Prince Harry has written an essay denouncing the rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment, and reflected on how he believes his “mistake” in wearing a Nazi uniform to a party has ultimately made him a better ally to the Jewish community.
Prince Harry believes his “mistake” in wearing a Nazi uniform to a party has ultimately made him a better ally to the Jewish community.
The Duke of Sussex caused controversy back in 2008 when he was photographed wearing a swastika armband to a friend’s “native and colonial” fancy costume party at the age of 20, and he referenced the scandal in a new essay in which he railed against the “troubling rise” of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hate in Britain today.
In an opinion piece for New Statesman magazine titled “My fears for a divided kingdom”, Harry wrote: “I am acutely aware of my own past mistakes – thoughtless actions for which I have apologised, taken responsibility and learned from.
“That experience informs my conviction that clarity matters now more than ever, at a time when confusion and the distortion of truth are doing real harm – even when speaking plainly is not without consequence. It requires responsibility from all of us.”
Harry – who lives in California with wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their two children – felt he needed to speak out because silence allows “hate and extremism to flourish unchecked” and insisted his desire to fight against injustice “does not change with geography”.
The 41-year-old royal warned “hatred is not protest” as he noted Jewish communities were “being made to feel unsafe in the very places they call home”.
He wrote: “Over the past several years, I have spoken about the consequences of a world in which outrage outpaces humanity – where fear and division are amplified faster than truth, and where people are too easily reduced to categories, identities or opposing sides. What concerns me now is how dangerously that same moral blurring is taking hold across parts of Britain.
“Across the country, we are seeing a deeply troubling rise in anti-Semitism. Jewish communities – families, children, ordinary people – are being made to feel unsafe in the very places they call home. That should alarm us, but also unite us.
“Because hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice. Recent incidents, including lethal violence in London and Manchester, have brought this into sharp and deeply troubling focus.”
Harry urged protesters to be “clear” about the source of their anger and not to target communities as a result.
He added: “If we are serious about confronting this, we must be honest about the conditions in which it grows – and clear about where anger is directed, and where it must never be allowed to fall. When anger is turned toward communities – whether Jewish, Muslim, or any other – it ceases to be a call for justice and becomes something far more corrosive.”
While Harry noted there is “justified alarm” about conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and the Middle East, causing many to want to “speak out, to march, to demand accountability”, he also cautioned how “legitimate protest” can be infiltrated and directed the wrong way.
He wrote: “These two realities are being dangerously conflated. We have seen how legitimate protest against state actions in the Middle East does exist alongside hostility toward Jewish communities at home – just as we have also seen how criticism of those actions can be too easily dismissed or mischaracterised.
“Nothing, whether criticism of a government or the reality of violence and destruction, can ever justify hostility toward an entire people or faith.”
The prince ended his opinion piece by calling for change.
He wrote: “We cannot answer injustice with more injustice. If we do, we don’t end the cycle, we extend it. The only way to break it is to refuse to pass it on. That means being unequivocal: standing against anti-Semitism wherever it appears, while recognising that anti-Muslim hatred and all forms of racism draw from the same well of division.
“They must be confronted with the same resolve. It also means speaking out against the immense loss of innocent life without fear, but with care and responsibility.”
Prince Harry’s Nazi uniform ‘mistake’ made him a better ally for Jewish communities
