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CAA lawyers challenge police refusal to act over Hizballah supporters’ planned show of strength in central London this Sunday

Supporters of genocidal antisemitic terrorist group Hizballah are set to mount a show of strength through London’s main shopping streets on Sunday as part of a procession which police expect to number 1,000 people. Campaign Against Antisemitism has met with the Metropolitan Police Service, but we were told that the march will go ahead and those flying Hizballah flags will be protected by police officers.

The flag of Hizballah distinctively bears the words “Party of Allah” in Arabic, along with a dagger and a raised fist clenching an assault rifle. Last year, marchers draped themselves and their children in the Hizballah flag and also carried professionally-made placards declaring: “We are all Hizballah”. Hizballah is a terrorist organisation which advocates the annihilation of Jews worldwide. It has targeted Jews for murder around the globe from Bangkok to Buenos Aires to Burgas. It has wrought acts of barbaric murder all over the world over the course of decades, leaving a death toll in the thousands through aeroplane hijackings to war crimes in Syria to suicide bombings to launching missiles into towns.

Yet as Britain mourns those so recently slaughtered in terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, instead of confronting the pro-Hizballah marchers, the Metropolitan Police Service is proposing to close parts of Regent Street, Oxford Street, Bond Street and Grosvenor Square, bringing central London to a halt so that Hizballah-supporters may march through the heart of the capital.

Marchers will be addressed by figures including Baroness Tonge, who was suspended by the Liberal Democrats and later resigned amidst accusations of antisemitism, and Mick Napier, chair of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign who was convicted of aggravated trespass over allegations of intimidating bank staff at a demonstration against investment by Barclays Bank in an Israeli company.

The procession is mostly the work of a registered charity known as “Islamic Human Rights Commission”, which has issued guidance to participants in the procession telling them that “you can bring a Hizballah flag to show support for the political wing of Hizballah”. It is hard to see how organising a procession in which support for Hizballah is permitted can be considered to be a charitable activity. Despite receiving a complaint from us about last year’s procession, the Charity Commission has still yet to open a statutory inquiry into Islamic Human Rights Commission which is the only way it can invoke the counter-extremism powers it requested and received from Parliament.

Whilst the British government has proscribed the “military wing” of Hizballah under the Terrorism Act 2000, the “political wing” is not proscribed, something that even Hizballah finds ridiculous. In October 2012, Hizballah Deputy Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said: “We don’t have a military wing and a political one; we don’t have Hizballah on one hand and the resistance party on the other…Every element of Hizballah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, are in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority.” Hizballah’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, who is the leader of any fictitious “wing” of Hizballah that the government may wish to imagine, said: “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

Section 13 of the Terrorism Act is clear that “A person in a public place commits an offence if he wears an item of clothing, or wears, carries or displays an article, in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”. Ignoring the broad scope of the legislation, which is intended precisely to stop public displays of support for terrorists, the Metropolitan Police Service interprets the law such that if someone carries a Hizballah flag, police officers should presume that the person is supporting Hizballah’s political activity and not any of Hizballah’s terrorist atrocities. In doing so, the Metropolitan Police Service is effectively deciding to tolerate the display of a flag of a proscribed terrorist organisation. Police forces have no power to decide not to enforce certain offences. If marchers choose to wave a flag that is shared with a proscribed organisation, then they assume the risk that they will “arouse reasonable suspicion that [they are a] supporter of a proscribed organisation”, which is a criminal offence.

Therefore, when Campaign Against Antisemitism met the Metropolitan Police Service at a meeting facilitated by Sophie Linden, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, we asked the police to use their powers under section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 to impose a condition on the procession simply so that marchers are in no doubt that they cannot show the emblem of Hizballah.

The Metropolitan Police Service refused our request. Our able pro bono legal counsel has now submitted representations to the Metropolitan Police Service.

Essentially, Hizballah supporters will be able to brazenly parade through the major streets of our capital unless one of the following happens:

  1. The Metropolitan Police Service overturns its perverse interpretation of the Terrorism Act 2000 and imposes a condition on the procession under the Public Order Act 1986 so that support for Hizballah cannot be shown;
  2. The Charity Commission asks Islamic Human Rights Council to instruct its stewards not to permit participation in the procession by anybody showing support for Hizballah; or
  3. The Home Secretary proscribes Hizballah in its entirety under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has made representations to the Metropolitan Police Service, the Charity Commission and the Home Office.

On Sunday, our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit will attend the procession to gather evidence, which will be reviewed by our Crime Unit and Regulatory Enforcement Unit. If you are free from 14:00 in central London on Sunday and would like to help, please e-mail [email protected] urgently. Alternatively, if you cannot help us this Sunday but would like to help us long-term, please volunteer or donate.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Hizballah is clear that it seeks the genocide of Jews worldwide, committing terrorist atrocities from Bangkok to Buenos Aires to Burgas. As Britain mourns those we have so recently lost to Islamist terrorism, the Metropolitan Police Service and Charity Commission intend to permit Hizballah supporters to mount a show of force through the heart of London. This is the reality of the supposed crackdown on extremism and terrorism.”

Finally, we would like to note that despite various calls from within the Jewish community for the Mayor of London to take action against this procession, he has no statutory power to do so and criticism of him for failing to exercise a power he does not possess is misplaced. Both the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime have been very helpful in facilitating contact with the right people within the Metropolitan Police Service, and we are grateful to them for their efforts. We also wish to thank Andrew Dismore, Member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden, who has been extremely supportive of our efforts.

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Man shouts antisemitic abuse at Jewish women whilst cycling down major north London shopping street

A man has been seen allegedly shouting antisemitic abuse at Jewish women on Brent Street, north London.

According to Shomrim North West London, the man shouted “F***ing c*** Jewish ladies” at two Jewish women walking down the street, as he cycled past.

Shomrim North West London has asked any witnesses to call them on 0300 999 1234 or alternatively to call the Metropolitan Police Service on 101.

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Two teenagers arrested for shouting antisemitic abuse at Jewish couple, taking man’s hat

A Jewish couple walking in Hackney at approximately 1:30 this morning was allegedly subjected to vicious antisemitic abuse at the hands of a group of teenagers, two of whom approached them shouting abuse about Jews and swearing. At one point they grabbed the Jewish man’s hat and continued to shout abuse when he asked them to give it back. The couple, who were visiting from abroad, were shaken but unharmed.

Stamford Hill Shomrim followed the teenagers, who were both male and described as “Asian” until police officers arrived to arrest them on Cazenove Road. Shomrim is assisting the victims.

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CAA raises concerns about Palestine Expo hosted at government-owned convention centre opposite Parliament

Palestine Expo 2017, with a list of controversial speakers, is being held on 8th and 9th July at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, opposite the Houses of Parliament. According to the the government’s website, the conference centre “is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government”.

The event is billed as “the biggest social, cultural and entertainment event on Palestine to ever take place in Europe” and is being heavily advertised. According to the Palestine Expo Facebook page on 6th June: “This week over 200 Palestine Expo billboards went up across London Underground platforms.” A closer look, however, has uncovered troubling undertones to what is billed as a cultural event that will give the British and European public a taste of Palestinian food, art, music, entertainment and history.

The organisers of the event are the Leicester-based, Friends of Al-Asqa, which was founded and is chaired by Ismail Patel. At a “Stop the Gaza Massacre” demonstration in London on 10th January 2009, during “Operation Cast Lead”, Mr Patel told a cheering crowd that “Hamas is not a terrorist organisation. The reason that they hate Hamas is because they refuse to be subjugated to be occupied by the Israeli state and we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel.” Hamas is listed by the British government as a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and advocates the murder of Jews around the world. In 2009, Friends of Al-Aqsa published an opinion article by Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh, who claimed that “It is well known that Israel, through the numerous Zionist lobbies or pressure groups, more or less controls America’s politics, media and financial institutions” and that the Iraq war “was conceived in and planned by Israel through the mostly Jewish neocons in Washington.”

We put these matters to Friends of Al-Aqsa and Mr Patel. Friends of Al-Aqsa told us that “We consider antisemitism and any form of racism extremely repugnant”, that Mr Patel’s praise for Hamas was merely “intended to be specific to that time period [during ‘Operation Cast Lead’] while Gaza and its governing body (Hamas) were under sustained military assault”. It also noted that it removed the article by Mr Amayreh from its website and has published articles by a number of Jewish people.

The list of speakers for the Palestine Expo 2017 includes individuals with worrying views.

One speaker, John Pilger, an Australian film-maker, wrote in The Guardian in 2006 that Hizballah represented “humanity at its noblest”, writing: “The resistance to rapacious power, to epic crimes of invasion (which the Nuremberg judges called the ‘paramount’ crime) is humanity at its noblest; yet the paradox warns us that no resistance is pretty; that each adds its own form of violence in order to expel an invader (such as the civilians killed by Hizbollah rockets); and this has applied to heroic partisans in Europe and heroic Kurds and those faceless, despised Iraqis who have succeeded in pinning down the American homicidal machine in their country.”

Another speaker, Tariq Ramadan, an Egyptian-Swiss academic, was banned from 2004 to 2010 from entering the United States for allegedly supporting a charity that the Bush administration labelled a fundraiser for Hamas (the ban was lifted by the Obama administration). He also reportedly wrote on Facebook in May 2014 that Belgian officials may be part of a conspiracy to falsely present the Brussels Jewish museum shootings as antisemitic. According to The Forward, Professor Ramadan wrote: “The two tourists targeted in Brussels worked for the Israeli secret services”. Claiming that the Belgian government had not commented, Professor Ramadan pondered: “Coincidence. Is this a case of antisemitism or a maneuver to divert attention from the real motives of the executioners? We oppose all slaying of innocents and racism but at the same time, it’s time they stopped taking us for fools.”

A third speaker, Malia Bouattia, is the recently-defeated President of the National Union of Students (NUS), who called Birmingham University a “Zionist outpost in higher education” because it has “the largest Jsoc [Jewish student society] in the country.” She railed against “Zionist-led media outlets”, characterised Palestinian terrorism as “resistance” and voted against condemning ISIS. When called on by Campaign Against Antisemitism and numerous student leaders to retract her comments, she penned an article in The Guardian claiming that her accusers were simply sexists and racists. Ms Bouattia has since refused to confirm that Israel even has a right to exist, and she told an audience at the School of Oriental and African Studies that the government’s anti-terrorism strategy is led by “Zionist and neo-con lobbies”. Last July, Ms Bouattia drew further condemnation when she used her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative.

It is extremely troubling that this event is being held at an iconic, government-sponsored venue, right opposite the seat of British democracy. We are writing to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government expressing our concerns.

We would like to thank Jewish Human Rights Watch for sharing detailed information about this event with us.

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Passersby come to aid of Jewish boy as teenagers grab at his hat and bicycle, threatening to “beat” him

A 16-year-old Jewish boy sitting on a park bench in London was helped by members of the public as teenagers grabbed at his hat and bicycle, threatening to “beat” him.

The incident occurred just before 15:00 today in Springfield Park in Hackney. The Jewish boy was resting on the bench when he was allegedly approached by two younger teenagers aged approximately 14 and described as “Asian”, who grabbed at his bicycle and his hat, which is of the kind traditionally worn by charedi (orthodox) Jews. When the Jewish boy asked them to stop, he said that they threatened to “beat” him.

Members of the public came to the boy’s defence and the Metropolitan Police Service and Stamford Hill Shomrim were called to the scene. The boy told them that he was convinced that the teenagers targeted him because he was Jewish, which means that under the so-called ‘MacPherson Principle’ it must be recorded and investigated as an antisemitic hate crime.

We are grateful to the passersby who came to the boy’s assistance. It appears that recognisably Jewish schoolchildren are increasingly being targeted, including by other children, and we expect that the Metropolitan Police Service will investigate this matter as an antisemitic hate crime.

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Greater Manchester Police seeks two hooded figures after arson attacks on two kosher restaurants

Police in Manchester have appealed for witnesses following two arson attacks on kosher restaurants earlier this week, which are being investigated as antisemitic hate crimes.

According to a statement from Greater Manchester Police (GMP): “The first incident happened at Ta’am Restaurant on Bury New Road shortly before midnight on Friday 2nd June 2017 when two offenders approached and threw a milk carton filled with petrol and a lit rag at the premises. The makeshift petrol container failed to ignite before one of the offenders threw a large stone at the front window, smashing it in the process.

“The second [incident] happened at around 3:30am on Tuesday 6th June, when the offenders approached JS Restaurant on Kings Road and forced open a window before pouring accelerant inside and lighting it. The fire service was called and was able to put the fire out before any serious damage could be done to the property On both occasions the restaurants were closed and noone was injured in either of the attacks.”

JS Restaurant is the oldest kosher restaurant in Manchester. Last year, Ta’am Restaurant was also set alight.

According to the statement from GMP, “Police in Bury have launched an investigation and detectives believe the attacks are linked and are treating them as antisemitic hate crimes; however, the motive for the attacks is not clear.”

Detective Chief Inspector Charlotte Cadden of GMP’s Bury Borough said: “Our investigation is progressing and we have now released images of two people we want to speak to in connection with the arson attacks. From the images it isn’t clear how old they are but we believe they are two males and I’m hoping that they jog someone’s memory or that someone recognises the clothes they were wearing.

“We are also appealing to a woman to come forward as a potential witness. She has shoulder length brown hair and carrying a bag or possibly a parcel under her right arm, was walking near to the Mountheath Industrial estate a few minutes before the attack at Ta’am restaurant. She may be able to help us and I would ask that if you are her, you contact us.”

Police have asked anyone with information to contact them on 101 quoting incident number 206 06/06/17 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is monitoring developments closely and we are pleased that the police are taking these incidents seriously and putting the necessary resources into the investigation.

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Labour MP Tulip Siddiq demands “truly independent” inquiry into Party’s antisemitism problem

Newly re-elected Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has demanded a “truly independent” inquiry into the Labour Party’s antisemitism problem when Parliament reconvenes. She also said that she wants Ken Livingstone to be expelled from the Party over his comments that “Hitler was supporting Zionism”.

The Labour Party held an infamous whitewash internal review into antisemitism in the Party which concluded that the Party did not have a major problem. The report’s author, Shami Chakrabarti, was elevated to the peerage following the publication of her report (she remains the only peer ever nominated by Jeremy Corbyn). The fiasco led one of Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Honorary Patrons, Lord Mitchell, to resign from the Labour Party, telling a television audience that Mr Corbyn had failed to tackle antisemitism in the Party and had surrounded himself with people who are hostile to Jews. The Party’s abject failure to deal firmly with antisemitism in its midst was exemplified by the decision merely to partially suspend veteran Labour figure Ken Livingstone, instead of expelling him from the Party. We called the decision “the Labour Party’s final brazen act of betrayal”.

Ms Siddiq told Jewish News: “I grew up in Hampstead around the Jewish community. They felt the Labour Party was their natural home. Now, people say to me they feel like they don’t belong anymore and that they’re not welcome. I think there are certain elements of antisemitism in the Party that have not been dealt with properly. I am determined that MPs like me, Wes Streeting and Joan Ryan will stand up and say, to borrow from Theresa May, ‘enough is enough’. We can’t go on like this this while the community feels so disenfranchised and disillusioned.”

We endorse Ms Siddiq’s request for a transparent, genuinely independent inquiry into antisemitism within the Labour Party, which should scrutinise the manner in which individual cases have been handled and failures of leadership. We also call on the Labour Party to adopt our manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties.

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Woman outside Borehamwood polling station filmed chanting “Vote Labour, let’s get the Jews out” at voters

A woman outside a Borehamwood polling station has been filmed chanting: “Vote Labour, let’s get the Jews out” as voters simply walk past her. The video has not been released publicly.

Michelle Vince, the leader of the local Hertsmere Labour Group, has made a complaint to the police. She told the Borehamwood Times: “We are horrified and shocked that antisemitic behaviour has occurred outside of a polling station in Hertsmere. This is not a vote that we want. We are asking to see images of the person and if they are a member of the Party they will be expelled. We are asking for this to be investigated and we will always challenge this behaviour as racism of any form cannot be tolerated.”

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UKIP candidate Philip Rose tweeted David Icke’s conspiracy myth about “Rothschild Zionists”

It has been discovered that Philip Rose, the UKIP parliamentary candidate for Amber Valley, in Derbyshire, in the general election that has just closed, has tweeted the views of David Icke, and his theories about what he calls “Rothschild Zionism”. Mr Icke claims that a secret cabal of “Rothschild Zionists” has subverted democracy and secretly runs the world, writing in his book: “I strongly believe that a small Jewish clique which has contempt for the mass of Jewish people worked with non-Jews to create the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Second World War. This Jewish elite used the First World War to secure the Balfour Declaration and the principle of the Jewish State of Israel (for which, given the genetic history of most Jewish people, there is absolutely no justification on historical grounds or any other).”

Mr Rose has repeatedly voiced his support for Mr Icke’s various theories on Twitter and Facebook, including claiming that: “Fabians a part of the elite communitarian agenda – Rothschild-Zionist clean sweep. Perhaps real division = liberty or [New World Order]?”

It is disturbing that UKIP should have selected a parliamentary candidate who subscribes to antisemitic conspiracy myths. Recently we discovered that another UKIP candidate, Captain Paddy Singh had tweeted: “At times I ask myself were the Nazis right in herding the Jews into concentration camps”.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “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.

Campaign Against Antisemitism put it to Mr Rose that he believes antisemitic conspiracy myths, however Mr Rose decried Campaign Against Antisemitism as the real racists, pointing out that his father’s mother was Jewish and that not all Zionists are Jews, so “Rothschild Zionists” is not a racial term. He added: “I am not familiar with the ‘International Definition of Antisemitism’ but from what you write it looks like a catch-all for anyone who may question anything about Jewish people or institutions.”

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Man at polling station arrested after threatening to kill Jewish voter

A man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a Jewish man at a polling station at approximate 17:20 today.

A Jewish man arriving at a polling station on the Webb Estate near Clapton Common in north London allegedly heard a man shouting from a window above: “F***ing Jews, kill all the Jews. What are you doing here?”. The Jewish man entered the polling station, cast his vote and then asked to be escorted away from the polling station by one of the volunteers there. As he left, the suspect allegedly started shouting antisemitic abuse again, at which point the Jewish victim called Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

Shomrim attended within minutes and called the police. Whilst waiting for the police to arrive, the suspect allegedly threatened Shomrim volunteers with a crowbar, but they stood their ground until police arrived to make an arrest.

We applaud Shomrim for their swift reaction and for their bravery, which has made this arrest possible.

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Jewish activists in Brighton told “gas chambers in Auschwitz were mock-ups like Disneyland” and Jews were responsible for the slave trade

Jewish activists from Sussex Friends of Israel were told by members of the public in Brighton at the weekend that the “gas chambers in Auschwitz were mock-ups like Disneyland” and that Jews were responsible for the African slave trade.

The exchanges were captured on video and posted to Facebook.

One unidentified man in a grey shirt and green jacket went on a tirade for more than three minutes, during which he made a series of highly offensive, conspiracy-laden antisemitic comments. He described himself as a “Holocaust revisionist not a denier” and said that “nothing like six million died” during the Holocaust and that the figure was just an “interpretation.” He told the Jewish activists that the “gas chambers in Auschwitz were mock ups like Disneyland.” 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 antisemitic.

Another unidentified man in a pink shirt claimed that Jews were responsible for the slave trade that funded the “imperial wealth of Europe.” The accusation is antisemitic under the International Definition of Antisemitism which states that “charg[ing] Jews with conspiring to harm humanity” and “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews” is antisemitic.

We commend Sussex Friends of Israel for exposing and challenging these unashamed antisemites and their repulsive views.

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Man sectioned under Mental Health Act after allegedly chasing Jewish pedestrians, shouting: “Allah, Allah, I’m going to kill you all”

A man has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act in Stamford Hill after allegedly chasing Jewish pedestrians, shouting: “Allah, Allah, I’m going to kill you all” as people fled before him. He was followed by Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, until the Metropolitan Police Service arrived and sectioned him.

Michael Scher from Stamford Hill Shomrim said: “The man was shouting threats, with members of the public rushing away from him, fearing for their immediate safety. Thankfully police were able to detain him, and prevent further incident.”

This was an extremely alarming incident for Jewish pedestrians in the area innocently going about their business. We commend Stamford Hill Shomrim for once again rushing to defend the Jewish community.

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Mosque trustee removed after being exposed as a vehement antisemite

A report by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Research Center has revealed that Dr Al-Fulaij, a Kuwaiti national who served as a trustee and director of a major new mosque in Sheffield, wrote several antisemitic articles in Kuwaiti newspapers and posted a video on Twitter which claimed that Jews had subverted American media and politics.

Dr Al-Fulaij, who is listed as a director and trustee of the Emaan Trust, which is building the mosque, claimed in the video from 2012: “No candidate or politician can ever hope to be elected without the obligatory visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, whilst being forced to wear that mind-numbing yarmulke [Jewish skullcap].”

More recently, Dr Al-Fulaij repeated the claim in an article , writing an article for Kuwait’s Al Anba newspaper, entitled: “The spread of Jews in the world.” In the article, he opined that “the Jewish people are the ones controlling the world. This was done with great subtlety, planning, deceit, conspiracy, extortion, women, money, riba [usury]  and organised crime and mafia.”

Dr Al-Fulaij has also claimed that recent terrorist attacks in Europe were “a work of the Zionist intelligence” and he has also proposed that “the international Zionists and Mossad were behind the September 11 attacks in the US.”

The Emaan Trust told The Daily Telegraph that they had “by mutual agreement, agreed that Dr Al-Fulaij will cease to be a director and trustee” because “Dr Al-Fulaij’s personal views are incompatible with the workings and objectives of the Emaan Trust, and in particular in serving the wider community in Sheffield.”

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Labour suspends blogger who allegedly demanded to know if BBC interviewer was a “Zionist” after Corbyn’s performance is ridiculed

Labour member Phillip Jones has reportedly been suspended by the Labour Party pending investigation over a tweet in which he allegedly demanded to know whether a BBC interviewer was a “Zionist”.

