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Warwick University reportedly refuses to adopt International Definition of Antisemitism because it does not offer “any added value”

Warwick University has reportedly refused to adopt the widely accepted International Definition of Antisemitism because it does not offer “any added value.”

In a letter, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Croft, told the university’s Jewish Israeli Society (JSoc) president, Angus Taylor, and Jewish Chaplain, Rabbi Fishel Cohen, that the university would not “formally adopt individual definitions of specific forms of discriminatory behaviour.”

Prof. Croft explained that “to adopt one would inevitably lead to the adoption of a whole series of such definitions.” The university, however, would be “mindful” of the Definition.

In response to the letter, Mr Taylor said: “We are deeply disappointed with this decision and call on the university to reverse it without delay.” He called the decision a “shameful abdication of its responsibilities towards Jewish students.”

Mr Taylor added that: “Instead of heeding the Government’s advice and adopting the internationally-recognised Definition, they have instead invented their own pseudo-definition with no consultation from Jewish students at Warwick.”

A university spokesperson said that the Vice-Chancellor has offered to “continue the dialogue” in person with students and the Jewish Chaplain.

In December, the University of Bristol adopted the Definition, after a controversial debate. University College London has also adopted the Definition, following a call on universities to adopt the Definition by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick.

Antisemitism at universities has long been a major focus for Campaign Against Antisemitism, however this year we will elevate it to one of our three major national strategic priorities. This will include working with university administrations to persuade them to formally adopt the Definition.

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Chelsea FC to erect mural to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

Chelsea Football Club has reportedly commissioned a British-Israeli artist to create a large mural to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The twelve metres by seven metres work of art will incorporate three footballers who were sent to Auschwitz during the War, namely Julius Hirsh, the first Jewish player to represent Germany and who played for the national side seven times between 1911 and 1913 and was sent to the extermination camp in 1943; Arpad Weisz, the Jewish Hungarian football player and manager who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944; and Ron Jones, a British prisoner of war who came to be known as the “Goalkepper of Auschwitz” after playing in the Auschwitz Football League. Mr Jones was liberated by the Americans and returned to Wales where he lived until his death in 2019.

The mural project is part of Chelsea’s Say ‘No to Antisemitism’ campaign, backed and funded by the team’s owner, Roman Abramovich.

The artist, Solomon Souza, moved to Israel from the UK as a teenager and is known for spray-painted murals in Israel. His grandmother escaped the Nazis from Prague in 1939 and came to the UK.

The mural will be unveiled at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium on 15th January, in advance of Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January.

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Neo-nazi teenager who planned to bomb synagogues and other targets and who became UK’s youngest ever convicted terrorist is jailed for 6 years

A sixteen-year-old neo-Nazi teenager from Durham has been jailed for six years and eight months by Manchester Crown Court after being found guilty of preparation of terrorist acts between October 2017 and March 2019.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is the youngest person ever to be convicted in the UK for planning a terrorist attack.

Reportedly a follower of far-right ideology since the age of thirteen, the boy had hoped to follow in Adolf Hitler’s footsteps and listed numerous targets “worth attacking” with Molotov cocktails, including synagogues, which were listed under “Areas to Attack” in his manifesto, which was titled “A Manual for practical and sensible guerrilla warfare against the kike system in the Durham City area, Sieg Heil”. Other items seized from his home included a copy of Mein Kampf and material on explosives and firearms.

During the trial, the prosecution claimed that the defendant had become “an adherent of neo-Nazism – the most extreme of right-wing ideology”, noting that he had written in his diary on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday that the Nazi leader was “a brave man to say the least. Although maybe having written proof that I admire their number one enemy isn’t such a wise idea. I will however say that I one day hope to follow in his footsteps.”

The jury did not believe the teenager’s claims that his far-right musings were for “shock value” only, and he was found guilty of preparation of terrorist acts, disseminating a terrorist publication, possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism, and three counts of possessing a document or record containing information likely to be useful to a terrorist.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Local Labour branch accused of bullying Luciana Berger will now debate affiliation to the antisemitism-denial group, Jewish Voice for Labour

The local Labour branch in Liverpool Wavertree, which has been accused of bullying its former Jewish MP, Luciana Berger, is to debate affiliating to Jewish Voice for Labour.

The motion to be debated reads: “Wavertree CLP [Constituency Labour Party] agrees to affiliate to the socialist and anti-racist organisation Jewish Voice For Labour at the earliest opportunity.” It is understood that there will not be a vote at the conclusion of the debate this evening.

Jewish Voice for Labour is a pro-Corbyn antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation within the Labour Party.

Luciana Berger was the target of a sustained campaign of antisemitic harassment and bullying that eventually led her to quit the Labour Party in February 2019 after her local constituency party proposed a motion of no-confidence in her.

It is understood that the constituency Labour party leader, Dr Scott-Samuel, who is reportedly Jewish, appeared on The Richie Allen Show on the radio, on which he promoted a Rothschild conspiracy theory, saying: “The Rothschild family are behind a lot of the neo-liberal influence in the UK and the US”

The Richie Allen Show has featured antisemites such as Alison Chabloz and Gilad Atzmon, conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett, who believes Israel was behind 9/11, and Holocaust deniers including Nicholas Kollerstrom. The host has himself apparently questioned the number of Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust, telling Mr Kollerstrom that “there’s a big lie there somewhere, I don’t believe the numbers are anywhere near as great as they’re saying, you know…I’m with you with respect to the numbers and the way that it’s been exploited ever since.” Mr Allen is considered to be a protege of David Icke.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Former DPP Lord MacDonald QC describes Labour arrest cases, prompted by CAA and LBC, as “very extreme stuff” and “well capable of comprising a criminal offence”, as the Met awaits decision from CPS

Lord MacDonald QC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, has revealed that he believes not only that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has had sufficient time to review the cases of the arrested Labour members and should announce its conclusions, but that the evidence suggests that crimes have indeed been committed.

Lord MacDonald, who headed the CPS from 2003 to 2008, made the intervention after the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, revealed that six arrests were made in connection with a secret dossier compiled by the Labour Party and subsequently leaked and referred to the Met by Campaign Against Antisemitism and the radio channel LBC, and that five of the cases were passed to the CPS in September 2019.

Commissioner Dick explained that the cases represented a “complex crime type” and that the CPS would have to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring charges and a public interest in prosecuting.

But Lord MacDonald opined that “these are allegations about the conduct of members of a major political party and so there is obviously a strong public interest in this being resolved, and resolved as quickly as possible.” Moreover, he noted that a long delay fuels “rumours” and “unease” and therefore that “safe conclusions are needed sooner rather than later.”

Lord MacDonald went on to say that “the sensitivity in these cases is that prosecutors have to balance two things: one is the suggestion that these messages, these posts may comprise incitement to racial hatred, or other hate crimes, on the one hand, and then on the other hand, free expression rights,” adding that this “can sometimes be a tricky analysis but I should have thought that three months is plenty of time to come to conclusions in this case.”

He observed that “there is some very extreme material here. There are posts suggesting that a named Jewish Labour politician should be given a ‘good kicking’,” as well as “posts suggesting that Jews should be exterminated. There’s talk about gas chambers, although it is said we shouldn’t use gas chambers in the UK because we need our own gas for our own purposes.”

He concluded: “This is very extreme stuff, which I’d have thought is well capable of comprising a criminal offence. Speech has to be pretty extreme to amount to incitement to racial or religious hatred but some of this speech does look to be very extreme indeed.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has taken a close interest in these cases since it referred them to the Met live on air in September 2018. Lord MacDonald is right that the CPS has had sufficient time to reach safe conclusions. There must be zero tolerance of antisemitism not only on our streets but also in political parties.
On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Former Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate accuses Jewish MP Margaret Hodge of trading on the Holocaust and suggests former deputy leader Tom Watson was in the pay of Israel’s Likud Party

It has been revealed that a former Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate has published numerous social media comments accusing Jewish Labour MP Margaret Hodge of trading on the Holocaust and suggesting former deputy leader Tom Watson and principled Labour defector Ian Austin were in the pay of Israel’s Likud Party.

Bob Pandy, who is still a member of Kensington’s Constituency Labour Party, was Labour’s parliamentary candidate for the seat in 1979. In other posts he also referred to Labour’s antisemitism crisis as a “smear”, worried that leadership hopeful Rebecca Long Bailey might be a “Zionist”, and suggested that Mr Austin might engage in bestiality.

Mr Austin was one of a number of Labour MPs in the previous parliament who resigned from the Labour Party in disgust towards its institutional antisemitism. He is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The revelations were made by a fellow Labour and union activist.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse.

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Police investigating woman who screamed “f*** Jews you are all the same” at a Jewish man in Stamford Hill

A woman screamed “f*** Jews you are all the same” at a Jewish man yesterday.

The incident took place on Thorpe Road in Stamford Hill, and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD6490 07/01/2020.

The incident comes after Campaign Against Antisemitism reported on an epidemic of antisemitic crime in Stamford Hill over the Chanukah period.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Former MP Anna Turley says Northern working-class voted to reject Labour antisemitism

The former MP for Redcar has revealed that working-class voters in her constituency were outraged by Labour’s antisemitism crisis, even though the area has no Jewish community.

Anna Turley, Labour’s former MP who was defeated in her bid for reelection in the North Yorkshire constituency, disclosed that “[Jeremy] Corbyn was an issue on almost every single door,” and that antisemitism, along with Brexit and concerns about Mr Corbyn’s views on national security, were to blame for her defeat.

Mr Turley observed that her constituency is “an area where we don’t have an ethnic minority population in any way. It’s not an area where people had any Jewish connections. I think there’s only one person who identified as Jewish from the last census, as I understand. But what they said was, ‘My parents or my grandparents – they fought the war over this.’”

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which was equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders in the 2019 general election. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament accounted for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Rebecca Long-Bailey showed “very little awareness” of issues important to Jewish community and defended Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism claims

It has emerged that the Labour frontbencher and leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey addressed an event in Manchester just months after her election as an MP in 2015 in which she showed “very little awareness” of issues important to the Jewish community, dismissed claims that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and promised to join Labour Friends of Israel but never made good on that pledge.

The JC has reported that Ms Long-Bailey made the remarks and pledge at a meeting co-hosted by Manchester’s Zionist Central Council and the Jewish Representative Council in a bid to calm fears among the local community about Mr Corbyn.

Ms Long-Bailey was asked for her opinion on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which engages in tactics which an overwhelming majority of British Jews consider to be intimidatory according to Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antsemitism Barometer 2019. It is understood that the audience was disappointed that Ms Long Bailey appeared to be entirely unfamiliar with the boycott campaign, but was reassured by her comments that she “was opposed to such boycotts.”

She was also asked why she had joined Labour Friends of Palestine but not also Labour Friends of Israel. She replied that her first days at Parliament were rather like “freshers’ week” and it seemed like a popular organisation to join, but she accepted that there were two sides to that conflict a gave a “firm promise” to join Labour Friends of Israel. However, it is understood that Ms Long-Bailey has not joined the organisation nor did she make any move to do so in the months following the event.

On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Watch Met Commissioner tell LBC she’s waiting for CPS to charge Labour members arrested by police after CAA reported them, as she also concedes “we have seen more” antisemitic crime

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has disclosed that six arrests have been made over antisemitism in the Labour Party in connection with a dossier referred to the Met by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Cressida Dick, the UK’s most senior police officer, told LBC this morning that six arrests were made in early 2019 and five files were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in September 2019. These developments were further to the 45 cases mentioned in a secret Labour dossier referred to the Commissioner by the chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, Gideon Falter, live on LBC in September 2018.

The cases in the dossier included an activist who attacked a Jewish Labour MP as a “Zionist Extremist” who “hates civilised people” and was “about to get a good kicking” for spreading “Zionists propaganda”; an activist who posted an article containing Holocaust denial and antisemitic cartoons of Jews from a blog claiming to provide “intelligent antisemitism for the thinking gentile”; a Labour Party member posting that “we shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all” and that “these Jewish f***ers are the devils”; and a Party member accused of physically and verbally abusing a seven-year-old boy using racist epitaphs including “Paki” and “Jew-boy”.

Commissioner Dick explained that these cases represent a “very complex crime type” and therefore it was difficult to anticipate when the CPS would make a decision on whether to charge the individuals, based on whether there is sufficient evidence and if charging the offenders would be in the public interest.

Host Nick Ferrari also asked the Commissioner if she was concerned about a resurgence of antisemitic crime in London and nationally, to which she responded that “we have seen more” and that “it is really pernicious”.

The Commissioner also made reference to the antisemitic graffiti daubed on a synagogue and numerous commercial establishments in Hampstead last month, describing it as a “horrible event” and noting that it came “hard on the heels of the terrible attacks in the United States”, alluding to the violent intrusion into a rabbi’s house in Monsey, NY during a Chanukah celebration. She acknowledged that the graffiti has “shaken people in the local area and wider community” and insisted that the police have a zero tolerance approach to antisemitic crime. Commissioner Dick said that the police were “taking that investigation extremely seriously” and that “it is progressing well”.

Commissiner Dick’s interview can be watched below.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

UPDATE: The CPS has commented: “We’ve received a file of evidence from (the Met) in relation to antisemitic hate crimes. We are reviewing this material to consider further charging decisions.”

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Port Vale striker Tom Pope apologises for Rothschild tweet as FA investigation looms

Tom Pope, the Port Vale forward, has apologised for a tweet he sent several hours after scoring in his club’s FA Cup third round defeat to Manchester City.

Responding to a request to predict the course of a hypothetical Third World War, Mr Pope tweeted: “We invade Iran then Cuba then North Korea then the Rothchilds [sic] are crowned champions of every bank on the planet – the end.” The tweet has since been deleted.

After being warned by other Twitter users that his tweet could be construed as racist, he said: “I mentioned them owning the banks which is fact and now I’m facing all this,” adding: “How is it racist?? Seriously is someone out to destroy me or what?”

It is understood that the FA has considered launching an investigation, as is Mr Pope’s Port Vale club.

However, Port Vale has now published a statement from Mr Pope that states: “Following the reaction to my response on Twitter about the Rothschilds, I was unaware of any link between the Rothchild (sic) family and the Jewish community. If I have caused offence to anyone, I’d like to apologise enormously as this was never my intention.”

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Thousands rally first in the UK and now in America and France as antisemitic crime surges on both sides of the Atlantic

After 3,200 people attended the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism rally in Parliament Square on 8th December 2019 to protest antisemitic crime and antisemitism in public life in the UK, now thousands have rallied in the United States and in France to speak out against the rising tide of antisemitic crime in their countries.

On 6th January in the United States, ten thousand people, including the Governor of New York, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City to protest a series of anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York and New Jersey, including the shooting in Jersey City and the attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey during a Chanukah party. The march was under the banner: “No Hate, No Fear”.

Meanwhile, on the same day, thousands of French Jews and their supporters rallied in Paris to protest the decision by the French Court of Appeal that the murderer of Sarah Halimi was “not criminally responsible” for his actions. Ms Halimi was brutally beaten in 2017 and thrown out of the window of her apartment in a building she shared with the murderer. Ms Halimi was routinely insulted in their building, the murderer conceded that seeing a Jewish menorah and prayer book in the 65-year-old lady’s flat intensified his mental state and even the court acknowledged that the attack was antisemitic.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has always been clear that there must be zero tolerance for antisemitic crime and perpetrators must be subject to the full force of the law.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Nichols denounces antisemitic graffiti in Hampstead and condemns “all expressions of hatred”

Cardinal Nichols has denounced the antisemitic graffiti daubed on numerous commercial establishments and a synagogue in Hampstead in late December 2019, saying that “the recent antisemitic graffiti in north London brings shame to us all” and condemning “all expressions of hatred”.

The Cardinal, who serves as Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, made the remarks in his New Year’s message, in which he hoped that “each of us, every person in our society, will shun all forms and expressions of hatred against others”.

“Such hatred,” he said, “can have no place in our way of life. Only when we see the good in each other will every person feel welcomed and unafraid.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said of the incident: “The perpetrator must be identified and prosecuted to clearly show that the intimidation of Jewish communities will not be tolerated.”

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Chanukah celebrations marred by epidemic of antisemitism in Stamford Hill

A spate of antisemitic incidents have taken place in Stamford Hill over the past fortnight during the Chanukah period, marring celebrations.

On 21st December a Jewish man walking back from a synagogue down Fairholt Road on the corner of Bethune Road was pelted with a glass bottle by an assailant shouting “dirty Jew” (CAD7178 21/12/19).

