Former Love Island star Dr Alex George speaks out against antisemitic abuse aimed at his girlfriend on Instagram
Dr Alex George, the UK Youth Mental Health Ambassador and former Love Island star, has spoken out against the antisemitic abuse that his girlfriend, who is Jewish, has received on Instagram.
Dr George took to the social media app to repost his girlfriend Ellie Hecht’s Instagram story in which she highlighted some of the antisemitic abuse that she had been receiving. These messages included: “Jew? Need to check unfollow or not”, “Back to Nazi camp you go”, and “Jew should of been died in the war”.
Ms Hecht said: “Here are a handful of shocking messages I have received for my family heritage, from some uneducated trolls. I wasn’t going to post this but I have seen a lot of antisemitism recently and it isn’t talked about enough and I am shocked by the silence of the majority in the wake of very recent antisemitism.
“Jewish people have been persecuted for hundreds of years and it is still NOT okay. I couldn’t be more proud of my family heritage and on that note, I urge people to educate themselves before committing a hate crime. THINK before you send a horrible message. THINK before you are cruel to someone else for NO reason.”
She added: “Sadly, hate crime has gone up by 9 percent in the UK after the pandemic. This makes me so sad. Think about it like this: even after the Holocaust, even after all of those millions of people died because they were Jewish or gay or had a disability, and this is still happening. It makes me realise how bleak the future will be for my children.”
Dr George, commenting on the incident from his perspective, wrote: “I will not tolerate antisemitic abuse (nor any other abuse) towards Ellie in any way, shape or form. I can’t believe I am actually having to type this. Disgusting.”
He continued: “I feel awful now, all Ellie has done is be my gf. Feels like in a way I have brought this to her door. No one deserves that kind of abuse.”
He later thanked his followers for sending in messages of support, writing: “Thank you for all the kind messages to Ellie and I. Things do need to change. The good people in the world outweigh the bad.”
A few hours later, Dr George spoke directly to his Instagram followers in a video posted on his story, in which he said: “I just want to say thanks to everyone for your messages. I know I’ve kinda said that already but yeah, just to reiterate, and had a lot of messages from Jewish people, people from Jewish background, culture, who’ve experienced antisemitism and yeah, it’s pretty shocking.”
He continued: “It’s not okay really is it but we need to do more to tackle this.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms.