BBC journalist Emma Barnett had just interviewed Jeremy Corbyn on Woman’s Hour, during which she repeatedly asked him to give the costs of the Labour Party’s childcare pledge. Mr Corbyn was pilloried for his performance, leading various Twitter users, including antisemites whom we have been aware of for some time, to claim that Ms Barnett had deliberately tripped Mr Corbyn up because she is a “Zionist”.

The “Labour Insider” Twitter account allegedly used by Mr Jones demanded more information, asking: “Allegations have surfaced that @EmmaBarnett is a Zionist. Are the allegations true Emma?”

According to The Times, Mr Jones insisted he did not personally post the offending tweet but he has been suspended pending investigation.

Mr Jones has not yet responded to Campaign Against Antisemitism, and when we tweeted the “Labour Insider” account, we were blocked within minutes.

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Giant banner depicting Theresa May with star of David earrings removed by Bristol City Council following outcry

A giant banner depicting Theresa May with star of David earrings has been taken down by Bristol City Council. The banner was found around Bristol’s Bear Pit and featured Jeremy Corbyn as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films, whilst Theresa May was shown wearing star of David earrings alongside the caption “For a few”.

Local residents contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism, the local council and the police, leading to the removal of the banner by the Council. We understand that a police investigation has now been opened.

Nima Masterson, one of the people who reportedly put up the banner, told the Bristol Post: “It’s not meant to be that at all. It’s a tiny element of the whole banner. What we are doing with that symbol — it’s an earring — is a reference to Theresa May’s government’s relationship with Israel. It is a critique of her foreign policy, rather than against religion. This is about foreign policy.”

The poster uses the emblem of the Jewish religion in a way that can be interpreted to infer that Theresa May is under the control of Jews, which draws on antisemitic conspiracy myths. Of course those responsible for the poster may say that they meant nothing of that nature and intended only to criticise Israel. If that is the case then they should have found a less offensive way of doing so. It is outrageous that the banner was allowed to be put up and we are pleased that those behind it have recognised that it should be removed.

Image credit: Bristol Post and Jennie Banks

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Manchester kosher restaurant gutted by arson attack after another kosher restaurant firebombed

JS Restaurant, the oldest kosher restaurant in Manchester has been gutted by fire following a suspected arson attack overnight at approximately 4:00.

Two days ago, Ta’am, another kosher restaurant in the city, was firebombed for the second time, and CCTV captured images of two youths conducting the attack. Last year the same restaurant was also set alight.

The fire at JS restaurant was brought under control after an hour and fifteen minutes by three fire engines, but the restaurant’s ground floor was completely wrecked. The firebomb attack against Ta’am was apparently unsuccessful.

Anybody with information on either attack should contact Greater Manchester Police on 101.

Jewish people and their property are increasingly being sought out by antisemites. It is imperative that perpetrators are brought to justice, and that police, prosecutors and the judiciary treat antisemitism with the utmost severity.

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Metropolitan Police operator grades ongoing attack on Jewish man as “low priority” because victim could not understand Arabic

A Jewish man has been left shaken after a Metropolitan Police Service operator graded an ongoing antisemitic attack as a “low priority” because he did not speak Arabic.

The man was running in Finsbury Park at approximately 6:00 this morning when another man described only as having “dark skin” allegedly started shouting at him aggressively in Arabic. The victim asked the man who had shouted what he was saying, to which he reportedly responded “I was saying ‘Good morning’ in Arabic.”

Shortly afterwards, as the Jewish man continued to run, he allegedly saw the same man running towards him, shouting wildly in Arabic. The Jewish man ran towards his car with aggressor in pursuit. He drove a short way up the road and called 999, asking that police come immediately as the suspect was still in the area.

According to Stamford Hill Shomrim, which is assisting the victim, he was told by the police operator that they were giving the incident a “low priority” grading because the victim could not understand Arabic and therefore could not confirm that the abuse was antisemitic in nature. The victim pointed out that he was recognisable as Jewish from his clothing, and that the suspect had not shouted at anybody else, but this was not good enough for the police operator.

The Jewish man waited in his car until he saw the suspect running towards him again, at which point he drove away.

Having spent years exercising in Finsbury Park, the victim no longer feels that it is safe to go there as he expects that he might come across the suspect again, and if he is attacked, he cannot rely on the Metropolitan Police Service to defend him.

This is the third recent report we have received of police officers not being deployed immediately to an ongoing antisemitic attack. Yesterday we learned the the Metropolitan Police Service had failed to send officers to the aid of a 16-year-old Jewish girl who was covered in blood by attackers whom she bravely stood up to, and Kent Police failed to deploy to assist a young Jewish family under attack from a gang of youths hurling stones.

We are increasingly alarmed by police failures to come to the defence of Jews during antisemitic attacks. This incident should have resulted in police officers attending within no more than eight minutes, and the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service to deploy immediately must be investigated thoroughly and transparently. Campaign Against Antisemitism will now be adding this complaint to our letter to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, requesting a full investigation of the decisions not to respond at all or immediately to these incidents.

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16-year-old Jewish girl beaten and left bleeding for two hours after Metropolitan Police Service fails to send officers

It has emerged that a 16-year-old Jewish girl was kicked and punched in the face during an antisemitic assault in Stoneyfields Park in Edgware, and was left bleeding in the care of an off-duty Royal Mail worker for two hours after the Metropolitan Police Service failed to send officers to her aid.

Alexander Goldberg, a barrister and police chaplain, wrote about the alleged incident on Facebook. According to his account of the incident, his daughter Hannah was sitting in the park with two friends during the Jewish sabbath on 27th May, when a group of five teenagers who had been playing on a basketball court decided to leave the court and play “in and around” the three Jewish girls, who were all wearing traditional long skirts. The teenagers then allegedly verbally abused the girls, culminating in one of them telling Hannah: “Hitler should have killed all you Jews when he had the chance…you should have all been gassed.” Remarkably, according to her father Hannah stood up to the teenagers, some of whom were black, and told them that the Nazis would have murdered them too, to which one of the teenagers answered that “Jews are the worst” and continued to swear at the girls.

Hannah asked her friends if they could leave, and as they left one of the teenagers allegedly threw a basketball in Hannah’s face, causing her nose to bleed. She asked them why he was doing this, but he allegedly responded by kicking her in the chest whilst another teenager punched her twice in the face.

The girls found an off-duty Royal Mail employee who twice called 999 whilst the girls waited, with Hannah covered in blood. After waiting for hours, during which some of the assailants remained in the area, the girls went home. The Metropolitan Police Service did not attend.

When contacted by Hannah’s father, the Metropolitan Police Service failed to investigate their decision not to deploy officers, however it agreed to open an investigation when he contacted Stamford Hill Shomrim, which interceded with the police.

We are appalled by the lack of a police response to a violent antisemitic assault on Jewish children. This incident should have resulted in police officers attending within no more than eight minutes, and the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service to deploy must be investigated thoroughly and transparently. Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the Commissioner.

It is the second recent example of police failing to attend an antisemitic attack after Kent Police declined to come to the aid of a young Jewish family which was attacked by a gang hurling stones at them.

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Audience member shouts “Jew, Jew, Jew!” at Labour candidate in Bradford for saying that Israel has a right to exist

Labour candidate for Bradford West, Naz Shah, was shouted at during a hustings in Bradford. When berated by a member of the audience for being a “Zionist”, Ms Shah confirmed that she believed that Israel has a right to exist, to which an audience member should “Jew, Jew, Jew!”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the British government “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.

Social media posts from 2014 by Ms Shah led to her being suspended from the Labour Party in May last year. She had suggested that the Jewish state should be “relocated” to America, suggesting that she would “tweet Barack Obama and David Cameron and put this idea to them”. She also tweeted an image with the quote “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal” and added “#ApartheidIsrael”. In August 2014 Ms Shah tweeted a link to an article claiming that Zionism used “religious symbolism…to groom other modernised men and women of Jewish descent to exert political influence at the highest levels of public office by using the guilt of the pogroms and offered a solution to the ‘Jewish Question’ in Europe.” In July 2014, she posted a link on Facebook to a newspaper poll asking whether Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, commenting: “The Jews are rallying to the poll.” When the posts were discovered, Ms Shah apologised for them and was subsequently readmitted to the Party.

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Conservative candidate’s posters may have been targeted with swastikas over “longstanding support for the Jewish community”

The Conservative candidate for South East Cornwall, Sheryll Murray, has said that she was “sickened” after swastikas were carved into one of her election posters.

Mrs Murray told Jewish News: “I am sickened by this attack on my posters which was signed with a swastika. This symbol is incredibly offensive to both Jews who lost so many and the British who stood firm against its tyranny.” Mrs Murray’s election agent, Bob Davidson, added: “This is clearly an attack from a group who despise Sheryll’s longstanding support for the Jewish community. The posters were cut with a sharp implement so clearly they went prepared with something that could also be used as a weapon.”

Mrs Murray is a supporter of Holocaust Memorial Day and has visited the Auschwitz concentration camp. She is also a member of Conservative Friends of Israel.

Devon and Cornwall Police is investigating.

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Terror suspect is accused of discussing plans to procure automatic weapons and kill Jews in Stamford Hill

Terror suspect Aweys Faqey, who was arrested at Stansted Airport on Tuesday last week, is accused of discussing plans to procure automatic weapons and kill Jews in Stamford Hill.

Mr Faqey, a Dutch national aged 37, was charged with preparing acts of terrorism and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this Tuesday. It is alleged that he obtained or applied for cash loans and bought tickets to fly to Turkey. Mr Faqey was arrested trying to board a flight to Istanbul, allegedly carrying four mobile phones and $700 and €400 in cash.

The court was told that Mr Faqey was interviewed for five days by police, but replied “No comment” to all questions. Prosecutor Thomas Halpin told the court: “The investigation came alive during the search of a laptop in another terrorist investigation and the communication between the defendant and Abdirahman Hassan transpired. He is a Kenyan man who is currently in custody in Kenya awaiting trial for terrorist offences. In essence, the communication between both men was that the defendant expressed a desire to go to Syria and fight jihad.”

Online chat logs were read out in court, with one message allegedly saying: “It could have been better if AK47, M16 and BKM can be found. They could have been taken to Stamford Hill and people leave from the game. On Saturday a lot of Jews gather over there. It is an area of the UK where they are a majority, it’s full of people.”

According to The Times, Mr Faqey has been living in Tottenham since 2013, was born in Somalia and has a wife and five children in the Netherlands and another wife and child in Kenya.

Mr Faqey was remanded in custody until his next court appearance at the Old Bailey on 9th June.

Stamford Hill Shomrim are in touch with the Metropolitan Police Service and have urged the local community to be vigilant and report anything suspicious.

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Kent Police arrests two teenagers following outcry over failure to assist young Jewish family attacked by stone-throwers

Kent Police has arrested two males aged 16 and 18 following an outcry over their failure to deploy officers when a young Jewish family enjoying the seaside at Minster beach on the Isle of Sheppey was allegedly attacked on Sunday by a gang of youths shouting “Jews” and hurling stones. The family called the police, but were told that officers would not be attending.

In a statement, Kent Police said: “The 18-year-old man and 16-year-old boy were arrested on 30th May on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence and have been released pending further enquiries.” The arrests were made using footage captured on a smartphone by a member of the family during the attack.

The family of two parents and their five children aged 8 to 15, had been playing on the beach when two boys and three girls aged 16 to 18 allegedly ran towards them, hurling stones. As the attack continued and the parents tried to shelter their children, the family called Kent Police, but the emergency operator advised them that no officers would be dispatched, despite the assailants remaining at the scene. Instead, they were told that an officer would contact them the following week to “investigate”.

The family cut short their holiday and returned home to London, where they received support from Stamford Hill Shomrim.

Stamford Hill Shomrim and Campaign Against Antisemitism then drew attention to the incident, sparking an outcry. Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Scott, released a statement criticising the police force and demanding a review. He said: “I am sorry and saddened that an alleged hate crime against a family visiting Minster-on-Sea took place on Sunday afternoon in our county, and that concerns have been raised about the way in which the matter has been handled by Kent Police. Part of my role as Police and Crime Commissioner is to hold Kent Police to account, so I have met with the Assistant Chief Constable and the Director of Corporate Services to discuss the case. Kent Police has already reviewed the case, met with the victim, and made two arrests. The investigation remains ongoing. I have asked for the reasons behind the decision not to attend to be investigated – under the police’s threat, harm and risk criteria – and for consideration to be given for the call handing to be independently reviewed.”

We welcome the intervention of the Police and Crime Commissioner. The failure of Kent Police to attend the scene of an active antisemitic attack is appalling and must be investigated thoroughly. Normally, police officers should be deployed to an ongoing incident or an incident where suspects remain on the scene. After years of police failing to charge antisemites, and the Crown Prosecution Service failing to charge them, this news of a police force refusing to come to the aid of a young Jewish family under attack is extremely alarming. We are pleased that Kent Police are now working hard to identify additional suspects, though it should never have been necessary for them to be pressured to do so.

We are following the case with interest. Anyone with information about the incident can call Kent Police on 01795 419 119, quoting reference 28-0929.

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University and College Union votes to reject International Definition of Antisemitism

The University and College Union (UCU) has concluded its annual congress by voting to reject the International Definition of Antisemitism. The definition, which was adopted by the British government following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, notably Sir Eric Pickles, has been widely endorsed. The National Union of Students (NUS) reaffirmed its support for the definition earlier this month. A recent NUS survey showed that 26% of Jewish students said that they were either “fairly worried” or “very worried” about suffering a physical attack, property damage, verbal abuse or theft because they are Jewish.

Now, the UCU has put itself at odds with NUS, which first adopted the definition in 2007. The UCU, which is the largest higher education union in the world, representing almost 120,000 university academics around the United Kingdom, adopted a resolution stating “that this definition conflates antisemitism with criticism of the State of Israel and has been used to intimidate academics who are engaged in activities that are critical of the policies of the Israeli government but that are not antisemitic.”

The definition could not be clearer that criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, and even contains a passage explicitly stating that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”. What the definition does consider to be antisemitic is calling Jews or the Jewish state the successor to the Nazis. That is not criticism, it is hate speech. The definition equally identifies as antisemites those who engage in spreading conspiracy myths about Jewish subterfuge and nefarious power.

The resolution commits UCU to actively lobby against the definition and to “make no use of it (e.g. in educating members or dealing with internal complaints).”

The UCU is now institutionally committed to opposing the only definition of antisemitism used around the world, including by the European Parliament, the UK College of Policing, the US Department of State, and the 31 countries comprising the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. It is a disgraceful act by the UCU, but it is sadly not a surprise: the UCU voted to reject the definition before, in 2011.

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Abderahman Forjani, a cousin of the Manchester terrorist, reportedly tweeted “If only Hitler was still alive — these Jews would be burned in gas chambers”

Abderahman Forjani, a cousin of the Manchester terrorist, Salman Abedi, reportedly posted an antisemitic tweet appearing to celebrate the Holocaust.

The Times uncovered a tweet allegedly posted by Forjani stating that “If only Hitler was still alive — these Jews would be burned in gas chambers.” His account has since been deleted. Forjani, 21, was reportedly arrested after the suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena that killed 22 people and injured around 120.

Antisemitism is often the gateway to extremism and those who espouse it must be held to account.

Following the terrorist attack, social media erupted in condemnation of the attack as a Jewish conspiracy, and two Muslim leaders from Manchester who were presented as voices of coexistence following the attack were revealed to have sent antisemitic tweets.

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Passenger allegedly stands up and yells “Get out of the way you Jewish s***” on a Golders Green bus

At approximately 20:20 yesterday, on the 240 bus travelling through Golders Green, a passenger allegedly stood up and yelled “Get out of the way you Jewish s***” at a car.

The bus driver had hooted at a car on busy Golders Green Road, at which the male passenger seated in the front row on the top deck, allegedly stood up, gestured at the car, pointed his finger and shouted the antisemitic comment. There were estimated to be about three other passengers on the top deck of the bus and a further eight or nine on the bottom, all within earshot.

A shocked Jewish passenger, seated a few rows behind, told Campaign Against Antisemitism that he confronted the man, saying: “Excuse me, you didn’t have to say Jewish.” The man simply responded: “But it’s happened to me before”. The Jewish passenger repeated “You didn’t have to say Jewish.” The man turned around and kept quiet. When the Jewish passenger was exiting the bus, however, the man allegedly mumbled to him in what appeared to be an Eastern European language, presumably as he did not want to be understood.

The route 240 bus which travels from Edgware to Golders Green via Mill Hill and Hendon is frequently used by the large Jewish community in the area, including young families, school children and the elderly.

The Jewish passenger has declined to report the matter to the police.

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Kent Police refuses to deploy officers to help young Jewish family under attack by teenagers hurling stones

A Jewish family enjoying the seaside in Kent was allegedly attacked earlier today by a gang of youths shouting “Jews” and hurling stones. The family called the police, but were told that officers would not be attending.

The family of two parents and their five children aged 8 to 15, were playing on the beach when two boys and three girls aged 16 to 18 allegedly ran towards them, hurling stones. As the attack continued and the parents tried to shelter their children, the family called Kent Police, but the emergency operator advised them that no officers would be dispatched, despite the assailants remaining at the scene. Instead, they were told that an officer would contact them the following week to “investigate”.

The family has cut short their holiday and returned home to London, where they are receiving support from Stamford Hill Shomrim.

The failure of Kent Police to attend the scene of an active antisemitic attack is appalling and must be investigated thoroughly. Normally, police officers should be deployed to an ongoing incident or an incident where suspects remain on the scene.

We will be contacting Kent Police to make representations. After years of police failing to charge antisemites, and the Crown Prosecution Service failing to charge them, this news of a police force refusing to come to the aid of a young Jewish family under attack is extremely alarming.

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Two Muslim leaders from Manchester presented as voices of coexistence following terrorist attack alleged to have sent antisemitic tweets

In recent days, as Manchester reels from the atrocity inflicted at the Manchester Arena, Fawzi Haffar and Dr Siema Iqbal have been presented as local Muslim leaders in Manchester who speak out firmly against extremism, but according to a collection of tweets brought to light by Manchester-based North West Friends of Israel, both Mr Haffar and Dr Iqbal eschew their moderate messages when it comes to Jews.

Mr Haffar is a trustee of Manchester Islamic Centre, known as Didsbury Mosque, where the terrorist who committed the atrocity in Manchester on Monday night is said to have been a worshipper. Mr Haffar told the media in a widely-broadcast public commemoration of the victims of the attack that the centre caters to people of “all backgrounds and faiths, from our food and clothes banks, to all our inter-faith dialogues”.

Sadly, Mr Haffar’s tweets convey a very different message when it comes to Jews. In one tweet from 2014, he told another Twitter user (who has been suspended): “You are so ignorant!!! Your time will come and if you are a #Zionist then I know you will be gone”. Minutes later he tweeted: “You killed our #prophet Jesus and pretend you are our friends, you #ZioNazi are baaaaaaaad”. Screenshots provided by North West Friends of Israel showed further antisemitic tweets which appear to have been posted by Mr Haffar. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic, as is “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”.

Dr Iqbal is a GP who has written for The Guardian and The Huffington Post. In 2015, she presented herself as a voice of mainstream British Muslims whilst attacking then Prime Minister David Cameron’s counter-extremism policy in The Guardian, writing: “For the first time in my life I feel like I don’t belong. British Muslim communities have so many worries about your plans to tackle extremism, so why don’t you communicate with us?” In a more recent article in the Middle East Eye blog, she harangued Theresa May: “This isolation is the real driving force behind radicalisation and, until these issues are addressed, I feel you will continue to fuel radicalisation and the so-called ‘war on terror’ will never be won.” In an interview for Channel 4 following the terrorist attack in Manchester, she said that: “We grieve together and we will rebuild Manchester together.”

Unfortunately Dr Iqbal appears to have unsavoury views about Jews. Screenshots provided by North West Friends of Israel seemed to show her retweeting an antisemitic Twitter account called “Bob Kostic” in August 2014. In reference to the conflict between Hamas terrorists and Israel, the tweet allegedly said: “Truce in Gaza? Don’t you believe it! The Jews are shopping around for cheaper bombs. #FreePalestine”. According to North West Friends of Israel, she also tweeted the very same image calling for Israelis to be transported to the United States that resulted in the disgrace and suspension of Naz Shah MP from the Labour Party. At the time, she was one of the leaders of protests against a shop selling Israeli products where protesters were arrested on suspicion of hate crimes on more than one occasion, with Greater Manchester Police even having to invoke powers under section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to place limitations on the protest. By law, section 14 can only be used when there is a likelihood of “intimidation” or “serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community”.

It is vitally important that communities stand together in the aftermath of barbaric acts of terrorism, but we must also ensure that imposters are not mistaken for voices of peace and given a platform. If true, these allegations show that Mr Haffar and Dr Iqbal are not moderate in the slightest when it comes to Jews, and they could not be worse ambassadors for coexistence. Antisemitism is often the gateway to extremism and those who espouse it must be ostracised, not presented as voices of peace.

Since the attack, social media has been rife with conspiracy myths alleging that a Jewish plot was responsible for the atrocity.

Mr Haffar and Dr Iqbal have not yet responded to Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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As Britain mourns the dead and treats the injured in Manchester, people from around the world take to social media to blame a Jewish conspiracy

As Britain mourns those murdered in the terrorist atrocity in Manchester and treats the injured, antisemites have poured onto social media to blame the attack on a murderous Jewish conspiracy.

All of us at Campaign Against Antisemitism deplore the sickening attack on children and their families in Manchester last night. As the details of the attacker’s cowardice and barbarity became clear, and we heard the stories of families never to be reunited and casualties whose lives will be forever changed, we also began to see the all-too-familiar phenomenon of people rushing to social media to blame Jews.

Whilst politicians urged unity and “#WeStandTogether” trended on social media, people from around the world took to Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to claim that the suicide bombing was a plot by Jewish conspirators to fuel wars against oil-rich Muslim states, or some other variant of the depraved conspiracy myths that place Jews at the centre of the world’s every ill.