On 22nd December a white male pedestrian spat at the car of a Jewish motorists shouting “f***ing Jew”. It was then discovered that two other Jewish drivers, waiting at a traffic light, were abused by the same offender. The incident took place on Manor Road (CAD1907 22/12/19).

On 26th December, a man walked into a kosher butcher’s shop in Stamford Hill shouting antisemitic abuse and pointing his fingers at Jews in a gun gesture (CAD4725 /26/12/19).

On 1st January 2020, a Jewish lady tried to enter a lift with her children at Stratford Overground Station on their way home to Stamford Hill and politely asked a Muslim couple to make some space for them, only to have them shout “you Jewish people, you think you own the world, you stink” (British Transport Police ref 378 01/01/2020).

On 4th January, a Jewish man was punched in the face in an unprovoked attack by two men. The incident took place at 22:35 on Craven Park Road (CAD7256 4/1/2020).

On 5th January, two men were reported to have threatened Jewish worshippers at a synagogue on Heathland Road in Stamford Hill shortly after 01:00 (CAD562 05/01/2020).

Later in the morning of 5th January, a Jewish woman was approached on Durlston Road by a man brandishing a large knife and shouting “f***ing Jew”. Volunteers from Stamford Hill Shomrim followed the assailant until he was arrested by police (CAD3239 05/01/2020).

Also on 5th January, in the latest violent attack on a Jewish minor, a 13-year-old boy travelling on a bus was punched in the stomach as the male assailant shouted “you stupid Jews think you own the world” and “you f***ing Jews” (CAD4968 05/01/2020).

On 6th January, a Jewish mother was subjected to antisemitic abuse while waiting with her baby outside their home on Lordship Road for a taxi to hospital. The male assailant screamed, “f***ing Jewish c***” (CAD6471 06/01/2020).

All of these incidents were reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information about any of these incidents, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting the relevant reference number.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are seeing violent attacks being perpetrated with increasing frequency on the observant Jewish community in Stamford Hill. Police, politicians and above all prosecutors must now urgently take on board the reality that the epidemic of anti-Jewish hate crime on the streets of London can only be stemmed through rapid and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Failure to act urgently may result in the atrocities that have been committed on the other side of the Atlantic being replicated here in the UK.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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13-year-old Jewish boy punched in stomach as assailant shouts “you stupid Jews think you own the world” in latest violent attack on a minor

In the latest violent attack on a Jewish minor, a 13-year-old boy was punched in the stomach as the male assailant shouted “you stupid Jews think you own the world” and “you f***ing Jews”.

The attack took place on a bus heading towards Stamford Hill at 11:46am on 5th January and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

Police are said to be investigating.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD4968 05/01/2020.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are seeing more and more violent attacks against Jewish minors on public transport. Perpetrators must be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Report claims Government will hold social media executives responsible for online antisemitism

In a first for Britain, social media executives will be held responsible for antisemitism and racism on their platforms, according to The Times. New regulations due to be published this month will legislate to tighten regulatory control of abuse on social media, under the auspices of Ofcom, the communications watchdog. The rules will come into effect after the UK leaves the European Union, which is scheduled to happen on 31st January. 

Under the new system, the Government expects to hold British senior management personally responsible for abuse, with each social media giant required to have at least one British-based director responsible for UK operations under a “statutory duty of care”. Technology firms are likely to be asked to provide the funding to ensure regulation is properly managed and penalties that social media companies may face are said to be “proportionate”.

However the report claims that stronger measures including calling on service providers to block websites or apps from being used in the UK have been dropped.

This follows a consultation launched under Theresa May’s government last summer into various proposals to regulate social media. This policy has in turn been adopted by Boris Johnson’s government which pledged to “legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online — protecting children from online abuse and harms, protecting the most vulnerable from accessing harmful content, and ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists to hide online.” Codes of practice will be drawn up by Ofcom.

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. It is reassuring to hear that social media sites will be held responsible for cleaning up their own sites. It is vital that Ofcom ensures that complex hate crime on social media is properly identified and understood, and that antisemitism is carefully monitored.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has provided antisemitism training to Ofcom’s executives.

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Conservative Party Councillor Sol Wielkopolski in antisemitism mess for a second time

Sol Wielkopolski, a Conservative Party Councillor on Cumbria County Council, has caught himself out a second time over antisemitism.

Cllr Wielkopolski reportedly tweeted a complaint that when he began a search with the letters “Ju”, Google suggested searching for “Judaism just another cult” followed by “Junkers 88”. The Junkers 88 was a Nazi-era military aircraft that flew for the Luftwaffe. In reality these were not Google’s suggestions, but searches from Cllr Wielkopolski’s own search history.

Cllr Wielkopolski’s tweet is now ‘protected’ and can only be seen by his confirmed followers.

In a previous blunder, Cllr Wielkopolski tweeted on 5th August 2019: “Why is Corbyn inciting hatred of the wealthy? I guess it’s consistent with his hatred of Jews. The wealthy pay far more tax and create more jobs than his tribe, so should be celebrated and cherished, not derided. Wealth should be a protected characteristic.” By doing so, Cllr Wielkopolski repeated a deeply-entrenched antisemitic stereotype and myth about Jews and money. The negative stereotype that Jews are wealthy is one of the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories.

On the previous occasion, Cllr Wielkopolski deployed an antisemitic trope in a blundering attempt to defend Jews. His search history adds further concerns.

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“Vigil” against antisemitic graffiti attended by antisemitism enablers crying crocodile tears

Last weekend, while Jews in America were hit by yet another violent attack, South Hampstead Synagogue and businesses around Hampstead were daubed with graffiti commonly used by conspiracy theorists to suggest that Jews were secretly behind the 9/11 terrorist atrocities. This has led to outpourings of solidarity and support for the Jewish community, many of which have been admirable and sincere signs of support from across the country, however, some condemnation and support has come from unwelcome sources.

One of those sources is an organisation called Stand up to Racism, which organised a “vigil” against the graffiti.

Stand up to Racism has consistently failed to stand with the Jewish community when the community was faced with antisemitism from the far-left and has regularly platformed Jeremy Corbyn. Stand up to Racism was joined in organising the “vigil” by Unite Against Fascism, which supported the so-called “Al Quds Day” in the past, a pro-Hizballah march which has platformed antisemites including Reverend Stephen Sizer, who has claimed that an Israeli conspiracy was behind 9/11, and in February 2015 was ordered by the Church of England to stop using social media. While Revd Sizer protested that he was not problematic, the Church said the material that Rev Dr Sizer posted was “clearly antisemitic.”

The vigil appears to have had no speakers from the synagogues in the area targeted in these incidents. Amongst those attending, however, were members of the sham Jewish representative group Jewish Voice for Labour. Jewish community attendees and journalist Lee Harpin reported being harassed and ridiculed as a “Zionist journalist” by the organisers and activists weaponising these incidents to score political points and signal their own virtuousness.

Additional messages of support for the Jewish community have come in via Twitter from those who aided and abetted the Labour Party’s campaign to place an antisemite in office, often ignoring or downplaying accusations of antisemitism. This includes Sir Keir Starmer and Dawn Butler, who would have served in an institutionally antisemitic cabinet had the Labour Party won the election, Owen Jones, and Ash Sarkar of Novara Media, who defended the activist who vandalised of the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto and claimed that the International Definition of Antisemitism is merely a front to silence criticism of Israel. 

Most insulting of all was Jeremy Corbyn, who has himself been guilty of numerous counts of antisemitism. Over the past several years, the Jewish community has watched the descent of the Labour Party into abject racism with horror. Mr Corbyn is an antisemite and under his leadership, Labour has become institutionally antisemitic, defending antisemites and victimising those who stood up to them, cultivating animosity towards Jews at all levels and hounding out of the Party Jewish MPs and the most decent of their colleagues.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “For those who have done so much to mainstream antisemitism in the UK to cry crocodile tears on behalf of a Jewish community they have shown disdain for, when they suspect that the perpetrators hail from their political opposites, shows that to them antisemitism is something they are only willing to play lip service to when it is politically convenient. They are not welcome and our community deserves better than cheap virtue signals.”

Anybody with information about the graffiti should call the police on 101, quoting reference CAD 7282/28/12/19.

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South Hampstead Synagogue and local businesses daubed with graffiti suggesting Jews were behind 9/11

South Hampstead Synagogue and businesses around Hampstead have been daubed with graffiti commonly used by conspiracy theorists to suggest that the Jews were secretly behind the 9/11 terrorist atrocities.

The businesses targeted included wine merchant Oddbins, menswear shop Ésclot, former Israeli-style restaurant Café Hampstead, and even a telephone box.

According to South Hampstead Synagogue, at least twelve locations in addition to the synagogue were targeted. Police are investigating and Camden Council is working to remove the graffiti.

“Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective” is antisemitic, according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Last night there were over a dozen brazen acts of racially or religiously motivated criminal damage. The perpetrator must be identified and prosecuted to clearly show that the intimidation of Jewish communities will not be tolerated.”

In a statement, Inspector Kev Hailes of the Metropolitan Police Service, said: “This is clearly a concerning incident and one we are taking seriously. We have liaised with our partners in order to remove the graffiti and various enquiries are underway to find who is responsible. Officers will be on patrol throughout the area in order to provide some reassurance to local communities. Please approach us if you have any questions or concerns. I ask anyone who might have seen anything suspicious last night to call us and aid the investigation.”

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference CAD 7282/28/12/19.

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Police seek man who entered kosher butcher in Stamford Hill, shouted antisemitic abuse and pointed fingers at Jews in gun gesture

Police and Stamford Hill Shomrim are looking for a man who walked into a kosher butcher’s shop in Stamford Hill, shouting antisemitic abuse and pointing his fingers at Jews in a gun gesture.

The incident took place just after 16:00 today when the man walked into Royal Meats demanding food. When asked what he would like to buy, witnesses say he began swearing, apparently expecting to be given food free of charge. He is alleged to have shouted: “You f***ing Jews, I am German, you f***ing Jews are bad people”, before pointing his fingers at people in the shop in a gun gesture.

The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 40 years of age, with a tall, medium build. He was wearing green trousers, a black coat, a black ‘beanie’ hat and a black rucksack. He was seen boarding a number 76 bus at around 16:15.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, citing reference number CAD 4725/26/12/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

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Football pundit and former footballer, Perry Groves, apologises for saying player had “a Holocaust of a game” on live radio show

Football pundit and former footballer, Perry Groves, reportedly described a player as having “a Holocaust of a game” on a live radio show.

The comment was made during TalkSPORT’s Warm Up show at 11:00 on Sunday. Mr Groves, who formerly played for Arsenal, was discussing Sheffield United’s win over Brighton on Saturday with co-host Max Rushden.

Mr Groves referred to goalkeeper Mat Ryan’s performance in the match, when he said the player “had a Holocaust of a game.”

Condemnation from outraged listeners was swift. The Holocaust was the planned, brutal genocide of Jews and others in Europe and many British Jews are the descendants of Holocaust survivors or those who escaped to Britain, so it is unsurprising that many people were upset by Mr Groves’ distasteful Holocaust reference.

Shortly after the comment, Mr Groves apologised live on air: “I’d just like to sincerely apologise for my misuse of words earlier. I didn’t mean to offend anybody and if I have offended anybody I’m truly, genuinely sorry and that is from my heart.”

This is not the first time a Holocaust reference has been made on TalkSPORT. In February last year, former Hull City manager Phil Brown issued a heartfelt apology to Campaign Against Antisemitism for also making a “Holocaust of a game” comment.

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Conservative Party investigating Councillor Mohammad Aslam over Facebook post claiming Jewish MP was “funded by Israel lobby”

The Conservative Party is reportedly investigating Councillor Mohammad Aslam over posts he allegedly shared on Facebook, including a claim that Jewish Labour MP, Ruth Smeeth, who lost her seat in the recent election, was “funded by [the] Israel lobby.”

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the British Government, “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” is antisemitic.

Cllr Aslam, who represents the Bradley ward on Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire and was a Labour councillor before he defected to the Conservative Party in 2015, reportedly shared a number of other problematic posts on Facebook.

One allegedly said the: “Gaza massacre is the price of a ‘Jewish state.’” He also showed the image of a bloodied child and a description of the Israeli government’s actions as: “Radical Jewish Terrorism.” The post added: “Israel is an illegal state. Israel is a Terrorist State.” In another post, he allegedly shared a video which read: “Jerusalem, we are coming.”

Under the Definition, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic.

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party told the JC: “This matter is under investigation. Our complaints process is rightly a confidential one but there are a wide range of sanctions to challenge and change behaviour, including conditions to undertake training, periods of suspension and expulsion, and these are applied on a case-by-case basis.”

Earlier this month, the Lancashire Telegraph reported on a private message allegedly sent from Cllr Aslam’s account, in which he said: “Everyone says you have a mind of Jews.”

According to the Definition, antisemitism “employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.”

A spokesperson for Cllr Aslam told the Lancashire Telegraph that he did not recall sending the message and claimed that his account has been hacked previously. “He is in no way antisemitic or racist. This was a private message on Facebook Messenger. Cllr Aslam does not recall sending it. His Facebook has been hacked in the past. If he did send it, it would appear to have been taken out of context and Cllr Aslam would need to see the full conversation to comment further.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism expects the Conservative Party to conduct a fair, efficient and transparent disciplinary investigation, and to insist that any claims of social media hacking are backed up by ample evidence.

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Jewish man allegedly pelted with glass bottle by assailant shouting “dirty Jew” in Stamford Hill, as another spat at in car

A Jewish man walking back from synagogue was allegedly pelted with a glass bottle by an assailant shouting “dirty Jew” in Stamford Hill.

The alleged assault occurred at 19:45 on Saturday, as the Jewish man was walking from a synagogue down Fairholt Road on the corner of Bethune Road in Stamford Hill, North East London. As he walked, a man allegedly shouted at him: “Dirty Jew, f****n Jew, all Jews shall go to hell.” He then threw a glass beer bottle at him and it smashed on the ground.

The suspect is described as a tall white male with a medium build who was wearing blue jeans, a brown coat, a red baseball cap, a blue hoodie and red trainers.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference number CAD 7178 21/12/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

In a separate incident on Saturday evening, a Jewish motorist was stationary in his vehicle on Manor Road in Stamford Hill, when a male suspect allegedly spat at the car and subjected him to a torrent of verbal abuse, including “f***ing Jew.” Anybody with information should call the police, quoting reference number CAD 1907 22/12/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim.

In yet another incident, two Jewish motorists were also verbally abused in the area while waiting at traffic lights.

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Prime Minister uses Chanukah message to tell Jews “you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side” but Jeremy Corbyn fails to even mention Labour’s antisemitism and turns his message political

The contrast could not be starker in the Chanukah messages from Britain’s political leaders.

Countering antisemitism was central in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s video message. He said: “Today as Britain’s Jews seek to drive back the darkness of resurgent antisemitism, you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side. Britain would not be Britain without its Jewish community.”

Referencing recent fears within the Jewish community over antisemitism, he added: “And we will stand with you and celebrate with you at Chanukah, and all year round.”

However, the antisemitic Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, failed to even mention Labour’s antisemitism scandal. In a video message lasting over two minutes, Mr Corbyn completely ignored the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party. He said: “It seems to be the right time to be thinking about the message of hope” but clearly not the right time to be thinking about antisemitism in his Party and its effect on the British Jewish community.

Instead, he attempted to explain to British Jews what Chanukah is and then descended into a political message. He said of lighting the Chanukah candles: “They have been lit in the worst of times” and cited some of the atrocities that befell the Jewish people. In echoes of his Rosh Hashanah message, Mr Corbyn seemed to equate the theme of the festival with the environment. On three occasions he talked about the climate crisis or emergency. He then attacked the Conservative Party and said: “Our communities now face the threat of years of policies that won’t heal divisions or end equality.”

Ed Davey, acting co-Leader of the Liberal Democrats, also focused on antisemitism in his video message, saying: “Regrettably, we still need to fight that antisemitism and religious persecution here in the UK and across the globe. British Jews are an integral part of our national identity.”

Nicola Sturgeon, Leader of the Scottish National Party, posted a short message on Twitter, noting: “Chanukah is a special time of year for Jewish communities to come together and celebrate their faith. I wish all of you celebrating in Scotland and across the world a peaceful and happy Chanukah — Chanukah sameach!”

