt featuring Greg Wallace.
I am embarrassed on two counts. One it may cause issues for Joshua if the kid is told that we are evil Jews, though, as it happens, we are not, we are Christians but also just humans.
And secondly I feel a bit ashamed for not being a bit more strident. I should have said that I bought the short after October 7 and left it at that.
Folks are allowed to march through our streets every weekend chanting “from the River to the Sea” and Jewish businesses in the UK are routinely attacked. Though we are now in Islamophobia awareness month, you are c40 times more likely to be attacked for being a Jew in this country than for being a Muslim. So why the hell should I not show my support for Israel? If the someone does not believe in my right to express that view while defending the marchers for Hamas then, with the greatest of respect, he or she can just go fuck themselves.
Jews have not felt as threatened in the UK as they do now for 80 years. If I waive the right to support them and the Jewish state I am a coward. And, on this matter at least, I am not.