On Twitter, “Carlos” wrote: “Zionists just bombed Manchester”. “Geeky Artist Arab Woman” opined that Zionists are “the sources of all terrorism #Manchester”. “Isaac Mintman” posted his theory that “Zionists and fascists want more Islamic terror attacks in hopes of sparking civil war”. “Mama Snarf” replied to a tweet from an Israeli minister: “Most terror attacks ordered by Israel anyway. Manchester don’t need anymore Zionists”. “Dowlut Nawshad” tweeted: “The World should drive out the ‘Zionists debts theft genocide false flags monetary system?$’ they ordered and responsible for Manchester.”

Over on Facebook, Oxford-educated “James Harper” posted his theory that “The Manchester incident is just another Zionist psy-op to promote hatred towards Muslims as an excuse to blame Iran and give cause for reason to attack them.” “Terry Vincent” posted: “False flag Manchester. Rothschild needs this to make the elections look legitimate. If you can’t see it, you’re still sleeping.” “Zeeshan Hussain” decided that the attack was a Zionist plot against the Labour Party, posting: “Manchester Attack is atteach [sic] to elections in UK because ISIS is under control of Mossad and Zionists don’t like Labour Party”. He gave his post a colourful background to make sure that it stood out. “Shaji Mohammad Khan” posted his own lengthy hypothesis, beginning: “More false flag propaganda.. Another MOUSSAD [sic] cooked Hollywood productions.. Wait ‘til they spice the story, as they detail it.. They always start with a bang, and then slowly pretend to investigate and follow clues to some made up MUSLIM name, and profile…” Meanwhile, “James Bay Wong Wingchiao” posted: “Smells like a ZIONIST BOMB PLANTED BY MI6 MI5 and freemasons”. “Edward Joseph Carmona” was similarly sure of Zionist involvement, posting: “Now the Zionist will pick who to blame.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “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, as is “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews”.

It is absolutely right that in the aftermath of this attack, British people should stand together. Indeed the only positive news to emerge has been story after story about individual acts of heroism and generosity.

Yet as the social media giants and our police forces mobilise to ensure that British Muslims do not suffer a backlash following this terrorist attack, we hope that they will show the same diligence in protecting Jews from those who seek to incite hatred against us.

If you would like to join our Online Monitoring and Investigations Unit, our Crime Unit or one of our other teams, please volunteer now.

https://twitter.com/IsaacMintman/status/866979161163923458

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Police looking for man who shouted “I want to rape the little Jewish girls” at dead of night in Golders Green

The Metropolitan Police Service is trying to trace a man who stepped out of a car in Golders Green at 23:51 on 16th May, urinated against a wall and shouted antisemitic abuse culminating in: “I want to rape the little Jewish girls”. The man and two other males then drove away. Part of the incident was captured by a resident on his smartphone, and the evidence was passed to Shomrim North West London, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol. Working with Shomrim, Campaign Against Antisemitism was able to enhance images of the vehicle licence plate.

If you can identify the man or if you witnessed this incident please contact the police on 101 or Shomrim North West London on 0300 999 1234.

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Labour candidate for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, canvassing with Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers, who tweeted antisemitic conspiracy myths

Kate Hoey, the Labour candidate seeking re-election as the MP for Vauxhall in South London, has been canvassing with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers Corbyn, who retweeted that Jewish conspirators and the Royal Family will force Donald Trump into war, just like they supposedly did to Hitler.

Hoey, who has been the MP for Vauxhall since 1989 and served as Minister for Sport from 1999-2001, posted a photo on Twitter on 16th May with Piers and other supporters with the caption “Such a well organised group @VauxhallLab good fun too!” Another photo appeared on Twitter on 20th May, showing Piers and Hoey canvassing again.

On 21st January this year, we exposed that Piers, a fervent supporter of his brother, retweeted @whiteknight0011, a notorious neo-Nazi who declared that “They will force Trump in to war What do you think happened to Hitler? Bilderberg CIA IMF Banker Gangsters They are the problem” along with four images. The @whiteknight0011 account has since been suspended.

One image showed Lord Jacob Rothschild, the Jewish banker and philanthropist, against the background of a Nazi flag, claiming that he controls the world. A second showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a puppeteer controlling ISIS through Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, orchestrating the war in Syria and Paris attacks as Lord Rothschild and the Queen look on approvingly. A third image showed the faces of supposed Jewish conspirators who run the world to society’s detriment, proclaiming: “Know your enemy”. The last image showed a family photo of the Royal Family, claiming that they are in cahoots with these Jewish conspirators in committing “the worst genocides, invasions and theft in all history.”

Piers also claimed that “Zionists” were conspiring against his brother: when Jewish MP Louise Ellman complained of antisemitic attacks against her, Piers accused her of using it as a cover for political attack, tweeting: “ABSURD! JC+ All #Corbyns are committed #AntiNazi. #Zionists cant cope with anyone supporting rights for #Palestine”. Brother Jeremy’s response: “He’s not wrong.”

https://twitter.com/JolyonGreen/status/865858849940623360

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“At times I ask myself were the Nazis right in herding the Jews into concentration camps” muses UKIP candidate Captain Paddy Singh

Captain Paddy Singh, UKIP’s candidate for the Wiltshire North constituency in the upcoming General Election, has tweeted a series of shocking antisemitic comments with repeated references to “Nazi Jews” and comparing Israeli policy to the Nazis. Captain Singh also stood for UKIP in the recent Wiltshire Council Election. In one, he mused: “At times I ask myself were the Nazis right in herding the Jews into concentration camps.”

The appalling antisemitic tweets were discovered on the Twitter account he operates for his travel agency, Hindoostan Tours, between 2014 and 2015. The tweets include:

On 20th July 2014: “The Israelis are basically Nazis in mentality. The survivors of the tragic Holacast [sic] learnt from their captors.”

On 30th July 2014: “No hope of a ceasefire with the Nazi Jews like wild dogs on the rampage.”

On 1st August 2014: “Israel pulled out in 2005 but the Gaza still in a vicelike grip. but Nazi Jews provoke Hamas to violence so as to ethnically cleanse them.”

On 2nd August 2014: “At times I ask myself were the Nazis right in herding the Jews into concentration camps.”

On 5th August 2014: “Sinister similarities to what Nazis did when they lost soldiers in occupied territory. Lessons learnt by Jews.”

On 2nd September 2014: “Rogue Nethanyu [sic] and Jews will never allow Palestine to exist. Their goal? Ethnic cleansing. aided by US.”

On 30th July 2015: “The Jews well learnt well from Nazis hence the easy ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. UN impotent as always.”

On 2nd September 2015: “Nazi Jews hammering the last nail in the coffin spelling Palestinian cleansing.”

On 24th December 2015: “Nazi Jews learnt their lessons well.”

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

When Campaign Against Antisemitism called Captain Singh, he admitted that he had sent the tweets and offered “total apologies” and said that he should not have commented “spontaneously” after reading articles, but had no explanation for why he had made the comments repeatedly over the years. When asked whether he supported the International Definition of Antisemitism, he said that he did but then seemed surprised that he had breached it.

Captain Singh has now been suspended by UKIP over the allegations. Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on UKIP to expel Captain Singh from the Party immediately.

If you would like to join our Political and Government Investigations Unit, our Online Monitoring Unit or one of our other teams, please volunteer.

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Jewish 14-year-old allegedly asked by gang of four whether he is Jewish, then robbed, four teenagers in custody

Just before 10:30 this morning, a 14-year-old Jewish boy walking along the towpath of the River Lea in Hackney was approached by a gang of four teenagers of Asian or Middle Eastern appearance who asked him: “Are you Jewish?”. When he replied in the affirmative, the teenagers allegedly grabbed him, searched his pockets and stole his wallet. Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, deployed immediately and were able to gain sight of the suspects. The Shomrim volunteers radioed their control room which relayed information to the Metropolitan Police Service until officers arrived at the scene. A chase ensued during which one of the suspects allegedly sought to flee by jumping into the river, but together, Shomrim volunteers and police officers were able to apprehend all four suspects who have now been arrested.

Meir Taub from Stamford Hill Shomrim said “This victim was left extremely shaken and crying after this incident, Shomrim stayed with him until the police arrived and we are continuing to support him. I want to thank Hackney Police for their major response which enabled all the suspects to be apprehended.”

These disgusting attacks on Jewish schoolchildren by teenage criminals must be met with the full force of the law. We commend the volunteers of Stamford Hill Shomrim and police officers who responded so quickly. Questions must be asked as to why teenagers are targeting Jewish children in the first place. Children are the future of our society, and these horrifying acts must be brought to an end.

This incident comes on the heels of an incident yesterday in which an autistic Jewish schoolgirl was pelted with eggs by youths outside her specialist Jewish school. The youths were able to escape on bicycles.

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Police investigating as graffiti demanding death to Jews found near primary school in Suffolk

A star of David with the word “die” underneath it and a swastika were reportedly painted on a derelict building on Park Road near a primary school in the coastal town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk.

Local resident, Annie Pilkington-Bernier, who saw the antisemitic graffiti, has reported it as a hate crime to Suffolk Constabulary, which is investigating. She told the East Anglian Daily Times: “As I was walking down the path I could see something and thought to myself, I’m sure that says ‘die’. As I got nearer, to my horror, I saw the whole thing.” Her neighbour, John Lucas, added: “What’s so very shocking about this, apart from the fact that it’s an awful piece of graffiti to have in our town, is that children from the primary school have to walk past it.”

Suffolk Coastal District Council has also been contacted to remove the graffiti. A council spokesman said that “Our initial enquiries indicate this has occurred on private property, so we are currently trying to establish who is the owner of the derelict building to arrange for it to be removed as quickly as possible.”

Anyone with information can call the police on 101, quoting CAD 109 of 16th May 2017. If any assistance is required, our Crime Unit can be contacted via [email protected].

We are following the case with interest.

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Autistic Jewish schoolgirl left traumatised after being pelted with eggs outside specialist Jewish school

Police are investigating after a 13-year-old Jewish schoolgirl was pelted with eggs outside a Jewish school in Bakers Hill, London, which provides education for children with special needs. The girl, who is autistic, was left completely traumatised.

CCTV showed youths on bicycles apparently loitering in wait, throwing the egg, and then cycling away before anybody could intervene. The girl immediately ran into the school.

Whilst the youths did not shout any antisemitic slurs, Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, has reported numerous incidents in which Jews were pelted with eggs, and the youths appeared to be targeting the Jewish school.

Anybody with information should contact the police on 101, or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

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Jeremy Corbyn teams up with rapper Jme who allegedly retweeted “#ImSweatingMoreThan a Jew at a cash machine”

Jme, the rapper and MC, who teamed up with Jeremy Corbyn in a plea to young people to register to vote, has been exposed by MailOnline for allegedly sending an antisemitic retweet about a stingy Jew. On his verified Twitter account, Jme reportedly retweeted an antisemitic message in 2011, saying: “#ImSweatingMoreThan a Jew at a cash machine.” The stereotype of the miserly and cheap Jew is extremely offensive.

Jme, whose real name is Jamie Adenuga, is the co-founder of the Boy Better Know grime collective and record label. He met with the Labour Party leader to discuss the reasons why young people do not register to vote. The pair recorded a message on Mr Corbyn’s Snapchat account to urge young people to submit their application before the deadline on 22nd May. The Labour leader also shared a photo on Twitter.

According to MailOnline, a “spokesman for Mr Corbyn today insisted the Labour leader condemned racism, antisemitism and misogyny.”

Jme was much less understanding though, tweeting: “The retweet, was a series of ‘sweating more than’ hashtags, which played on Jewish being rich. I still don’t get the anti semite part???”

Twitter users stepped forward to explain.

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Police called in after Conservative candidate who converted to Judaism says Corbyn supporter jabbed him, then said she will “need a wash now”

Andrew Percy, the Conservative parliamentary candidate seeking re-election as MP for Brigg and Goole, has said that he was accosted by a woman identifying herself as a “Corbyn supporter” whilst he was out campaigning. The woman allegedly shouted at Mr Percy: “You’re that Israeli scum, you’re Zionist scum, you’re disgusting!” and started jabbing at him. Mr Percy said that he retorted sarcastically that she “probably didn’t want to touch a Jewish person”, to which he says she replied: “Oh, I will need a wash now” and then started chanting “Corbyn, Corbyn, Corbyn!”

Mr Percy wrote a post condemning the incident on his Facebook page. He wrote: “Whether a Labour member or not it does show just what hate has been unleashed by the Corbynista set.” He added that Mr Corbyn had “unleashed something very nasty and sinister”. However he soon deleted the post as he was having to spend too much time deleting comments such as: “F*** Israel, f*** Zionists”. In a new Facebook post he wrote: “I have now reported the incident to the authorities and will leave it for the police to deal with. I had initially thought I’d get it off my chest on here and then move on, but given how some responded, I have decided it is better it is reported.”

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Jeremy Corbyn adviser Tim Lezard questions whether security for British Jews should continue due to “Israel bombing Gaza”, Labour calls it a “staffing matter”

Political website Guido Fawkes has revealed a series of antisemitic tweets by Tim Lezard, a new advisor to Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on relations with trade unions.

In one tweet, Lezard implies that Jews should be left to face rising antisemitism without security because he opposed an Israeli military operation in Gaza, asking: “When antisemitism rises as a result of Israel bombing Gaza, should UK tax-payers fund security for synagogues?” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

In another tweet, he asked his 3,000 followers: “I’m thinking of setting up another new campaign group. Either Conservative Friends of Nazis, or Nazi Friends of Israel. Whaddya reckon?” According to the definition, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. He also appears to suggest in yet another tweet that the Holocaust is being used as a means of “blackmail”.

According to Guido Fawkes, Lezard confirmed that he has been hired to work for Corbyn. The only comment from Corbyn’s spokesman is reportedly that: “We do not comment on staffing matters”.

Tim Lezard should not be allowed to remain in the Labour Party, let alone in its inner circle, advising its leader. His antisemitic tweets span a period of several years and at the time of writing they have not been deleted. That the Labour leader’s spokesman saw fit to describe these tweets as “staffing matters” is sickening.

https://twitter.com/TolpuddleTim/status/564693576861638656

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Christ’s College Cambridge apologises for “significant failings” in investigation of violent antisemitic assault of three students

Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge has admitted “significant failings” in its investigation into the violent antisemitic assault of three Jewish students returning from Shabbat dinner by members of sporting societies in November last year.

The three Jewish students said that they were attacked by seven men when they entered the graduate union building in Mill Lane. The bar area had been rented out for a party jointly held by the Marguerites and Hippolytans sporting societies of Christ’s College.

One of the victims, Shlomo Roiter-Jesner, 25, told The Telegraph at the time: “It was a closed party so we walked out but as we did so these individuals started getting more physical and more vocal and they noticed our kippot [Jewish skullcaps]. All of a sudden they were shouting: ‘Jew, get f*** out of here’. We tried to leave but they were yelling at us.”

In an e-mail to Professor Jane Stapleton, Master of Christ’s College, sent a day after the attacks, another of the Jewish students, wrote: “We heard shouting and were literally grabbed and pulled out of the building by about seven large, intimidating males. We, and other bystanders, heard a number of vicious antisemitic slurs including ‘F***ing Jew, you don’t belong here’, ‘dirty Jew’ and to myself, ‘f*** off, darkie’. They then proceeded to try and choke my friend with his scarf, leaving him gasping for oxygen, and to push me and the third friend around, despite our attempts to de-escalate the situation. They eventually went back in after threatening to ‘smash our faces in’.”

According to The Telegraph, Professor Stapleton wrote in response that the trio had every right to take the matter to police but if they chose not to do so the College would order an immediate inquiry. The victims did not go to the police and instead left the College to investigate. The College obtained CCTV footage of the attack but it contained no audio recording.

The College told one of the victims that it disciplined two students but cleared them of antisemitism and refused to identify the perpetrators or even confirm whether they had been punished in any way.

The victims publicly accused the College of covering the matter up, sparking an outcry. The College commissioned three external legal experts, Dame Janet Smith, Sir Martin Moore-Bick and Professor Graham Zellick, to review its handling of the matter.

In a statement issued today, Professor Stapleton has accepted that “though there was no bad faith or intention to cover up, there were significant failings in how the College responded to the complaint.” The legal experts criticised the fact that the victims were made to believe that their complaints had been rejected and were not interviewed by the College, and that even though there was insufficient evidence to discipline individual students for antisemitism, the College failed to consider what general measures could be taken.

The College has now agreed to implement the recommendations of the report, including:

  • Appointing an adjudication panel for serious disciplinary offences and a dean for discipline;
  • Ensuring that future complainants are kept fully informed during the disciplinary process;
  • Adopting a procedure for continuing to investigate incidents even where the perpetrator cannot be identified, so that general measures can be adopted and the incident can be recorded and condemned; and
  • Allowing the College to impose restrictions, conditions and penalties on groups such as student societies which are complicit in wrongdoing.

In response to the incident, the College expressed disappointment that witnesses had not stepped forward and that the perpetrators had not admitted their acts, and consequently the Marguerites and Hippolytans sporting societies will been banned from holding events outside the College until October 2019 “unless those responsible admit the abuse”.

In a statement, Professor Stapleton said: “The College accepts that racist and antisemitic conduct occurred and has apologised to the students who reported it. The incident also revealed significant deficiencies in college procedures and in response the college is overhauling its entire complaints, training, investigation, record-keeping and disciplinary machinery with the assistance of external legal experts. We greatly regret the deficiencies in the way the complaints were originally handled and have taken further measures against the two student societies involved. The Jewish community can be reassured that if there were to be a similar incident in the future the college would address it robustly.”

On behalf of the victims, Shlomo Roiter-Jesner said: “We are satisfied that Christ’s is now comfortable giving credence to our story, admitting that antisemitic conduct occurred and taking decisive steps to improve their disciplinary system.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism commends the victims for standing up not only to the antisemitic thugs who attacked them, but also to their College which failed to investigate the matter appropriately.

We are pleased that the College has admitted that its handling of the incident was utterly contemptible and that it has chosen to redress this with extensive reforms.

One final question remains, however. We believe that the College should disclose how it decided to punish the two students disciplined for participating in the assault (even though they were not proven to have been the ones who engaged in antisemitic abuse) and whether Cambridgeshire Constabulary was invited by the College to investigate.

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Tayyib Nawaz steps down as Co-Chair of Manchester Labour Students after claiming Hitler was Jewish and 150,000 Jews were in SS

Tayyib Nawaz, the newly-elected Manchester Metropolitan Co-Chair of Manchester Labour Students (MLS), has reportedly resigned from his post after the uncovering of shocking antisemitic and homophobic tweets by the The Mancunian, the student newspaper of the University of Manchester. It appears that since the exposé, Nawaz has removed his Twitter account.

The Mancunian reported that the tweets surfaced late last week. According to the paper: “At an official MLS meeting on Monday night, a motion calling for his resignation, brought by outgoing [MLS] Co-Chair Zak Deakin, was unanimously backed by the committee. On Tuesday afternoon, Nawaz chose to resign from the post.”

Deakin told The Mancunian before Nawaz’s resignation that “I stood on a platform of tackling antisemitism and so I’m incredibly dismayed and frustrated that I once again find myself having to make a statement in regards to this blatant racism: I can only apologise to Jewish students who have again had to be put through this.”

The Mancunian has revealed a number of appalling antisemitic tweets in screenshots captured two days ago. Nawaz allegedly tweeted on 1st April 2016 that “the same victims of the Holocaust are now murdering and ethnically cleansing Palestinians…The irony”. He reportedly tweeted on 13th September 2013 that “there were approximately 150,000 Jewish SS who personally were involved in the Holocaust” and on 15th April 2014 he allegedly tweeted: “Truth hurts, Hitler was Jewish himself.”

In a statement to The Mancunian, Leoni Benabú Morales, President of the Manchester Jewish Society (JSoc), said that “Claiming that Hitler himself is Jewish and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is an insult and should not be tolerated from anyone, much less someone who is meant to represent our students. For us, it is of uttermost importance that Jewish students in Manchester feel safe, and we believe that this is a step backwards in achieving that. The JSoc will not stand for this kind of racist behaviour”.

On 26th April, we applauded the National Union of Students (NUS) under its newly-elected President, Shakira Martin, for reaffirming its commitment to the International Definition of Antisemitism at its recent National Conference. The very definition that Nawaz has so blatantly and repeatedly breached with his alleged tweets.

If you would like to help us to address antisemitism on campus, please contact [email protected].

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Melanie Melvin leaves Labour after claiming “Sarin gassing was filmed by the BBC at Pinewood on the orders of Mrs May and the Israeli lobby”

Labour activist, Melanie Melvin, who was elected Women’s Officer of the Brighton Kemptown Constituency Labour Party earlier this year, has reportedly left the Labour Party after antisemitic tweets allegedly appeared on her Twitter account.

According to a report in the JC, “Labour has confirmed that an activist who sent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish tweets is no longer a member of the Party.” It added: “However, a spokesperson for South East Labour Party declined to comment on whether she had been expelled or suspended.”

On 2nd February, responding to a post calling for action against the “bullying” of Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, Melvin allegedly tweeted that “maybe she could claim Jewish ancestry. Then there’d be action.” She also claimed that allegations of antisemitism in the Party “weaken us all” and were “unfounded smears”.

Then on 7th April, a message on Melvin’s account suggested that the Israelis were part of a conspiracy to fake the Assad regime’s chemical attack. She allegedly tweeted: “Breaking: Sarin gassing was filmed by the BBC at Pinewood on the orders of Mrs May and the Israeli lobby.”

Unfortunately it is very unlikely that we will get clarity on what disciplinary action has been taken, or whether Melvin simply resigned, because following Baroness Chaktrabarti’s whitewash report into antisemitism in the Party, Labour has kept its disciplinary decisions secret.

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London synagogue’s window smashed, youths seen fleeing scene

A synagogue’s window has been smashed in an attack in North London. A group of youths was seen fleeing the scene.

Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, has deployed to secure the building.

Earlier, a man armed with a meat cleaver and a large knife was arrested after allegedly threatening Jews on Upper Clapton Road in North London. The man is said to have tried to enter a kosher food shop but staff locked the door. He then allegedly entered another kosher shop brandishing his knives and shouting: “Where is the boss, I will kill him!” When told that the owner was not there, the man, who is described as white, allegedly ran out of the shop towards two Jewish girls aged 8 and 14, shouting “You Jews run away from here before I kill you.”