The Green Party or its leaders have not sent a Chanukah message, and nor has the Brexit Party.

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CAA’s Gideon Falter confronts Labour MP Afzal Khan at Chanukah party over historic antisemitic social media posts

Afzal Khan has been confronted at a Chanukah party over his historic antisemitic social media posts.

Gideon Falter, the chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, asked the Labour MP for Manchester Gorton why he had shared a post in 2015, when he was an MEP, that referred to “mass murdering Rothschilds israeli Mafia Criminal Liars” several years ago, and how he had “the gall to show [his] face” at the event, which was being held at the London residence of the US ambassador on 19th December.

The post also said: “Divorce Israel-British-Swiss Rothschilds Crime Syndicate in every way especially homeland security and AIPAC-Wall Street-Pentagon warmongers!” and “Netanyahu = major sales person for Iraq War = puppet of the Zionist mafia like Bush & Clintons!”

Mr Falter reported that he “went up to him and he put his hand out, and I said ‘I don’t shake hands with Jew-haters’. And I asked him what he was doing there.” Mr Khan responded that he had been invited. Mr Falter replied that “Chanukah is the celebration of the triumph of my people over antisemites like you,” asking: “Do you often attend celebrations for people you despise?” Mr Falter further asked: “You shared an article saying that there is a conspiratorial Israeli Rothschild mafia. Lord Rothschild is here. Are you not afraid to be in the presence of such a man?”

Although Mr Kahn said he was “sincerely sorry about this genuine accident” when the post was revealed earlier this year, Mr Falter said that Mr Kahn now denied that he had shared anything antisemitic. Mr Falter showed him a screenshot of the post in question on his mobile phone, as well as a tweet from Mr Khan in 2014 linking to an article with the title: “The Israeli Government are [sic] acting like Nazi’s [sic] in Gaza”.

Mr Falter told Mr Kahn: “You’re not just an antisemite, you’re a brazen liar too.”

Mr Kahn responded that he was going to speak to somebody else, but Mr Falter warned him: “Everywhere you go in this room, I will accompany you so that everyone you try to shake hands with or speak to knows who and what you are, or you can just get out now.” Mr Khan then said goodbye to the ambassador and left.

A spokesman for Mr Kahn erroneously claimed that Mr Falter had “sworn at” Mr Khan and repeated that he had apologised for the offensive social media material.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Government intends to ban councils from divisive boycotts that intimidate Jews

The Government has confirmed that it will honour its manifesto pledge to ban local councils and public bodies from, in the Prime Minister’s words, “taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against a country which with nauseating frequency turns out to be Israel.”

The Prime Minister made the remarks in the debate over the Queen’s speech in the House of Commons.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that 76% of British Jews felt intimidated by tactics used to boycott Israel. This figure is consistent with findings over the past several years.

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The Independent must apologise for appalling article claiming antisemitism accusations stifle criticism of Israel while bemoaning “the trouble with Jews today”

An op-ed in The Independent contends that accusations of antisemitism are levelled to stifle criticism of Israel while also complaining about “the trouble with Jews today”.

The brazen article, written by Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, and published earlier this month, adopts the “Livingstone Formulation”, the formula named after Ken Livingstone that claims that accusations of antisemitism are used to silence criticism of Israel.

The article on the one hand claimed that “today, the charge of antisemitism is addressed at anyone who critiques Israeli policy,” while also insisting on the other hand that “the trouble with Jews today is that they are now trying to get roots in a place which was for thousands of years inhabited by other people.”

Aside from the dubious history intended to minimise if not erase the historical and religious connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, which goes back thousands of years, Mr Zizek is “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel,” in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. In case this was not obvious, The Independent, recognising that the statement was antisemitic, subsequently amended it to read: “the trouble with the settlement project today is that it is now trying to get roots in a place which was for thousands of years inhabited by other people” (emphasis added).

Of course the irony of the piece — which exemplifies the sinister folly of the Livingstone Formulation — is that Mr Zizek’s “criticism of Israel” was in this instance antisemitic, thereby undermining his entire thesis. Editors at The Independent utterly failed to recognise this, but perhaps they should be credited for correcting the article, not merely for belatedly removing the offending phrase, but also for conceding that Mr Zizek’s choice of words was appalling.

There is a common misconception — sometimes deliberately promoted — that the Definition stifles criticism of Israel. But the Definition is unequivocal: “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism published a legal opinion from expert counsel on this point, which can be read here. It states: “The Definition is a clear, meaningful and workable definition. The Definition is an important development in terms of identifying and preventing antisemitism, in particular in its modern and non-traditional forms, which often reach beyond simple expressions of hatred for Jews and instead refer to Jewish people and Jewish associations in highly derogatory, veiled terms (e.g. ‘Zio’ or ‘Rothschilds’). Public bodies in the United Kingdom are not ‘at risk’ in using this Definition. Indeed, this Definition should be used by public bodies on the basis that it will ensure that the identification of antisemitism is clear, fair and accurate. Criticism of Israel, even in robust terms, cannot be regarded as antisemitic per se and such criticism is not captured by the Definition. However, criticisms of Israel in terms which are channels of expression for hatred towards Jewish people (such as by particular invocations of the Holocaust or Nazism) will in all likelihood be antisemitic.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on The Independent to issue an apology for initially publishing an antisemitic article and to allow us to write a countering article that debunks Mr Zizek’s bunkum.

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Poll shows 39% of Brits believe Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and 47% believe Labour has an antisemitism problem

A representative poll of the British population conducted prior to the general election showed that 39% of respondents believe that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and that 47% believe that the Labour Party has an antisemitism problem.

The poll of 12,147 was commissioned from Deltapoll by a Jewish charity and conducted between 29th November and 2nd December 2019. The general election took place on 12th December.

The poll provides insight into how the British population understood and reacted to the accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. An overwhelming majority of the population had seen a lot or at least a little media coverage of antisemitism in recent months, with less than one fifth saying that they had not seen any coverage or were unsure if they had.

Almost a quarter of respondents believed that Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party are antisemitic, with an additional 15% believing that only Mr Corbyn is antisemitic, and 8% believing the Party is but its leader is not. Just over a fifth said that neither is antisemitic. However, almost half (47%) thought that Labour has a problem with antisemitism, with just over a quarter respectively thinking that it did not (26%) or did not know (27%). A clear majority of 59% considered that Mr Corbyn had been incompetent in handling accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Almost half of respondents (46%) believed a different leader of the Party would have handled the antisemitism crisis better.

One tenth of respondents believed that Mr Corbyn is hostile towards Jews, one quarter believed that he has poor judgment as a politician and 23% believed that he does not have prime ministerial qualities. Conversely, 8% said that he was not given a fair chance and 15% believed that the media is hostile towards him. If Mr Corbyn had handled the accusations of antisemitism in Labour better, 28% said that that would have made them more likely to vote Labour, while over half (55%) said that it would not.

Of those respondents who were considering voting Labour and believed that the Party has an antisemitism problem, 34% said that it made them less likely to vote Labour, 29% were prioritising other issues and 15% believed that it was more important to have a Labour government. Only 8% of those likely to vote Labour believed that the antisemitism problem was minor and being handled well.

For those respondents who had voted Labour in 2017 but were, at the time of the poll, uncertain about how they would vote, 16% cited antisemitism as the reason.

As to how the accusations of antisemitism in Labour made them feel, almost a quarter (24%) of respondents said that they were angry that Labour had a leader who could not deal with it properly and 13% said that they felt let down by Labour. As to the media’s role, 16% said that they were “annoyed with the media for over-hyping the story” and 15% said that they were “annoyed with the media for making too much of it”. 16% were also “annoyed with the Conservatives for using it for political reasons”, while 2% even said that the accusations of antisemitism made them “suspicious of Jews”.

A fifth said that they were worried about increasing racism in society and almost a third (31%) said that it made them embarrassed at the state of British politics. Only 15% said that the accusations of antisemitism in Labour had not really impacted them.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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CAA secures criminal record for owner of Tribestan UK who cancelled order to Israel “because the Jews rob us” and “scam the world”

Dyfed-Powys Police in Wales have given a formal caution to the owner of Tribestan UK for sending antisemitic e-mails to a Jewish man after Campaign Against Antisemitism intervened in the case.

Daniel Davies sent e-mails to an Israeli man who attempted to order items from his company, saying: “Unfortunately Jews have negativity on our businesses. Do you know why? Because Jews rip us off! Jews f*** us up!” A second e-mail sent a short while later stated: “We don’t ship to Israel because the Jews rob us! Sorry but that’s a fact. They scam the world.”

In an e-mail to the victim, the police have now reported that Mr Davies was interviewed under caution in the presence of his solicitor, admitted to sending the abusive e-mails, claimed that he was under the influence of alcohol when he did so and that he sent an apologetic email the next day when sober, and has now been issued with a formal police caution that will remain on his police record.

We are unsurprised to learn that Mr Davies has had to retract his claim that “our e-mail got hacked via wifi over a business phone”, which is a common excuse offered by companies and individuals whose antisemitic messages have been publicly exposed.

Regrettably, the police originally claimed that Mr Davies’s emails were simply “stating an opinion” and refused to log it as a hate crime. They then closed the case, having accepted Mr Davies’ original defence at face value. It was only following a series of interventions by Campaign Against Antisemitism that the police upheld our complaint, reopened the case and recorded the incident as a hate crime under the Malicious Communications Act. They formally apologised saying that they “completely share the concerns you raised.”

Stephen Silverman, CAA’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement said: “Daniel Davies meted out vile racist abuse to a Jewish customer. He tried to lie his way out of facing the consequences of his actions and the initial investigating officer tried to dismiss the case against him. Now the investigating officer has been overruled as a result of our intervention and Mr Davies has a criminal record. Mr Davies is just the latest person to find out the hard way that we are unrelenting in bringing antisemites to justice.”

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Two teenagers charged over antisemitic beating of rabbi in Stamford Hill

Two teenagers have been charged over an antisemitic assault on a visiting senior rabbi, when he was beaten bloody by the assailants who shouted “kill the Jews”.

The two individuals, aged fourteen and fifteen, were also said to have shouted “f*** Jews” and “dirty Jew” during the antisemitic attack, which took place at approximately 21:45 on Friday 1st November as the rabbi walked along Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill.

The suspects reportedly handed themselves in on Tuesday, after being recognised by a relative from the images that police previously released.

The incident took place during the Jewish Sabbath, when orthodox Jews do not use telephones, and was reported to the police and Stamford Hill Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, which said that the victim, 54, was left “collapsed on the pavement, bleeding and dazed, where he lay for several minutes.”

The suspects are due to appear at Stratford Youth Court on 7th January.

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Tottenham Hotspur publishes results of consultation on use of the word “Yid” at football games

Tottenham Hotspur, the North London-based football club, has published the results of its consultation with fans on their use of the word “Yid” at football games.

The consultation was launched in August and the Club received more than 23,000 responses. According to the survey, 33 percent of respondents use the word “Yid”, which is a Yiddish word for “Jew”, regularly in a football context. Of those who do not use the word regularly, eighteen percent said that they find the term “offensive”, with that number rising to 35 percent among Jewish respondents.

Nevertheless, the use of the word among Jewish fans was quite evenly divided, with 36 percent of Jewish respondents regularly chanting the word, 30 percent “occasionally” chanting it and and 34 percent never chanting it. One respondent said: “I am Jewish and find the regular use of the Y-word offensive. I don’t believe most Spurs fans understand its connotations and history.”

94 percent acknowledge that the word can be considered a racist term against a Jewish person, and only twelve percent would use it outside of a footballing context. One fan said: “While the intention of Spurs fans is good, and supportive of Jews, it is still a word that could cause offence,” while another wrote: “I like the tribal way that the term is changed but being a black man, I would like to know whether the Jewish community is offended by its use at our matches before I’d even consider using it.”

Almost half of the respondents would prefer to see supporters chant the word less or not at all.

The Club maintains that the word was historically adopted by fans as a defence mechanism in order to “own” the term and deflect antisemitic abuse in the 1970s that was directed toward fans of the Club, which has long been associated with the Jewish community. Nevertheless, older fans who might be more likely to have witnessed that development appear to be the least likely to use the word, as chanting it is progressively more popular among fans in falling age groups. However, younger fans, among whom chanting the word is popular, believed that the use of the word nowadays does still deflect antisemitism.

Conversely, 30 percent of respondents felt that the use of the word played a role in attracting abuse from rival fans, with the number rising to 37 percent among Jewish respondents.

The Club suggested that it “appear[s] that the history and the motivations behind why fans adopted the term in the first place are being lost over time, with many fans today using it solely as a means to identify themselves as a Spurs supporter,” with one fan writing: “Until my very late teens I had no idea it had historic roots to the Jewish community or that it had been considered a racist slur. It simply meant Spurs to me.”

When respondents were asked whether they would like to see less use of the word at football matches, almost half answered that they would like to see fans choose to chant it less or stop using it altogether.

The club concluded: “all of the above underlines just how complex the nature of this issue is and these varying viewpoints are illustrated in the written responses that we received from respondents too.” As one fan wrote: “I’m Jewish and I understand how offensive the word is yet I do accept that it is used in a very positive frame of reference by fellow Spurs fans. We need an alternative but I don’t know what that is, I can’t see Spurs fans shouting ‘you’re Spurs, you’re Spurs’ at a new player as a replacement for ‘Yiddo, Yiddo’ but we need to find a way to change it. I know this doesn’t give you answers, just my very confused view on how we solve an almost impossible situation. I do also think it’s the responsibility of other clubs to stop the racist chants being directed at us as well.”

Looking to the future, the Club insisted that it takes “a zero tolerance approach….towards real antisemitic abuse” and that “we pride ourselves on being an inclusive and forward-thinking Club and these findings indicate the awareness our fans have of current sensitivities and a willingness to reconsider the appropriateness of the continued use of this term.” It said it shall be organising focus groups, giving supporters the chance to meet and exchange views with fellow fans.

Those invited to contribute to the consultation included all Executive Members, Season Ticket holders, One Hotspur + Members and match-attending One Hotspur Members, as well as those affiliated to Supporters Clubs (both domestic and international), and a sample of non-matchday attenders from both among One Hotspur Members and non-Members. Of the 23,000 responses, 95 percent were either a Season Ticket holder, an Executive Level or One Hotspur Member. Eleven percent of respondents stated that they were Jewish.

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Actor from ‘The Office’ shares post saying “some rich Jews play the ‘antisemitism’ card to protect themselves”

An actor from the hit television series, The Office, shared a social media post claiming that “some rich Jews play the ‘antisemitism’ card to protect themselves”.

Ewen Macintosh, who played Keith Bishop in the programme, shared a statement on Facebook discussing Labour’s election defeat with a Jewish comedian.

The post said that “our hypersensitivity leads us to see any criticism of Jews as ‘antisemitism’”, and since “in modern Britain there are many Jews who are rich” and that “being rich, their position is threatened (as they see it) by the ‘Marxist’ ideas of the Labour Party” and “indeed many left-wing members of the Labour Party will identity ‘The Rich’ as their enemies,” consequently “some rich Jews play the ‘antisemitism’ card to protect themselves. Personally I find this inexcusable.”

Mr Macintosh initially said of the statement that “this was written by one of the wisest Jewish men I know”, but when challenged reportedly clarified that the statement was authored by the actor Colin David Reese and that he did not endorse it but “merely posted it as an example of a different viewpoint [to that of his interlocutor]” and “it’s hopefully still possible to quote sources in this day and age without being accused of agreeing with them. Otherwise we are in serious trouble.”

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Man who posted video of himself training a dog to perform a Nazi salute has application to appeal rejected by Supreme Court

A man who shared footage of himself training a dog to perform a Nazi salute has had his application to appeal rejected by the Supreme Court.

Mark Meechan, also known by the alias Count Dankula, had been found guilty by Airdrie Sheriff Court of breaching the Communications Act by publishing material that was racist, grossly offensive and antisemitic in nature at a trial in April 2018, after he uploaded a video of his girlfriend’s dog lifting its paw when he said “Sieg Heil” and reacting to the phrase, “Gas the Jews”. He was ordered to pay £800.

He reportedly refused to pay the fine but the money was seized from his bank account by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.

Mr Meechan took his case to the Supreme Court after several appeals in Scottish courts had failed, but his application to appeal on human rights grounds was rejected on the basis that it was “incompetent” and “without merit”. Mr Meechan had funded his legal case by crowdfunding almost £200,000.

