Protesters must not use Jews like me as a punching bag

When I hear the words “October 7”, I am aware of the visceral effect on my body.

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I am – and I hate this word – triggered. Our eldest child lives in Israel. I have lived in Israel. I am set off into panic just thinking about it. All that is despite the fact that when I lived in Israel, I worked on the Oslo peace process and in Ramallah with Palestinians.

Yesterday, university students from several institutions were to gather at an event in London - two years to the day since some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during Hamas's incursion into Israel. I want to ask the question: how does it help today? What outcome do you envisage that's not just a venting of your own anger?

If you're venting your own anger, well, go for a run. Go and bash a punching bag, like I do. But don't turn other people into a punching bag just today.

I am driven by wanting a Palestine and an Israel to coexist. But I'm aware of my own dissonance - when I see a large demonstration that says "Free Palestine", I feel threatened. If that's happening to me, what's happening to other Jews who haven't lived in the area or worked in the occupied Palestinian territories in peace work? Maybe if there was a call for "From the river to the sea, two nations should be free", this would be more positive, rather than just one.