Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Mr Rose’s actions and statements amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.
By citing conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, which promote the trope that a Jewish family dynasty secretly controls governments and banks [1] [2a][5][13][17a]; by sharing a video in which the Jewish financier George Soros is described as a “vampire” who would “plague” the world forever with his “sorcery” [11], and otherwise alleging that he is involved in “evil” or “secret” plans to achieve world domination [9][12b][15]; by describing US politicians as “foes…within” who have “zionist controllers” [6]; and by sharing a video which claims to expose a “Zionist agenda to start WW3” [14], Mr Rose was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
A dominant strand of nationalist right-wing rhetoric is the idea that white, European, Christian culture is being deliberately undermined through immigration promoted by Jews. This conspiracy theory (and particularly the far-right so-called “Great Replacement”, “White Replacement” or “White Genocide” theory, which was cited as the motivation for the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and the 2019 San Diego shooting) is often expressed in antisemitic terms, with Jews in general, and Jewish individuals such as George Soros, being accused of orchestrating it. Mr Rose’s fellow former UKIP parliamentary candidate Jack Sen actively subscribed to such a theory. Thus, by sharing a video decrying immigration and multiculturalism and deprecating it as “neo-Zionist policy” [4], he was also “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective…”
The so-called “Kalergi plan” is an increasingly popular variant of the far-right “White genocide” conspiracy theory which is specific to Europe. It asserts that the Austrian politician Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who was an early exponent of European integration, devised a plan to replace the white population of Europe with non-white immigrants, which would be carried out with the assistance and for the benefit of supposed Jewish “elites” such as the Rothschild family. By sharing an article which asserted that this supposed plan was inspired by “a kind of Jewish supremacism” [7]; by sharing an article which linked this supposed plan with Jews through the image of the Star of David [10]; and by sharing an article which unambiguously linked this supposed plan with the Rothschild family and Israel [16], he was disseminating material which was further “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective…”
Whilst the term “Illuminati” originally referred to a short-lived Enlightenment-era fraternal organisation, since the early nineteenth century it has been associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories, with subsequent versions alleging that the “Illuminati” infiltrated the ranks of European Jewish bankers during the nineteenth century. These theories variously assert that the bankers / Jews / “Illuminati” were behind the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Federal Reserve system in the United States, later forming the influential American think tank Council on Foreign Relations and subsequently what the far-right refers to as The New World Order, under whose control institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union are imagined to be. The Rothschild family are so often cited as being members of the supposed “Illuminati”, that the two seem to have become intrinsically linked in the popular imagination. Moreover, it should be noted that the antisemitic conspiracy theorist and author David Icke has referred to the notorious Tsarist-era antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which is thought to be based on the earliest antisemitic theory involving the supposed “Illuminati”) as The Illuminati Protocols when citing them in his books. By sharing videos in which the “Illuminati” are variously alleged to have organised the overthrow of the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the assassination of the American comedian George Carlin, including both explicit [8] and implicit references [5] to groups associated with Jews, he was again disseminating material which was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective…”
The so-called “New World Order” conspiracy is a nebulous conspiracy theory, mired in antisemitic tropes, in which shadowy organisations are alleged to be plotting the overthrow of democracy and the establishment of a one-world government. By tweeting that “[Rothschild-Zionists]” were involved in an attempt to establish a “[New World Order]” [2b]; and by sharing an article in which it was asserted that the Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros was involved in a conspiracy with former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to establish an “opaque New World Order” [12a], he was yet again disseminating material which was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective…”
The term “cultural Marxism”, which is frequently evoked in right-wing discourse to disparage progressive trends, is intimately associated with antisemitic notions of secretive Jewish cabals conniving at world domination by according disproportionate significance to the role of Jewish philosophers and theorists in early twentieth-century left-wing thought and movements and particularly the work of the so-called “Frankfurt School”. It has become one of the most cited antisemitic conspiracy theories of the far-right, in which Jews are accused of conniving at the destruction of what are perceived as the building-blocks of ‘traditional’ societies, namely, the family, religion, private property and nation-states. It was cited as motivation by both the Norwegian far-right mass-murderer Anders Breivik and by the perpetrator of the Chabad of Poway Synagogue shootings in San Diego. By sharing a statement which asserted that “Cultural Marxist techniques”, as supposedly devised by the theorists of the Frankfurt School as a way of undermining western society, were being used by the European Union to bring about a “One World Government” [3], he was further “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective….”
Although the theory that Ashkenazi Jews descend from a Turkic people in Khazaria who converted to Judaism was first propagated by a well-meaning Jewish intellectual, the idea has been repeatedly debunked by historians and geneticists. However, the Khazaria myth became an antisemitic canard of the far-right, used to deny the connection between European Jews and their Biblical ancestors, and now also has currency in left-wing antisemitic discourse. By sharing an article in which it was asserted that “great deal of modern Israelis or those today calling themselves Jewish aren’t even Semitic [sic]”, but are, rather, so-called “Khazars”, and that the term “antisemitism” was thus being “manipulated” in order to “shut down criticism and healthy open debate” [17c], therefore, he was once again disseminating material which was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective….”
By sharing an article in which it was asserted that accusations of antisemitism are used by Jewish groups to shut down criticism of Israel, Zionism and the supposed illegal occult activities described by the author [17b], he was disseminating material which was deploying the so-called ‘Livingstone Formulation’, by accusing Jews who cite evidence of antisemitism of lying, conspiring or having deceitful motives in doing so, when there is clear evidence that there have been breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. This further constitutes “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews…” under the definition.
The theory that the American political and Hollywood elite “harvest” the chemical compound adrenochrome from the blood of tortured children formed part of the so-called “Pizzagate” conspiracy and is a staple element of the multi-layered “QAnon” conspiracy which succeeded it. The latter is recognised as containing many elements which mirror longstanding antisemitic tropes, particularly the belief that a global cabal is secretly engaging in ritual child-sacrifice. Mr Rose’s Twitter history shows that he has been following ‘Q’ since 2017. By sharing an explicitly antisemitic image supposedly showing the ritual murder of children by Jews, with accompanying text which asserted the factual basis of the image [17], he was “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel)…”