Although he has reportedly noted that the European Court of Human Rights might be the final option remaining, he indicated that he may redirect the money raised to charity instead.

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Chris Williamson says “manufactured antisemitism allegations” are part of “assault on our democracy” by a “hostile foreign government” to “normalise Zionism”

The disgraced former Labour MP, Chris Williamson, described his erstwhile Party’s institutional antisemitism as “manufactured” and part of an “assault on our democracy” by a “hostile foreign government” to “normalise Zionism in the Labour Party”.

Mr Williamson made the comments in a video explaining the outcome of his legal case regarding his three suspensions from the Labour Party. In the video, he said: “We’ve seen manufactured antisemitism allegations as part of a concerted smear campaign. A hostile foreign government has mobilised its assets in the UK, which Israeli diplomats call their ‘power-multiplier’ in an attempt to prevent a Corbyn-led Labour government. Their secondary goal was always to blunt the internationalism in our movement and normalise Zionism in the Labour Party. They’ve done this by terrifying activists, coordinating with anti-Corbyn journalists and MPs and using faith organisations, many of them charities, to promote the antisemitism narrative…Instead of fighting interference in our election and calling out this outrageous assault on our democracy, the Labour Party’s internalised the narrative promoted by the far-right Israeli government.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that 17% of British people believe, like Mr Williamson, that Israel and those who support it do damage to British democracy.

Mr Williamson resigned from the Labour Party after learning that he would not be allowed to stand for the Party in the general election. His extraordinary letter of resignation from the Party read like a manifesto against Jews. He ran in the general election as an independent and, in a rarity for an incumbent MP that demonstrates the depth of his rejection by his Derby North constituents, got so few votes that he lost his deposit.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, with Mr Williamson responsible for 26 incidents.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Over fifty Jewish Cambridge professors and students pen article describing the “social cost of speaking out” against antisemitism after Jewish students inundated with Labour leaflets

Fifty Jewish professors and students at the University of Cambridge have written an article protesting the political Left’s belittling of antisemitism and dismissal of their concerns.

The endorsers of the article include Prof. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Prof. David Abulafia and Daniel Janner QC.

The intervention was prompted by a campaign event featuring the (successful) Labour candidate, Daniel Zeichner, who, they claim, was dismissive of antisemitism concerns raised with him. One student reportedly asked Mr Zeichner for his view on what Labour should do to resolve its antisemitism crisis, to which the candidate responded that Labour is merely a “voluntary organisation” like a “football club” or a “church”, and asked: “what else do you want us to do?”

The authors of the article accused the MP of “Labour-splaining” antisemitism to Jewish students and observed that his response was “emblematic of a wider disease that has taken hold of both the Labour Party and left-wing spaces here at Cambridge.”

They lamented that when antisemitism is raised, Labour activists and supporters feel personally attacked and respond by pointing out fault in other parties or questioning Jews’ motives.

They also note that the “disturbing choice” between speaking out against antisemitism on the Left versus suffering in silence has “taken a profound toll on Jewish students at Cambridge”, including impacting mental health. There is a “social cost of speaking out,” they say.

The article questions why students who wear Jewish skullcaps have had their pigeon-holes stuffed with Labour leaflets while others lay empty, why Labour activists aggressively approach Jewish students, why blatantly antisemitic tropes are excused as mere criticism of Israel, and why they are told that their experiences of antisemitism do not matter.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Teenagers throw bag of faeces on doorstep of Jewish home

A group of teenagers threw a bag of faeces onto the doorstep of a Jewish home in Stamford Hill.

The incident occurred on Springfield Road on 12th December and was reported by Shomrim Stamford Hill, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anyone with further information should contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD1458 12/12/19.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Labour staffers said to be planning industrial action over “institutional racism and mismanagement”

Staffers in the Labour Party are said to be planning industrial action against the Party over “institutional racism and mismanagement.”

The staffers are reportedly aggravated by aides to Jeremy Corbyn retaining their posts into the new year, which the staffers blasted as “not only embarrassing but also disgraceful”.

Staffers are apparently preparing a motion to be put to a GMB branch meeting in January. The GMB is one of two unions that represent Labour Party staff.

The organisers of the motion say that if the aides are still in post in January, they will seek industrial action on two grounds, namely “institutional racism and mismanagement of the organisation that [is] costing hardworking staff their jobs.”

They added: “Over the last four years we’ve seen a culture develop of bullying, and intimidation and hatred, where staff have openly contemplated ending their own lives due to the cover up of institutional racism.” They continued: “The fact that people who oversaw this culture and also devised the strategy that delivered the worst election defeat in 85 years have ended up hanging onto their jobs is not only embarrassing but also disgraceful. Any self-respecting trade unionist will support that staff in the Labour Party have to stand up and make their voices heard.”

Last year, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed repeated interventions by the Labour Party leader’s office in disciplinary matters, and the pressures brought to bear on staffers, some of whom disclosed resulting mental health problems.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Woman abuses Jewish mother collecting children from school in Golders Green

A woman shouted, “what are you doing? Is that because you are Jewish?” at a Jewish mother parking by a school in order to collect her children.

The incident occurred yesterday in Golders Green, and the assailant, who was a passenger in a nearby passing vehicle, was described as a white woman with a large build. Her light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing a light-coloured woolly jumper. The driver of the vehicle was reportedly a white woman with straight black hair.

The passenger was in a car with the registration number PN15FWP.

The incident was reported by Shomrim North West London, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact Shomrim North West London on 0300 999 1234.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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CAA calls on UCL’s head of Jewish Studies to apologise for using Chanukah message to attack university for adopting International Definition of Antisemitism

The head of the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department at University College London has used a Chanukah message to attack the university’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Prof. Sacha Stern, who is Jewish, explained that his and others’ public opposition to the adoption of the international definition is that it “will stifle the expression of such legitimate political views.” He also claims that the Community Security Trust (CST) and the Board of Deputies “have adopted, very sensibly, a politically neutral definition of antisemitism that makes no reference to Zionism or Israel.

Prof. Stern is wrong on both points. First, the international definition does not stifle free speech, only hate speech. In July 2017, Campaign Against Antisemitism published the opinion of expert counsel, David Wolfson QC and Jeremy Brier, on the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism. The opinion states that: “Public bodies in the United Kingdom [such as universities] are not ‘at risk’ in using this Definition. Indeed, this Definition should be used by public bodies on the basis that it will ensure that the identification of antisemitism is clear, fair and accurate. Criticism of Israel, even in robust terms, cannot be regarded as antisemitic per se and such criticism is not captured by the Definition. However, criticisms of Israel in terms which are channels of expression for hatred towards Jewish people (such as by particular invocations of the Holocaust or Nazism) will in all likelihood be antisemitic.” The definition itself states that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

Second, the CST does in fact use the international definition in its reportage and the Board of Deputies has expressly called for the wide adoption of the international definition in its recent election manifesto.

It is absurd for Prof. Stern to claim that the international definition poses a risk to anyone but those intending to express antisemitic views and contribute to the toxic atmosphere for Jewish students that now prevails on many campuses, as Prof. Stern himself concedes. It is particularly reprehensible that Prof. Stern would use his Chanukah message to attack the adoption of a tool on which so many Jewish students and professionals rely in combating the resurgence of the world’s oldest hatred. Prof. Stern should apologise.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is currently raising a litigation fund, a major focus of which will be to challenge universities through legal action. Please consider contributing.

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Ken Loach says claims about Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism are “lies” and defers to apparent JVL claim that antisemitism was “weaponised”

The controversial filmmaker, Ken Loach, has suggested that Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a “torrent of abuse” and that regardless of what he did, the “campaign” of antisemitism accusations was “going to run and run”.

Mr Loach made the remarks in an interview on the BBC in the wake of Labour’s election defeat. Asked how he feels about the election result, Mr Loach said that he feels “anger that Jeremy has had a torrent of abuse — every Labour leader is abused but not to this extent. He’s a man of peace who’s been called a ‘terrorist’. He’s…been arrested against racism and been called a ‘racist’. And these things are lies.”

He added that Mr Corbyn faced a torrent abuse that was “off the scale”, and that, regarding antisemitism, “there was a campaign that was going to run and run”. He conceded that “there will be antisemitism in the Labour Party, as there is in other parties and across society,” but said he would defer to the Jews in the Labour Party who say that antisemitism was being “weaponised”, with particular reference to the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour.

Mr Loach has a history of inflammatory comments on the subject of antisemitism. He described the BBC’s Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism as “disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism…and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn.” He was also reportedly behind a motion passed by Bath Labour Party branding the Panorama programme a “dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences” and asserting that it “disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.” John Ware, the programme’s reporter, is apparently considering legal action against Mr Loach for his comments.

Mr Loach’s voice has been among the loudest of those who attempt to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as non-existent and a right-wing smear campaign.

In 2017, Mr Loach caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is a manifestation of antisemitism. Although Mr Loach later sought to clarify his remarks, he has continued to make inflammatory and provocative statements about Labour’s antisemitism scandal. While speaking at a meeting of the Kingswood Constituency Labour Party, Mr Loach advocated the removal from the Party of those Labour MPs, some of whom are Jewish, who have taken a principled stand against antisemitism. Shortly after that incident, the Labour Party announced that it would no longer use Mr Loach as a producer of their election broadcasts.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Suspect arrested over violent antisemitic attack on man and teenage girls on bus near Stamford Hill

A man has been arrested in connection with an incident in which a Jewish man was punched and teenage girls was subjected to antisemitic abuse on the number 254 bus.

The incident occurred on 6th December while the bus was near Stamford Hill, travelling towards Hackney. The man was reportedly reading a prayer book when the suspect allegedly subjected him to antisemitic abuse, before turning his attention to a group of teenage girls. When the first victim intervened, the suspect punched him in the arm.

Police were called to the scene but could not locate the suspect. However, using CCTV, the police have now identified and arrested a 48-year-old man on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Conservative MPs Tom Tugendhat and Robert Largan reveal they faced antisemitic abuse during their successful general election campaigns

Two successful Conservative election candidates have separately disclosed that they faced antisemitic abuse during their general election campaigns.

Tom Tugenhat, the returned MP for Tonbridge and Malling in Kent and a prominent Tory backbencher, has said that he suffered “very un-Tonbridge” antisemitism during his campaign, lamenting that it had not been “as clean as previous campaigns”. With reference to online abuse, Mr Tugenhat said: “For the first time I faced antisemitism in this campaign, which I found particularly offensive and very surprising in a community like this and frankly rather distasteful. It was very un-Tonbridge, very un-Kent and very un-British.”

Meanwhile, across the country in High Peak in Derbyshire, newly elected MP Robert Largan has revealed that he encountered anti-Jewish sentiment on the campaign trail. In one instance, Labour activists told him that he had sold his soul and pledged his allegiance to Zion. Others asked if he “eats children”. In another instance, a constituent told him that he would not vote for him because “I don’t trust anything to do with the Jews.” Mr Largan commented: “Several people have said on the doorstep, ‘oh, you’re the Jewish guy aren’t you? Someone seems to be going around saying that I’m Jewish. It is bizarre because I’m not even Jewish. But members of the local Labour Party seem to think I am. Perhaps because I come from north Manchester, which has a high Jewish population, and I’ve been very vocal against antisemitism.”

Mr Largan defeated incumbent Labour MP Ruth George, who has been involved in two incidents of dissemination of antisemitic discourse, for which she has apologised.

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Government’s independent antisemitism advisor Lord Mann to investigate The Canary website

Lord Mann, the Government’s Independent Advisor on Antisemitism, announced that he intends to launch an investigation into The Canary and other hard Left websites in relation to the rise in antisemitism.

The peer wrote on Twitter on Friday morning: “I can this morning announce that as government advisor on antisemitism that I will be instigating an investigation this January  into the role of the Canary and other websites in the growth of antisemitism in the United Kingdom.”

He was responding to a tweet by The Canary’s editor accusing a Jewish Guardian columnist of “manufacturing” the result of the general election. Its editor has been a staunch defender of the Labour leadership and disgraced MP, Chris Williamson.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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CAA joins eighty-eight Lords in calling for Jenny Tonge to withdraw her disgraceful claim that the “pro-Israel lobby won our General Election by lying about Jeremy Corbyn”

Eighty-eight members of the House of Lords have published a letter in The Daily Telegraph condemning remarks on Facebook by the disgraced peer, Jenny Tonge, following the general election.

Baroness Tonge posted on Facebook an article detailing the Simon Wiesenthal’s labelling of Jeremy Corbyn as the world’s worst antisemite and commented, alluding also to the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention in the election: “The Chief RabbI must be dancing in the street. The pro-Israel lobby won our General Election by lying about Jeremy Corbyn.”

In their letter, the peers wrote: “We believe that members of the House of Lords are required to conform to the highest standards of public life. The use of language by Baroness Tonge in a published statement that the general election outcome was a result of “the pro-Israeli lobby … lying about Jeremy Corbyn” falls well short of that high standard.

“Her language is both shameful and in clear contravention of Britain’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism [also known as the International Definition of Antisemitism]. Baroness Tonge has brought Parliament into disrepute and we demand that she withdraws her remarks and issues a full and unqualified apology without delay.”

The letter was endorsed by inter alia Lord Pickles (the UK’s Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues), Lord Mann (the Government’s Independent Advisor on Antisemitism), Baroness Deech, Lord Young, Lord Pannick, Lord Levy and Lord Mendelsohn, with almost ninety peers signing in total.

Baroness Tonge, who was suspended from the Liberal Democrats before eventually resigning, has a long history of Jew-baiting, denouncing Campaign Against Antisemitism, suggesting that the antisemitic attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue might be Israel’s fault, blaming Israel for a rise in antisemitism, and sharing a cartoon comparing Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis, which is a breach of the International Definition.

The letter comes after Campaign Against Antisemitism warned that Jews may be made a scapegoat for Mr Corbyn’s election defeat.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

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Now is not the time to rest on our laurels — CAA prepares ambitious plans for 2020

Since we first exposed Jeremy Corbyn’s past, we have been at the forefront of putting antisemitism in the Labour Party under the spotlight and holding the antisemites to account.

We have heard from so many British Jews that as voting took place on Thursday, they felt a knot in their stomachs, wondering whether their countrymen were about to elect Mr Corbyn, who is an antisemite, as their Prime Minister. Many were doubting their future in this country; that is how high the stakes were.

Since 2015, Campaign Against Antisemitism has led the fight to bring antisemitism in the Labour Party to light and ensure that the media covered it. We made the referral and legal representation that caused the Equality and Human Rights Commission to open a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, in which we are the complainant. We have also secured the only arrests of Labour activists over antisemitism. To this day, we remain the only major organisation to call Mr Corbyn an antisemite, and we called the Labour Party institutionally antisemitic years before anybody else. Some have vilified us and accused us of scaremongering, but others have proved to be invaluable allies.

After years of exposing antisemitism in politics, in just the past two weeks Campaign Against Antisemitism published a detailed study with King’s College London exposing the extent of antisemitic views on the far-left and amongst Mr Corbyn’s strongest supporters, released detailed case files on antisemitic parliamentary candidates across all political parties, including Mr Corbyn himself, and gathered 3,200 Jews and non-Jews alike in Parliament Square at our star-studded #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism rally to stand with British Jews.

While many in the Jewish community have doubted that the British public cared about antisemitism, Campaign Against Antisemitism has for some time seen indications that British people are deeply disgusted by Jew-hatred. Polling data suggests that antisemitism was a significant factor in the resounding defeat of the Labour Party.

However, now is not the time to rest on our laurels.

Antisemitism in politics is not vanquished. Antisemitism on campuses remains commonplace. Incitement against Jews online and antisemitic intimidation and violence on the streets are growing. In 2020, Campaign Against Antisemitism will focus on three areas.

The first area is antisemitism in politics. The Labour Party will be changing its leadership, but the Party itself remains institutionally antisemitic and many of those whose failures led to the antisemitism crisis under Jeremy Corbyn will still hold positions of power. Now is the time for Campaign Against Antisemitism to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism in politics, including other political parties which are not without their problems, albeit not on the scale of Labour’s crisis. Campaign Against Antisemitism’s highly-experienced Political and Government Investigations Unit will be continuing its work to expose, document and highlight antisemitism in political parties. We will also continue in our role as complainant in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, and to ensure that antisemitic political activists are prosecuted.

