A timeline: the SJA, Gail’s, and institutional failure

Here’s a timeline for you.

• 6 weeks ago: Jonathan Liew writes a piece for the Guardian arguing that the presence of a Gail’s bakery near a Palestinian cafe constituted “heavy-handed high-street aggression.” Smashing its windows and daubing of graffiti on its shopfront — incidents the Metropolitan Police are investigating as hate crimes — were “small acts of petty symbolism.” He called the bakery chain a “predator.”

• The Guardian’s own Jewish staff said they were “gaslit” by their editors. One described it as “a classic case of progressive antisemitism.” The paper eventually amended the piece — no apology, naturally, just a quiet edit and a note about avoiding “misunderstanding.” As if the only problem were one of comprehension, not conscience.

• Last night — the Sports Journalists’ Association and Canon EMEA gave him “Columnist of the Year”.

I wrote recently about the gap between what the British people actually believe and what British institutions are prepared to say on their behalf. About how that gap has become a chasm, and how into that chasm a great deal has fallen. The SJA just threw something else in.

Apparently, you can write a piece that Jewish journalists at your own paper can tell you it was antisemitic, that the police can classify the acts you minimised as hate crimes, the article can be amended because even the Guardian couldn’t quite stand behind it — and six weeks later, your peers will hand you a trophy and Canon EMEA will put its name on the evening.

The Sports Journalists’ Association and Canon EMEA should be embarrassed. The rest of us should note, calmly and precisely, that this is what institutional failure looks like. A thousand small acts of looking the other way, dressed up as professional recognition.

The British state — its institutions, its media, its governing class — has decided that some things matter less than others. The SJA, last night, at the Palladium, with Canon’s name on the programme, confirmed which side of that calculation British Jews fall on.

Hello non-Jewish allies. Tell me, if a journalist had written that a black British owned business was committing “heavy handed high-street aggression” by opening near a old fashioned white British cafe, and that when it was vandalised this was “a small act of petty symbolism” — would you condemn them receiving such an award 6 weeks later? I would.

If a journalist had written that an LGBT-proud business was committing “heavy handed high-street aggression” by opening near a church, and that when it was vandalised this was “a small act of petty symbolism” — would you condemn them receiving such an award 6 weeks later? I would.

Will the last British Jew to leave please turn out the lights?