'Zionism is anti-Jewish': British Jews explain their turn away from Israel

Joel Samuels, a 38-year-old Jewish actor, writer and activist, says he believes a "reckoning" is taking place among Jewish communities in Britain.

“There is a reason the language around October 7 was linked to the Holocaust,” Samuels explains, referring to the Hamas attack in southern Israel that left more than 1,100 people dead.

“If you consistently root things in our major collective trauma… then the only solution and the only way we will be safe is by having this outpost of western imperialism.

“The abuse of the Holocaust… to keep us in fear to maintain Israel is not something that I think is understood by Jews."

Samuels is one of a growing number of British Jews who have become increasingly disillusioned with Israel and the promise of Zionism, as well as increasingly involved in the pro-Palestinian movement.

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