The second area is antisemitism on campus. Antisemitism at universities has long been a major focus for Campaign Against Antisemitism, however in the coming year we will elevate it to one of our three major national strategic priorities, which will involve an expansion of our work to gather evidence from universities around the country, a major analysis project to understand what universities have in fact been doing to combat antisemitism (generally much too little), and investing in litigation to force universities to defend their Jewish students. We believe that university campuses have long been an incubator for antisemitism, and that students often acquire antisemitic beliefs at university and then bring those beliefs out into other arenas when they graduate, infecting political parties, for example.

The third area is antisemitic crime online and on the streets. Campaign Against Antisemitism was founded in response to surging antisemitic crime just over five years ago, and despite landmark legal successes which have involved everything from private prosecution to judicial review, the Crown Prosecution Service is still failing to adequately prosecute antisemitic incitement online, and we are also very concerned about its approach to antisemitic hate crime on the streets. We intend to build on our legal successes by bringing more cases. The incitement by antisemites and their apparent impunity is emboldening growing numbers of racists to criminally target British Jews. We must ensure that the authorities act, and deter the antisemites.

We need your help.

In order to accomplish our goals in 2020, we must raise a significant litigation fund. That is because the only part of our programme that is not funded is the litigation. Whereas we receive the help of extremely accomplished lawyers on a pro bono basis, there is only so much work they can take on. We need an in-house lawyer to assist them by taking on much of the legwork on cases so that we can bring more actions.

2020 is the year that we must build on our successes and turn the tables on antisemites in this country. We need your support to succeed, and that is why we are asking that everyone donates towards our litigation fund. We are raising money to pay the salaries of a full-time lawyer and paralegal, as well as court and insurance fees. Together, these costs are substantial, and they will be ongoing.

Please give what you can online, contact us to set up a standing order or to make a large donation, or volunteer to help us to fundraise.

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Watch Michael Gove tell Jewish community “You should never have to live in fear again” as Britain rejects of politics of hate

Relief in the Jewish community is palpable after the country resoundingly rejected the politics of hate.

Conservative frontbencher Michael Gove gave a powerful reassurance to the Jewish community this morning, declaring that Britain has “comprehensively rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s politics of division, extremism and antisemitism”, adding that “I also want to say something to a very special group of people: our Jewish friends and neighbours. You have had to live in fear for months now, concerned that we would have a Prime Minister who trafficked in anti-Jewish rhetoric and embraced anti-Jewish terrorists. You should never have to live in fear again.” The clip can be watched below.

In his statement, Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Not for the first time, our nation has stood firm against antisemitism. The British public has watched the once proudly anti-racist Labour Party become infested with Jew-hatred and it has resoundingly decided to stand with its Jewish community and give the antisemites a crushing rebuke. The faith that British Jews showed in our country has been vindicated.”

The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, speaks for many when he says: “ Britain has spoken and it is the decent country we prayed it was. For Jews its nightmare [has been] redeemed. We so appreciate you non-Jews who dared support us. Thank you.”

From abroad, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt expressed his pleasure at the rejection of Mr Corbyn’s “ugly antisemitism”. He regretted that certain American politicians had endorsed Mr Corbyn, but added: “Let’s hope this will push him from centre stage and drain the hate out of British politics, let alone the rest of the world.”

However, the Chief Rabbi, whose courageous intervention two weeks ago articulated the concerns of the Jewish community, rightly noted that “The election may be over, but concerns about the resurgence of antisemitism very much remain,” echoing fears expressed by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Joan Ryan, one of those brave few former Labour MPs who resigned from the Party over antisemitism, wrote last night: “If exit poll confirmed it shows Britain rejects antisemitism extremism and Corbyn. British people [are] fundamentally decent, democratic and moderate.”

Chris Williamson, the disgraced former Labour MP and prominent Jew-baiter, not only lost his independent bid to return to Parliament, but was rejected by voters so overwhelmingly that he has reportedly lost the deposit that candidates must all pay and which is only refunded if they receive more than 5 percent of votes cast.

The unanimity of the Jewish reaction also underscores the negligibility of the fringe minority of Jewish apologists for Mr Corbyn. They never spoke for the Jewish community — and they should not be perceived to do so.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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CAA statement as British public resoundingly decides to stand with its Jewish community and reject antisemites

Over the past several years, the Jewish community has watched the descent of the Labour Party into abject racism with horror. The Party twice elected an antisemitic leader and subjected the nation to a racist Leader of the Opposition. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has become institutionally antisemitic, defending antisemites and victimising those who stood up to them, cultivating animosity towards Jews at all levels and hounding out of the Party Jewish MPs and the most decent of their colleagues. This week saw yet more brazenly antisemitic displays by Mr Corbyn’s supporters.

Political developments appear to indicate that Mr Corbyn will not remain as leader of the Labour Party for long. At this time, we urge the Jewish community to be vigilant in case, as has happened so often in Jewish history and as the last few years and months foretell, the Jews may become a scapegoat as the more ardent of Mr Corbyn’s followers, many of whom hold antisemitic views, now search for where to cast the blame.

As to the Labour Party itself, two factions now exist within the parliamentary party: the first comprises those who support Mr Corbyn’s views towards Jews, including a cohort of new MPs; the second includes those who do not share his positions but who were nonetheless prepared to campaign for an antisemite to become Prime Minister. If the Labour Party wishes to begin to repair itself — an endeavour that will doubtless take some years — it is hard to see how either group could be trusted to lead that process.

That is why the involvement of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) — an invention of the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party — is so crucial. The EHRC continues with its full statutory investigation of the Party, which it launched on 28th May following detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, and as complainant, we are meeting with the EHRC again today. We expect that the EHRC’s findings will in due course provide a legally-enforceable action plan for Labour to navigate its way back to respectability.

Over these past few years, the Jewish community has learned a lot about our country. It has learned who its true friends are — the many — and it has identified the few upon whom it cannot rely when tough decisions need to be made: those who say all the right things but decline to match their words with action.

However, the Jewish community has discovered that a portion of its fellow citizens maintain an ill-disposition towards Jews and that a significant segment of the population is indifferent to Jewish concerns and plight. But it has also seen tremendous goodwill towards Jewry throughout the country, and for that, our small Jewish minority is profoundly grateful.

Whether a change in Labour’s leadership comes to represent a new chapter in the Party’s — and our country’s — story remains to be seen. But Campaign Against Antisemitism will continue to do its work exposing and combating antisemitism in all political parties and across society, and we will continue to rely on your support to do so.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Not for the first time, our nation has stood firm against antisemitism. The British public has watched the once proudly anti-racist Labour Party become infested with Jew-hatred and it has resoundingly decided to stand with its Jewish community and give the antisemites a crushing rebuke. The faith that British Jews showed in our country has been vindicated.

“We urgently need to return to a time when antisemitism had no place in our politics. We must not allow ourselves to forget the fear that many British Jews felt yesterday when a Jeremy Corbyn premiership remained a possibility. Firm action must now be taken against antisemites in politics and those who enabled them, but an antisemite cannot be trusted to rid the Labour Party of this evil. The next Labour leader must be someone who has not been implicated in this crisis and we will hold them to account. They will need to comply with the Equality and Human Rights Commission when it releases its recommendations and, as the complainant in the Commission’s statutory investigation into Labour antisemitism, we will be meeting them today.”

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Diehard supporters of Jeremy Corbyn turn their attention to the world’s oldest scapegoat

Britain has resoundingly rejected the politics of hate, albeit that millions still backed an institutionally antisemitic political party. However, the Jewish community must now brace itself for a potential backlash.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has urged the Jewish community to be vigilant in case, as has happened so often in Jewish history and as the last few years and months foretell, the Jews may become a scapegoat as the more ardent of Mr Corbyn’s followers, many of whom hold antisemitic views, now search for where to cast the blame.

As the Chief Rabbi, whose courageous intervention two weeks ago articulated the concerns of the Jewish community, has also noted: “The election may be over, but concerns about the resurgence of antisemitism very much remain.”

While votes were still being counted, notorious Jew-baiter Ken Livingstone already reportedly noted that “The Jewish vote wasn’t very helpful”.

Labour frontbencher Dan Carden also claimed that Jeremy Corbyn is “one of the most attacked and smeared leaders of a party we’ve ever had in this country.”

Asa Winstanley, who called the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) an “Israeli Embassy proxy” and was reportedly suspended from Labour in March, pending an investigation, observed: “The manufactured ‘antisemitism crisis’ spreads from Labour to a state-backed McCarthyist witch hunt. It was a fatal mistake to indulge these lies, and indulge liars like [former MP] John Mann [the Government’s independent antisemitism advisor].”

Meanwhile, a perusal of Twitter reveals how some frustration with the result is finding expression in worrying tropes, for example a journalist at the Irish Times describing the election as a “great result for Zionism: monsters are roaring their delight”.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Poll says 16% of 2017 Labour voters wavered this time because of antisemitism as another poll claims Labour’s leadership was the main issue driving ‘defection’

A Deltapoll commissioned shortly before the election found that 16 percent of 2017 Labour voters were wavering about voting for the Labour Party again because of antisemitism.

The fieldwork, with a very large sample size of 12,147 in England, Scotland and Wales, was carried out by Deltapoll from 29th November to 2nd December.

Among all 2017 Labour voters who said that they were “less than certain to vote Labour”, 16 percent gave antisemitism as a reason. 28 percent said they would have been more likely to vote Labour if Jeremy Corbyn had handled accusations of antisemitism better.

Among all adults, regardless of political persuasion, 47 percent felt that “generally speaking, Labour does have a problem with antisemitism”. 46 percent thought a different Labour Party leader would have handled accusations of antisemitism within the Labour Party better.

81 percent had seen news coverage of antisemitism in the Labour Party ahead of the election, with 37 percent saying they had seen “a lot” and 44 percent saying they had seen “a little”.

Read in conjunction with a separate poll by Opinium, it suggests that antisemitism may have been a factor that drove traditional Labour voters to defect to the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. Opinium’s poll found that 37 percent of voters who did not vote for the Labour but who previously did vote for Labour defected to another political party due to the Labour Party’s leadership, whereas only 27 percent defected over its policies on Brexit and the economy. This adds credence to the thesis that traditional voters were swayed in part to vote for another party because they felt that the leadership of the Labour Party was antisemitic or had failed to address antisemitism.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

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Barnet branch of National Education Union adopts International Definition of Antisemitism

The Barnet District of the National Education Union (NEU) has resolved to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The NEU is the largest education union in the UK, and was formed following the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in 2017.

On 7th November its Barnet District branch held its general meeting and resounding majorities passed two significant motions related to antisemitism in the face of some vitriolic opposition. The first motion welcomed the Government’s and Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition and the second resolved to adopt it and called on the NEU’s National Conference to follow suit.

It is understood that the motions took three years to get to this stage and pass. The motions were reportedly proposed by Raphael Kessler and seconded by Jon Cohen, both of Hasmonean Multi-Academy Trust.

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Police release pictures of suspects following antisemitic incident in Manchester kebab shop

Police have released images of two men to whom they want to speak after a Jewish man was subjected to antisemitic abuse in a kebab shop in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

The men asked the victim, “Are you a f****** Jew?” and the ensuing exchange included a torrent of antisemitic abuse from the men, who said that the Jews should be “wiped out”, denied that the Holocaust took place, and made a Nazi salute.

The incident took place around 22:30 on 16th November and is being investigated by Greater Manchester Police who, after analysing CCTV footage, have released the two images.

Anyone with information should call the police on 0161 856 3129  quoting incident number 2498 of 17/11/2019.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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Two men chase Jewish child shouting “F*** Jews your life is over” in Stamford Hill

It has been reported that two men chased a fourteen-year-old Jewish child returning from evening prayers at synagogue shouting “F*** Jews your life is over”.

Police are investigating the antisemitic incident, which took place yesterday at around 21:30 on the junction of Dunsmore Road and Stamford Hill. The child was riding his bicycle and managed to get away from the men before alerting a member of the public who contacted Stamford Hill Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference number CAD36238 11/12/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Never has the excellent work done by the Shomrim neighbourhood watch patrol been more vital. These appalling incidents of unbridled antisemitic hatred are occurring with increasing frequency and now even target children as well as adults. We call for the cowardly antisemitic offenders to be identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

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What do Al Murray, Pakistani Christians and a Tibetan rights activist have in common?

They all attended the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism national rally in Parliament Square on Sunday, along with 3,200 others.

The rally called for Jews and non-Jews alike to stand together against antisemitism at a time when the Jewish community has been shaken by antisemitism in public life and mounting antisemitic hate crime.

Speakers included barrister and television personality Robert Rinder, actress and writer Tracy Ann Oberman, and historian, biographer and broadcaster Tom Holland, as well as Trupti Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain and Fiyaz Mughal OBE, founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism.

Attendees were recorded by Nick Richmond at EventCapsule and by Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast.

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Jewish students face torrent of antisemitic abuse at Labour rally in Bristol, with one student violently assaulted

A Jewish student has told Campaign Against Antisemitism of how he was violently assaulted at a Labour Party rally.

The student attended a Labour Party rally yesterday in Bristol carrying a placard stating that Jeremy Corbyn is a racist, in order to highlight the issue of Labour antisemitism and Mr Corbyn’s culpability in the Party’s antisemitism crisis.

He reported that he and his friends faced a torrent of antisemitic abuse, including: “f*** you, you filthy Jew”; “Who’s funding you?” and “I bet the Israeli Government has paid you to be here”. The student added that he and his friends were called “Tory operatives” and that they were “selfish” for “only caring about antisemitism”. They also faced repeated demands to justify the policies of the Government of Israel, despite not having brought Israel up in their exchanges with the Labour supporters

The student says that he was physically attacked twice and that Labour supporters successfully wrestled the placard out of his hands outside City Hall, and in the scuffle he sustained a small cut to his hand.

The student has reported the incident to Avon and Somerset Police, who have confirmed that they are investigating and will examine CCTV.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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“Let’s annihilate them all”: Leaked documents show rampant antisemitism in Labour and disciplinary processes unfit for purpose

Leaked documents show that antisemitism is rampant in the Labour Party and that its disciplinary processes are unfit for purpose.

Notwithstanding Jeremy Corbyn’s claims to the contrary, many cases have resulted in lenient sanctions, if any.

Several newspapers have highlighted a handful of alarming cases, a selection of which are summarised below.

One Labour Party member wrote a series of Facebook posts saying: “I call for the complete annihilation and extermination of every Jew on the planet”; “The Jew is worse than Black Death, worse than ebola virus. The Jew represents pure evil”; “You have to think with a scientific method…with clarity of thought. No emotion. We need to eliminate this infection. We kill viruses every day”; “Can we hope for the complete extinction of all Jews by 2017? It is possible by doing your bit to eliminate this global infection”; “Every EU country should kick out every single Jew”; and Jewish people worldwide were funding “a Holoacust against every Arab nation”. Although the Party suspended him the day after receiving a complaint and noted that his words “would not be out of place in the Third Reich”, it took the Party ten months to expel him.

One Labour activist angrily told a veteran councillor that he was “licking the bum of Jews for money”. That comment was passed to Labour’s disciplinary team, along with a social media post she had shared that said: “Our Jewish agenda is to employ the tools of chaos magic — to use deception lies, craft and magic — to obtain the conquest of the Gentile world and establish our Jewish New World Order.” Nevertheless, the Party took four months to process the case, did not suspend her, gave her only a ‘formal warning’ which has no ramifications, and despite the Party’s insistence that future behaviour would result in stronger sanctions, the same activist is known to have shared posts alleging that a Jewish woman MP is an “intelligence asset of the United States”.

A Labour member who joined the Party after Mr Corbyn became leader claimed before joining: “I am not a Jew hater but in terms of stopping being taken over, you are well too late.” After joining the Party he said: “the whole antisemitic thing is to undermine Corbyn and nothing more. Feck off.” Other posts abused Jewish MPs and referred to “Swindlers List: Obama’s Zionist Jews in power” and “Rothschild’s Choice”. He was given a warning on the condition that he underwent antisemitism training; he reportedly resigned his membership over another matter before taking the training.

A Labour member who suggested that only “thousands” of Jews had died in the Holocaust and that Jews were “rich, interested in finance and intent on controlling or exploiting others” received only a warning from the Party, before being suspended apparently only after the case had elicited bad publicity.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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CAA investigators unearth shocking social media posts by former Labour candidate Jann Oliver who claimed to have stepped down “for personal reasons”

Jann Oliver, until recently a Labour candidate in the general election, was deselected by the Party’s ruling body in November for what her constituency branch called “personal reasons”. However, Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that Ms Oliver also had a history of antisemitic social media activity.

