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23rd December 2017

Jewish Leadership Council CEO must stop sniping and apologise for claiming CAA’s private prosecution of pro-Hizballah march leader will “make yet more fear”

The CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council, Simon Johnson, has once again launched an attack on Campaign Against Antisemitism, this time berating us for privately prosecuting the leader of this summer’s pro-Hizballah “Al Quds Day” procession through London after the Crown Prosecution Service failed to act.

Mr Johnson, who claims to represent the British Jewish community, used Twitter to publicly decry our private prosecution, saying that it “risks making things worse” and we will “make yet more fear”, which he claimed is “par for the course” for Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Ironically, Mr Johnson, whose salary is double Campaign Against Antisemitism’s annual operating budget, claimed that our private prosecution, which is being conducted by expert lawyers who are donating their time pro bono, is a “waste of money”.

Mr Johnson was rounded on by Twitter users who fiercely defended Campaign Against Antisemitism and its volunteers, with one activist even setting up a petition demanding that Mr Johnson apologise or resign. We are very grateful to the many people who have spoken out in our support.

In August, Mr Johnson humiliated himself by making a video claiming that our volunteers engage in “hyperbolic scaremongering” as part of an “attempt to grab attention and appearances on television”. Sharing the video through the Jewish Leadership Council’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, he admonished us for highlighting antisemitism, which he said was an attempt to “create a situation of panic in this community”, and for daring to criticise the authorities for failing to take sufficient action.

At the time, we did all that we could to resolve the matter behind the scenes to avoid embarrassing the Jewish Leadership Council and they deleted the video, which had provoked revulsion within the Jewish community and won the praise of antisemites. That should have been the end of the matter, but instead, despite an agreement that neither side would comment, a day later the Jewish Leadership Council said that it stood by the video that it had deleted.

Mr Johnson, who is a former solicitor, should have realised that his repeated efforts to impugn our motives will likely be seized upon by defendants whom we privately prosecute. Other than that, what does his sniping achieve?

Yet despite repeatedly humiliating himself with his ill-conceived attacks, Mr Johnson has a long track record of publicly attacking Campaign Against Antisemitism. In February 2015 he gave his word that he would offer any criticism privately rather than engaging in public sniping. When he broke his word months later, we asked whether his word was worthless. His reply: “Well, so it was. I admit.” That is not Jewish leadership.

Antisemitic crime and the inadequate response to it by the authorities is a very serious concern that should be seen as an urgent priority for British society and our law enforcement authorities. Mr Johnson’s highly-personal attacks on our volunteers suggest that far from trying to address the situation by raising awareness and taking legal action when the authorities fail to act, we are in fact trying to “make yet more fear” so that we can “grab attention and appearances on television”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has a longstanding policy of refusing to engage in Jewish community politics. Our focus is on countering antisemites. However, Mr Johnson’s shameful interventions have become too persistent to ignore. Enough is enough.

The Jewish community has many enemies to contend with, and this public sniping by Mr Johnson at those of us trying to tackle antisemitism must now end. Campaign Against Antisemitism has done all that it can behind the scenes to try to stop Mr Johnson’s damaging smears, but since he will not honour his word and does not heed the opinion of our community, it now falls to the trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council to insist that he apologises and then falls silent.

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