"Let me be clear: it is unacceptable that there is anti-Semitism in this country. It is even worse that incidents are reportedly on the rise. And it is disgusting that these twisted views are being found in British politics… Anti-Semitism should have no place in politics and no place in this country. And I am proud to lead a party that takes the firmest stand against it."
− Then-Prime Minister Theresa May, December 2016
"As a government we are making a real difference. Indeed, when I was Home Secretary we took what I believe was an important step in gauging a truer picture of the problem, requiring all police forces to record religious hate crimes separately, by faith. And I made sure we kept extremism – including the sort that peddles anti-Semitic vitriol – out of our country. That is why I said no to so-called comedians like Dieudonne coming to Britain. It’s why I stopped Pamella Geller, Robert Spencer and Pastor Terry Jones coming too – since Islamophobia comes from the same wellspring of hatred. It is why I kicked out Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada as well."
− Then-Prime Minister Theresa May, December 2016
"Today I want to announce how we are going even further. In response to the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Britain will be adopting a formal definition of anti-Semitism. Just last week, we were at the forefront to try to ensure that the definition was adopted across the continent too, at the summit of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The result was 56 countries in favour. One country opposed it: Russia. But, as I said, we will adopt it here in the UK. That means there will be one definition of anti-Semitism – in essence, language or behaviour that displays hatred towards Jews because they are Jews – and anyone guilty of that will be called out on it."
− Then-Prime Minister Theresa May, December 2016
"It happened, therefore it can happen again”. Primo Levi’s words capture with an almost beautiful simplicity the central lesson of the Shoah, so much so that they are carved into the subterranean walls of Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Yet today, more than 70 years since the liberation of the death camps, both the Holocaust and Levi’s warning are slipping to the fringes of living memory. Now more than ever we cannot allow that to happen. Because in 2015 history is beginning to repeat itself. Across Europe, anti-Semitism is on the rise. It’s easy to dismiss. To see ‘liars’ painted across an advert for a Holocaust Memorial event, and say it’s just petty vandalism. Or to hear Dutch football fans chanting “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” and say it’s just a few bad apples. Or to see a Rabbi being chased through Gateshead by a gang and say it’s an isolated incident. To do so ignores the grim reality. In the past 3 years Jewish schools, shops, museums and places of worship have been attacked by gunmen in Toulouse… in Paris… in Brussels… and in Copenhagen. In civilised Western Europe, in the 21st century, Jews are once again being murdered simply for being Jews... The Holocaust began with nothing more than words. Then came the insults, boycotts, discrimination. The noxious weed of anti-Semitism crept insidiously into everyday life degrading, denouncing and dehumanising its victims…"
− Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt. Hon. Sajid Javid MP, September 2015
