For too long we have harbored those who hate us. We are now one year after the October 7 massacre in which 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens were tortured, raped and murdered by the barbaric Hamas terrorists.
But for the 101 hostages still trapped in Hamas hands, including a Briton, the ordeal is not over yet.
Now, as then, we must support Israel as it works to rescue the hostages and defeat the Islamist militant groups on its doorstep intent on annihilating them.
The response here in Britain to this evil attack exposed a deep sickness at the very heart of our society. Thousands of people immediately took to the streets here in the UK to celebrate the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. Before Israel had responded, masked protesters were seen valorizing Hamas, throwing projectiles and vandalizing buildings.
Since then, our country has become unrecognizable from the liberal and tolerant nation we like to pride ourselves on.
The response here in Britain to this evil attack exposed a deep sickness at the very heart of our society. (Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square)
Pro-Palestinian protesters hold smoke flares as they cling to a traffic light outside Downing Street.
Conservative MP and leadership candidate Robert Jenrick attends a community memorial event dedicated to the memory of the victims of the October 7 attack.
Tens of thousands took to the streets to sing “from the river to the sea,” a genocidal song that, consciously or unconsciously, called for the elimination of Israel. The flags of Hamas and Hezbollah flew proudly in London, and masked men acting with impunity chanted jihad on Oxford Street.
At that time, other colleagues and I expressed concern about the police response. While the French banned marches riddled with anti-Semitism and terrorism sympathizers, we simply had to watch.
I have seen the police take harsher action against football fans than the mobs who desecrate our war memorials and attend events organized by those with links to Hamas.
Our political elite also seemed intimidated. When an Islamist mob gathered outside Parliament the night before a decisive parliamentary vote on the ensuing conflict, the president bowed to outside pressure. It fell to a few of us in the House to denounce the Islamists behind this and their far-left sympathizers, and demand a strong response.
With such a cowardly response from our leaders, this disease in our society has grown.
We have seen an explosion of antisemitism, and polls today show that a staggering 16 per cent of young Britons believe the attacks carried out by Hamas were justified, a figure rising to 28 per cent for those who identify as ” very leftist.” ‘.
It’s time for us to stand up and show some guts. The longer weak politicians like Sir Keir Starmer maintain a conspiracy of silence on Islamism, the more fractured our society will become.
That means systematically rooting out those who despise Britain and our values and have no right to remain here.
Crowds hold candles and banners during a minute’s silence showing photographs of Israeli hostages as Jewish groups in the UK mark the first anniversary of October 7.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are seen on their way to cross the Israel-Gaza border fence from Khan Younis during the Hamas-led attack on October 7.
As Minister of Immigration I revoked the visas of those who valued Hamas after October 7; There is no excuse for Yvette Cooper not to do the same, whenever possible, with any of those who support Hezbollah, as we saw over the weekend.
Yes, the growing threat of incels becoming radicalized online is a concern, but the Labor Party should not distract our counter-extremism experts from what the data shows is the biggest problem: Islamist extremists sowing division on our streets. and communities.
We urgently need to change our laws to combat the scale of extremism on our streets. Currently, the threshold for prosecution is “incitement” or “encouragement”, so cheerleaders of terrorist groups manage to fall below the criminal threshold. Any expression of support for terrorism, whether designed to provoke emulation or not, should have no place in our society.
And finally we must close the loopholes that allow extremist groups to be banned. We can no longer wait to outlaw the IRGC. Therefore, we must capture extremist groups that are not involved in terrorism – such as the Friends of Al Aqsa or the Palestinian Forum in Britain – but that harm our communities and public order, by creating a new category to ban organizations .
There is no time to waste. Our country is fractured, divided by those who despise us. We must stand up and fight, or risk losing the caring and tolerant country we all love.