Prince Harry has used an opinion article published in The New Statesman this week to warn of what he called a 'deeply troubling' rise in antisemitism in the UK, saying hostility towards Jewish people was being allowed to blur into public anger over events in the Middle East.
Writing from California but addressing Britain directly, the Duke of Sussex said he felt compelled to speak because silence lets 'hate and extremism' grow unchecked, and argued that criticism of a state must never be turned on to an entire faith or community.
In his New Statesman essay, titled 'MY FEARS FOR OUR DIVIDED KINGDOM', Prince Harry argues that British Jews are 'being made to feel unsafe in the very places they call home' and that this should 'alarm us, but also unite us.'
He frames the recent surge in antisemitic incidents as part of a broader problem with public discourse. 'Over the past several years, I have spoken about the consequences of a world in which outrage outpaces humanity – where fear and division are amplified faster than truth, and where people are too easily reduced to categories, identities or opposing sides,' he writes.
MY FEARS FOR OUR DIVIDED KINGDOMBY PRINCE HARRYOver the past several years, I have spoken about the consequences of a world in which outrage outpaces humanity – where fear and division are amplified faster than truth, and where people are too easily reduced to categories,…pic.twitter.com/EAydV0wUNK
The Duke links that pattern directly to events in the UK. 'Across the country, we are seeing a deeply troubling rise in anti‑Semitism,' he says, adding that recent episodes of 'lethal violence in London and Manchester have brought this into sharp and deeply troubling focus.'
Throughout the piece, he stresses that his criticism is not aimed at protest itself. '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,' he argues.
A central theme of the article is Prince Harry's insistence that people in Britain must be much clearer about the targets of their anger when they respond to conflict abroad.
He acknowledges what he calls 'deep and justified alarm' about casualties in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, and accepts that the impulse 'to speak out, to march, to demand accountability' is 'human and necessary.'
But he warns that 'these two realities are being dangerously conflated': on one side, legitimate criticism of governments and state actions; on the other, hostility aimed at whole communities.
Source: International Business Times UK
