Campaign Against Antisemitism’s NHS film continues to make political waves
Campaign Against Antisemitism recently published a groundbreaking documentary on antisemitism in the healthcare sector, titled “Malignant: Antisemitism in the NHS”.
You can watch the full documentary here.
The documentary has received extensive coverage in major national and international media outlets, and has also forced a political response to the allegations it uncovered.
Last week, Reform UK MP David Mills raised our documentary in the Welsh Assembly. We also thank Plaid Cymru Minister Heledd Fychan for her constructive response.
This follows Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay’s decision to highlight our documentary in the Scottish Parliament.
With the UK Parliament still in recess, we are grateful that devolved politicians are taking our revelations seriously, and there are more developments to come.
Political leaders across the country have a duty to speak up and stamp out antisemitism in society.
Our documentary exposed just how riddled with antisemitism the NHS has become, much of which is fuelled by and expressed in relation to Palestine activism.
Despite our warnings that the UK healthcare sector has become dangerously radicalised and antisemitism is thriving, controversial activist organisation Amnesty International is encouraging even more Palestine activism in medicine. Amnesty is pushing medical practitioners to protest collaboration between the NHS and Palantir literally right outside hospitals.
On the campaign page, Amnesty asserts (without providing evidence) that “Palantir’s tools are currently used by the Israeli military as they commit genocide against Palestinians in occupied Gaza.”
True to form, Amnesty prefers to obsess over Israel (and potentially depriving patients of lifesaving technology) instead of reflecting on our findings. Rather than demanding that antisemitism be excised from the medical profession, Amnesty is pushing for more inflammatory activism by NHS staff outside hospitals.
This activism will do nothing to address hate in healthcare, and, by continuing to obsess over Palestine, may well exacerbate it.
March organised on anniversary of 7th October Hamas attack
Student groups have reportedly planned for a pro-Palestine march to take place on 7th October, the third anniversary of the brutal Hamas attacks on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were murdered, and 251 were kidnapped.
It is impossible not to remember how Palestine activists demonstrated on the day of the attack back in 2023 before Israel had even responded. That’s because the motivation of these hate marches has always had less to do with solidarity with Gaza than with hatred for the world’s only Jewish state.
The demonstration is being advertised on social media by a collective of student groups under the banner of the University of London federation. Students will apparently march between various London universities, including KCL and UCL.
Exactly this time last year, then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged student protestors to reconsider their planned demonstrations on such a sensitive day, calling it “un-British”. We urge the latest Prime Minister to take the same stand.
Elsewhere, the authorities have taken more forceful action against these hate marches.
A High Court judge has said that a ban on anti-Zionist protests in a heavily Jewish area of North London was not unlawful. The protests were reportedly carried out by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK (IJAN-UK) between October 2023 and March 2025.
We welcome this ruling.
You can see Elie’s deep dive on the group behind the protests here.
Green Party moves against Zionism
Last week, the Board of Deputies of British Jews invited Green Party leader Zack Polanski to address members of the Jewish community in a hustings for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
During that event, Mr Polanski, who identifies as Jewish, victim-blamed Jews for antisemitism and declared the belief in Jewish self-determination (Zionism) to be racist.
He said that by claiming it was antisemitic to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza “we are making ourselves as Jewish people less safe”.
It is outrageous and baseless to claim that antisemites would cease to target Jews if they adopted Mr Polanski’s views and condemned Israel at every opportunity. For centuries, Jews have been blamed for the hatred against them, which is itself a form of antisemitism.
The standard expected by Mr Polanski of British Jews appears not to be merely distancing themselves from the world’s only Jewish state; he declared that he is an anti-Zionist and refused three times to say whether Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, even has a right to exist.
Mr Polanski further stated that “If you’re defining Zionism as the displacement and genocide of the Palestinians, which is how in practice Zionism has become in truth, then that is racist.”
According to our representative polling of the Jewish community, the overwhelming majority of British Jews (80%) identify as Zionist (only 6% do not). An even larger proportion – 89% – consider anti-Zionism to be a form of antisemitism (only 8% do not).
The London Green Party then abhorrently described the hustings – a Jewish community event attended by Jewish people – as a room of “genocide supporters”, writing: “Tonight at the Jewish Board of Deputies debate Green Party candidate Zack Polanski says Zionism as it’s practiced [sic] is racism in a room full of genocide supporters. Brave!”
“Brave” is one word to describe effectively telling a room of Jewish people that the Jews, unlike all other peoples, have no right to self-determination. There are other words to describe it too.
This comes as the “Zionism is racism” motion is up for debate once again at the Green Party Conference this weekend.
The same motion was due to be debated at the Party’s Spring Conference earlier this year, but the debate did not ultimately go ahead for technical reasons.
It appears to be based on the Soviet campaign that culminated in a 1975 UN General Assembly resolution declaring Zionism to be racism that was not revoked until 1991. You can read more here.
