There will be a “resounding rejection” of the two minute silence on Remembrance Day this year, a podcast host has claimed.
Dilly Hussain, Deputy Editor of news website 5 Pillars UK, said the mark of respect at 11am on November 11 would be rejected for many years to come in comments posted to X, formerly Twitter.
He wrote on the platform: “We are expected to observe [a] 2 minute silence on Remembrance Day.
“The defeat of the Ottomans in WW1 (World War One), the colonisation of Palestine by the British Mandate, and the 1917 Balfour Declaration is when the idea of Israel was actualised.
“There will be a resounding rejection of this silence this year, and for many years to come.”
Veterans, serving Armed Forces personnel and members of the public in the UK and Commonwealth can choose to observe a two minute silence each year to remember those of all faiths and none who have died in conflict.
The practice is said to have originated in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1918, before it was adopted in Britain the following year.
In response to Mr Hussain’s tweet, former GB News presenter, Laurence Fox, tweeted: “You are not expected to do anything. You are expected to be tolerant of those who do. These are the traditions of our nation and our remembrance. If you don’t like them. Leave.”
Mr Hussain’s claim comes amid heightened tensions between some British Muslims and Jews sparked by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, after gunmen from the group killed 1,400 people on the Israeli side in a surprise attack on October 7.
Since then, more than 1.4 million Gazans have fled their homes, while the death toll among Palestinians has passed 8,300 amid Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip and retaliatory airstrikes.
Community Security Trust, a UK Jewish charity, said it has recorded about 800 incidents of antisemitism since October 7.
The campaign group Tell Mama recorded 291 incidents of Islamophobia from October 7-19, which represents a sixfold increase on the same period last year.
Raymond Simonson, 50, Chief Executive of the north London based Jewish community centre, JW3, said on Friday (October 27) now is not the time to “draw a wedge” between communities.
He said: “I’ve never seen tensions so high between Muslims and Jews in the UK. Everyone’s looking at what’s happening in Israel and in Gaza and everyone is in shock. We’ve seen really awful levels of antisemitism rising in the last few weeks.
“In the last 20 days, we’ve had more reported incidents of antisemitism in the UK than ever before in any 20-day period, and I think as far as I understand that’s the same for Islamophobia.
“What I’m saying is right now is not a time for people to drive a wedge between British Muslims and British Jews.
“We know it’s harder to have conversations, it’s harder to have those relationships, but that’s why it’s even more important than ever that those conversations still happen between us.”