Violent antisemitic crime continues to rise at an alarming rate and will continue to do so until antisemitic incitement is taken seriously by the authorities before it translates into violence. It is inexcusable that in Britain in 2017, Campaign Against Antisemitism has had to take the Crown Prosecution Service to the High Court and undertake private prosecutions itself because the authorities have failed to act.

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Man with meat cleaver and large knife arrested in London after allegedly threatening Jewish girls, trying to force entry to kosher shops

A man armed with a meat cleaver and a large knife has been arrested after allegedly threatening Jews on Upper Clapton Road in North London.

The man is said to have tried to enter a kosher food shop but staff locked the door. He then allegedly entered another kosher shop brandishing his knives and shouting: “Where is the boss, I will kill him!” When told that the owner was not there, the man, who is described as white, allegedly ran out of the shop towards two Jewish girls aged 8 and 14, shouting “You Jews run away from here before I kill you.”

Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, received multiple calls to their emergency lines and deployed immediately. Witnesses allegedly saw the man enter a block of flats on Rossington Street to which Shomrim volunteers followed him and cordoned off the area, whilst another Shomrim team retrieved CCTV from the shop the man had allegedly entered. Shomrim passed their information to the Metropolitan Police Service. Armed police immediately entered the block of flats and arrested a 61-year-old man on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon. He was taken to a north London police station where he remains in custody.

This is an extremely frightening incident and it is very fortunate that there are no injuries reported. We commend Stamford Hill Shomrim and the Metropolitan Police Service for their bravery in rushing to the scene to protect the public. Violent antisemitic crime continues to rise at an alarming rate and will continue to do so until antisemitic incitement is taken seriously by the authorities before it translates into violence. It is inexcusable that in Britain in 2017, Campaign Against Antisemitism has had to take the Crown Prosecution Service to the High Court and undertake private prosecutions itself because the authorities have failed to act.

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Police seek witnesses after Jewish boys aged 12 and 14 assaulted by “group of teenagers” in local park

Police are looking for witnesses after two boys, aged 12 and 14, were reportedly assaulted in Aberford Park, Borehamwood on Sunday.

The boys’ father, Rabbi Alex Chapper, told the JC how his two sons “met a friend and went to the local park in Borehamwood, very near our house. Whilst in the park, they were surrounded by a group of teenagers around the same age who were calling out abusive antisemitic words to them, for example ‘f***ing Jews.’ They tried to extract themselves from the situation but were followed and surrounded. Fortunately there was a member of the community there [in the park] who called the police.”

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire police said that “Officers are investigating a racially aggravated incident that occurred in Aberford Park, Borehamwood, on Sunday, 7th May. A 14-year-old boy’s skullcap was knocked off his head and he was kicked in his leg. During the incident racially aggravated comments were also made to a 12-year-old boy.”

Rabbi Chapper, who only took up his position as the new Rabbi of Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue after Pesach, said that his sons had been left “very shaken” by the incident. He added that his family was subject to antisemitic abuse before: “Actually the first week we were here we were walking home on a Friday evening, and there were teenagers shouting abuse at us as well. We ignored that, but this sort of the thing, with children in the park, it’s just not acceptable.”

Anyone with information should contact Hertfordshire Constabulary by calling 101 and quoting crime reference J1/17/1946. If any assistance is required, our Crime Unit can be contacted via [email protected].

We are following the case with interest.

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Polish football fans daub antisemitic graffiti on buildings in Woking in football feud

An antisemitic graffiti battle between rival Polish football fans appears to have played out on buildings in Woking. An RTS Widzew Łódź appears to have declared the greatness of the team on a garage door, which a rival has attempted to call the other’s team Jewish, which is intended as an insult. RTS Widzew Łódź had Jewish players before the Holocaust, and even today rival fans burn effigies of Jews as a means of showing their dislike for the club’s Jewish history, even though any Jewish history in the club’s past was annihilated in the Holocaust.

The Woking News and Mail brought the story to light, publishing photographs of the graffiti on two buildings and a garage door. The red graffiti on the garage door states that RTS Widzew Łódź “will never die”. It then appears that someone has added the black graffiti of a star of David. It is very common for Polish football fans to use “Jew” as a term of abuse against RTS Widzew Łódź fans, and this is confirmed by the graffiti on the walls of the buildings: “Zydzew” is a combination of the name of RTS Widzew Łódź with the Polish word for Jew. The name of the club has been scribbled out on the garage door, and it then seems likely that the blue graffiti was added, repeating the letters “RTS” over the star of David.

It seems that for whoever painted this graffiti, the murder of ninety percent of Poland’s three million Jews during the Holocaust was not enough.

Nobody should have to live with the distress caused by threats and intimidation, whether they are expressed in-person or through acts of vandalism and destruction. Anybody with information should contact the police by calling 101.

Image credit: Woking News and Mail

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West Ham fans sought by British Transport Police over antisemitic tirade at Jewish Tube passenger and his companion

A Jewish man and his non-Jewish female companion were subjected to horrific antisemitic abuse by fans of West Ham United Football Club on the London Underground at approximately 22:30 on Friday, as other passengers watched inertly or sniggered.

Jonathan Adelman wrote a blog about his experience, which on Friday evening on a full Jubilee Line train between Stratford and West Ham. West Ham had just beaten rival team Tottenham Hotspur, but instead of singing celebratory songs, the West Ham fans singled out Adelman and his companion for abuse, allegedly shouting “F*** off Jew boy” and making hissing noises to mimic the sound of escaping gas, in a reference to the gas chambers used by the Nazis to slaughter millions of Jews.

As the two men, described as being in their early twenties, continued their abuse for the two-minute journey, Adelman wrote: “the remainder of the carriage remained silent, save for a number of cowards who sniggered and chuckled.”

Referring to the tendency of some to dismiss such abuse as ‘football banter’, including amongst Jews, Adelman wrote: “Until all in the community are prepared to stand up to antisemitism what hope do we have of getting the football and police authorities to take the issue seriously?”

British Transport Police is investigating. A spokeswoman told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “A man aged in his forties was travelling from Stratford to London Bridge when two football fans in the carriage started chanting antisemitic songs and verbally abusing him. They then left the train at West Ham. We are investigating and officers are making enquiries. We take any form of hate crime extremely seriously and we always encourage victims or witnesses to this type of crime to report it to us so that we can investigate. Hate crime has a significant impact on victims and causes damage to communities. We are committed to preventing hate crime where possible, encouraging victims to report it when it does happen and bringing offenders to justice.”

Anybody with any information should contact British Transport Police by calling 0800 40 50 40 or sending an SMS to 61016. If any assistance is required, our Crime Unit can be contacted via [email protected].

We are following the case with interest.

Earlier this month, West Ham fan Mark Harding was convicted after telling a rival team’s supporter to “stick your head in the oven like the Jew you are”, and last year West Ham fans, Richard Prendiville and a man identified only as R. Peacock were both convicted after singing antisemitic songs on a train following a witness appeal which Campaign Against Antisemitism and others circulated widely.

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Latest far-right conference in London exposed, with addresses by David Irving, Jeremy Bedford-Turner and Alison Chabloz

An undercover investigation by The Independent has revealed disturbing details of a recent secret meeting of the antisemitic, far-right London Forum. David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier, was a keynote speaker at the event attended by “a receptive crowd of around 100.” Irving, whose self-published books were on sale, gave a “rambling speech” met “with a standing ovation” in which he described Auschwitz as “small beer” and now “like Disneyland”, concluding: “I am still standing, the fight goes on, and I will continue writing true history as I find it to be true.”

The paper disclosed that the gathering was compèred by London Forum chief and a neo-Nazi leader, Jeremy Bedford-Turner. In March, a landmark High Court judicial review action brought by Campaign Against Antisemitism forced the Crown Prosecution Service to cancel its decision not to prosecute Bedford-Turner over an antisemitic speech to neo-Nazis in July 2015. It is now reconsidering its decision.

Alison Chabloz is also reported to have performed. Chabloz is awaiting trial for allegedly posting a video to YouTube in which she sang “(((Survivors)))”, a song which allegedly mocks Holocaust survivors and claims that they are liars. The prosecution of Chabloz began as Campaign Against Antisemitism’s first private prosecution, after the authorities failed to act. According to The Independent, “When she suggested the judge hearing her case had Jewish ties, using the euphemistic term ‘one of our friends’, one audience member called out: ‘Could you tell by the size of his nose?’ Another shouted ‘there’s no business like Shoah business’, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.” To end her appearance she reportedly performed a parody of Edith Piaf’s “Je ne regrette rien”, and allegedly said she was ready to be sent to jail for her beliefs before performing an antisemitic quenelle salute to applause.

Other speakers at this alarming event at the Swedish Seamen’s Church in Rotherhithe included Vincent Reynouard, a Frenchman who has been imprisoned for Holocaust denial, and David Shayler, an MI5 agent turned 9/11 truther who has claimed he is the Messiah. Reynouard reportedly urged attendees “to block the construction of a planned Holocaust memorial in Westminster.”

In February, Campaign Against Antisemitism exposed the disgraceful neutrality of the InterContinental Hotels Group towards hosting similar neo-Nazi events.

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£150 and 60 hours’ community service for Mark Harding who told rival football fan to “stick your head in the oven like the Jew you are”

Football fan Mark Harding has reportedly been told to pay £150 compensation and perform 60 hours of unpaid community service for telling a supporter of a rival football team to “stick your head in the oven like the Jew you are” on Twitter.

The 48-year-old from Walsall claimed that his tweets constituted “football banter”. His lawyer, Tina Patel, told the court: “He was involved in banter that escalated out of control. He is totally ashamed by all of this.” Harding had apparently watched his beloved West Ham United Football Club being defeated by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, and had taken to drinking, during which Tottenham supporters taunted him online.

Harding admitted sending offensive communications and was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence JP Harvey Simons at Hendon Magistrates’ Court. Sentencing Harding, Simmons said that his tweets were “hurtful and obnoxious”.

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Baroness Tonge shares and then deletes cartoon which claims that the situation in Gaza is the same as the Holocaust

On the day that we noted the absurd comparisons which belittle the Holocaust, Baroness Tonge has brazenly compared the situation in Gaza to the situation of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

Baroness Tonge took to Facebook to share a cartoon by the notorious antisemitic cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who won second prize in one of Iran’s repulsive Holocaust denial cartoon competitions.

The cartoon portrays an anguished Jew in concentration camp prisoners’ uniform hanging on barbed wire beneath the words “Never again”, alongside an Arab man in an identical pose with the word “Gaza” on his leg, above the word “Over again!” Both figures’ arms and legs are arranged in the shape of swastikas.

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

Baroness Tonge has now deleted the Facebook post, but it is merely the latest in a litany of incidents. The House of Lords Commissioner for Standards has previously refused to take action against Baroness Tonge, but we will complain again.

It is disgraceful that Baroness Tonge retains her title and position as a legislator.

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From fracking to tracking, campaigners are engaging in a form of Holocaust denial by making Holocaust comparisons

From fracking to tracking, campaigners are increasingly in the news for comparing their opponents to Nazis, or claiming that the people they purport to represent are being treated like Jews under the Nazis.

Just in the last week, a fracking activist was condemned by The Times and the Daily Mail for producing a video called “Tina’s List” which spliced clips of police officers guarding a fracking site with clips from Stephen Spielberg’s film about the Holocaust, Schindler’s List. Yesterday, Janet Street-Porter told ITV’s Loose Women that she found the idea of putting microchips in children so that their parents can track them “offensive”, claiming: “It’s treating children as badly as we treat prisoners. We tag prisoners and during the last world war, Jews had triangles and had tattoos put on them and it was just absolutely offensive and I find this idea of sticking a microchip inside an innocent child —” at which point she was interrupted and forced to apologise for the comparison.

As the remaining the Holocaust survivors pass the responsibility for remembering the atrocity to future generations, it is appalling to see the Holocaust increasingly used as a banal comparison. Whatever one’s views on fracking, police guarding a fracking site are not like Nazi guards busily engaged in genocide and torture. Whatever one’s views on parents tracking their children, they are in no way similar to Nazis marking Jews out for murder, humiliation and abuse.

Comparing the worst crime in history to the challenges and problems of the modern day is a form of Holocaust denial, diluting the memory of the Holocaust by making such absurd comparisons.

We are pleased that public figures who make such comparisons are rounded on by most commentators, but we believe that we are witnessing a rise in the phenomenon of ‘Holocaust denial by comparison’, and we must remain vigilant in calling it out.

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Home Affairs Committee proposes new hate crime laws to regulate “completely irresponsible” social media giants

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has published the report of its inquiry into online hate crime. The Committee has severely criticised social media companies Google, Facebook and Twitter, recommending that following the general election, laws should be passed which would make it a criminal offence for social media companies to fail to remove criminal hate speech and incitement within a strict timeframe, citing a German proposal to fine companies up to £44 million. The mooted law would include significant escalating fines for the companies.

Google (which owns YouTube), Facebook and Twitter had all been hauled before the Committee where they were on the defensive from the outset.

The Committee was particularly shocked by a phenomenon that most social media users are now all too familiar with: social media companies outsource reporting hate speech to social media users. Campaign Against Antisemitism and many others have long demanded that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms, and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has now joined the call. Indeed the Committee went as far as proposing that social media companies pay towards the cost of police units specialising in online hate crime if they fail to adequately keep illegal material off their networks.

In response to Google, Facebook and Twitter’s “unacceptable” attempts to avoid questions about what they actually do to clean up their platforms, the Committee proposed that the companies should be required by law to publish quarterly reports on their safeguarding activity including the number of staff, complaints and action taken.

Calling the social media companies “completely irresponsible”, the Committee attacked their failure to implement even their own community standards, and noted the contrast between their lax approach to hate crime and their tough and speedy response to copyright infringement. The Committee found numerous examples of hate speech not being removed by social media companies, for example Google communications chief Peter Barron brazenly told the Committee that Google’s lawyers did not consider a video by a renowned American racist, David Duke, to be antisemitic, despite Duke using the video to claim that “the Jews” were conspiring to subvert Western society to bring about a “white genocide”.

As the report was published, Yvette Cooper MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Social media companies’ failure to deal with illegal and dangerous material online is a disgrace…This isn’t beyond them to solve, yet they are failing to do so. They continue to operate as platforms for hatred and extremism without even taking basic steps to make sure they can quickly stop illegal material, properly enforce their own community standards, or keep people safe…They have been far too slow in dealing with complaints from their users, and it is blindingly obvious that they have a responsibility to proactively search their platforms for illegal content, particularly when it comes to terrorist organisations. Given their continued failure to sort this, we need a new system including fines and penalties if they don’t swiftly remove illegal content.”

We welcome the findings of the Committee, which has robustly held the social media giants to account. Campaign Against Antisemitism believes that internet giants must do much more to tackle hate crime on their platforms, particularly by developing proactive algorithms to take down antisemitic material in the same way that they already remove copyright material, or child abuse. We also believe that it is important for the social networks to verify the true identities of their users, and to provide evidence to police when British laws are broken, not only American laws.

Campaign Against Antisemitism recognises the improvements made by social media companies, but ultimately we agree with the Committee that their approach to date has been abjectly irresponsible and slow. We therefore applaud the Committee’s recommendation that the law should be changed to compel companies to adopt effective strategies against hate crime or face criminal charges and extremely heavy fines.

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After more than two months, The Independent finally grants CAA right to reply to attack by academics

On 27th February, 244 academics attacked Campaign Against Antisemitism and the International Definition of Antisemitism in a letter published in The Guardian (and not for the first time either). The academics claimed that we were stifling criticism of Israel rather than acting against genuine Jew-hatred. It was not long before The Independent was repeating the claims.

After our Regulatory Enforcement Unit filed complaints with The Guardian and The Independent, both publications have finally granted Campaign Against Antisemitism the right to reply. The Guardian published our letter, though it was poorly publicised, three days after the academics’ letter was published.

Now, more than two months later, The Independent has finally ended its stubborn resistance and a heavily-edited letter from Campaign Against Antisemitism has at last been published, addressing some of the falsehoods contained in the article about the academics’ letter in February.

We hope that in the future, The Guardian and The Independent will seek a response before publishing attacks on Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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Man who said Holocaust happened because Jews are “cowards” reportedly escorted off Birkbeck campus

An antisemitic demonstrator at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, who was filmed claiming that the Holocaust happened because Jews are “cowards” has reportedly been sighted being escorted off campus by security staff at Birkbeck, University of London. If you think that you know who he is, please contact us confidentially at [email protected].

The man was filmed by students and a member of Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit at a demonstration at SOAS on Thursday. The man, whom we are trying to identify, said that Jews “were led like lambs to the slaughter, naked…because you’re cowards” in the Nazis’ gas chambers.

The man evidently took delight in taunting Jewish people who were seeking to engage with anti-Israel demonstrators outside a lecture by Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev. When asked whether he had heard of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, in which lightly-armed Jewish fighters managed to repel heavily-armed German infantry backed by tanks and artillery for almost a month, the man said that they were cowards too. 13,000 Jews died in the revolt, half from being burned alive or suffocated.

Thursday was not the first time that the man has been spotted at SOAS. In a video from 2011, the same man was filmed making similar comments, adding that “the Jews” were supposedly attacking Arabs because they had supposedly failed to fight back against the Nazis. As he argues with a Jewish man, a part-time lecturer at SOAS allegedly swiped the Jewish man’s camera from his hand and bit his ear (he was later acquitted of charges of common assault and criminal damage). Even after the incident, the same man seen at SOAS on Thursday continues to taunt the injured Jewish man.

In an e-mail to all students at SOAS, Registrar Paula Sanderson wrote: “We condemn unreservedly the comments that were made by the person shown on the video — he on not a student or staff member at SOAS. There is no place for hate speech on the SOAS campus and freedom of speech does not permit the expression of racist or antisemitic views.”

We would like to identify the man in the videos. If you think that you know who he is, please contact us confidentially at [email protected].

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Scottish Jewish community leaders allegedly branded “ideological terrorists” during antisemitism meeting at Scottish Parliament

Micheline Brannan, the Chair of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC), has lodged a complaint with the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer following a debate about the definition of antisemitism in which she and two colleagues were allegedly branded “ideological terrorists” at the Cross Party Group on Palestine meeting in the Scottish Parliament on 25th April. There was also an attempt to have them excluded from the meeting.

According to a SCoJeC statement, “Philip Chetwynd, Treasurer of the Cross Party Group, referred to the three observers as ‘representatives of Zionist organisations’, called them ‘ideological terrorists’ and he said he felt intimidated by their presence. He had been intending to lead a discussion in the Group about the definition of antisemitism in Scotland — although this was not on the published agenda — but said he would not give his presentation because of the presence of the three observers.”

The Herald Scotland reports that “Mr Chetwynd admits using the term ‘ideological terrorists’ but denies being antisemitic.” Mr Chetwyn told the paper: “I said I regard Zionists as ideological terrorists because I think that is what they are. They actually infiltrate and try and destroy pro-Palestinian activities wherever they come across it.”

In her letter to the Presiding Officer, Ms Brannan wrote that “The effect of the antisemitic attack which I experienced was distressing and concerning and indeed I have never in my adult life or my role as Chair of SCoJeC been targeted so overtly.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism takes a close interest in fighting antisemitism in Scotland and we commend Ms Brannan for standing up to these allegedly appalling comments and intimidation. We trust that the Presiding Officer will take an appropriately tough stand.

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“Dorset Eye” community website used as cover to spread antisemitic hate

Articles defending Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker’s antisemitic comments and accusing Israel of becoming a “Nazi state” have been posted on the Dorset Eye, a supposed community-friendly website and online magazine which includes sections on “Parenting and Children”, “Older People”, “Wildlife” and “Anti-racism”. The website, founded by Jason and Debbie Cridland, poses as a community resource — “Dorset’s only news outlet for the people of Dorset, by the people of Dorset.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has uncovered disturbing content on the Dorset Eye. An article apparently written by Jamie Stern-Weiner, in the “Anti-racism” section, defended the disgraced and suspended Labour and Momentum activist Jackie Walker. Stern-Weiner wrote that “The antisemitism allegations against Walker are devoid of factual basis.” Another article defended Ken Livingstone’s claim that Hitler supported Zionism. The author, named as Tim Nicholls, wrote that “I have checked, and he is right…To state this is simply a matter of fact and not a demonstration of antisemitism.”

Dorset Eye also ran an article under the name Harry Paterson headlined: “Rockets Into Israel Are The Legitimate Resistance Of A Desperate People”, justifying the firing of rockets into Israel by the genocidal antisemitic terrorist group Hamas. Another, referring to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, posts a piece titled “Dedicated to Israeli foreign policy in Gaza: Dead Kennedys – I Kill Children” dedicates the piece to “the people in Israel…” features a music video and quotes the lyrics “I kill children, I love to see them die”, appearing to invoke the blood libel. While on their “Links” page, there is a link to Press TV which has a history of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and is affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

In another piece titled “Gaza, The Merchant Of Venice and the Nazification of Israel” the author, Chris Stone, says: “…yes, I will say it. Israel is becoming like a Nazi state”, and in turn links to articles claiming “The Zionist dream is based on the repeated slaughter of innocents.”

It is unacceptable for a community website and resource which purports to have a warm and fuzzy image to publish antisemitic articles that clearly breach the International Definition of Antisemitism, as adopted by our government and the Labour Party. Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns the use of the Dorset Eye as a cover for the dissemination of hateful material.

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Charity Commission investigating BDS in students’ unions after BBC exposé which was extensively assisted by CAA

The Charity Commission for England and Wales is investigating the lawfulness of efforts by students’ unions to force a boycott of Israel. The Charity Commission investigation was opened following an exposé by the BBC, which was extensively assisted by Campaign Against Antisemitism. The BBC spent months interviewing students about the effects of the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Through introductions to students, we were able to demonstrate that whilst BDS has no appreciable effect on trade between Britain and Israel, which continues to grow, it has an immense effect on the British Jewish community, and particularly Jewish students. Campaign Against Antisemitism is regularly approached by Jewish students whose experience has been ruined by bullying, intimidation and abuse directed at them in the context of BDS activities such as the invitation of extremist speakers to campuses, violent or intimidatory demonstrations and the isolation of ‘Zionist’ students from the rest of the student body.