The overwhelming majority of British Jews identify as Zionists. It is an essential part of their Jewishness. This motion would effectively declare Zionist Jews to be inherently racist and would open the door to discrimination against them.
We hope that the upcoming Conference motion follows the same fate as the last and that it is dropped from any future Green Party policy proposals. We stand ready to take legal action where necessary.
Elie asked members of the Jewish community for their views on whether anti-Zionism is the same as antisemitism. You can watch the video here.
Jewish group barred from anti-fascist commemoration
Yet again, British Jews are being erased from historical events in which they played a major part.
Local Jews were told to stay away from a march over the weekend commemorating the Battle of Holbeck Moor in 1936, when 30,000 people gathered to confront Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.
Leeds Stand up to Racism, which organised the event, allegedly told a local group of Jews and non-Jews not to attend due to its “support [for] a far right government in Israel conducting a genocide in Gaza” and its decision to “welcome Reform [party] officials” to its events. The organisation is understood to have accused the local Jewish group of supporting “genocide in Gaza” and claimed that their presence would be “divisive”. You can read more here.
The Jewish community is inseparable from the events of that day.
Mosley and his Blackshirts had planned to march through the heavily Jewish neighbourhood of Leylands, until the Leeds City Watch Committee prohibited them from doing so. The night before the rally, many Jewish shops were vandalised with swastikas.
The critical involvement of the Leeds Jewish community in the fight against fascism should be honoured, not shunned. Jewish participation in British life must never be conditional on passing a political purity test.
By excluding Jews in this way, Leeds Stand Up To Racism has shown that it has more in common with Mosley’s British Union of Fascists than their opponents.
To add insult to injury, the event was then hijacked by Palestine activists armed with flags and slogans to push their own agenda.
So Jews were excluded from an event commemorating the fight against a historical movement that demonised Jews, and in their place the event was hijacked by a contemporary movement that demonises the Jewish state.
Those who cannot face history are at risk of repeating it.
Extremism on trial
Several high-profile individuals accused of attempted murder, terrorism-related offences, criminal damage and expressing support for proscribed groups appeared in court on Friday.
- Essa Suleiman, 45, appeared at the Old Bailey where he pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and to possessing a black-handled knife in a public place. Mr Suleiman is accused of stabbing two Jewish men aged 34 and 76 on 29th April in Golders Green You can read more here.
- Iraqi national Hekmat Omar Ali Hakim, 49, appeared at the Old Bailey where he denied failing to disclose information that may have helped prevent the attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in October last year, which left two Jews dead. You can read more here.
- Dr Rehiana Ali, 46, who is a consultant neurologist in the NHS, appeared at the Old Bailey after being charged with four counts of expressing an opinion or belief in support of a proscribed organisation. At the court hearing, Dr Ali reportedly described herself as being “attacked by the Jewish lobby”. Dr Ali features in our documentary. You can read more here.
- Zaid Sami, Omar Sukkar, both 21, and Nour Sami, twenty, appeared at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court accused of racially-aggravated criminal damage after allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar”, “Free Palestine” and “F*** the UK” whilst burning Union Jack flags. You can read more here.
We will continue to monitor these cases.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a former bodyguard for the leader of Hamas was granted asylum in Britain and has been living here as a citizen while allegedly plotting a terrorist attack against Jews in Europe. According to reporting, he was not considered a priority for British security services.
He now faces extradition to Germany – a country that has taken surging antisemitism more seriously than the UK, perhaps because it knows better than anyone where it leads – and is accused of helping lead a plot to attack Jewish community centres, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel demonstrations in Germany and Austria.
This is yet another scandal in our immigration system, which has welcomed unrepentant terrorists and antisemites into this country where they are continuing to target Jews for violence and murder.
This revelation comes just as the Home Secretary is announcing steps to increase routes to UK settlement for Gazans, who have been ruled and indoctrinated by Hamas for decades. No doubt to be followed by announcements of more funding for Jewish security. And the cycle continues.
Macklemore launches “Free Palestine” tour and council venue hosts controversial artist
Last week, rapper Macklemore announced that he would hold a “Free Palestine” tour which ends at Wembley Arena in London on 30th October.
This follows Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour for choosing to air anti-Israel propaganda on a large screen during a live performance as a supporting act. Macklemore has since led a walkout of Ed Sheeran’s support on tour.
Macklemore is not just a musician advocating for human rights. He is a multi-millionaire with a large audience who chooses to defend rabid anti-Israel protesters and has appeared on stage in Germany and said that the only way for society to atone for the Holocaust is by calling for a “free Palestine”. Inflammatory actions like these only stoke the fires of antisemitism globally.
We are writing to Wembley Arena about its decision to host Macklemore.
Meanwhile, public news commentary on the story continues to play host to antisemitic rhetoric.
