I’ve reported on the murders and the terrorist attacks. I’ve documented the disease in our schools, our universities, our NHS, and our unions. I’ve received all the online abuse. But until Sunday I had never experienced the full wall of demented hatred that is anti-Zionism.

And ironically it happened not only at an “anti-racist” demonstration but one which was meant to commemorate the 90^th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street – when the Left came together with the Jews of the East End to stop Oswald Mosley’s fascists.

For a brief moment, I had a glimpse of recognition of what it must have been like for those Jews (including my great-uncle), who knew how dangerous the fascists were.

Because I felt the full wrath of this scraggly keffiyeh-wearing mob. I saw what looked like wild hatred in their eyes. I felt that they wanted to hurt me. Now, as then, they were obsessed with the idea of Jews and how we are the only thing standing in the way of whatever utopia they dream of.

Now, as then, their apparent hatred has been fuelled by the lies of people in authority. Now, as then, this is a movement that only seems to be gaining momentum.

At the same time as they were screaming “Zionist scum not welcome here” at me, the Green Party was voting “Zionism is racism”.

There were two commemorations for Cable Street on Sunday. The first was announced by the union Unite. It lauded this milestone date, this victory of the working class over the fascists but forgot to mention who the targets were. Jews as victims is inconvenient.

So Jewish activists decided to have their own event. But a few days before the demonstration, it was made clear this group would not be welcome because apparently they were “fascists”. In the meantime, pro-Palestinian groups received a call-out to attend: “We MUST resist the attempt by Zionists to co-opt our movement and our history!” they were told.

So there were two demonstrations for Cable Street. A real one and a fake one. One filled with Jews and allies who sang: “Ninety years on, we are still here.” At the front were people whose parents and grandparents had been at the first battle. There was even a sprightly 94-year-old who remembered the day clearly.

The other demo was filled with people who looked to be as obsessed with Jews as Oswald Mosley and his fascists were. After the Jewish-run demonstration, I stayed to hear the second set of speeches with some other journalists. I wanted to hear just how much they would erase Jews from our story. I never imagined I would be accosted.

As their demonstration came into the small park next to the Cable Street mural, I could hear a row breaking out. A man was saying he was an “anti-Zionist Jew” but that this was meant to be a “unifying event”. His fellow protestors then started screaming: “Zionism is fascism! Zionism is fascism!”

I wanted to find out what had happened, so I got close to them and started filming. They immediately spotted me and told me to stop. I refused and said I was a journalist. One said: “You are not a journalist. You are a Zio.”

They told me I had to leave. I explained that the whole point of remembering Cable Street was that Jews should not be moved. So they started chanting: “Zionist scum are not welcome here.” They tried to stop me from filming by putting their hands and their placards in front of my phone.

They then covered me with – oh, the delicious irony – a placard that said “No Pasaran” (they shall not pass), the famous motto sung by anti-fascists at Cable Street in 1936.

Just when I thought I’d been left alone, I felt a placard poke me. A woman standing behind me (not the person in the video at the top of this article) was a Stand Up to Racism steward – another delicious irony. I asked her to leave me alone. She started screaming that I was a “racist Zionist”. She denied touching me and said: “If I touched you, you wouldn’t be alive.” Thankfully, she was led away.

We knew it was time to leave when they started crying “Free Palestine” from the demo stage.

On my way home later, I felt incredibly teary, not just for what I’d experienced, but because this was a microcosm of what has been happening to diaspora Jews since the October 7 attacks three years ago. The taunts, the hatred, the violence.

In 1936, the East End Jews targeted by Mosley experienced a pogrom a week after Cable Street, in which shops and homes were smashed in. They would not have known what would happen to European Jewry just a few years later.

In 2026, we know only that things can get much, much worse. That is why we are grateful there is an Israel. What happened to met at the weekend explains why I will always be a Zionist.