Israel is the place from which Judaism originates and where half of the world’s Jewish population lives. Since its establishment it has been the one country that offers persecuted Jews from around the world unconditional safe haven. It is the religious and cultural heart of Judaism. To tell Jews that they will be treated as pariahs unless they renounce all religious and cultural connection to Israel and Israelis is antisemitic.

As we wrote to the Charity Commission, boycotting a country is neither illegal nor racist per se, the problem with BDS is that it is no mere boycott. Supporters of BDS routinely engage the International Definition of Antisemitism by:

  • Setting political tests which Jews must pass, or face being treated as a pariah, especially by demanding that Jews renounce their cultural and religious ties to Israel, the physical centre of the Jewish religion, the world’s only Jewish state, and the country in which almost half of the world’s Jewish population lives;
  • Attempting to isolate and shame Israeli Jews, but not non-Jews, who do not support BDS when they visit Britain or come to study or teach at British universities;
  • Treating the entirety of the State of Israel as occupied land, and thereby asserting that the existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavour;
  • Working with genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisations;
  • Claiming that Israeli policy is to deliberately kill babies, or harvest the vital organs of non-Jews, which revives ancient blood libels;
  • Attempting to portray Israeli Jews as having created a Nazi state in the model of Nazi Germany, and of ‘using’ the Holocaust as political cover for purported Jewish crimes;
  • Defending against claims of antisemitism by proposing that the allegations are a ruse used by Jewish victims, not to call out racism but to silence criticism of Israel;
  • Projecting antisemitic conspiracy myths about nefarious Jewish power onto the Jewish state.

We are grateful to the BBC for drawing attention to this problem and for bravely highlighting the pervasive antisemitism within the BDS campaign.

We await the results of the Charity Commission’s investigation with interest.

If you have experienced antisemitism at university or would like to help us fight antisemitism on campus, contact [email protected].

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Michael Demetriou, convicted of shouting “Heil Hitler” and “F***ing Jews”, ordered to pay £640, but then discharged

Michael Demetriou has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment, alarm and distress for shouting “Heil Hitler” and “F***ing Jews” at Jewish victims in London in an incident in August last year.

He was ordered to pay £640 in costs, and discharged on condition that he commits no further offences for six months.

Antisemitic crime will continue to increase unless offenders are appropriately sanctioned by the courts, and we regret this lenient decision.

We commend the victim for persevering with the Metropolitan Police Service and insisting that they level charges against the suspect, and we salute Shomrim Stamford Hill, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, which has assisted the victim throughout.

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National Union of Students votes to reaffirm commitment to International Definition of Antisemitism

Amongst the first decisions taken by the National Union of Students (NUS) electing Shakira Martin to replace Malia Bouattia as President, has been to reaffirm is commitment to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Motion 426, entitled “It’s Time To Combat Antisemitism” quoted Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer research which found that 77% of British Jews have witnessed antisemitism disguised as a political comment about Israel, and roundly condemned outgoing President Malia Bouattia’s record on antisemitism.

Noting that “Jewish students have the right to define what they constitute [sic] as antisemitism” and the adoption by the British government of the International Definition of Antisemitism following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, NUS resolved to adopt the definition and “To recommend that Students’ Unions use the…definition in guiding their responses to incidences of antisemitism”.

An attempt by a fringe group to have the union adopt a different, unusably loose, definition was defeated.

NUS has used a previous version of the International Definition of Antisemitism since 2007, but following the growth of antisemitism in NUS under former President Malia Bouattia, a survey of 485 Jewish students by the NUS showed that more than a quarter are living in fear of an antisemitic attack and less than half would be comfortable attending an NUS event.

We applaud NUS for taking this measure to reaffirm its support for Jewish students against antisemitism.

If you would like to help us to address antisemitism on campus, please contact [email protected].

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Tim Farron sacks disgraced parliamentary candidate David Ward over antisemitism, after first claiming that he was powerless to intervene

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has bowed to pressure to sack his disgraced former MP, David Ward, after Ward was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Bradford East. Mr Farron first claimed that he was powerless to intervene in local parties’ selection processes.

Campaign Against Antisemitism had worked with outraged Liberal Democrats to raise the issue with Mr Farron when news of Mr Ward’s selection broke yesterday, but to no avail: Mr Farron said that his hands were tied.

The knockout blow was delivered by Sir Eric Pickles and the Prime Minister during Prime Minister’s Questions. Sir Eric praised the Prime Minister for adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism on behalf of the government, and asked whether she felt that all parties should “not just pay lip service to it, but to actually do something about it”, before attacking Mr Ward’s views. The Prime Minister demanded that “all parties maintain the strongest possible censure on all forms of intolerance”. When Mr Farron was then called upon to speak, he avoided the issue, but tweeted later: “I believe in a politics that is open, tolerant and united. David Ward is unfit to represent the party and I have sacked him.”

Mr Ward has previously been suspended by the Party over his comments about Jews, the Holocaust and Israel. Mr Farron personally welcomed him back into the Party last year, saying he had “served his time”.

In 2013, he marked Holocaust Memorial Day by writing and entry on his website and in a Holocaust memorial book saying: “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.” In a later statement he added: “It appears that the suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated.” The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

In July same year he was suspended by the Party for three months over a tweeted statement appearing to call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “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.

In July 2014 he appeared to side with terrorist group Hamas, which seeks the annihilation of all Jews globally and is banned in the UK, tweeting: “The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes”. He apologised under severe pressure.

Last year, we complained to the Party after Mr Ward tweeted in response to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into antisemitism: “Antisemitism row becoming daft — for a voice of sanity see the PSC evidence to the Chakrabati Inquiry (and HASC)” but no action was taken against him.

We will remain in contact with senior Liberal Democrats whose work against antisemitism we applaud, however Mr Farron deserves no credit for allowing the selection of such an unsuitable candidate, then claiming to be powerless to intervene, then sacking him.

Just as in the case of Ashuk Ahmed MBE, who was suspended from the Party after we exposed him in the media yesterday, the Party was well aware of Mr Ward’s past but only acted under intense pressure.

It is a great shame that Tim Farron only seems to act on antisemitism when enough people are watching.

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Malia Bouattia has been defeated by Shakira Martin, the new President of the National Union of Students

Malia Bouattia has been defeated in her bid for re-election as President of the National Union of Students (NUS). Shakira Martin has been elected to succeed Bouattia and we look forward to getting to know her better and working with her to root out antisemitism in the organisation.

Candidates for other elected positions (who may yet win them) have been exposed as having previously made offensive comments about Jews, whilst a survey of 485 Jewish students by the NUS showed that more than a quarter are living in fear of an antisemitic attack and less than half would be comfortable attending an NUS event.

Bouattia has previously called Birmingham University a “Zionist outpost in higher education” because it has “the largest Jsoc [Jewish student society] in the country.” She has railed against “Zionist-led media outlets”, defended Palestinian terrorism as “resistance” and voted against condemning ISIS. When called on by Campaign Against Antisemitism and countless student leaders to retract her comments, she penned an article in The Guardian claiming that her accusers were simply sexists and racists. Bouattia since refused to confirm that Israel has a right to even exist, and told an audience at the School of Oriental and African Studies that the government’s anti-terrorism strategy is led by “Zionist and neo-con lobbies”. Last July Bouattia drew further condemnation when she used her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative.

Student leaders have gone so far as to write open letters expressing embarrassment and apologising to Jewish students for the actions of Bouattia and the NUS. The Union of Jewish Students has called for her resignation, as have other student groups including Oxford University Students’ Union. The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s Inquiry into the Rise of Antisemitism in Britain strongly criticised her.

A two-month inquiry launched by NUS to ascertain whether Bouattia is an antisemite found that Bouattia made comments that “could be reasonably capable of being interpreted as antisemitic”, but recommended that no disciplinary action be taken. Instead, Professor Carol Baxter, the NHS’s former equality chief who authored the report, outrageously proposed that Bouattia should apologise instead and escape any further consequence.

We look forward to working with Shakira Martin. There is much to be done.

If you would like to help us to address antisemitism on campus, please contact [email protected].

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More antisemitism revealed at the National Union of Students as they convene for their National Conference

The Independent has revealed that more officeholders and candidates running for positions on the National Union of Students (NUS) Executive Committee at the NUS National Conference in Brighton from 25th to 27th April have made antisemitic comments in the past.

Earlier this month, the NUS released its survey on The Experience of Jewish Students in 2016/17, showing that only 49% of the 485 Jewish students polled said that they would feel comfortable attending NUS events and just 40% would feel comfortable engaging in the NUS policy making process.

Ali Milani, a candidate for Vice President of Union Development, made a series of antisemitic tweets between 2012 and 2013. In one of the many antisemitic tweets, he called someone a “Jew” for being stingy, writing: “Nah u won’t mate. It’ll cost you a pound #jew.” In a tweet to Piers Morgan, Milani wrote: “u are a zionist and a corperate [sic] jackass.” In a string of tweets about Israeli-US relations and the Israel-Palestine conflict, he commented: “Israel has no right to exist.”

Sean O’Neill, another candidate running for a place on the NUS National Executive Council, posted on Twitter in 2012 using the hashtags “heilhitler” and “f**kslutskilljews” – apparently in an attempt at humour. O’Neill also previously claimed that accusations of antisemitism made against students were a smear designed to silence Palestinian activists. He asked for a statement to be read out an Oxford University Students’ Union Council meeting on 18th January 2017. The statement included: “authorities are looking into several instances of university students being falsely accused of antisemitism as a means of intimidating student campaigners for Palestinian rights at Oxford, and evidence of foreign interference in democratic processes on our campus.”

Meanwhile, another current NUS officer, LGBT+ Officer Noorulann Shahid, shared a Jewish-made, self deprecating video on Twitter in 2012 containing offensive Jewish stereotypes.

In statements to The Independent, Milani, O’Neill and Shahid have apologised. Milani said: “I have apologised unreservedly for these comments before and I do so again. They do not reflect how I see the world today. These tweets are from an incredibly long time ago – when I was 16 to 17 years old.”

O’Neill said: “I was absolutely horrified to see this tweet. It flies in the face of my commitment to anti-fascism and anti-sexism. It was five years ago, and I have no recollection of writing it. I can only assume it was an incredibly distasteful inside joke, or a reference to something someone else said the night before. I wholly, unreservedly apologise for having ever associated myself with these truly vile hashtags. I am ashamed, and reach out to all groups affected to say sorry.” O’Neill has subsequently written on Facebook that his tweet has been taken out of context.

Shahid said: “What I said was not acceptable. I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to Jewish students for the video I shared and comments I made on Twitter. I wrote the tweet a long time ago when I had a limited amount of political education and understanding, and I’d never make such comments again as I am committed to unlearning all types of offensive and oppressive language.”

Milani, O’Neill and Shahid are all part of a far-left grouping that includes Malia Bouattia, the current NUS President who is seeking re-election. The Independent also revealed that during her time as a student at University of York, Bouattia was involved in hosting a play as part of Israel Apartheid Week events in 2010 called “Seven Jewish Children” that has been widely criticised as antisemitic. Bouattia was recently condemned by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee for “outright racism” after she referred to the University of Birmingham as a “Zionist outpost.” An internal report for NUS found that she made antisemitic comments but outrageously she faced no action whatsoever as a consequence. Last July, Bouattia drew further condemnation when she used her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative.

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on the newly-elected NUS leadership, following the elections this week, to ensure that all Jewish students have a safe and positive experience at university and on Milani, O’Neill, Shahid and Bouattia to take steps to ensure they are well educated in the concerns of Jewish students and the insidious nature of antisemitism. Education is the key to ridding society of antisemitism and it is up to aspiring leaders to lead by example on this front.

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Antisemitic candidate suspended by the Liberal Democrats after being exposed by CAA, but reappointed to advise Bedfordshire Police

Antisemite Ashuk Ahmed MBE has been suspended as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Parliamentary constituency of Luton South after being exposed in the media by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

However Ahmed has been appointed Vice Chair of Bedfordshire Police South Independent Advisory Group (IAG). Ahmed was previously a member of the Luton IAG for Bedfordshire Police but quietly stood down following a complaint to police in November 2014 about his appalling antisemitic posts on Facebook.

Ahmed’s social media output has been riddled with the most virulent antisemitism, including the conspiratorial charge that ISIS is a Jewish invention whose horrors are propagated by the “Jewish media and their gentile pawns” in order to “justify more slaughter.” He described these conspiracy theories as the “truth about ISIS.” One of the conspiracy theory videos shared by Ahmed was by “Humanity United against AshkeNAZI”, an extreme antisemitic group which claims to “expose…the current take over of the united states by the jewish ashkenazi tribe.”

Ahmed further claimed that “Zionists control half the world”, told racist jokes in which Jews spitefully spit in Arabs’ clothes and urinate in their drinks, claimed “Jewish democracy” means bloodlust, wrote that the Labour and Conservative Parties are in the grip of their “Zionist paymasters” and painted the Israeli Prime Minister with blood dripping from his mouth while feasting on a child (an invocation of the blood libel, a medieval antisemitic trope).

Despite interviewing him under caution about the posts, Bedfordshire Police have allowed him to remain on the IAG and even permitted him to be promoted. The IAG advises on hate crime, and tells the Bedfordshire community, particularly its Jewish members that their police force is quite content to allow antisemites to hold positions of power.

In a statement to Campaign Against Antisemitism, Chief Superintendent David Boyle from Bedfordshire Police said: “The Bedfordshire Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs) provide independent advice to the force, as well as observe and monitor aspects of policing. We are aware of the current Vice-Chair of the South IAG’s former position within the IAG prior to its reformation, and of his decision to stand down during 2014. A police investigation was launched into reports of the sharing of antisemitic posts on Mr Ahmed’s Facebook page, but no criminal offences were found to have been committed. The selection of IAG committee members takes place jointly with Bedfordshire Police, and during the current formation of the South IAG there have been no concerns raised among the force of impartiality from any current serving members.”

Ahmed removed the offensive material when he discovered that he had been reported to police, but Campaign Against Antisemitism has screenshots of the hate-filled pages. We have been told that Ahmed was not charged with a crime because Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers said that they could not charge him because he did not write the material himself but was just passing it on. This appears to be another example of CPS lawyers failing to comprehend the law on antisemitism; it is of course a criminal offence to distribute antisemitic material written by others.

Despite the fact that Ahmed had been exposed as an antisemite, the Liberal Democrats still decided to select him as their candidate for the Luton South Constituency in the forthecoming General Election, just as they did in 2015. The Party only moved to suspend Ahmed when Campaign Against Antisemitism exposed him in the Daily Mail. This is outrageous and we call on the Liberal Democrats to expel him from the Party and send a clear message that their party is not a safe place for antisemites. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has previously said that he “thinks antisemitism should be called out at every single opportunity it rears its ugly head” and that Jews will find “a warm home” in his Party.

Ahmed clearly has some standing in his local community and was awarded an MBE in 2009 for “services to young people.” He has worked as a community development officer for North Hertfordshire Council, and he has also worked at a radio station which received the Queen’s Award for Volunteering and which purportedly works to tackle extremism.

It is unconscionable that someone who has been expelled from a police advisory group for such vile antisemitism can be reappointed as Vice-Chair a little over two years later. Both Bedfordshire Police and the Liberal Democrats must terminate their association with him immediately, in the case of the Liberal Democrats by expelling Ahmed from the Party. It should also be said that, had the Crown Prosecution Service not failed again to do its job properly, it is highly unlikely that he would still be in possession of his MBE.

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After releasing a disappointing policing plan, Mayor of London makes a start on hate crime policing group called for by CAA

Having released a disappointing policing plan, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has launched the beginnings of a hate crime policing group recommended by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The Metropolitan Police Service does not currently have a dedicated force-wide hate crime team, but Sadiq Khan today announced an online hate crime unit staffed by five officers who will gather intelligence on online abusers on social media as well as improving support for victims. The unit is reported to cost £1.7m over two years, and will be partly funded by the Home Office.

We welcome this initiative which is consistent with the proposals we have made to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. We hope that the unit will receive additional staff so that it can cope with the constant flow of online crime, and the volunteers of our Crime Unit look forward to working with the new police team.

Antisemitic hatred has gone unchecked online for too long. Jews should not have to suffer in silence, and we hope to see an increase in prosecutions for online hate crime.

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Yet again, Chelsea fans prepared for Spurs match by singing “I’ve got a foreskin, haven’t you? F***ing Jew!”

According to footage provided to the Daily Mail, supporters of Chelsea Football Club prepared for their club’s match against Tottenham Hotspur by singing: “We’ll be running around Tottenham with our willies hanging out, singing, I’ve got a foreskin, haven’t you? F***ing Jew!”

Approximately twenty men can be seen singing the song at the Green Man pub near Wembley Stadium. Some stood on tables and others jumped up and down.

At a previous match between the two football clubs, Chelsea had to warn its supporters not to engage in antisemitic taunts, but they did so anyway. The club previously cooperated with police to identify and convict a fan who performed 13 Nazi salutes in 15 minutes at a match. Regrettably, that conviction was merely one of many that are needed.

Anybody with information should contact the police on 101. If you would like any help, please contact our Crime Unit via [email protected].

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Labour Council candidate Mike Sivier defends far-left antisemites and quotes far-right Holocaust denier

Mike Sivier is a freelance journalist based in Llanindrod Wells, Mid Wales. He writes a blog called Vox Political as well as having a Facebook and Twitter feed. He is standing as a Labour Party candidate for Radnorshire and Builth Wells in the upcoming elections to Powys County Council. He enthusiastically supports the hard ‘Corbynite’ left within Labour, referring to those who formerly led the Party as “neoliberals”.

He writes prolifically on issues relating to Zionism and Jews and has ardently defended numerous members of the Labour Party who have been suspended or expelled over allegations of antisemitism. He has defended Jackie Walker, particularly for her comments that Jews were the chief financiers of the the slave trade. He endorses the views and cross-posts the writing of Tony Greenstein.

Concerning the late Tam Dalyell’s comment that Tony Blair may have been “unduly influenced…by a cabal of Jewish advisers”, Mr Sivier suggests that this may have been “entirely justified”, later writing to us to say that he had not intended to suggest that Mr Dalyell’s comment was accurate. He has defended some of the antisemitic tweets of Naz Shah, despite that MP accepting that what she had said was indeed antisemitic. He has asserted that the Socialist Workers’ Party’s omission of Jews from a list of victims of the Holocaust may have been “politically correct” and defended NUS President Malia Bouattia’s reference to the “Zionist-led media”. He regularly accuses Jews and others who point to antisemitism in his Party of acting in bad faith.

In fact, it seems there are virtually no allegedly antisemitic incidents or individuals on the Left that Mike Sivier has not either defended or supported.

Mr Sivier explicitly states that he believes that there is a “conspiracy” by Jews: “…it is a conspiracy, have no doubt about that” and those who would defend them in the UK. In the same breath as naming leading Jewish figures, Labour MPs and British journalists he says: “We are being told that agents of a foreign country have infiltrated our institutions”.

This would be enough for Campaign Against Antisemitism to question why the Labour Party is allowing him to remain a member, never mind stand for office in its name. However, Mr Sivier’s taste for antisemitic discourse runs to a deeper shade still: his support and enthusiastic defence of Ken Livingstone, and his assertion that Hitler supported Zionism, runs so deep that he has even written an e-book on the subject. Despite Mr Livingstone being found guilty of bringing the Labour Party into disrepute for making his assertions, and the unanimous determination by the world’s leading Holocaust historians that his interpretation of history is twisted, Mike Sivier is persistent and undaunted. After the verdict, unintimidated by historians of infinitely greater learning than himself, he determined that the Jewish community of this country is incapable of understanding its own history.

Mr Sivier seems determined, however, to ‘complete the set’ of every variety of contemporary antisemitism by linking to the work of Gilad Atzmon, an individual so antisemitic that he has been disowned by those on the left that are no strangers to antisemitism themselves. Gilad Atzmon has taken antisemitism to a new level, asserting that ‘Jewishness’ is toxic. He has written that “With Fagin and Shylock in mind Israeli barbarism and organ trafficking seem to be just other events in an endless hellish continuum” and said at a British University event that “…the burning down of a synagogue…is a rational act”. The post itself featured on the website Redressonline, a website so antisemitic it features Mr Atzmon’s work on a regular basis. Mr Sivier quoted directly in his own piece from the editor’s supplementary comments to Atzmon’s post.

When it was pointed out to Mr Sivier on Twitter that he had linked to Mr Atzmon’s work, and that Atzmon had re-posted his writing, Mr Silvier shrugged his shoulders, saying he was “…not all that bothered”.

Mr Sivier’s extensive writing provides Campaign Against Antisemitism with an unwelcome resumé of the varieties of antisemitism that have emerged in the contemporary Labour Party. He is not only antisemitic on several counts under the terms of the International Definition of Antisemitism, but, en route, defends many of the leading individuals responsible for it. Not content with that, he has shown himself to be unconcerned about both linking to and being reposted by a neo-Nazi.

In the light of this, and the very public nature of his extensive and offensive posts, it seems inconceivable that he has been allowed to stand as a Labour Councillor in next month’s elections. We call on the national and local Labour Party in Radnorshire and Builth Wells to deselect him as a candidate immediately.

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Holocaust denial comments and antisemitic libels left up on George Galloway’s Facebook page as supporters rail against Jews

Antisemitic comments have been posted by George Galloway’s supporters on his official Facebook page. Galloway, the controversial former Member of Parliament for the Labour and Respect Parties, is an independent candidiate in the by-election in Manchester Gorton that was scheduled for 4th May and is now being held as part of the General Election on 8th June following the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman MP.

The disgraceful Holocaust denial and revisionist comments should have been immediately removed by whoever is administering or moderating the page, or by Galloway himself, but instead they have been left for all to see.

