Stephen Fry calls out antisemitism in Christmas Day speech for Channel 4

18 December 2023 , 23:01

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Stephen Fry calls out antisemitism in Christmas Day speech for Channel 4

Stephen Fry will demand antisemitism is called out in a Christmas Day speech.

Fry, 66, will speak out about his Jewish heritage to condemn the hate that followed the attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7. In a Channel 4 message, he tells how his mother’s Jewish family came here from Europe in the 1930s but he never thought being Jewish would cause problems.

But he quotes a police figure of a 1,350 percent rise in antisemitic incidents since October 7. He says: “Jewish people here are becoming fearful of showing themselves. In Britain in 2023. Can you imagine?” Fry says his Jewish grandparents “believed Britishness meant being fair and decent”, adding: “The horrendous events of October 7 and Israeli response have stirred up this ancient hatred.”

Stephen Fry will demand antisemitism is called out in a Christmas Day speech

He calls on people to “call out venomous slurs”. He adds: “I don’t believe most Britons are OK living in a society judging hatred of Jews to be the one acceptable form of racism.” Channel 4’s Ian Katz called the speech “brave and personal”.

In the 10-minute speech, he says: “The great Irish thinker and writer Conor Cruise O’Brien once said that ‘antisemitism is a light sleeper’. Well, it seems to have woken up of late.

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“The horrendous events of October the 7th and the Israeli response, seem to have stirred up this ancient hatred. It’s agonising to see all the violence and destruction that’s unfolding, and the terrible loss of life on both sides brings me an overwhelming sadness and heartache.

“But whatever our opinions on what is happening, there can be no excuse for the behaviour of some of our citizens.” Fry calls on society to speak out against antisemitism.

“So what is my message this Christmas: the simple truth that we are all brothers and sisters? It’s naive, but it’s as good a message as any other,” he says. “At this time in the face of the greatest rise in anti-Jewish racism since records began, Jews should stand upright and proud in who they are.

"And so should you, whatever your genetic makeup. Knowing and loving this country as I do, I don’t believe that most Britons are ok living in a society that judges hatred of Jews to be the one acceptable form of racism.

“So speak up, stand with us, be proud to be Jewish or Jew-ish – or, if not Jewish at all, proud to have us as much a part of this great nation as any other minority, as any of you.”

Nicola Methven