Anxiety in Northern Ireland among Jews and Iranians due to Israel-Iran tensions; follows Gaza based attack by Hamas on 7 October

Israel says it will retaliate, while Iran has warned it will respond if this happens. The escalation comes after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.

Michael Black is deputy chair of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation, which has around 60 members.

"From the weekend everybody's been holding their breath to see what's going to happen next,” he told the News Letter.

"The Jewish community are just very anxious and worried for all the innocent people out there.

"It is a case of, 'if you do this, I'm gonna do that', on both sides. It is just terrible. We're mostly worried about the hostages still in Gaza."

"But there's no simple solution. A lot of people think, 'oh, have a ceasefire', but the ceasefire won't last. There's a lot of goodwill on both sides but Hamas are well supported and want to wipe out Israel and kill me as a Jew. They are hiding in tunnels underneath hospitals and schools. So how do you stop Hamas from doing it again without hurting innocent people? It's a war. It's terrible."

He has been surprised by the rise of anti-semitic messaging in Northern Ireland.

"There's a lot of ignorance about the context. I have seen graffiti on billboards in Belfast I never thought I would see in my lifetime."

Melvin Goldberg, 73, is a retired chef and a Jew who was born in Belfast.

"My anxiety levels haven't declined since 7 October," he said.

"Once I heard that 350 missiles were on the way [to Israel] it was pretty hard to relax, you're worrying what's going to happen. To me Israel is not a foreign country, it's a part of me, even though I'm not living there.

He asks what the UK would do if 350 missiles were launched at London.

"It doesn't necessarily mean an armed response, but you can't just turn a blind eye.”

Stephen Jaffe is a Jewish man from Northern Ireland who now lives mainly in London.

“I can say the general mood of the Jewish community across the UK is one of enormous relief that the largest missile attack ever launched against a country was repelled so effectively by Israel and its allies,” he told the News Letter.

"It was a very anxious Saturday night to know that such an extensive attack had been launched from Iran, including ballistic and cruise missiles. I know many Christians as well as Jews prayed during this very tense moment in Israel's history.

“While many in Northern Ireland like to present the conflict as between Israel and the Palestinians, it is now abundantly clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran - which is many times the size of Israel - funds and arms Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and they are all intent on the obliteration of Israel.

“Perhaps people might bear this in mind when they next join a march where the cry is for Israel to be removed ‘from the river to the sea’.”

Ali Reza is an Iranian living in Belfast in his forties who has friends and family back in Iran.

"The attack on Israel was 100% wrong," he said.

"95-99% of Iranians that I know in Belfast personally agree with me."

A small proportion would have supported the attack.

He believed the air strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria which was blamed on Israel, was most likely against a "terrorist" target, which would therefore only improve safety for other countries.

Ali says that few people in Iran really understand anything that is truly happening with regards these issues because there is no press freedom.

"The Iranian people are in chains by the laws of the Islamic government. Everybody is crying out but who is going to hear them? This is one of the reasons I left my country."

Another Iranian, also Ali, in his thirties, came to Belfast a few years ago for educational purposes.

"It all makes me worried for my family and friends there, because nobody likes to have a war," he says, citing his father’s memory of the “brutal” Iran-Iraq war which cost 500,000 lives from 1980-88.

Of the wider Iranian community in NI and GB, he says: "Everyone has a different opinion. All of them are worried about war so they don't want something to happen."

He says some Iranians supported the weekend attack on Israel, but "nobody" wanted civilian casualties in Israel.

"I think people would prefer that it remain between the militaries."

He believes most Iranians in the UK would have opposed the attack.

Ali is using a pseudonym because he is concerned about potential backlash from some Iranians.

"You find some people who are a little radical," he says. "I think people in Northern Ireland understand freedom of speech better than Iranians do sometimes."

• Belfast Islamic Centre was also invited to comment.

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