In response to a video by Galloway on “What right did Britain have to grant you somebody else’s country”, which falsely claims that the Palestinians have been made to pay for the Holocaust, and that Muslim countries historically did not discriminate against Jews, Facebook user “David Spade” wrote that: “Red cross released figures showing only 271,000 people died in German camps, there has not been a single instance of a gas chamber proven, nor a document found showing hitler had any such idea. One need only dig deeper to see only 20,000 Jews died in those camps,a true end of the war, after the allies bombed Europe into dust. For more information check out the interviews for swindlers list you didn’t see”.

In one exchange, Facebook user “Elaine Kauai” wrote: “Please drop the 6 million number. Your video is very good and effective until you mention that number then the vid loses credibility.” She added that “the jew holocaust is a SHAM.” Spade responded: “20,000 Jews due to starvation when allies destroyed all supply lines. The camps were in fact pleasant places with swimming pools, theaters tuck shops and paid work”.

This is further evidence of the growing problem of online antisemitism. Just last week, we exposed antisemitic comments posted on Labour affiliated Facebook pages following the decision not to expel Ken Livingstone from Labour. In February, Campaign Against Antisemitism made a submission to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s “Policing for the future: changing demands and new challenges” inquiry. We set out in detail the challenge presented by online antisemitism and proposed a robust plan for dealing with it.

If you would like to join our Political and Government Investigations Unit, our Online Monitoring Unit, or one of our other teams, please volunteer.

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Graffiti near Brighton declares: “Put Jews in ovens”, “Auschwitz was a good thing!”

Horrifying antisemitic graffiti has been found on the beachfront at Rottingdean, near Brighton.

The graffiti consists of neo-Nazi slogans including: “Put Jews in ovens”, “Auschwitz was a good thing!”, “Burn the Jews”, “F*** Jews” and “Hail Hitler”.

Simon Cobbs, a leader of Sussex Friends of Israel, said: “Once again the spectre of antisemitism rears its ugly head on the south coast in a random location. One has to question the environment that allows and encourages such unalloyed hatred to be so openly expressed.”

The graffiti was found near a sports area named after Connor Saunders, who died in Rottingdean in April 2012 after being punched by a teenager in a pointless act of violence. The sports area is intended to offer young people a better alternative to loitering with nothing to do.

Anybody with information about the graffiti should contact the police on 101.

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Labour candidate Terry Couchman reportedly suspended for posts attacking “ZioNazi Final Solution” and “Jewish Organisations”

Terry Couchman, a Labour Party candidate for the Lyneham Ward in Wiltshire, appears to have been suspended by the Party over alleged antisemitic tweets and Facebook posts, including repeated references to “ZioNazis”. Before setting his Twitter account to keep his tweets private temporarily, an account using his name tweeted: “Suspended by the Labour Party for criticisms of ZioNazis. To minimise the ZioNazi biased Media towards Labour I will go private temporarily.”

In Facebook posts, an account using his name attacked “Jewish Organisations”, commenting: “Lets get things clear here – It is the ZioNazi Storm Troopers of IsraHell that are using ‘Chemical Weapons’. They are continuing their Ethnic Cleansing by way of other means of poisoning now. I hope all you Jewish Organisations that still support IsraHell are proud of yourselves.”

The account also declared the US strike on a Syrian airbase to be the “ZioNazi Final Solution”, whilst also suggesting that “The ZioNazis of IsraHell are at their dirty games of provoking wars again…they pay off US and UK Politicians to divide up the Middle East for them.”

These vile comments clearly breach the International Definition of Antisemitism which has been accepted by the Labour Party.

A Labour Party spokesperson told Jewish News: “The Labour Party is aware of complaints about Terry Couchman. The Party takes all complaints seriously and will take all appropriate disciplinary action in line with the Party’s rule book and procedures.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism awaits to find out more details about the apparent suspension and what further disciplinary action, if any, the Labour Party will take over these grossly antisemitic comments. In the past, the Labour Party has refused to reveal whether it has taken any disciplinary action, as recommended in a whitewash report on antisemitism in the Party by Baroness Chakrabarti.

Last week the Labour Party decided not to expel Ken Livingstone for saying that “supported Zionism, before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.

If you would like to join our Political and Government Investigations Unit, our Online Monitoring Unit, or one of our other teams, please volunteer.

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Ken Livingstone is not alone, as shown by thousands of supporters on social media blurring the lines between far-left and far-right

The decision not to expel Ken Livingstone from the Labour Party has unleashed a tirade of antisemitism on many Labour-affiliated Facebook pages from Livingstone’s apologists and supporters who have jumped to his defence.

Far from being alone, Ken Livingstone is just the tip of the iceberg. His beliefs are shared by thousands of supporters, whose views are even more offensive. Posted openly on public Facebook pages for Labour supporters, not only are the comments themselves virulently antisemitic, but they have also been liked by other users with no opposition, and the pages’ administrators have not deleted the vile antisemitic comments or ensured that the debate on their forums is civil.

We have seen countless examples of extremely troubling Facebook comments in support of Livingstone. Many of them blur the lines between far-left and far-right antisemitism. We have reproduced a selection of the comments below, with corrected spelling and grammar.

On the “Truthers against Zionist lobbies” Facebook page, whose banner proudly declares “We support Jeremy Corbyn”, without commenting, “Kristi Cochran” posted a video entitled “Can you handle the truth about Jews?” and captioned: “How blind are you? Do you just refuse to hear? Wake up, this is not that hard.” Despite being a video by a neo-Nazi, four users ‘liked’ the video, and one, “Richard Norwood” even replied with a similar video which opens with the proclamation that “There is absolutely no doubt that Donald Trump is supported, owned and operated by the Zionist Jew power structure.”

Over on the “Jeremy Corbyn for PM” Facebook page, “Pat McGinley” was very disappointed that Jeremy Corbyn had criticised the decision not to expel Ken Livingstone from the Labour Party, posting: “It’s a great shame Jeremy seems to have caved in to the Zionist paid-puppets, like Watson, etc. He’s obviously under tremendous pressure from these puppets who can always count on their powerful media friends in the BBC, etc to aid and abet. And almost certainly, much more devious pressure which we are not privy to? But, Jeremy’s refusal to point out the vital difference between legitimate anti-Zionism and Zionist-engineered ‘antisemitism’ is extremely disappointing and inexcusable.”

Similarly, on the “We support Jeremy Corbyn” Facebook page, “Lynn Evans” was also sure who was subverting democracy, commenting: “The Zionist lobby is running this country. When will people wake up to this fact? They infiltrate the right, the left — every group. They are so pervasive as to be everywhere. If we left the EU because we want our country back, you’d better look under your bed!”

Over on the verified Facebook page of “Socialist Labour”, the administrator wrote: “Zionism did commit these crimes against the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, it is a right-wing racist and repulsive ideology which does not and should not be accepted as the legitimate representative of either the Jews of Israel or international Jewry. It now falls to Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker and their supporters to win this struggle and strike this blow for the oppressed Palestinians and thereby for the whole of oppressed and exploited humanity.”

On the “Labour Party Forum” Facebook page, “Helen Butcher” wrote: “Could every Jewish person who knows Ken Livingstone is not antisemitic take to the airwaves to condemn this suspension? This is how antisemitism works, by finding scapegoats that are innocent.” In response, “John Joyce” commented: “A wise man once said to me — or hang on it could have been a wise woman — the advice is always the same: follow the money”. Elsewhere on the page, “Steve Gadget” warned: “That lobby is stronger and better organised than we can imagine. They’ve infiltrated each of the political parties and sponsor many MPs. Not only that, but they control most of the mainstream media, ensuring Palestine is silenced.”

The administrator of the “Momentum Gosport and Fareham” Facebook page shared an image of Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone captioned: “This is Zionist Tony Blair. Tony killed 2 million innocents in Iraq and is still on the Labour payroll. This is Ken Livingstone. Ken told everyone facts about history was suspended for 2 years”. They also shared an image captioned “Spot the difference: Nazi Concentration Camp tower and Israeli wall tower, 2014”.

Some of the worst examples of antisemitism were posted on a Facebook page in response to an article in The Guardian about Labour’s decision to suspend Ken Livingstone from the Party for a year for saying that Hitler supported Zionism. While the Jewish community, Labour MPs and the national media reacted with fury to the lenient decision, “Frances Leader” wrote that “…The Labour Party is an idiotic pile of weak-willed money grabbing Judases for permitting this to happen. Bless Ken, he spoke for us all.” Another Facebook user, “Terry Dawe” replied: “The Jews are using the same tactics against the Palestinians as Hitler used against them; they are truly evil.” Another user, “Pete Moyes” was keen to expose the conspiracy he believes to be behind the decision on Livingstone: “A great game of smoke and mirrors, it is slowly dawning on more and more [people] that the Zioscum are not Jewish, and are behind all the conflict on the planet in the pursuit of debt slavery of all the countries involved, with their minions inserted in positions of power in each of these countries and trying extremely hard to keep their activities hidden from view.” He added: “It has just been announced that the Zionist-backed NEC has decided to further investigate Ken Livingstone. I say it is about time that they were disposed of.” Receiving likes from eight others, “Christopher Crossley” wrote: “Everybody knows Hitler was funded by the Zionists”, prompting “Jo Colby” to reply “They bankroll both sides of any war”, which Christopher evidently agreed with.

This is glaring evidence of the growing problem of online antisemitism, and the fact that Ken Livingstone’s offensive beliefs are far from uncommon in the Labour Party. In February, we made a submission to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s “Policing for the future: changing demands and new challenges” inquiry. We set out in detail the challenge presented by online antisemitism and proposed a robust plan for dealing with it.

If you would like to join our Political and Government Investigations Unit, our Online Monitoring Unit, or one of our other teams, please volunteer.

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Labour Councillor Luke Cresswell defends tweets of blood-drenched Israeli flag captioned “Moses must be proud of you”, cartoon showing Israelis as Nazis

Labour Councillor Luke Cresswell has defended his decision to tweet antisemitic images, saying that “it is nothing to do with religion”, but his tweets contradict him. In one, he tweeted a blood-drenched Israeli flag accusing Israel of genocide, captioned “Moses must be proud of you”. In another tweet, he uses a cartoon to portray Israelis as the new Nazis. Cresswell is also clearly a strong supporter of Ken Livingstone, having used Facebook to declare his “solidarity” with Livingstone after Livingstone claimed that Hitler supported Zionism.

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic, as it “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”.

Disturbingly, a Twitter user claims to have reported him to the Labour Party a year ago, and rather than being disciplined by the Party, it appears that he has instead been selected by the Party to run in the upcoming Council elections.

We would like to thank the various Labour Party members who brought Cresswell’s posts to our attention.

If you would like to join our Political and Government Investigations Unit, our Online Monitoring Unit, or one of our other teams, please volunteer.

https://twitter.com/LukemCresswell/status/497881698403905536

https://twitter.com/LukemCresswell/status/489156747706527744

https://twitter.com/LukemCresswell/status/851905527412117504

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Online gaming community infested with Jew hatred, as Islamists and neo-Nazis chat online about killing Jews

Steam, the global online gaming platform with almost 100 million users, including large numbers of children, has 11,903 users going under the name of Adolf Hitler, 3,611 users naming themselves after Osama Bin Laden, and countless others adopting online sobriquets based on genocidal and terrorist antisemitic namesakes. Searching for user names containing “Juden”, “Nazi” and similar terms also returns thousands upon thousands of brazenly antisemitic profiles.

Despite Steam’s online code of conduct prohibiting users from doing anything to “abuse” or “harass” others, and demanding that users do nothing to “inhibit any other user from using and enjoying Steam services”, antisemitic hatred seems to be rife on the platform, with Islamists and neo-Nazis even discussing what it might be like to kill Jews in real life.

Steam is owned by Valve Corporation. It is literally providing the online playground in which children spend hours interacting with each other and hardcore antisemites. Finding evidence of antisemitism on Steam could not be easier, and if we can find so much of it so easily, so can Valve’s online moderators. These antisemitic users should be banned.

You may wish to contact Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell at [email protected], to politely ask him why Steam is so infested with brazen antisemites.

If you would like to join our Online Monitoring Unit and help to challenge gaming companies and other online platforms to stop this, please volunteer.

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Candidate for Vice President of NUS apologises for ‘stingy Jew’ tweet

Ali Milani, a candidate for Vice President of Union Development of the National Union of Students (NUS), has apologised for a series of antisemitic tweets from 2012 and 2013. In one of the many antisemitic tweets, he calls someone a “Jew” for being stingy, writing: “Nah u won’t mate. It’ll cost you a pound #jew.” The stereotype of the miserly and cheap Jew is extremely offensive.

In a tweet to Piers Morgan, Milani wrote: “u are a zionist and a corperate [sic] jackass.” In a string of tweets about Israeli-US relations and the Israel-Palestine conflict, he commented: “Israel has no right to exist.”

Just last week, the NUS released its survey on The Experience of Jewish Students in 2016/17, showing that only 49% of the 485 Jewish students polled said that they would feel comfortable attending NUS events, and just 40% would feel comfortable engaging in the NUS policy making process.

Milani, who is the current President of the Union of Brunel Students, is contesting the Vice President position at the NUS National Conference in Brighton from 25th to 27th April. Speaking to The Tab, Milani said: “I have apologised unreservedly for these comments before and I do so again. They do not reflect how I see the world today. These tweets are from an incredibly long time ago – when I was 16 to 17 years old. It’s unacceptable, I know that now. Education taught me that.” The NUS was contacted by The Tab but declined to comment.

Milani is a supporter of Malia Bouattia, the current NUS President, who was found by an NUS inquiry to have made antisemitic comments. According to The Tab, Milani signed an open letter in defence of her when her antisemitic comments were under investigation. Following outrage from the Jewish student body, which last summer wrote an open letter condemning Bouattia for her comments, an internal report for NUS found that Bouattia made antisemitic comments but outrageously she has faced no action whatsoever as a consequence. Milani was also quoted in an article in The Guardian praising Bouattia’s activist credentials, saying: “She is the most hardworking, dedicated and principled person I have ever met in my time as a sabb [sabbatical officer].”

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Police investigating swastika painted on equipment at Burgess Hill Skatepark in West Sussex

Antisemitic, homophobic and sexually-explicit graffiti, including a swastika, has reportedly been painted on equipment at Burgess Hill Skatepark in St John’s Park, London Road in West Sussex. A spokesman for Sussex Police told The Mid Sussex Times: “House-to-house enquiries and foot patrols are being used to gain information about those responsible for what amounts to racially-aggravated criminal damage due to the content of the graffiti.”

The graffiti was discovered on 3rd April but the vandals were believed to have struck over the weekend. Burgess Hill Town Council said four people from its maintenance team removed the graffiti “as quickly as possible” at a cost of around £300. A spokesman for the Council said: “Graffiti comes and goes but this was particularly nasty with racial slurs and foul language making up the bulk of the painting.”

Anyone with any information is asked to e-mail [email protected], quoting reference 993 of 03/04. Reports can also be made on Sussex Police’s website.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the speedy and thorough response from Sussex Police and Burgess Hill Town Council.

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This Pesach we need your help: please volunteer or donate to the fight against antisemitism

This evening, Jewish families around the world will read those words as we celebrate the festival of Pesach. We recall the passage of our ancestors from darkness to light as they escaped slavery under the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Tonight, we pause to celebrate our freedom, but also to remember that those who seek our annihilation will never rest.

Sadly, the message of Pesach has not lost its relevance for Jews over the millennia.

From the all-volunteer team at Campaign Against Antisemitism, we wish our Jewish supporters a happy and meaningful Pesach, and we invite our non-Jewish supporters to join us in reflecting upon our collective freedom, and upon those who strive to do us harm.

Those who seek our destruction hate not only Jews, but all of society. Ours is the fight for civilisation itself.

This Pesach, please take the opportunity to join the fight against those who threaten British Jews and all of society by volunteering or donating. If you donate, you can make your donation last beyond Pesach by signing up for monthly donations of whatever amount you can afford. Thank you for your support.

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NUS surveys almost 500 Jewish students, finds that less than half would feel comfortable at NUS events

The National Union of Students (NUS) has released its survey on The Experience of Jewish Students in 2016/17, showing that more than a quarter of Jewish students are living in fear of an antisemitic attack. Some 485 of the estimated 8,500 Jewish students in the UK responded to the survey carried out by an NUS internal research team in cooperation with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) between last November and February.

We welcome the efforts of Robbie Young, the NUS Vice President for Society and Citizenship, who initiated this survey and applaud this step in the right direction. There can be a positive impact on Jewish student life if the concerns of Jewish students are actually listened to.

As we have reported, however, NUS has a track record of and has failingfailed miserably to tackle antisemitism. Current NUS President, Malia Bouattia, was recently condemned by the Home Affairs Select Committee for “outright racism” after she referred to the University of Birmingham as a “Zionist outpost.” An internal report for NUS found that she made antisemitic comments but outrageously she faced no action whatsoever as a consequence.

Bouattia called Birmingham University a “Zionist outpost in higher education” because it has “the largest Jsoc [Jewish student society] in the country.” She railed against “Zionist-led media outlets”, defended Palestinian terrorism as “resistance” and voted against condemning ISIS. When called on by Campaign Against Antisemitism and countless student leaders to retract her comments, she penned an article in The Guardian claiming that her accusers were simply sexists and racists. Bouattia refused to confirm that Israel has a right to even exist and told an audience at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) that the government’s anti-terrorism strategy is led by “Zionist and neo-con lobbies.” Last July Bouattia drew further condemnation when she used her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative on the national anti-racism committee. She has yet to publicly apologise to Jewish students for the offence she has caused.

Given the tolerance for antisemitism by NUS, is it surprising that so many Jewish students feel detached and alienated from their union? The results of this survey are disturbing but therefore not unexpected:

  • Only 49% of students said they would feel comfortable attending NUS events.
  • Just 40% would feel comfortable engaging in the NUS policy making process.
  • Alarmingly, a staggering 65% do not believe the NUS would “respond appropriately” to allegations of antisemitism. One student said that “There is a tendency for NUS representatives to make blanket statements about Jews, including presumptions about their motives. This is very belittling and indicates that issues of Jewish students are not seriously considered.”

Other worrying findings in the survey are:

  • 26% of students said that they were either “fairly worried” or “very worried” about suffering a physical attack, property damage, verbal abuse or theft because they are Jewish.
  • 28% have experienced personal abuse through social media or other communication.
  • 65% had not experienced any crime whilst they have been students at their current place of study but 66 percent of those who had experienced crime believed these incidents were motivated by the perpetrator’s prejudice towards them based on their Jewish belief.
  • 42% reported difficulties accessing kosher food on their campuses. One student mentioned the impact of BDS on kosher food. “BDS…It’s xenophobic and prevents kosher food being sold in SU outlets as most Kosher food is made in Israel.”
  • 59% disagreed or strongly disagreed that their university avoids scheduling classes and exams during Sabbath and Jewish religious festivals. One student gave the example of “being told I would be marked down in a module if I left early for Shabbat because the university is a secular institute.”
  • Allegations of Jewish students being the victim of antisemitic comments made by lecturers. For example, “The only reason he was thrown in jail is because he was taking money from Jews and they are resourceful” and a “A lecturer made a joke about a gas chamber during a lecture about atmospheric gases and climate change.”

The first recommendation in the report is “Reviewing the current definition of antisemitism it adopts to ensure it is fit for purpose.” While NUS has been using the International Definition of Antisemitism, we call on them to enforce it. If they feel that they are unable to work with this definition, it questions their practices rather than the definition. It is an established principle that you cannot address a problem until you have identified what it is and adopted criteria, in this case a definition of antisemitism. If NUS is serious about addressing its antisemitism problem, it must use the international definition.

Another recommendation is for “NUS Leadership, staff and volunteers, elected and appointed, to receive training and guidance on antisemitism, within training on equality/race equality.” It is vital that NUS receives the right training to recognise antisemitism. Antisemitism is often nuanced and camouflaged and expressed in coded language so it is important that NUS comprehends its complexities.

Some Jewish students, however, have questioned the survey following its release. A student at the SOAS in London told The Algemeiner, an American Jewish newspaper, that she did not participate in the study because “I don’t trust the NUS or its intentions to improve Jewish student experience on campuses.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on the NUS leadership, particularly the new leadership following the elections later this month, to use this report and its findings as a catalyst for real change and to ensure that all Jewish students have a safe and positive experience at university.

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Labour and Conservative candidates deselected in Birmingham after separately opining about Jewish conspiracies

Both the Labour and Conservative candidates in Birmingham’s Hall Green ward have been deselected by their parties after they both separately opined on social media about Jewish conspiracies.

The Conservative Party’s candidate, Obaid Khan, hit out at “Jew agents” and accusing a “Jewish lobby” of paying Twitter users he disagreed with. A Conservative spokesman told the Birmingham Mail: “He is no longer a member of the party. Views like that have no place in the party or our society.”

The Labour Party’s candidate, Alison Gove-Humphries, shared articles putting forward the conspiracy myths that Israel is the “key link in exporting ISIS oil” and that the “Israel lobby manufactured [the] UK Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis.” When criticised by other Labour councillors, she claimed that the allegations against her constituted “intrusion and misrepresentation” and said that she did not want to be “distracted by these hurtful allegations.”

The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “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.

Whilst Gove-Humphries has been replaced by another candidate, the Conservatives discovered Khan’s antisemitism too late and have had to withdraw from the election as the deadline for proposing new candidates had passed before he was deselected. Khan is no longer a member of the Conservative Party, but it is less unclear what action, if any, the Labour Party has taken against Gove-Humphries as a member.

It is utterly sickening that local politics in Birmingham Hall Green has been infested with antisemitism, with the local Conservative candidate obsessing about ‘Jewish agents’ and his Labour counterpart believing that antisemitism is a fabrication by a shadowy ‘Israel lobby’. We are pleased that on this occasion, both of the local Conservative and Labour parties have done the right thing and deselected their antisemitic candidates.