In June, Ms Oliver was selected to represent the Labour Party as its parliamentary candidate for Bromley and Chislehurst. However, on 7th November 2019, with only weeks to go before the general election, it was reported that she had been deselected by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee the previous day. No reason for the deselection was provided. Ms Oliver’s local Labour constituency branch, however, announced that she had stood down “for personal reasons”.

However, another candidate. Jason West, who was to stand for Labour in West Dorset, was apparently deselected simultaneously with Ms Oliver. He expressed his annoyance at being cited in the same Huffington Post reportage, claiming that the news website “should have no idea” why he was deselected, as he was “told not to tell anyone by the Labour Party.”

Meanwhile, Ms Oliver’s Twitter account was deleted. Nevertheless, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Political and Government Investigations Unit can now reveal that Ms Oliver had regularly retweeted posts which clearly fell foul of the International Definition of Antisemitism, which had been adopted by the Labour Party over her (and others’) objections.

Having discovered that Ms Oliver followed @SocialistVoice, an account run by expelled Labour activist Scott Nelson, our investigators discovered that she had also shared a number of disturbing posts on social media, many of them sharing the common theme that ‘Zionists’ were supposedly conspiring, using smears and lies, to contrive the downfall of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

These posts included an article from the Dorset Eye site (which frequently hosts antisemitic content) asserting that accusations of antisemitism against Mr Corbyn were part of an effort by “the establishment media and Zionists across all political parties” to “serially” undermine the Labour leader, and that those making such accusations had been “convinced by shady characters” and were “bogged down in hate and the incapacity to think analytically”. The article also spoke of “dark forces at play” and reproduced part of an article by the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, which stated in relation to the antisemitism crisis in Labour that “attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour have been grossly exaggerated, and in some cases fabricated.”

Ms Oliver also shared a post which spoke of a “concerted attack on the Labour leadership using false and contrived accusations of antisemitism”, and another which claimed that Mr Corbyn was being “smeared with NO EVIDENCE”.

Further posts included several retweets from an account claiming to be that of a young Jewish supporter of Mr Corbyn who was “opposed to Zionism and the State of Israel”, and who claimed that one of their principal motivations for joining Twitter was to “as a Jew…help fight against the FALSE antisemitic accusations” against Mr Corbyn and disgraced MP Chris Williamson. This account, however, was widely suspected to be a fake — part of a widely documented phenomenon whereby social media users claim Jewish heritage in order to defend the Labour Party against accusations of antisemitism, or to spread antisemitic content.

For her own part, Ms Oliver was also clearly keen to show her support for Mr Williamson — by then suspended by the Labour Party — by promoting the fundraising campaign in support of his legal action against his suspension by Labour over alleged antisemitism. On one occasion, this involved promoting a tweet which included a message by the rapper Lowkey alleging that “the real target” of what he called “the injustice” against Mr Williamson was in fact Mr Corbyn.

Ms Oliver also shared a video of a speech given by the late Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, in which he likened Israel’s policy to that of the Nazis and alleged that the Holocaust was being exploited for political ends. This video was shared from an account calling itself “Zionism Research Center,” whose output consists almost entirely of pro-Iranian content and popular conspiracy theories, including that ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was trained by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad; that Israel controls US politics; that Israel controls Facebook; that Zionists “own” the media; that Israeli Jews are “fake” Jews (the so-called ‘Khazar myth’); that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks; that Jews are “parasites” who are prone to “avarice”; and memes glorifying violence against Israeli Jews.

Ms Oliver’s posts have implied that the British Jewish community’s complaints of antisemitism have been part of a mendacious conspiracy to bring about the fall of Mr Corbyn, and she has posted material from sites known for propagating extreme antisemitism, fundraised for Mr Williamson, and promoted material comparing Israel to the Nazis.

Whether this sordid social media history was behind the quiet abandonment of her candidacy remains unconfirmed. Ms Oliver responded to our requests for comment, informing us that her reasons for standing down as a candidate were of a purely personal nature. She added: “I am totally against antisemitism in all its forms, and have actively campaigned against it.” Despite being provided with the complete brief of supporting evidence in the links above, Ms Oliver demanded to “see proof”. We replied to observe that all of our supporting evidence in connection with this article had been provided to her, and she has given no further response.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Despite the publicly-available evidence demonstrating that Ms Oliver has shared an abundance of antisemitic media on social media, her Constituency Labour Party nonetheless made her their Parliamentary candidate and said that they were ‘thrilled’ to do so. Meanwhile, if she was indeed dropped by Labour ‘for personal reasons’, then clearly the Party had no problem with her views and social media activity. If, however, there were other reasons behind the deselection, then Labour is guilty of a cover-up. Either way, these daily illustrations of Labour’s institutional antisemitism under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn have become the norm for Britain’s Jews.”

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CAA praises Hindu Forum of Britain for letter of solidarity with Jewish community and against antisemitism

The Hindu Forum of Britain has today published a letter of solidarity with the Jewish community and against antisemitism.

The Forum, which is the largest umbrella body of British Hindus and represents over 320 Hindu groups throughout the UK, rightly noted in its letter that the Hindu and Jewish communities have for decades “existed in harmony together” and “shared similar journeys upon arrival in this country”.

The letter goes on to say: “We have watched antisemitism seep into British politics with horror, and have worked closely with Campaign Against Antisemitism to oppose it. Bigotry within any political party is to be condemned and we take inspiration from the courage shown by the Chief Rabbi in denouncing antisemitism within the Labour Party.

“Just as our communities have shared so many succeses over the years, we now sadly feel that we share your distress and disgust at some of the current divisive rhetoric that has been used in these elections, which has led us to conclude that not only is there antisemitism in some parties, but also a strong anti-Hindu agenda.”

The President of the Hindu Forum of Britain, Trupti Patel, also spoke to the crowd of thousands at the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism national rally in Parliament Square on Sunday.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We praise the Hindu Forum of Britain for its steadfast support for the Jewish community and opposition to antisemitism, and join it in condemning anti-Hindu prejudice. The Jewish and Hindu communities are natural allies and we stand together in good times and bad.”

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Some antisemitic Labour members got “lesser sanctions”, according to Channel 4, as it again disputes Corbyn’s claims about how the Party has dealt with antisemitism

Channel 4’s fact checker has again disputed Jeremy Corbyn’s claims about Labour’s disciplinary processes, claiming that some members were reportedly given “lesser sanctions” for expressions of antisemitism.

Channel 4 suggests that this contradicts Mr Corbyn’s insistence that “where anyone has committed any antisemitic acts or made any antisemitic statements, they are either suspended or expelled from the Party.”

Mr Corbyn has recently stated that he had “strengthened processes” for dealing with antisemitism and that in the summer he had “proposed that egregious cases should be fast-tracked.” Although Channel 4 had reported that the new fast-track policy was still not in force by mid-October, it has now been clarified that the policy was implemented since then, but only used at one panel meeting on 5th November. The panel supposedly expelled “several” members in that session, but the exact number has not been disclosed.

Channel 4 concluded: “The new information we’ve had from this senior insider suggests it is still the case that people found to have said or done antisemitic things are not always suspended or expelled from the Labour party, despite what Mr Corbyn has claimed.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Over one hundred Liverpudlians sign letter condemning antisemitism and the abandonment of the city’s two Jewish MPs

Over one hundred Liverpudlians have signed a letter condemning antisemitism and the abandonment of the city’s two Jewish MPs, Luciana Berger and Dame Louise Ellman.

The letter reads: “Liverpool has a proud history of mobilising against racism and a proud history of solidarity with the victims of racism. Over the past few years we have seen a string of antisemitic incidents culminating in 2019 with the successive resignations from the Labour Party of two Liverpool MPs, Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman. They both denounced institutional antisemitism in the Labour Party and a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation in their local CLPs. This should have been a turning point. Instead, they were largely allowed to ‘walk alone’. We, citizens of this city, Jewish or not Jewish, want to express our profound disquiet and regret at these events as well as our solidarity with Luciana and Louise. We will not tolerate antisemitism and we will not tolerate the accommodation of antisemitism. We commit to hold to account, to educate and to mobilise. Today, we reclaim Liverpool’s proud history.”

The full list of signatories can be read here.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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New Statesman declines to endorse Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism

The leading left-wing political journal, the New Statesman, has, unusually, declined to endorse the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism.

In an editorial the magazine read: “the essential judgement that must be made is on Mr Corbyn himself. His reluctance to apologise for the antisemitism in Labour and to take a stance on Brexit, the biggest issue facing the country, make him unfit to be prime minister.”

The editorial went on to note that Labour has become only the second party (after the BNP) to be probed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. That full statutory investigation was launched on 28th May following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

It also noted the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention calling out Labour antisemitism, warnings made by the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Labour Movement’s decision not to endorse its own Party, and other developments.

In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Labour’s Barry Gardiner denies Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic, merely critical of Israel’s politics

Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner has said that Jeremy Corbyn and the Party have been wrongly accused of antisemitism, and that the Labour leader is merely “critical of the politics of Israel”.

Mr Gardiner, who is the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, said that it was “important” to have “clarity” on Mr Corbyn’s record, and that “What Jeremy [Corbyn] has always done is be critical of the politics of Israel and the way Israel has dealt with the Palestinian question. And he has been absolutely unequivocal on that. He has not and the Party has not, in my view, been antisemitic.”

However, in the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents of antisemitic discourse, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Lord Dyson says there is a “powerful case” that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite

Lord Dyson, the former Master of the Rolls and Supreme Court judge, has said that there is a “powerful case” that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite.

Lord Dyson, who is Jewish, made the remarks in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. He said that he was “disturbed” by elements within the Labour Party, and described it as “deeply concerning” that Jewish MPs had been hounded out of the Party.

Asked whether he believes that Mr Corbyn is antisemitic, Lord Dyson replied: “I think all I can say is — I don’t want to say positively that he is antisemitic — but I think there is a powerful case that he may well be. I’m choosing my words rather carefully here.” He went on to say: “There is evidence that he is antisemitic, but I wouldn’t like to say positively that he is. There is evidence that he may well be.”

He added: “I’ve spoken to a lot of Jewish friends about this [and] some say that if Corbyn gets elected they will leave the country and they may well do that,” he said.

“There are undoubtedly some nasty things going on in certain parts of the Labour Party,” he said, agreeing that the Chief Rabbi’s unprecedented intervention in the election calling out Labour antisemitism was “justified”. 

As for whether he might leave the country, Lord Dyson insisted: “I must say I have absolutely no intention of doing that; I find that some of the things that are going on at the Labour Party at the moment disturbing and concerning, but I still think this is a wonderful country to live in.” However, Lord Dyson recently disclosed that his bags are at least metaphorically packed.

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Simon Wiesenthal Centre labels Jeremy Corbyn worst antisemite on the planet

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has reportedly declared that the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is the worst antisemite in the world.

The U.S.-based group, which is the leading Nazi-hunting organisation in the world, said: “No one has done more to mainstream antisemitism into the political and social life of a democracy than the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party. Members and staff who have dared to speak out against the hate were purged, but not those who declared ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘F*** the Jews’.”

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the head of the Centre, said that Mr Corbyn will make Britain a “pariah”.

A Labour spokesman reacted by saying: “This ranking is ridiculous and grossly offensive. Putting Jeremy Corbyn at the head of a list containing neo-Nazi synagogue shooters is a transparent political attack and has nothing to do with tackling antisemitism.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Three Jewish boys subjected to death threats on Northern Line

Three visibly Jewish boys were subjected to death threats on the Northern Line and reportedly left the train in fear.

The assault occurred on Saturday night at 21:00 on 7th December 2019, on an Underground train from Golders Green station, and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference number CAD6332/30/11/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

https://twitter.com/Shomrim/status/1203642511543209984

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Conservatives reportedly investigating three candidates over antisemitism claims

The Conservative Party is reportedly investigating three parliamentary candidates over alleged antisemitism.

The candidates — Sally-Ann Hart in Hastings, Lee Anderson in Ashfield and Richard Short in St Helens South and Whiston — are facing varied accusations.

Mr Short suggested that a Jewish journalist, Melanie Phillips, may have dual loyalty to Israel in a past social media post, agreeing in June 2013, Richard Short with another Twitter used commenting on Ms Phillips’ appearance on an episode of BBC’s Question Time that “her allegiance is greater to Israel”, adding himself: “She almost has to declare an interest.” Mr Short has apologised.

Meanwhile, it is claimed that Ms Hart shared a video with an image implying that the Jewish financier George Soros, controls the EU, and that she ‘liked’ a Nazi slogan on Facebook. Mr Anderson was reportedly an active member of a Facebook group that apparently promoted conspiracy theories related to Mr Soros.

With regard to Mr Short, a spokesperson from Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The charge of dual loyalty and disloyalty is among the most widely held antisemitic slurs and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British Government, “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations” is antisemitic. We expect the Conservative Party to take immediate action.”

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Footage released of two men suspected of launching an antisemitic attack on a senior rabbi while shouting “kill the Jews”

CCTV footage has been released of the two men suspected of beating a visiting senior rabbi bloody while shouting “kill the Jews” two weeks ago.

The two men were also said to have shouted “f*** Jews” and “dirty Jew” during the antisemitic attack, which took place at approximately 21:45 on Friday 29th November as the rabbi walked along Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill. The two teenagers were described as black and wearing dark hooded clothing.

The incident took place during the Jewish Sabbath, when orthodox Jews do not use telephones and has now been reported to the police and Stamford Hill Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference number CAD6332/30/11/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is an appalling attack on an innocent and eminent visitor to our country, and he will leave not only with physical injuries but an impression of the UK that sadly our country is beginning to deserve, as attacks on Jews proliferate and antisemitism appears daily on the frontline of our politics.”

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Man who possessed neo-Nazi, anti-Muslim and antisemitic images to stand trial for allegedly planning attack on Islamic Centre

A man who possessed Nazi, neo-Nazi, anti-Muslim, antisemitic and other racist and violent images will stand trial next year.

Sam Imrie, 22, reportedly hoarded knives, nunchucks, a hammer, a baseball bat, a rifle scope and petrol, which he referred to as his “arsenal”, and is accused of posting on Telegram, an online messaging platform, indicating that he planned to commit an attack on the Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes and stream live footage.

It is also alleged that he recorded and compiled details of terrorist attacks on places of worship.

Mr Imrie faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2006 and one under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The trail is set for 1st June 2020 at the High Court in Glasgow.

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CAA releases case files showing Jeremy Corbyn personally responsible for 24 antisemitic incidents, four times more than all candidates for other major parties combined

Campaign Against Antisemitism is today publishing the 29 case files from our database of more than 300 entries. The research, which is available now on our website examines involvement in antisemitic discourse by all parliamentary candidates and party leaders.

The research shows that Jeremy Corbyn is personally responsible for 24 incidents, which is equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders. This means that, if Jeremy Corbyn were a political party, the ‘Jeremy Corbyn party’ would be responsible for almost four times more incidents than all the other major parties combined.

Moreover, far from investigating and eliminating antisemitism, Jeremy Corbyn is injecting more of  it into Parliament, as 36 percent of incidents across all political parties were committed by Labour’s new candidates, who have not been MPs before.

Overall, Labour Party candidates for Parliament account for 82 percent of all incidents.

Our Antisemitism in Political Parties project is the most comprehensive long-term analysis of antisemitism among the officers of political parties ever undertaken in Britain. It examines officers from party leaders down to those who chair constituency branches of parties, and will be maintained as an online resource indefinitely, for use by journalists, researchers and the public. The project’s core aim is to assess how Britain’s political parties deal with antisemitism, and to publicly display a full ongoing record of antisemitic incidents in all parties. 

The project was set up by and is supervised by academics, and uses a strict methodology. A permanent dedicated team at Campaign Against Antisemitism researches and chronicles social media, discourse at events and reports from the public and the media, using a variety of techniques. For any individual who has been responsible for an antisemitic act since January 2013, it analyses the full history of that individual’s antisemitism, numbers the incidents themselves, gives a full analysis of how they qualify as antisemitic acts, and then details the outcomes in terms of reactions and media reports. Finally, Campaign Against Antisemitism gives a traffic light verdict on how the party to which those individuals belong have dealt with the incident. 

Incidents are strictly defined as either breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism, or dissemination and/or endorsement of such breaches by others. Incidents are verified and linked to sources, and requests for comment sent to the individuals concerned, making it an invaluable go-to resource for journalists. Incidents are attributed to the parties where the individual was a member when they took place. Finally, statistical analysis is applied, analysing the proportion of individuals and incidents by each party and individual.