A guest on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sunday Breakfast show spewed conspiracies about a “huge Jewish lobby” and went unchallenged. Racist remarks like these are now so normalised in the media that the presenters apparently don’t even think to call it out.
This follows LBC presenter Ian Payne saying that the “Jewish lobby” is “incredibly strong” and “really really clever” at getting its message out.
We will be writing to the BBC, which has once again shown how little sensitivity it has to its Jewish listeners and viewers.
Meanwhile, Matthew Collings – who exhibits anti-Jewish hatred masquerading as art – is holding yet another display.
The exhibition under the title “Drawings Against Genocide” is due to take place from 30th September to 7th October at hARTslane Gallery in New Cross, London — a gallery operating from a building owned by Lewisham Council. hARTslane hosted Mr Collings in July as a speaker at an exhibition focused on “Free Speech in Palestine”.
We previously flagged an exhibition of the same name by Mr Collings at Joseph Wales Studios, an independent gallery in Margate, Kent. Among the works were several paintings referred to the 7th October Hamas massacre, and a depiction of the French–Israeli owner of Sotherby’s auction house, with blood dripping from his mouth. You can read more about our findings here.
Knowing what his last exhibition contained, we are deeply concerned that he is being given a platform to showcase his work in a building owned by Lewisham Council – particularly at a time when Jewish communities across Britain are facing unprecedented levels of violence.
We will be writing to Lewisham Council to ensure it upholds its responsibility to take its own commitments to combating antisemitism seriously.
As the arts and entertainment sectors become increasingly hostile to Jews, it is refreshing to see a young Jewish artist who is openly proud of his identity.
In this week’s episode of Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Podcast Against Antisemitism, Elie interviewed Alex Woz, Alex Woz is an award-winning Argentinian Jewish artist based in Los Angeles. After being cancelled for being Jewish, Alex only became more determined to reclaim the Jewish narrative through his art and empower Jews worldwide.
You can watch the episode here, or listen to it on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
Francesca Albanese has no idea what genocide looks like
In an interview earlier this month, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese said that she believed that the term ‘Muselman’ used by the Nazis was intended to mean ‘Muslim’ and that therefore the term ‘antisemitism’ was meant to denote hatred not just of Jews but “of all Semitic peoples”.
This is such an astounding series of errors for someone in Francesca Albanese’s ‘position’ that even her most diehard supporters cannot take her seriously now.
‘Muselman’ was a slang word used to describe mainly Jewish concentration camp inmates physically reduced to almost nothing through exhaustion and starvation. It did not mean ‘Muslim’. The term ‘antisemitism’ was popularised half a century before the Nazis by a Jew-hater who wanted a word to describe his racial hatred of Jews. There are not “Semitic peoples”, but Semitic languages, and that phrasing is used by activists who can’t even bear that there is a word to describe hatred of Jews.
Ms Albanese seems to be on a mission to marginalise hatred of Jews and divert attention elsewhere, but it is the world’s oldest hatred and it’s alive and well – including at the UN.
No wonder Ms Albanese is so quick to declare the war in Gaza to be a genocide: her grasp of the history of actual genocides is so atrocious that she has no idea what they actually look like.
Join us in commemorating the Battle of Cable Street!
Jews and allies from across London are marching to honour one of Britain’s defining victories against fascism.
On Sunday 4th October, there will be a commemoration in the East End of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street — when, in 1936, thousands of Jews and their allies stood together to stop the British Union of Fascists from marching through the area.
90 years on, the message remains as important as ever: antisemitism must be confronted, not tolerated.
Wayne Rooney reveals Jewish roots
Wayne Rooney has revealed he has Polish-Jewish ancestry in a new documentary.
This news is a reminder that the idea that Jewish people are not sporty is a myth laced with antisemitic tropes about Jewish physical weakness.
In fact, before the Second World War, Jewish people were at the pinnacle of European sport across a range of disciplines, including football. The reason that nobody remembers that is because that world vanished almost overnight, with Jewish sportsmen, their teams and their communities wiped out by the Nazis and their collaborators across the continent.
It is taking time to rebuild that culture from the ashes of the Holocaust, and educate about how Jewish people and people with Jewish heritage have contributed, and continue to contribute to the world of sport.
Working with all parties against antisemitism
As antisemitism continues to spread into British public life, exposing it is only the first step – it is essential that we take action.
That is why representatives of Campaign Against Antisemitism are at the Labour Party’s annual conference today.
This is one of a number of a party conferences that we are attending this season, taking meetings with figures from across the country to ensure that they know what needs to be done to tackle antisemitism and extremism in Britain.
Politicians from all parties in Parliament, devolved government and local authorities have a role to play in restoring British values and making the UK safe again for Jews. That means going beyond warm words to strong action, including on the shocking findings of our documentary on antisemitism in the NHS. We will be explaining how.
To those celebrating Simchat Torah this weekend, we wish everyone a joyous festival.