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Diane Abbott suggests that Labour members accusing the Party of institutional antisemitism are traitors

As though to reinforce the sense of abject denial amongst Jeremy Corbyn’s allies over the Labour Party’s continuing descent into the grip of extreme-left antisemitic conspiracy theorists, Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, has claimed that saying that the Party has an antisemitism problem is tantamount to an attack on the Party.

Speaking towards the end of BBC Question Time, Abbott was asked whether Ken Livingstone should have been expelled from the Labour Party. Despite a growing backlash against the decision merely to stop Livingstone from standing for office for a year, Abbott refused to say that he should have been expelled.

When fellow panellist Gerard Coyne, a candidate to lead the Unite union said that Livingstone should have been expelled because “his comments are an affront to the six million Jews who lost their lives — and their families — in the Holocaust” and that Labour has an general problem with antisemitism, Abbott retorted: “When Gerard says that the Labour Party has an institutional problem with racism, or institutional antisemitism, because they’re one and the same, when you say that the Labour Party has a problem with institutional antisemitism and racism, I’m sorry you feel the need to attack your Party. I’m proud of the Labour Party’s record on fighting racism and antisemitism.”

Diane Abbott has previously told a television audience that allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party were a politically-motivated smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. Were the Labour Party to win a general election, Abbott would assume responsibility for tackling hate crime as Home Secretary.

It appears that Diane Abbott does not believe that Livingstone should have been expelled from the Party, and that she will accuse Labour members who challenge the Party’s appalling record on antisemitism of treachery. Only in the modern Labour Party could she comfortably retain her position as Shadow Home Secretary.

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Labour shows no signs of disciplining Afzal Khan, who now fails to agree that Livingstone should be expelled

It is a sad fact that the British public have now been exposed to the toxic distortion spread by the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, utilising what is known as Holocaust inversion — the toxic hoax that the Jewish state is now a Nazi one, genocidal and brutal, begotten of those who collaborated with Hitler. Mr Livingstone never shrank from it, even publishing a cartoon of an Israeli prime minister dressed as a Nazi, performing a straight-armed salute, standing on the bodies of the slaughtered.

Afzhal Khan, the Labour candidate in the forthcoming by-election in Manchester Gorton, also has form in this regard. In 2014 he tweeted: “The Israeli Government are acting like Nazi’s [sic] in Gaza.” He had earlier stated that a former Israeli leader had “been committing genocide against the Palestinian people”. The International Definition of Antisemitism, as adopted by the government and accepted by the Labour Party, says that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

At the time, Mr Khan’s excuse was that “he was new to Twitter”, as lame an excuse as it is possible to give, and yet the Labour Party failed to discipline him. Unsurprisingly, only yesterday, he failed to agree that Ken Livingstone should be expelled from the party.

The ink on newspaper reports of Ken Livingstone’s comments is hardly dry, but there is no reason why Labour should lose time in facing up to its hypocritical failure to apply the principle of zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism in the Party. We call on the Party to now formally discipline Afzhal Khan for what the entire British polity now understands is antisemitism: for if they did not understand that it was then, they certainly have no excuse for making that claim now.

After 33 years as the MP for Manchster Gorton, the late Sir Gerald Kaufman left Manchester Gorton as the ninth safest Labour seat in the country. In October 2015, Sir Gerald delivered an antisemitic speech to MPs on the Parliamentary Estate, and just like in the case of Khan, the Labour Party refused to investigate or discipline him.

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Jews pelted with eggs outside synagogue in Golders Green, Shomrim releases CCTV

Jewish worshippers performing the Kiddush Levanah ceremony outside a synagogue in Golders Green were pelted with eggs by the occupants of a passing Toyota Prius on Tuesday at approximately 23:40.

Shomrim North West London has released CCTV footage of the car and asked any witnesses to call the police on 101, or Shomrim on 0300 999 1234.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to review the decision not to expel Ken Livingstone comes too late — the horse has bolted

Having found Ken Livingstone guilty of all charges, the subsequent failure of Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) panel to expel him last night constituted perhaps the darkest hour of Labour history as a self-described “anti-racist” institution. On the international stage, Labour now stands as an institutionally antisemitic party with no fig leaf to cover its shame.

In a desperate attempt to claw back an ounce of dignity for his party, the man who exercises what is laughably called leadership over this once-great Party has bowed to a growing clamour from 42 decent Labour MPs appalled by events by issuing a statement describing the persistent and obscene Jew-baiting of the Jewish community as merely “hurtful” and “insensitive”.

Against a backdrop of tolerance by Jeremy Corbyn of gross and obvious antisemitism in Labour, which has led to a growing spread of the most extreme neo-Nazi antisemitic belief in the grassroots of the Party, describing what has happened as “hurtful” is an understatement so great that in itself it constitutes further injury.

Ken Livingstone’s case was referred to the National Constitutional Committee by the National Executive Committee. Now that the foul stench of antisemitism permeates every layer of the Party, even Jeremy Corbyn is beginning to have difficulty hiding it. Perhaps that is why he now proposes to have the National Executive Committee re-examine the case on the feeble grounds that Mr Livingstone did not apologise. Mr Livingstone’s lack of apology pales against the severity of his principal offence, and if he cannot be expelled for the principal offence, we hold out no hope that he will be expelled for failing to apologise.

The horse has bolted. Labour’s chance was yesterday, and it blew it. The rot has now corroded the very institutions which are supposed to defend Labour. Ken Livingstone’s case is one of hundreds, we believe. Antisemites are being readmitted to the Party, unnoticed. Our own disciplinary complaint against Mr Corbyn has not even been acknowledged. Labour’s relationship with the Jewish community is in its death throes, and there is no miracle left to save it from its moral failure.

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Man who allegedly spat on Jews and performed Nazi salute arrested following pursuit by Shomrim

A man has been arrested and held in custody by police for allegedly shouting antisemitic abuse at Jewish pedestrians, spitting at them and performing a Nazi salute. The 26-year-old was followed by Shomrim North West London, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, which pursued him until police arrived to arrest him on suspicion of racially-aggravated assault.

The incident occurred at approximately 22:05 on Sunday outside 134 Golders Green Road. Any witnesses should contact the police on 101 or Shomrim North West London on 0300 999 1234.

The abuse of Jews with the language and symbols of Nazi Germany is intended to maximise the distress caused to the victims. It is a form of antisemitism expressly designed to arouse fear, and must be treated severely by the criminal justice system if others are to be deterred from employing it.

We commend Shomrim North West London and the Metropolitan Police Service for their swift response. We will follow this case with interest.

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Today’s decision not to expel Ken Livingstone is the Labour Party’s final act of brazen, painful betrayal

Today is a day of disgrace for the Labour Party. That Ken Livingstone has been guilty of expressing grossly offensive views is of itself obvious: that Labour has failed to execute a moral duty to expel him has been astonishing, the more so that the Party now admits that he is guilty as charged.

It is important to understand the context of Mr Livingstone’s allegations, because despite the seeming complexity of the history he espouses, the nature of his claims is of a classic and easily-recognised type.

From the allegation that ‘the Jews killed Jesus’; the Rothschild conspiracy myths; the slur that Jews controlled the slave trade; to Mr Livingstone’s tirades about Hitler and Zionism, there is a recognisable pattern. In all of these conspiracy myths, a tale of Jewish malice is woven using scraps of real historical events. Scholars of antisemitism will attest that having fabricated what is apparently a technically-supportable claim of Jewish malevolence, those who wish to attack Jews then try to draw their opponents into a debate that grants their false tale parity with the truth. Attempts to not engage by Jews are then represented as suppression of free speech, or an example of ‘Jewish power’.

To engage with such tales in such a way is to betray a misunderstanding of the very nature of antisemitic discourse. In this particular case, the key aim is to manipulate the history of Zionism in a dishonest way so as to degrade and poison the reality of Jewish self-determination as a whole; from there to project it onto both the post-Holocaust period and contemporary Israel to reinforce a wider dialogue on the Left that continues to demonise Jewish self-determination and Israel as the Jew amongst nations. From there it impacts directly on Jewish communities such as those in the UK, forcing them to choose between supporting ‘evil Jewish self-determination’ or being ‘good Jews who forfeit their own rights’.

Mr Livingstone is also being true to the eponymous ‘Livingstone formulation’, a method of deflecting accusations of antisemitism named after him by academics: by saying that accusations of antisemitism against him are being brought by those “motivated by a plot to undermine the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his supporters in the party” he doubles down by attributing sinister motives to those bringing the accusations themselves.

That respected historians will continue to engage with the detail of Jewish history in the inter-war years, is a given. Mr Livingstone is a famous politician with a history of embracing an Islamist antisemite; of likening a Jewish journalist to a “concentration camp guard”; of publishing a cartoon depicting an Israeli leader as a Nazi; of claiming that Jews were too “rich” to vote for him; and of backing the comments of an MP who subsequently admitted those comments were antisemitic. When such a man supports his claims only by reference to a discredited book by an antisemitic journalist he himself acknowledges to be so , then alarm bells should have rung so loudly in Labour that their response should have been swift and summary. Instead they succumbed to a process by which, over a long period of time, Mr Livingstone was allowed to parade such lies for a wider audience, while portraying himself as a victim. He has succeeded in doing so.

Ken Livingstone has been portraying Jews as Nazis for decades. His claim that Hitler acted in support of Zionism, along with his constant repetition of that distortion, has been a repulsive spectacle. We felt sure that the Labour Party, blighted by antisemitism as it is, would reclaim some of its former self and expel him. Labour has long had a moral duty to expel Ken Livingstone, but instead it has allowed his vile views to gain support in the party. Today’s verdict confirms our worst fears: that it is possible to husband and broadcast such repellant beliefs and still remain a Labour Party member has shocked even us. This surely represents the last of the death throes of the Labour Party’s long relationship with the Jewish community. The Party had this one last chance to prove that it is not beyond salvation. Today’s decision is the Party’s final act of brazen, painful betrayal.

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Rising star of Scottish neo-Nazi movement unmasked

The Scottish newspaper, the Daily Record, has revealed in its Sunday edition, the Sunday Mail, the identity of a rising leader of the Scottish neo-Nazi movement.

The paper’s investigation discovered that Steven Wright, 45, is a sympathiser of the violent, antisemitic and neo-Nazi group National Action and openly backs other far right groups, including the British Freedom Fighters, the White Brotherhood, and Blood and Honour. Last month, it emerged that National Action is still meeting in secret despite being banned by the Home Secretary in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

Wright has been identified as a participant in the recent White Pride march in Edinburgh. Nazi salutes were performed at the march in which up to 40 far-right activists were challenged by approximately 400 counter-protesters. The investigation also names Gary Morrison, who admitted to being a follower of Hitler, as one of two men who allegedly performed Nazi salutes.

Wright was spotted wearing a British Freedom Fighters t-shirt at a Scottish Defence League (SDL) demonstration in Kilmarnock in 2010. In March this year, he appeared at an SDL rally in his home town of Alloa. He regularly wears a scarf emblazoned with Hitler’s notorious SS unit’s Death’s Head insignia. Wright’s fascist connections appear to spread as far as mainland Europe where he was pictured carrying a Scottish flag in Budapest during a far-right demonstration in 2015.

Campaign Against Antisemitism trusts that Scottish authorities will take swift action following this extensive and chilling exposé by the Daily Record. We continue to take a close interest in developments in Scotland.

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Greater Manchester Combined Authority adopts International Definition of Antisemitism

The board of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has voted to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. The definition was adopted by the Prime Minister in December, making the British government the first in the world to formally adopt the definition, something Campaign Against Antisemitism worked hard to achieve over many meetings. At the time, we also recognised the significant contribution of Sir Eric Pickles to the result.

The International Definition of Antisemitism is clear and detailed, leaving no doubt as to what antisemitism is. In particular, this definition tackles the full spectrum of antisemitism, from ancient slurs to conspiracy myths to antisemitism in discourse about Israel.

The Authority’s board adopted the definition which was one of the recommendations of a report entitled “Challenging Hate and Building Cohesion”.

The definition’s adoption came following a campaign by local community leader Marc Levy, who said: “Greater Manchester Combined Authority is leading the way in terms of tackling hate crime and we are hugely encouraged by their move to adopt the [International Definition of Antisemitism]. The Greater Manchester Jewish community know that it is vital that there is a clear and practical definition that will allow us to fight antisemitism in all its forms. I look forward to continuing to work with the GMCA as we continue to make strides in this area.”

Greater Manchester Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner, Tony Lloyd, said: “Greater Manchester has a strong record in standing against antisemitism and all other forms of hate crime. We know that we’re at our strongest when all our communities celebrate our difference, but recognise that there is more that unites than divides us. In Greater Manchester we have the highest level of hate crime reporting in the country, which is as a result of years of work to build community cohesion and instilling confidence that hate crime will be taken seriously. By adopting International [Definition of Antisemitism] we will continue that work to build strong communities.”

 

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CAA asks Foreign Affairs Committee to penalise state sponsors of antisemitism, ban Hizballah and shun PSC

Campaign Against Antisemitism has submitted a report to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in response to its enquiry into Britain’s role in making peace between Israel and its neighbours. Whilst Campaign Against Antisemitism only focusses on antisemitism in the UK, we wanted to draw the Committee’s attention to the domestic ramifications of British foreign policy.

In particular, we are asking the Committee to ensure that the government adjusts its diplomacy to protect British Jews. We have asked that:

  • Britain ends aid to governments and agencies which do not adopt and enforce legislation or policies outlawing antisemitic propaganda in state media and education materials, and blocks such countries from taking roles in international bodies, where possible. Antisemitic propaganda from the Middle East is responsible in great part for radicalising immigrant Middle Eastern communities in Britain (and elsewhere) to hate Jews.
  • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office drops its opposition to the total proscription of Hizballah under the Terrorism Act, which is enabling Hizballah supporters in the UK to get away with flying the Hizballah flag at demonstrations and even to fundraise for Hizballah. Whilst the authorities should prevent this, they use the fact that Hizballah is only partially proscribed as a loophole to avoid taking action. The FCO’s shameful resistance to fully proscribing Hizballah is permitting the intimidation of British Jews, and may even assist terrorism against them.
  • The Foreign and Commonwealth Office ceases all engagement with Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK following a Campaign Against Antisemitism investigation into antisemitism amongst its supporters. The FCO’s policymakers, diplomats and civil servants often strengthen and legitimise PSC by engaging with it on foreign policy matters.

We await the Committee’s response with interest. Our full report can be downloaded from our website.

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Police make arrests as neo-Nazi “White Pride” marchers perform Nazi salutes on the streets of Edinburgh

Nazi salutes were performed on the streets of central Edinburgh on Saturday during a neo-Nazi “White Pride” march by the far-right National Front.

Ailean Beaton, a student journalist living in Edinburgh, posted a short video showing at least two men raising their right arms in the air to make a Nazi salute outside the Tron Kirk.

According to local media, police estimated that up to 40 far-right activists participated in the march, with approximately 400 counter-protesters following them shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets.”

Police made ten arrests at the demonstrations at Hunters Square and the Royal Mile. Three of the arrests were for religiously-aggravated offences and the remainder for minor public order offences.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the overwhelming response from the Edinburgh community to counter the march and to send a strong message against racism. We also welcome the intervention by Police Scotland and will follow the matter with interest.

https://twitter.com/AileanBeaton/status/845637847671541760

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Jackie Walker rejects the International Definition of Antisemitism

Disgraced Labour activist, Jackie Walker, has made more explosive comments while answering an audience question during a session at Noam Chomsky’s “The responsibility of intellectuals 50 years on” conference held at University College London on 25th February. In particular, she refused to accept the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism transcribed a video of the question and answer which was posted on YouTube and Facebook by various groups, including on one Facebook page, where it has gained 226,000 views.

Walker, who is currently suspended from the Labour Party, had her case referred to the Party’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) earlier this month. She was suspended by Labour in September 2016 following comments she made about Holocaust Memorial Day at the Labour Party Conference. Walker said that Holocaust Memorial Day is not inclusive enough and that Jewish schools do not need special security in the face of threats. She also reportedly claimed that antisemitism was being “exaggerated” and that the “aim of such allegations is to undermine Jeremy [Corbyn].”

Walker, a leading ally of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, was previously suspended from the Labour Party and then readmitted — without explanation — after claiming that “many Jews”  were the “chief financiers” of the African slave trade, a proposition described by the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project at University College, London as based on “no evidence whatsoever.” The accusation is clearly antisemitic under the International Definition of Antisemitism by “charg(ing) Jews with conspiring to harm humanity” and by “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing.”

Being so clearly antisemitic under the terms of the definition, it is therefore unsurprising that she would seek to reject it. So in this latest episode to be added to her long list of antisemitic remarks, she responds with a bizarre antisemitic litany to a question from the audience on why she does not accept the International Definition of Antisemitism. Disturbingly, her comments were met with applause from the audience.

Walker said: “Of course there are definitions I can work with. I like to stick to really simple definitions. I think antisemitism is hatred of Jews because they are Jewish. It has nothing to do with the Israeli State. Now I am going to go on from that and I’m going to say something really clear  and I’m sure people will be listening to this one. I do not accept your premise that Israel is not a racist state [applause]. As a non-Jew you cannot buy land anywhere you like. You cannot use any roads. If I’m in a hospital and I’m a Jew, I can choose whether I share that area with non-Jews or not. If you look at any definition of racism or apartheid, you might be very well informed on that. I have definitions, I have very good definitions that I can work with. And just because you can give me a big long list of all the people who agree with it. I think this is something that Chomsky is absolutely telling us and saying it clearly. It doesn’t matter how much harassment, how much vilification, how many, how much abuse you send to me, I will never accept that Israel is a necessary part of my identity as a Jew [applause]. And you see the way, I want you to know, I want you to know. Did you hear that? This is a typical way of responding. I, he says, I am not a Jew because because, because of course, because of course, these people believe just like the Nazis that they had the ability to define who is a Jew or not. I want to remind people that our hard fought for, our, our hard fought for vocabulary of liberation, names the person as being the one who claims what their identity is, not a state and not you [applause].”

What Walker says in this rant breaches the International Definition of Antisemitism which states that: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, … by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” is antisemitic. The Labour Party has accepted the International Definition of Antisemitism. Walker is clearly thumbing her nose at the Labour Party and contemptuously and defiantly going against Party policy by so emphatically rejecting the definition. In an effort to shield herself from criticism, Walker makes the dubious claim that she is a Jew, as though antisemitism is only antisemitism depending on who expresses it.

Campaign Against Antisemitism urges the NCC to take Walker’s new outburst into account when they review her case. Nothing short of expulsion from the Labour Party will suffice.

Walker is scheduled to speak on “Palestine, Free Speech & Israel’s Black Ops” at a number of events in Scotland from 27th to 30th March organised by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. We are monitoring these events closely.

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Daren Thomas convicted with help from CAA over campaign of antisemitic threats to murder

Daren Thomas, of Westcliff-on-Sea, has been convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment for a campaign of abuse in which he threatened his Jewish landlord, his wife and his children.

Thomas had allegedly failed to pay towards the maintenance of the house in which he had a flat, or to allow access, leading the building to become dilapidated. When his Jewish landlord tried to ensure that repairs were made, Thomas bombarded him with antisemitic threats.

The threats, made between July and August last year, included one message which said: “I’ve never been prejudice against anything [victim’s name]. Maybe Hitler felt the same at first, and maybe the actions of the Jewish aristocracy in Vienna in the thirties acted like you. Maybe those actions changed Hitler’ opinion” whilst another menacingly read: “Have you seen inglorious barstard’ [victim’s name]? The swastika on the forehead is a nice touch! Nazi jew boy!” Despite the victim remaining completely professional in the exchanges, Thomas repeatedly sent him retorts such as: “I plan a nostalgic trip! Everything taken, packed off to camp!” He also made explicit threats multiple times, warning: “You won’t make it back to your car hidden in the car park. Are we crystal?” Thomas also made multiple mentions of the victim’s family, including: “I’m going to find your home retard. I know your married, and God, I hope you have kids!! I want them to see you on your f***ing knees!”

In a court order, it was found that Thomas “sent the victim numerous e-mails of an offensive nature displaying statements relating to Nazis and Jews which the victim has taken as racially offensive, and displayed a written sign from your premises window for the victim to see, threatening to burn him, this ammounting to a course of conduct and causing the victim to feel harassed, alarmed and distressed, and the offence was religiously aggravated.”

Thomas was handed a 16-week custodial sentence suspended for 12 months conditional on his undertaking a behavioural training course. A restraining order was also put in place directing that he should not attempt to make contact with the victim in any form whatsoever and he was also ordered to pay a £300 victim surcharge.

The victim approached Campaign Against Antisemitism for assistance and our Crime Unit provided specialist advice. The victim told us: “This is clearly a very good result and would not have been possible without the guidance you provided through the process and your support in preparing the evidence.” We strongly commend the victim for standing up to these antisemitic threats by resolutely pursuing justice. However we are disappointed that the court has not imposed a sentence that better reflects the persistence with which Thomas repeatedly made the most severe antisemitic threats possible.

If you or someone you know would like help dealing with the authorities over an antisemitic incident, please e-mail [email protected]. If you would like to join or support our volunteer team, please consider volunteering or donating.

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Conservatives reinstate Councillor suspended in ‘antisemitism’ row and provide full details to CAA

In April last year, Abdul Zaman, the Deputy Chairman of the Bradford Conservative Association, was suspended after making ‘antisemitic’ comments in support of local Conservative council candidate Sajid Akhtar.

The comments, delivered in the Mirpuri dialect, concerned the cohesion of the Biradari system, a system of politics which has caused major problems in Bradford. In his speech, delivered in a busy street, Mr Zaman called on his community to vote for Akhtar “so that the Jews and Christians know that we are one Biradari.”

This has been interpreted as either a message of unity, or as one of division, telling the local community to show Jews and Christians that they will adhere to the Biradri system and not be divided. Interpretation is made more difficult by the fact that Mirpuri is a purely oral dialect, and various phrases used in the speech can have different literal translations.

Local Bradford MP, Naz Shah, complained about the speech in a letter to the Prime Minister and Mr Zaman was suspended by the Conservative Party.