We have included only current parliamentary candidates and party leaders. We have excluded those individuals who were fully adopted by their parties as parliamentary candidates but who, in the last few weeks, have been withdrawn because of a public outcry after previous antisemitic acts were revealed and are no longer candidates. These include seven Labour, two Conservative, one SNP and one Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates. Among those excluded are candidates such as Safia Ali in Falkirk, who was withdrawn by the Labour Party so late that her name will still be on the ballot paper alongside Labour’s logo. 

Furthermore, because of our strict methodology, individuals who have come to the public’s attention who are of concern to the Jewish community — for example, those who enthusiastically endorsed the disgraced former MP Chris Williamson or Ken Livingstone — are not currently included. These presently number a further eleven cases.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “This research project began in 2015 and is still ongoing. The release today of 29 case files, covering MPs and Parliamentary candidates, now available on our website, makes for disturbing reading. Jeremy Corbyn cannot possibly claim to be ‘dealing’ with the problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party when he has more recorded antisemitic acts to his name than any other candidate. Moreover, far from eliminating antisemitism in politics, the Labour Party has fielded a cohort of new candidates who already account for over a third of acts of antisemitism themselves. Our regrettable conclusion is that Labour’s antisemitism crisis is likely to get even worse in the coming years.”

Yesterday, thousands of Jews and non-Jews attended a star-studded national rally in Parliament Square to stand #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism. Speakers included barrister and television presenter Robert Rinder; award-winning actress and columnist Tracy Ann Oberman; acclaimed historian Tom Holland; the president of the Hindu Forum of Britain, Trupti Patel; and the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, who said: “Britain is not Britain without Jews.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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3,200 turn out in solidarity at star-studded #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism national rally

Campaign Against Antisemitism today held the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism national rally in Parliament Square. Stewards put the final attendance number at 3,200 people.

The rally called for Jews and non-Jews alike to stand together against antisemitism at a time when the Jewish community has been shaken by antisemitism in public life and mounting hate crime.

Speakers included barrister and television personality Robert Rinder, actress and writer Tracy Ann Oberman, and historian, biographer and broadcaster Tom Holland, as well as Trupti Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain and Fiyaz Mughal OBE, founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism.

The crowd heard powerful messages from the speakers.

Robert Rinder said that attendance at the rally was vital: “The question is not how I could be here, it’s how we could not be here today.” His sentiment was echoed by Fiyaz Mughal OBE, who said: “Britain is not Britain without Jews.”

Tracy Ann Oberman decried the state of antisemitism in Britain, warning: “Rabbis beaten up in the streets, people abused on the Tube, Nazi tropes at Glastonbury, antisemitic murals approved by politicians, Holocaust denial. How did it come to this?…It has never been more important for us all to stand up to racism.”

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Today we here in this square stand before the Mother of Parliaments in the country of the Magna Carta. The country that stood alone as a light in Europe as the hatred of Nazi Germany enveloped the continent. We stand here to say that Britain is better than this. We stand here to ask all of the people of our country to stand with us.”

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Watch yet another incident of men targeting Jewish man at synagogue and throwing his hat to the ground

In the latest of a spate of similar incidents, a group of men entered the Satmar Synagogue premises in Stamford Hill and threw a religious Jew’s hat to the ground.

The incident took place at 20:30 on 5th December at the Clapton Common synagogue of the Satmar community and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anyone with further information should contact Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: ref 4635138/19.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Muted publicity for Jewish reception at Buckingham Palace shows that celebrating Jewish life in the UK has now become a political issue

A reception at Buckingham Palace meant to celebrate Jewish life in the UK was organised without publicity for fear that, a week prior to a general election in which antisemitism has been a significant issue, it risked being misrepresented as a political statement.

The reception, organised by Clarence House and months in the making, included leaders of the Jewish community and, unusually, national media were not invited to cover the event.

Without casting blame on the Palace, it is gravely disappointing that British society has come to a point where celebrating Jewish life and the contribution of the Jewish community to the UK risks being seen as a partisan statement. Labour’s institutional antisemitism has not only corrupted that once fiercely anti-racist Party but has had a noticeable, detrimental effect on wider society as well.

A Clarence House spokesman said: “The Prince of Wales has a long history of supporting minority communities in the UK and around the world. This particular event was planned in the spring to celebrate the contributions made by members of the Jewish community to all aspects of British life.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Watch new video of Corbyn embracing radical antisemitic cleric Raed Salah after he was found to have disseminated antisemitic blood libel

New video has emerged of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn embracing the The firebrand Islamic cleric, Sheikh Raed Salah, after Sheikh Salah was found by the Court of Appeal to have promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children.

Sheikh Salah, who was recently convicted in a court in Israel for incitement to terrorism, is best known in the UK as an object of Mr Corbyn’s warm praise. Sheikh Salah is a prolific antisemite who claims that Israel planned 9/11. Yet Mr Corbyn has said that “Salah’s is a voice that must be heard” and publicly told Sheikh Salah: “I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace because you deserve it!”

Mr Corbyn is also thought to have been the author of an article in the Morning Star in 2011 protesting Sheikh Salah’s arrest. The article also said: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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SNP official tasked with investigating candidate who was suspended over antisemitism now resigns herself after calling Israel a “Nazi state”

An SNP official tasked with investigating an SNP candidate recently suspended by the Party over antisemitism has herself been forced to resign after she described Israel as a “Nazi state”.

Denise Findlay has resigned from the SNP’s Conduct Committee after it was revealed that she had written on social media: “Israel with its treatment of Palestinians and latest apartheid laws is Nazi. It is not anti-Semitic to call Israel a Nazi state.”

Her tweets date from the summer of 2018, when the Labour Party was debating whether to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, which includes “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as an example of antisemitism. She tweeted at least five times describing Israel as a Nazi state, sometimes in explicit criticism of the International Definition.

The Conduct Committee is due to investigate candidate Neale Hanvey, who also fell afoul of the International Definition of Antisemitism by comparing Israel to Nazis and was recently dropped by the SNP, although he will still appear on the ballot in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Ms Findlay reportedly urged SNP voters to continue to back Mr Findlay in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath after he was suspended by the Party, and it is being reported that other local SNP members and volunteers are also continuing to back him, despite calls from Party leader Nicola Sturgeon not to do so.

Ms Findlay had been elected to the Conduct Committee in October reportedly promising to “protect members from spurious complaints brought by our opponents of the media [sic]”, with the support of Joanna Cherry QC, a prominent SNP MP, who tweeted at the time: “#Vote #DeniseFinlay1 Conduct Committee.”

In a statement, the SNP said: “There is no place for antisemitism in Scotland or in the SNP. All political parties have a duty to show leadership, and we will always take tough action in order to reassure the Jewish community that these matters are taken seriously. When challenged on her actions, Denise Findlay resigned from the SNP. The views she expressed are entirely at odds with the ethos of this Party.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Swastika scrawled on campaign board outside Jewish home in Golders Green

A swastika and messages comparing the Prime Minister to Hitler were scrawled on a campaign board in Golders Green.

The offensive messages were graffitied onto material promoting the local Conservative candidate outside a Jewish home.

The incident was reported by Shomrim North West London, a Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

It is understood that this followed a separate, similar incident, which was also reported to police.

Barnet Council reportedly dispatched a team to both locations to remove the graffiti.

A Spokesperson for Shomrim North West London said: “It is incidents like these which bring the issue of antisemitism into sharp focus. This is the second incident reported to Shomrim in the last week of antisemitic graffiti daubed in Golders Green. Shomrim are committed to supporting victims of all hate crime. We urge any victims of Antisemitism to come forward and we will support you in reporting these incidents to police, and provide you with the necessary support.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.

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Youths throw Jewish men’s hats on the ground in two incidents

Five youths singled out two Jewish men and threw their hats to the ground in two separate incidents.

The incidents took place at 16:30 on 4th December on Dunsmere Road in Stamford Hill and were reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anyone with further information should contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD5193 4/12/19.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Man who called in bomb threats to Jewish schools imprisoned for four years

A man who called in bomb threats to Jewish schools has been imprisoned for four years.

Andreas Dowling called in more than 100 bomb hoaxes, targeting schools, colleges and police stations in the UK, US and Canada. The court heard that Jewish schools were an “over-represented” target of the hoax calls, and he taunted them by telling them that a bomb would go off at 4:20 pm, a reference to Adolf Hitler’s birthday on 20th April.

Mr Dowling was arrested in June following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West. He pleaded guilty to 130 counts of communicating false information with intent.

On Monday, at Exeter Crown Court, Mrs Justice May sentenced Mr Dowling to four years and five months’ imprisonment.

Image credit: Avon and Somerset police

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CAA shocked that police will not treat attack on Jewish children as an antisemitic hate crime

Campaign Against Antisemitism is shocked by reports that the police will not treat an attack on three Jewish children on a bus in Stamford Hill as an antisemitic hate crime.

The three visibly Jewish children are believed to have been the only passengers attacked during the incident, which took place on a bus in Clapton Common.

CCTV footage has been captured showing two men running for the number 253 bus, with one slipping at the back door, appearing to attack Jewish passengers, before some passengers begin to exit the bus.

The victims had their hats thrown off and one was punched in the eye.

The incident took place at around 08:15 on the morning of 24th November and was reported by Shomrim Stamford Hill, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD5111 24/11/19.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 noted that law enforcement against antisemitic hate crime must be consistent and firm, and that in our experience, procedures and oversight within police forces fail to ensure that each and every response to antisemitism is as firm as the law permits. Among the recommendations was that police forces should implement a positive arrest strategy so that decisions not to take further action in hate crime cases are reviewed by senior officers under the ultimate supervision of a relevant Single Point of Contact, which all forces should appoint.

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Bristol University adopts International Definition of Antisemitism after acrimony

The University of Bristol has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism, following a controversial debate.

The University had reportedly initially declined to adopt the full roster of examples that are appended to the International Definition, with the senate removing the examples and elevating the amended version to the trustees. However, following a protest by the Jewish Society, the International Definition has been adopted in full by the University.

The University has had its share of scandals, dropping a complaint against one lecturer, Dr Rebecca Gould, over an article in which she claimed that “privileging the Holocaust as the central event in Jewish history” should end and that “the Holocaust persists and its primary victims are the Palestinian people”; and rebuffing Jewish students’ concerns over a lecture course titled “Harms of the Powerful”, in which a conspiracy theorist sociology professor, David Miller, suggested that the “Zionist movement” is one of the “five pillars” of hatred of Muslims (redolent of the five pillars of Islam) and is bankrolled by “ultra Zionist funders”.

University College London adopted the International Definition recently, following a call on universities to adopt the International Definition by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

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‘Leading campaigner against racism’ disgracefully quits Church of England body because Archbishop stood up to anti-Jewish racism

An academic described as a ‘leading campaigner against racism’ has resigned from a Church of England advisory body in protest at the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in support of the Chief Rabbi’s editorial warning that Jeremy Corbyn is “unfit for office” and that “the very soul of our nation is at stake,” as antisemitic crime and antisemitism in public life reach record levels.

The Archbishop issued a statement following the publication of the Chief Rabbi’s article warning that there is a “deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.” Stating that “None of us can afford to be complacent,” the Archbishop made a thinly veiled attack on those who continually deplore antisemitism whilst doing nothing against it, writing: “Voicing words that commit to a stand against antisemitism requires a corresponding effort in visible action.”

However, Gus John has now resigned his role on the advisory body saying: “As a matter of principle, I cannot continue to work with the Anglican church … after the Archbishop of Canterbury’s disgraceful endorsement of the Chief Rabbi’s unjust condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour party,” adding that the Chief Rabbi’s criticisms were received “as if he were the pope, speaking for all British Jews as the pope would for all Roman Catholics. Secular Jews and those who do not hold with the views of Jews for Labour are considered not to matter.” Mr John proceeded to note issues of discrimination against minorities within the Church.

It is regrettable that Mr John sees combating antisemitism as somehow mutually exclusive with fighting for equal rights for all minorities.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Ewa Jasiewicz, who vandalised the Warsaw Ghetto, now campaigns for Labour

A woman who was roundly condemned for vandalising the Warsaw Ghetto to advance her political opinions about Israel is now campaigning for the Labour Party.

Activist Ewa Jasiewicz sprayed political “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto in 2010, the largest and most well-known of the ghettos designated by the Nazis in German-controlled territory, from which hundreds of thousands of Jews were sent to death camps or killed by shooting and another hundred thousand died of starvation and courageous revolt. Essentially a mass grave, the Warsaw Ghetto serves as a salient symbol of the Holocaust for all and evokes sensitivity and strong emotion on the part of Jews in particular.

The vandalism of the Warsaw Ghetto was condemned across the Jewish community. That the political messaging of the graffiti was directed toward Israel meant it also clearly breached the International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British Government, which illustrates manifestations of antisemitism, inter alia, as

  • drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis – which the political messaging did by using the setting of the Warsaw Ghetto, which was established, operated and liquidated by the Nazis, to criticise Israeli policy and imply that it replicates that of the Nazis; and
  • holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel – which Ms Jasiewicz did by deliberately targeting a site of Jewish suffering to draw the attention of Jews to the policies of Israel and to associate Jewish suffering with those policies in the minds of the rest of the world.

Ms Jasiewicz is also a union organiser with Unite and has spoken at an event with the pro-Corbyn pressure group, Momentum.

It is unlikely to come as a surprise to many observers that the Labour Party under its antisemitic leader, Jeremy Corbyn, attracts support from individuals such as Ms Jasiewicz.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Unite union’s Tony Woodhouse makes “juju” comment on Ivan Lewis’ Facebook account

Tony Woodhouse, the chairman of Len McCluskey’s Unite union and an important ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, left a pejorative comment on the Facebook page of former Labour minister Ivan Lewis.

Mr Woodhouse confirmed that the comment had come from his account but denied responsibility, insisting that his social media account had been hacked. Mr Woodhouse has apologised to Mr Lewis.

Mr Lewis, who is an independent candidate in the general election, described the comment as antisemitic and demanded an investigation.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is submitting a complaint to the Unite union further to this incident.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Channel 4 suggests Corbyn may have misled viewers about improvement of Labour antisemitism disciplinary processes

Channel 4 is reporting that it has seen evidence showing that, contrary to assertions by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Party’s enhanced disciplinary processes were not expected to be implemented until after the general election.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Neil in a ‘car crash’ interview last week that he had “strengthened processes” since then and that “during the last few months” he had “proposed that egregious cases should be fast-tracked”.

However, Channel 4 has reported that an internal Labour Party document showing that in as late as mid-October a senior Party source did not expect the policy to be implemented until after the election.

Requests by Channel 4 for proof from Labour of the new processes having been introduced already were apparently initially ignored, but eventually Labour replied, insisting that the fast-track expulsion policy was now in force and that “a number of people have been expelled under those new powers” this month. As evidence, the Party pointed to remarks by the Party’s General Secretary, Jennie Formby, in the Jewish News over the weekend, which came after Mr Corbyn’s interview and the publication of Channel 4’s original article.

Channel 4’s conclusion: “Mr Corbyn claims to have ‘strengthened processes’, but the evidence we’ve seen casts doubt on whether the new policy has actually taken effect.”

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Chigwell man jailed for antisemitic harassment and stalking of Jewish women and religiously aggravated robbery of Jewish man

A twenty-year-old man from Chigwell has been jailed admitting to harassing and stalking Jewish women because of their religion, and for religiously aggravated robbery of a Jewish man.

Sam Hemmati is reported to have bombarded numerous Jewish victims with antisemitic messages on several social media platforms, and to have stalked and harassed eight women between September 2018 and March 2019.

The messages included references to the Holocaust and sexually explicit material, and he repeatedly contacted the women despite requests to stop.

Mr Hemmati had also pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated robbery of a Jewish man in London in July.

He was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on 28th November to three years in prison for all the offences.

Inspector Jason Scrivener, from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, said: “The nature of Hemmati’s online communications can only be described as vile. He took pleasure in hounding his innocent victims using online channels, subjecting them to the most horrendous vitriol about their religion. This case highlights how seriously the police takes religiously motivated offences and I am pleased that he will now have a long spell behind bars to reflect on his actions.”

