Prince Harry speaks out about the ‘deeply troubling’ antisemitism in Britain and says he’s learned from his own ‘past mistakes’ – decades after wearing a Nazi uniform to a party
Prince Harry has spoken out about antisemitism in Britain and claims he has learned from his own ‘past mistakes’ – decades after wearing a Nazi uniform to a party.
A wave of recent antisemitic attacks have targeted the Jewish community prompting calls to ban pro-Palestine ‘hate marches’ and police forces to bolster their enforcement teams.
Two worshippers were knifed to death at a Manchester synagogue during the holiday of Yom Kippur in October, while two men were stabbed on the streets of Golders Green in north London last month.
And there has been a series of similarly concerning incidents in the intervening months, leaving many British Jews afraid to show their faith publicly.
The Duke of Sussex has now penned an opinion piece in The New Statesman, lamenting the ‘deeply troubling’ antisemitism currently on the rise in the UK.
Referencing the recent attacks, Harry said that ‘hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice’.
The Duke also said he had learned from his own ‘past mistakes’, 21 years on from the infamous photograph of him wearing a Nazi uniform to a party aged 20.
The story made global headlines after an image of Harry in the costume featured on the front page of The Sun newspaper.
Prince Harry, pictured last month, has spoken out about antisemitism in Britain
Police Taser and detain a suspect in Golders Green after two Jewish men were stabbed last month
The Duke of Sussex wore the Nazi uniform at a party thrown by Olympic show jumper Richard Meade.
Harry stressed the importance of ‘legitimate protest’, adding that he felt compelled to speak out because in his view standing on the sidelines allows ‘hate and extremism to flourish unchecked’.
He also wrote about the ‘deep and justified alarm’ at the scale of loss in Gaza and Lebanon but argued people must be more ‘clear’ about where their anger is directed.
The duke wrote: ‘We have seen how legitimate protest against state actions in the Middle East does exist alongside hostility toward Jewish communities at home – just as we have also seen how criticism of those actions can be too easily dismissed or mischaracterised.
‘Nothing, whether criticism of a government or the reality of violence and destruction, can ever justify hostility toward an entire people or faith.’
The piece is critical of the lack of nuance in much of the media discourse in the wake of the recent spate of antisemitic attacks in the UK.
The duke bemoans how polarised public debate has become and said it deepens the confusion that ‘fuels division’.
Harry acknowledged the instinct to speak out, march and call for an end to suffering was ‘human and necessary’ but that people must be clear that the ‘onus falls squarely on the state – not an entire people’.
While he references the actions of ‘the state’ throughout, he at no point names Israel during the New Statesman piece.
The suspected Manchester synagogue attacker wearing what is believed to be a suicide belt, with three terrified people inside the synagogue staring through windows
Harry wrote: ‘We cannot ignore a difficult truth: when states act without accountability, and in ways that raise serious questions under international humanitarian law – criticism is both legitimate, necessary and essential in any democracy.
‘The consequences do not remain contained within borders. They reverberate outward, shaping perception, inflaming tensions.’
Harry concluded his piece with an appeal for ‘unity’ and a call for people to stand against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate ‘wherever it appears’.
‘When anger is turned towards communities – whether Jewish, Muslim, or any other – it ceases to be a call for justice and becomes something far more corrosive,’ he wrote.
His piece comes just days after it was revealed that antisemitic hate crimes in London are the highest they have been in two years, with the most in the borough of Barnet, where the Golders Green stabbings happened.
Some 140 offences were logged across the capital in April, up from 98 in March and 67 in February, according to the new data.
The borough of Barnet saw the highest number, accounting for 51 of the 140 (36 per cent).
Barnet includes the districts of Golders Green, Hendon and Finchley, all of which have large Jewish populations, where a string of apparent antisemitic attacks took place last month.
As well as attempted arson attacks carried out at a memorial wall in Golders Green on April 28, Finchley Reform Synagogue and the building of a former Jewish charity in Hendon were also targeted in April.
The borough of Camden, to the south of Barnet, saw 17 antisemitic offences recorded by the Met Police in April, along with 16 in Hackney, ten in Haringey and seven in Westminster.
Overall, 21 of the 32 London boroughs saw at least one antisemitic hate crime logged by the Met Police last month.
The 140 offences recorded in April are the highest monthly figure since the force changed how it records hate crime in March 2024.
The Duke also said he had learned from his own ‘past mistakes’, 21 years on from the infamous photograph of him wearing a Nazi uniform to a party aged 20
The figures come as the Met Police announced it was creating a community protection team of 100 extra officers to provide a ‘more visible, intelligence-led and co-ordinated presence focused on protecting Jewish communities across London’.
The new team will involve neighbourhood policing as well as specialist protection and counter-terrorism capabilities.
It marks the ‘beginning of a new, more sustainable and consistent model of protection built around local knowledge, visibility and partnership, rather than relying solely on repeated short-term surges’.
The Jewish community ‘faces some of the highest levels of hate crime alongside significant terrorist and hostile state threat’, the Met added.
