A small gathering of British Jews recited Kaddish in Parliament Square recently for the 62 Palestinians killed while protesting in Gaza. This proved a controversial move. A Jewish taxi driver, incensed that the protesters were reading Judaism’s mourning prayer, accosted the group. “Fifty of them were identified as Hamas operatives,” he yelled, referring to the Islamist organisation’s claim that the majority of the dead were members. “They would’ve fucking killed you if you were there.”

Divisions within the Jewish community over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are nothing new. The argument outside Parliament, fraught with anger and a sense of betrayal, was symptomatic of a long-running debate that reopens with every flare-up of violence in the Holy Land.