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Watch the Labour election advertisement that says every British minority is “worthy of equality” except the Jews

The Labour Party has released an advertisement for the general election that presents a montage of images accompanied by a speech by the Shadow Minister Dawn Butler as the narration.

In the narration, almost every conceivable minority is mentioned, including religious minorities by reference to those who “wear a hijab, turban, cross”. All of the groups mentioned are, the viewer is told, “worthy of equality”, “dignity” and “respect”. Ms Butler’s narration also says that each has “a future” and that “a Labour government will value you”. But the narration conspicuously does not mention Jews, nor are there any images of Jews.

The slogan of the advertisement is “Our diversity is our strength”. Ms Butler is the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It either did not occur to the Labour Party to include the Jews in this diversity advert, even though the Party is being investigated for institutional antisemitism, or the Jews have deliberately been excluded. Both explanations are appalling, and neither does anything to change the impression that the Labour Party is ‘for the many not the Jew’. In fact, it increasingly appears that the Party has grown comfortable with its anti-Jewish animus.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Conservative candidate suggested Jewish journalist had dual loyalty to Israel in past social media post

A Conservative candidate suggested that a Jewish journalist, Melanie Phillips, may have dual loyalty to Israel in a past social media post.

In June 2013, Richard Short, now a Conservative candidate, agreed with another Twitter used commenting on Ms Phillips’ appearance on an episode of BBC’s Question Time that “her allegiance is greater to Israel”, adding himself: “She almost has to declare an interest.”

Mr Short has apologised, saying: “I apologise unreservedly for this Tweet of 6 years ago. I admit I was ignorant of the offence that could be caused by what I said regarding Melanie Phillips, but I realise how inappropriate it was, it was wrong and I fully apologise.”

A spokesperson from Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The charge of dual loyalty and disloyalty is among the most widely held antisemitic slurs and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British Government, “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations” is antisemitic. We expect the Conservative Party to take immediate action.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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SNP drops candidate in key marginal seat over allegations of antisemitism

The SNP has dropped its candidate for a key target seat over allegations of antisemitism.

The Party has withdrawn its support for Neale Hanvey, a former councillor who is running in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, saying he had been suspended pending disciplinary action.

The allegations reportedly relate to a social media post in which Mr Hanvey compared Israel’s policies to the treatment of Jews in WWII, which would appear to be a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism, according to which “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism. Another post Mr Hanvey had shared on Facebook in 2016 included an image of the Jewish billionaire George Soros as a puppet master controlling world leaders.

Mr Hanvey issued a apology, recognising how at least one of his comments breached the International Definition and saying that he was “genuinely and deeply sorry”

The SNP said: “Neale Hanvey is no longer an SNP candidate, and his membership has been suspended pending disciplinary action. All support for his campaign has been withdrawn.”

Mr Hanvey is the second candidate to have been dropped by Scottish parties this week over antisemitism.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Labour candidate tells Jewish audience her Party has failed on antisemitism and doesn’t deserve their vote

A Labour Party general election candidate has told a Jewish audience that her Party does not deserve their vote because it had “totally failed” to tackle antisemitism.

Carolann Davidson made the admission at the Jewish hustings in Glasgow’s East Renfrewshire, which is the constituency with the highest proportion of Jewish voters in Scotland.

Ms Davidson said that the party had “failed from the leadership down” and declared: “I can’t stand here and ask for your vote.” Saying she was “embarrassed by the way Labour is handling antisemitism”, she said that given she is “not here asking for your vote”, the reason she had attended was because “I want to reassure you as a community that there are still people within the Labour party who are not willing to surrender the party that was once the strongest ally of the Jewish community to racists and conspiracy theorists,” and to tell the community that “I [am] on your side,” adding: “I can’t defend the indefensible. What I can do is tell you who I am and what I stand for.”

In the past week, Scottish Labour dropped one of its candidates, Safia Ali, over allegations of antisemitism.

Meanwhile, in Ilford South in London, the Labour candidate, Sam Tarry, suggested that the antisemitism crisis was being exploited by those who disagreed with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on foreign policy.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Watch as Matt Hancock heckled at hustings for raising Labour antisemitism

The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, was heckled at a general election hustings for raising Labour’s institutional antisemitism in the debate.

The event, in his constituency of West Suffolk, elicited cries of “shame on you” and “racist” when Mr Hancock said that he was passionate about ridding antisemitism from our politics.

The audience’s outburst comes as Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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CAA and KCL study finds far-left Jew-hatred has now overtaken far-right in Britain and two-thirds of Corbyn’s vanguard of strongest supporters hold antisemitic views

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism is releasing the results of our Antisemitism Barometer research, a multiyear study by Campaign Against Antisemitism which was designed and analysed by one of the foremost academics in his field from King’s College London. The study makes shocking findings about antisemitism in the Labour Party and British society, and how Jews are reacting.

The research has revealed that:

  • Antisemitism on the far-left has overtaken antisemitism on the far-right;
  • Jeremy Corbyn is now the candidate of choice for anti-Jewish racists;
  • Despite claims that Labour’s antisemitism stems from ‘a few bad apples’, two thirds of Jeremy Corbyn’s vanguard of strongest supporters hold at least one antisemitic view;
  • 84% of British Jews feel that Jeremy Corbyn is a threat specifically to the Jewish community;
  • Two in five British Jews have considered emigrating over antisemitism in the past two years alone, 85% of them because of antisemitism in politics, with two thirds expressly naming the Labour Party or Jeremy Corbyn as their reason;
  • Close to two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism, and a mere 35% of British Jews felt confident that antisemitic hate crimes against them would be prosecuted, a record low; and
  • Almost half of British Jews believe that the Crown Prosecution Service is doing too little to fight antisemitism.

In the report, Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on the Government to urgently implement a series of recommendations on law enforcement, and for all political parties to adopt our manifesto for fighting antisemitism.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Far from being the champion of anti-racism that it holds itself out to be, the far-left is now home to even more anti-Jewish bigotry than the far-right. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the Labour Party, whose Jeremy Corbyn is now the politician of choice for antisemites. If the battles of old against the far-right tell us anything, it is that if we fail to unite against this toxic hatred, it will spread to threaten other minorities too.

“People will find it utterly chilling that in 2019, large swathes of the Jewish community are considering the drastic step of leaving the country they love because they fear racism in our politics. I believe in the people of our deeply decent country and I hope that this study will encourage them to stop and think how they can show their Jewish countrymen that regardless of politics, race or religion we stand together against antisemitism, that the Jewish community is not alone.”

The full report is available at antisemitism.org/barometer.

YouGov was commissioned to survey the British population’s attitudes towards Jews in 2018 and 2019. The YouGov survey was designed and analysed by Dr Daniel Allington of King’s College London. The polling was conducted prior to a General Election being called. Campaign Against Antisemitism also separately worked with partners to survey British Jews’ responses to antisemitism in 2018 and 2019. Dr Allington also designed and analysed the survey of the Jewish community, which was also conducted prior to a General Election being called. YouGov sample sizes for the survey of the British population were 1,606 in 2018 and 2,040 in 2019 (including boost samples from the ‘very left-wing’ and ‘very right-wing’ of 197 and 204 respectively). Campaign Against Antisemitism sample sizes for the surveys of British Jews were 2,103 in 2018 and 2,695 in 2019.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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London Jewish family calls Shomrim after finding swastika and “Hail Boris” graffiti on their home

A Jewish family in London has discovered a swastika and “Hail Boris” graffiti on their home. It is believed that the incident took place during the Jewish sabbath.

The swastika was one of the emblems of Nazi Germany and “Heil Hitler” was the salutation accompanying the Nazi salute.

The family called Shomrim North West London, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, which has reported the matter and arranged for the local council to remove the graffiti.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101 or Shomrim North West London on 0300 999 1234.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Senior rabbi beaten and left bleeding on ground by London teenagers shouting “Kill Jews” and “F*** Jews”

A senior rabbi has flown straight to Israel after teenagers in London beat him severely and left him bleeding on the ground.

At approximately 21:45 on Friday, the rabbi was approached as he walked along Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill by two teenagers described as black and wearing dark hooded clothing. The teenagers allegedly shouted “Kill Jews” and “F*** Jews” and beat him, leaving him bleeding on the ground.

The victim is now flying out of the UK to Israel.

The incident took place during the Jewish Sabbath, when orthodox Jews do not use telephones and has now been reported to the police and Stamford Hill Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

Anybody with information should call the police on 101, quoting reference number CAD6332/30/11/19, or call Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is an appalling attack on an innocent and eminent visitor to our country, and he will leave not only with physical injuries but an impression of the UK that sadly our country is beginning to deserve, as attacks on Jews proliferate and antisemitism appears daily on the frontline of our politics.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Man who criticised Jeremy Corbyn on Twitter has swastika sent to his home by first class post, police investigating

A Jewish filmmaker from Hertfordshire who has become increasingly worried about the rise of antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has received a swastika by post at his home address after tweeting criticism of the Labour leader.

On Friday, his partner was outside their house while the postman was carrying out his rounds. He handed her a bundle of post in which the antisemitic poison pen letter was included. It was a single sheet of paper with a swastika crudely drawn in the middle, delivered in a stamped envelope. The filmmaker ran his own company for several years from his home address, and believes that the perpetrator tracked him down via information held at Companies House as his Twitter handle and bio included the name of his company.

He was shocked on opening the letter but has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that he finds this sort of low level bullying “pathetic”. Rather than frightening him, the man is now more determined than ever to expose and call out antisemitism wherever he witnesses it, however his partner has been shaken and worried by the incident. He immediately reported the letter to the police and an investigation has commenced.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are assisting the victim and the police are investigating. This is hardly the first time that we have seen antisemitism in politics cross into criminality. The perpetrator must be brought to justice to send a strong message to those trying to intimidate anyone standing up to antisemitism in the Labour Party.”

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Also in November: a selection of other antisemitic incidents that we did not cover

In Thanet, Kent, swastikas were found drawn on the street, although the graffiti had been adapted in order to incorporate the lines into a different, non-offensive drawing. The graffiti appeared to make reference to the EDL, the acronym for the English Defence League.

On Finchley Road in North London, the word “Jews” was scrawled onto a bus stop at Golders Green Station on Finchley Road. This is apparently the third time this month that the graffiti has appeared there. The incident was reported by North West London Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD9514 19/11/19

Meanwhile, on Castlewood Road in Stamford Hill, a Jewish school van with visible Hebrew words was vandalised. The incident took place at 20:37 on 25th November and was captured by CCTV, according to Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

The suspect appeared to be driving a white Maserati with licence plate PO64 ASZ.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD4900 26/11/19.

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Police officer dismissed over sale of Auschwitz items and Nazi memorabilia on eBay

A police officer in Northamptonshire has been found to have committed gross misconduct for selling items from Auschwitz and Nazi memorabilia on eBay.

Police Constable Matthew Hart was revealed last year by the JC to have, together with a relative, Paula Hart, administered an eBay account by the name of ww2autographs, which sold memorabilia from Holocaust extermination camps. At the time, the police force said that “no wrongdoing had been identified”, but it since decided that PC Hart’s eBay activity “contravened his declared business interest”, and he was hauled before a discplinary panel.

The panel found no evidence of criminality nor any indication that the sales were motivated by any extremist ideology or Nazi sympathies. Instead, it concluded that PC Hart had “a genuine historical interest in this period of history.”

Nevertheless, it decided: “The officer has shown an extreme lack of judgement and insensitivity which is not fully acknowledged. He sought to justify his conduct at every step and offered a rationale which cannot be accepted by the panel…He manipulated the listings…with a view to frustrating eBay policy over a significant period of time. He was not open and transparent with his own force. There is a failure to embrace [his own] responsibility and a lack of recognition which troubles us going forward. We lack faith in his judgement and compliance with matters requiring openness and self-regulation in future.”

Although removing items from the death camps is illegal under Polish law, it is not illegal under English law, nor is there any suggestion that PC Hart was himself involved in removing the items.

PC Hart has a right of appeal.

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Video re-emerges of Corbyn saying BBC is biased towards saying “Israel has a right to exist”

Video has re-emerged of Jeremy Corbyn telling Press TV that the BBC is biased towards saying “Israel has a right to exist”.

The Labour leader, who was a backbench MP at the time, told the Iranian-backed station: “I think there is a bias [in the BBC] towards saying that Israel has a democracy in the Middle East, that Israel has a right to exist, Israel has its security concerns.”

Mr Corbyn also suggested that there was “a great deal of pressure on the BBC from the Israeli Government and the Israeli Embassy,” seemingly implying that the Jewish state wielded some significant influence over the BBC’s output.

Mr Corbyn is understood to have been paid up to £20,000 for his various appearances on Press TV, which was banned in the UK for its part in filming the detention and torture of an Iranian journalist.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Respected European Rabbi Menachem Margolin says Corbyn’s legacy is abhorrent to the Jews of Europe

The respected Rabbi Menachem Margolin has delivered a blistering attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Rabbi Margolin, who is based in Belgium, is the founder and chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, a leading organisation in the community.

On Mr Corbyn, Rabbi Margolin told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “There is no nuance, no clever turn of phrase or election soundbite that can undo what is done by Jeremy Corbyn. His record of supporting terrorists who want nothing short of the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State, his sympathy with those who murder and maim women, children, the elderly – any civilian – as long as they are Jewish – is a matter of public record that no amount of spin or whitewashing can erase. This is his legacy. He must live with it, and the solid and justified judgement and abhorrence that comes with it from the vast majority of Jews, not just in the UK but in Europe too.”

Rabbi Margolin’s intervention comes following that of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who declared that Mr Corbyn is “unfit for office”. The Chief Rabbi was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Senior Sephardi Rabbi, Joseph Dweck.

It also comes after a fringe anti-Zionist group, United European Jews, released a statement backing Mr Corbyn. A previous letter by this group was promoted by Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s tea companion Raed Salah convicted of incitement to terrorism

The firebrand Islamic cleric, Sheikh Raed Salah, has been convicted in a court in Israel for incitement to terrorism.

Sheikh Salah is best known in the UK as an object of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s warm praise. Sheikh Salah is a prolific antisemite who claims that Israel planned 9/11 and who has, according to the Court of Appeal, even promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children. Yet Mr Corbyn has said that “Salah’s is a voice that must be heard” and publicly told Sheikh Salah: “I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace because you deserve it!”

Mr Corbyn is also thought to have been the author of an article in the Morning Star in 2011 protesting Sheikh Salah’s arrest. The article also said: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Scottish Labour reportedly drops candidate Safia Ali in Falkirk over antisemitic social media posts

It is being reported that the Scottish Labour Party has dumped its candidate in Falkirk over antisemitic social media posts.

Safia Ali will no longer represent Labour in the seat at the general election.

A Labour spokesperson said: “Safia Ali is no longer the Labour Party’s candidate for Falkirk. We have taken immediate action on this matter. We deeply regret Safia Ali was selected.”

Scottish Labour’s general secretary, Michael Sharpe, said: “I deeply regret the people of the Falkirk constituency will no longer have a Labour candidate to campaign and vote for on December 12. There is no place for antisemitism, or any form of racism and bigotry, in our party. That is why Labour is taking robust action to root it out of our movement and wider society. The Party has significantly strengthened our procedures, with swift suspensions, new processes for rapid expulsions and an education programme for members. While I cannot go into details about individual cases, I can confirm that the Party has acted immediately and decisively to remove this candidate.”

Ms Ali is the third Labour candidate to be withdrawn in connection with antisemitism, following Gideon Bull in Clacton, England, and Kate Ramsden in Gordon, Scotland.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

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Jewish man cursed on Clapton Common by man making gun gesture

A Jewish passerby on Clapton Common in Stamford Hill was cursed at angrily by a man in an unprovoked attack.

The assailant also made hand gestures at the victim, including one signifying a gun.

The incident took place at 12:30pm on 26th November, and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD31816 26/11/19

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“You f***ing Jews”: Breastfeeding Jewish mother screamed at on bus

A Jewish mother was harassed while breastfeeding when a woman screamed at her “you f***ing Jews, breastfeeding and blogging up all the buses.” The victim was brought to tears by the unprovoked outburst.

The incident took place on 26th November on Mare Street in Hackney on the 254 bus from Royal London Hospital, and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD6515 26/11/19

We are seeking to recruit a General Counsel a Creative Communications and Events Officer a Communications and Research Manager an Education and Outreach Intern to join our London office

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Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Everything that we do is done by people who volunteer their time, using donations contributed by members of the public. Join the fight against antisemitism by subscribing to our updates, volunteering, or donating.