During disciplinary deliberations, it was agreed that Mr Zaman’s choice of words was not antisemitic, but it was unhelpfully open to interpretation. Mr Zaman apologised for using unclear language and was advised to use language more readily understandable by the wider community in the future.

The Party has provided Campaign Against Antisemitism with footage of the speech, along with a certified expert translation. The Chairman of the Bradford Conservative Association and the Conservative Party leader on City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council have given us a transparent account of their handling of the incident, and the handling of the incident by Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

We find no reason to criticise the conduct of this case, and are pleased that the Party has engaged with us so transparently.

We are now discussing the case of Dr Felix Aubel with the Conservative Party, which requires urgent rectification. Dr Aubel appeared to call in a tweet for a new Spanish Inquisition across the whole of Europe. A spokesman for the Welsh Conservative Party distanced the Party from Dr Aubel’s views, but that is not enough and Dr Aubel should be investigated according to the Party’s disciplinary process.

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Mayor of London’s new Police and Crime Plan offers few clues on fight against antisemitism

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, and the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) have released the Police and Crime Plan 2017-2021 — “A Safer City for All Londoners” following a public consultation. Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted its recommendations.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the approach of “zero tolerance” adopted by the plan, but the plan offers few details of measures for delivering it in relation to antisemitism. While there is a general section about hate crime, there is no specific mention of record-high antisemitism, and disappointingly there is very little to give us confidence that the Mayor and MOPAC intend to deal effectively with antisemitism.

In our submission to MOPAC, we set out in detail the challenge presented by antisemitic hate crime in London, and proposed a robust plan for dealing with it, including:

  • Adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism and training officers in how to apply it;
  • Producing a quick reference guide on antisemitism for all frontline officers;
  • Reviving a shelved plan to set up a city-wide hate crime reporting hotline;
  • Publishing even more granular statistics on hate crime, and allowing victims to report their ethnicity as “Jewish”;
  • Adopting a formal process by which organisations involved in fighting hate crime can point out a flawed investigation for review by a senior officer;
  • Adopting a policy of zero tolerance policing for those flying terrorist flags; and
  • Working with Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Home Office and others to develop a state-of-the-art monitoring system for online antisemitism.

We look forward to engaging with the Mayor and MOPAC and hope that the initiatives in the plan will be expanded and strengthened to ensure that antisemitism in London is met with the firmest response the law will permit.

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Labour Councillor resigns, citing Party’s failure to tackle antisemitism

Michael Inkpin-Leissner, a Labour Councillor who represents Hollingdean and Stanmer on Brighton and Hove City Council, has resigned from the Labour Party over the national leadership’s failure to confront antisemitism and its stance on Europe.

Councillor Inkpin-Leissner told Brighton and Hove News: “When I joined the Labour Party it was a centre-left party like the German SPD. Now it has been taken over by left-wingers and the Momentum extremists, who are working to build an axis with former German Communists ‘Die Linke’. As a German, you will understand, I can never support this and never will compromise my stance against any form of antisemitism. Unfortunately, the position of the Labour Party, though there are strong personalities standing up against antisemitism, seems to be not really sincere any more, proven by the lacklustre investigation of Baroness Chakrabarti. I have lost my faith in national Labour fighting antisemitism and for Europe.”

Councillor Inkpin-Leissner’s resignation follows that of a Jewish Labour Councillor in Shepway, Claire Jeffrey, who left the Labour Party in September 2016, saying: “As a Jew, I can’t stay in a party that tolerates antisemitism.” Jewish Labour Peer, Lord Parry Mitchell, had also resigned from the Labour Party in the same month writing that the Party “flirts with antisemitism”.

We thank Councillor Inkpin-Leissner for his principled stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others consider that the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is not safe for Jews due to its failure to adequately address antisemitism.

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Antisemite Richard Falk now will not speak at Middlesex University either following intervention by CAA

Richard Falk, the discredited and disgraced fringe antisemitic conspiracy theorist and the former UN envoy, has been prevented from holding an event at Middlesex University tomorrow. The university had insisted the event would take place, but following intervention by Campaign Against Antisemitism, the university has now decided to cancel the event.

This development comes hours after the University of East London took action to stop another event at which Falk was due to speak.

Falk had intended to speak about his new book, “Palestine’s Horizon”. Yesterday he held a similar event at the London School of Economics at which antisemites in the audience told Jewish students that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving” and that they should read the works of disgraced historian David Irving, who in 2000 was proven in court to be an antisemite, a Holocaust denier and an admirer of Hitler. It is also reported that Atzmon later said, “Jews are always expelled for a reason.”

Falk, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for the Palestinian Territories from 2008-2014, has been condemned repeatedly for making antisemitic remarks. He has been denounced by the United Kingdom on at least three separate occasions for antisemitism, as detailed by UN Watch in an open letter.

For example, in 2012 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office condemned Falk for providing the cover endorsement of a virulently antisemitic book that describes Jews as Nazis and which asks whether “Hitler might have been right after all”. In 2011, then Prime Minister David Cameron “strongly condemned” Falk’s publication of an antisemitic cartoon. The image posted by Falk on his blog showed a dog wearing a Jewish skullcap, urinating on a depiction of justice, and devouring a bloody skeleton.

Falk was publicly rebuked by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011 for suggesting the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the US government. He blamed the Boston bombings on “American global domination” and “Tel Aviv”. In fact, Falk’s glorification of the Hamas terrorist group, which calls for the genocide of all Jews worldwide in its Charter, was so severe that even the Palestinian Authority sought to expel him from the UN.

We are very pleased to have been able to prevent this notorious antisemite from speaking at the University of East London and Middlesex University, but he should never have even been considered as an appropriate speaker.

We are lodging a formal complaint with LSE and the Higher Education Funding Council for England over the disgraceful event held there yesterday.

If you are aware of an antisemitic speaker being invited to speak at a university, please contact [email protected].

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CAA in touch with Home Office as former National Action members caught at a secret knife combat training camp

A shocking undercover investigation by ITV News has confirmed that former members of the violent, antisemitic neo-Nazi group, National Action, are still meeting in secret. This is despite the group being banned by the British Government in December 2016, following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. The ban makes it a criminal offence for the group to exist or meet, with a jail term of up to ten years for anyone convicted of being a member or supporter.

Undercover filming by ITV News caught individuals with links to the banned group together at a training camp for far-right sympathisers in the Peak District earlier this month. The weekend billed itself as a “survival camp” with boxing and street fighting sessions, as well as how to deal with a knife fight. The group discussed the killing of Jo Cox MP as ITV News filmed secretly.

One of the participants was Garron Helm, a prominent former member of National Action. Helm was jailed in 2014 for sending an antisemitic tweet to Jewish MP Luciana Berger. The tweet showed a picture of Ms Berger with a yellow star superimposed onto her forehead, a reference to the Nazi practice of forcing Jews to wear distinctive yellow stars. Referring to the MP as “a communist Jewess”, the tweet bore the message “You can always trust a Jew to show their true colours eventually” along with the hashtag “#HitlerWasRight.”

Also at the camp was a man who calls himself James Mac, who was photographed last year at National Action demonstrations. Mac made antisemitic comments during the meeting, saying: “They carry on like somebody’s died. You know like if a family member died and somebody got off, they carry on like that, just about somebody who bad-mouthed them. This is the way these Jews carry on.”

The video appears to show criminal offences being committed which we expect to be prosecuted.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is monitoring developments closely and is confident that British authorties will respond appropriately and quickly to this very disturbing revelation. We are in contact with the Home Office.

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Antisemite Richard Falk will not speak at University of East London tonight following intervention by CAA

Richard Falk, the discredited and disgraced fringe antisemitic conspiracy theorist and the former UN envoy, has been prevented from holding an event at the University of East London tonight.

The university took action to stop the event after Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the university’s Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor John Joughin.

Falk had intended to speak about his new book, “Palestine’s Horizon”. Yesterday he held a similar event at the London School of Economics at which antisemites in the audience told Jewish students that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving” and that they should read the works of disgraced historian David Irving, who in 2000 was proven in court to be an antisemite, a Holocaust denier and an admirer of Hitler. It is also reported that Atzmon later said, “Jews are always expelled for a reason.”

Falk, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for the Palestinian Territories from 2008-2014, has been condemned repeatedly for making antisemitic remarks. He has been denounced by the United Kingdom on at least three separate occasions for antisemitism, as detailed by UN Watch in an open letter.

For example, in 2012 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office condemned Falk for providing the cover endorsement of a virulently antisemitic book that describes Jews as Nazis and which asks whether “Hitler might have been right after all”. In 2011, then Prime Minister David Cameron “strongly condemned” Falk’s publication of an antisemitic cartoon. The image posted by Falk on his blog showed a dog wearing a Jewish skullcap, urinating on a depiction of justice, and devouring a bloody skeleton.

Falk was publicly rebuked by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011 for suggesting the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the US government. He blamed the Boston bombings on “American global domination” and “Tel Aviv”. In fact, Falk’s glorification of the Hamas terrorist group, which calls for the genocide of all Jews worldwide in its Charter, was so severe that even the Palestinian Authority sought to expel him from the UN.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is in contact with Middlesex University to demand that Falk’s book launch events there on Wednesday be cancelled immediately.

We are also lodging a formal complaint with LSE and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

If you are aware of an antisemitic speaker being invited to speak at a university, please contact [email protected].

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Jewish students at antisemite’s lecture at LSE allegedly told “What happened to Jews in Germany was because Jews misbehaved”

Today, Richard Falk, the discredited and disgraced fringe antisemitic conspiracy theorist and the former UN envoy, has delivered a lecture at the London School of Economics (LSE) to launch his new book, “Palestine’s Horizon”.

Witnesses at today’s event have reported that the event descended into chaos. Jewish community members held up signs calling Falk an antisemite. University security tried to confiscate the signs and attempted to remove the protesters.

Also in attendance was the notorious antisemite, Gilad Atzmon, who told those around him that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving.” Stunned audience members asked him to repeat what he had said and he did. Atzmon also was heard recommending the works of disgraced historian David Irving, who in 2000 was proven in court to be an antisemite, a Holocaust denier and an admirer of Hitler. It is also reported that Atzmon later said, “Jews are always expelled for a reason.”

Falk, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for the Palestinian Territories from 2008-2014, has been condemned repeatedly for making antisemitic remarks. He has been denounced by the United Kingdom on at least three separate occasions for antisemitism, as detailed by UN Watch in an open letter.

For example, in 2012 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office condemned Falk for providing the cover endorsement of a virulently antisemitic book that describes Jews as Nazis and which asks whether “Hitler might have been right after all”. In 2011, then Prime Minister David Cameron “strongly condemned” Falk’s publication of an antisemitic cartoon. The image posted by Falk on his blog showed a dog wearing a Jewish skullcap, urinating on a depiction of justice, and devouring a bloody skeleton.

Falk was publicly rebuked by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011 for suggesting the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the US government. He blamed the Boston bombings on “American global domination” and “Tel Aviv”. In fact, Falk’s glorification of the Hamas terrorist group, which calls for the genocide of all Jews worldwide in its Charter, was so severe that even the Palestinian Authority sought to expel him from the UN.

Falk’s invitation onto our campuses blatantly violates the government’s Prevent counter-extremism strategy. To make matters worse, LSE was warned in advance.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the University of East London and Middlesex University to demand that Falk’s book launch events there on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively be cancelled immediately. We are also lodging a formal complaint with LSE and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

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House of Lords Commissioner for Standards badly fails to understand antisemitism in verdict on Baroness Tonge

The House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, has now delivered a verdict on whether or not an event chaired and hosted by Baroness Tonge at the House of Lords was “taken over by those promoting antisemitism” in a way that she was bound by “personal honour” to oppose.

The Commissioner has concluded that despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Baroness acted on her honour.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, having read the Commissioner’s detailed considerations, and, having measured it against her remit, found it wanting on the grounds that the conclusions she reaches are unreasonable.

Particularly, the Commissioner has delivered a highly personal and dubious verdict which betrays, at best, a lack of understanding of key historic antisemitic slanders against Jews, and how they are used by antisemites to sanitise their hatred as political discourse.

For example, one member of the audience claimed that “I’m not talking about World Jewry, I’m talking about the Zionist movement that has that power…over our own Parliament.” We would contest that the idea that any group of Jews controls the British Parliament is transparently antisemitic, by any standards.

Further, the argument proposed by another member of the audience that “Zionists…antagonised Hitler over the edge” will be familiar to those who witnessed Ken Livingstone’s bizarre and offensive comments last year. Ms Montcrieff would do well to review the many eminent historians who at the time, dismissed these well-worn notions as the product of lies, published and disseminated by known antisemites. It is sad and worrying to us that she would have accepted as politically acceptable discourse that which scholars have identified as lies used in fabricating a classic antisemitic tale of Jewish malice.

We greet the verdict with dismay. It is our opinion that the author clearly was not suitably knowledgeable on the subject of antisemitism to deliver judgement. This verdict will encourage other antisemites to express antisemitic views at the House of Lords with impunity. Furthermore, we predict that by failing to act now, the Commissioner has only delayed the day when she must act until next time antisemitic libels are aired at the House of Lords, further shaming the House and damaging its institutional credibility.

It is clear to us that what has said at the meeting required Baroness Tonge to act on her honour to oppose it. We will be making our position clear in a written response to both the Commissioner and the House of Lords Committee for Privileges and Conduct.

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“Scum Nazis” scrawled across Belfast memorial for commander of the Jewish Legion during First World War

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating a graffiti attack on the memorial to the former commander of the so-called Jewish Legion as a hate crime.

“Scum Nazis” was scrawled across the memorial to Lt Col John Henry Patterson DSO who commanded the so-called Jewish Legion during the First World War, which was the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia. Whilst his men fought with distinction, Lt Col Patterson, who was not Jewish, had to defend them from the antisemitism of his superiors, peers and subordinates, even threatening to resign his commission on multiple occasions in protest at the treatment of his soldiers. Lt Col Patterson sacrificed any hope of a successful military career in order to stand by his Jewish soldiers and ensure that they were treated fairly.

In accordance with his dying wish, Lt Col Patterson was reburied in Israel in 2014 in order to be close to the soldiers who fell under his command.

The memorial had only recently been restored following an attempt to set it alight.

The incident has been condemned by politicians from the Democratic Unionist Party as well as clergymen. Inspector Murphy from the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement: “The incident is being treated as a hate crime. Police would like to hear from anyone with information, or anyone who was in the area and noticed anything or anyone suspicious. Please call 101 quoting reference 299 17/03/17 or call Crimestoppers and speak with them anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

This cowardly attack on a memorial to one of Northern Ireland’s heroes must be punished with the full force of the law.

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Welsh Conservatives must discipline activist who appears to yearn for Spanish Inquisition across Europe

The Reverend Dr Felix Aubel, a Conservative Party activist who was the West Wales coordinator for the Vote Leave campaign, has tweeted: “When will today’s Christian Europe say ‘Enough is Enough’, just like the Christian Spaniards did at the end of the Middle Ages?” The tweet was in response to a Swedish Twitter user who had tweeted about immigration in the country. Dr Aubel appears to be referring to the Spanish Inquisition established in 1478. The Inquisition consisted of a state-organised pogrom predominantly targeting Jews with torture and cruel murder, for example being burned at the stake. The Alhambra Decree of 1492, commanded all Jews in Spain to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.

However the Welsh Conservative Party has issued a meek and wholly inadequate response. A spokesman told the Daily Post: “Felix Aubel’s opinions are entirely his own and are in no way representative of the views of the Welsh Conservatives. We cannot condone the use of this kind of language.”

It is not enough for the Party to distance itself from these views and Dr Aubel should be investigated according to the Party’s disciplinary process. Campaign Against Antisemitism will be raising this troubling case with the Conservative Party.

It is also extremely troubling that he is minister to five independent churches.

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CAA makes recommendations to the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime

Campaign Against Antisemitism has submitted its recommendations to the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), which is preparing a new policing plan for the capital. The recommendations were submitted at the beginning of the month.

We have set out in detail the challenge presented by antisemitic hate crime in London, and proposed a robust plan for dealing with it, including:

  • Adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism and training officers in how to apply it;
  • Producing a quick reference guide on antisemitism for all frontline officers;
  • Reviving a shelved plan to set up a city-wide hate crime reporting hotline;
  • Publishing even more granular statistics on hate crime, and allowing victims to report their ethnicity as “Jewish”;
  • Adopting a formal process by which organisations involved in fighting hate crime can point out a flawed investigation for review by a senior officer;
  • Adopting a policy of zero tolerance policing for those flying terrorist flags; and
  • Working with Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Home Office and others to develop a state-of-the-art monitoring system for online antisemitism.

Our full submission can be viewed online.

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Labour Party members and their Nazi beliefs

The antisemitism of the far-left often appears to be a distinct phenomenon — starting with the antisemitism of early Marxists, it later absorbed the antisemitism of Stalin’s Russia. From the 1980s onward, far-left antisemitism has been established as part of a supposedly anti-imperialist position. Elements of the far-left have embraced genocidally antisemitic Islamist movements, and under the cover of so-called identity politics have come to portray Jews as ‘white oppressors’.

These political and historical developments are real, but their existence lowered down ropes into the pitch-dark pit into which Western societies once cast older forms of antisemitism, enabling them to haul themselves to the surface once more.

The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is a case in point: antisemitism within it has been denied and has now gone unpunished for so long that it is possible to see the very worst forms of it appearing from the darkness, blinking into the light.

So it is that in the last few months we have seen numerous cases of notorious conspiracy myths about the Rothschild family of bankers and philanthropists appearing in the ranks of the Labour Party.

There is a wide antisemitic mythology about the Rothschilds controlling the financial systems of the world, starting wars for their own advantage, or even sinking the Titanic for their own ends; these are mostly linked to wider conspiracies — as espoused by the likes of David Icke — in claiming secret Jewish control of the world.

One key myth about the Rothschild family is that Nathan Rothschild had used his money to return to London from the battlefield at Waterloo ahead of official news of an English victory, turning his advance information into a fortune by manipulating stocks. Brian Cathcart authored a book on the subject of the battle news, and expertly dissects the Rothschild conspiracy myth in an article in The Independent.

The antisemitic ‘Satan’ pamphlet spreading the lie was published in 1846 and other Rothschild myths date back to the mid 18th Century: this, then, is old antisemitism, borne of an age pre-dating any modern socialist movements, including the Labour Party. Latterly, it was the Nazi Party who embraced it, for example in 1940 releasing a film: The Rothschilds’ Shares in Waterloo.

So it is with something of a sense of despair that we now observe myths favoured by the Nazis appearing frequently in the ranks of a Party that once claimed to be a bastion of anti-racism. Last month, Councillor John Clarke resigned after making such claims. Clarke has form when it comes to posting from Nazi and other far-right sites. In itself, that is regrettable, but that he is an ex-academic Labour politician who actively believes the Rothschild conspiracy myths is disturbing in the extreme.

Note that, significantly, he says “I will now block people who accuse me of antisemitism merely to close down legitimate criticism of Israel &/or Rothschild family”, claiming parity between Jewish attempts to ‘cover up’ the ‘evil’ of Israel and a plot to conceal banking conspiracies.

More incidents have now been reported to us from sources inside Labour. For example, the enthusiastic pro-Corbyn Facebook group: “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party Forum” recently saw the posting of a Rothschild conspiracy blog from a ‘left-wing socialist website’ that is so antisemitic it includes blood-libel-associated pieces such as “Jewish Human Organ Trade in Turkey stealing Syrian Children”.

The posted article itself is entitled “The Complete History of the ‘House of Rothschild’” and begins: “The Rothschilds have been in control of the world for a very long time, their tentacles reaching into many aspects of our daily lives…” and which refers to “The Secret History of Jewish World Domination”. The person posting the article asks: “Is it OK to post here?” The answer was affirmative. Andy Ross, an administrator for the group says: “It’s OK, I think it’s about time people’s eyes were opened”. Another forum member and Corbyn enthusiast, Les Tasker responds: “They are the biggest parasites on the planet”. Another observes: “The author is a regular poster on here”.

Another member of the forum is John Bryant. He posted a picture of a number of politicians, including the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and Chukka Umanna, saying: “These people are just Rothschild puppets”. The post was allowed to remain on the page. It was first posted on 27th February and at the time of writing, it has not been removed by administrators.

John Bryant and Andy Ross, friends on Facebook, are not just members of the forum, but are its administrators: in fact John Bryant is its creator and chief administrator. They are also both Labour Party members and ‘Corbynistas’, constantly reiterating their support for legitimate ‘social justice’ causes and their ardour for Labour’s leader.

In Facebook groups supporting Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, such sentiments abound. For example, Paul Cook, an enthusiastic member of “Jeremy Corbyn will be Prime Minister” and “We support Jeremy Corbyn for PM” posts that “Zionist Rothschild Israel is an evil regime” and posts a piece asking “Is Judaism a Satanic Cult?”. Yet his posts and his membership of these groups is not moderated. Reports of such extreme postings are received daily by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously highlighted Rothschild-based antisemitism by Labour figures, for example Councillors Andrew Slack and Ilyas Aziz, as well as from Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers. Ilyas Aziz, despite this and more besides, has been re-admitted to the Labour party without discipline. Andrew Slack was suspended, but Labour has declined to comment on his discipline.

All this in a month when a Labour councillor performed a Nazi salute in a council chamber.

When inviting Labour Party members to join “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party” Facebook group, John Bryant himself says: “Everyone should feel free to join this group and find out the values of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn”. These words send shivers down one’s spine, for the Labour left under Jeremy Corbyn has now reached an immoral low where antisemites within the Party are openly promulgating ideas favoured by the Nazi party, while waving the banners of ‘progressive’ social virtue.

Campaign Against Antisemitism must now warn that the Labour Party and its leadership is currently presiding over a tolerance of conspiracy myths amongst its politicians and membership that pose a real threat to the Jewish community in terms that are wholly outside any debate related to Israel.

Professor Cathcart asks why it has taken 200 years for the Rothschild antisemitic charge to be dismissed. He is mistaken: not in his historical analysis, but that the myth is dead, because it still lives on within the Labour Party in 2017.

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Labour candidate who shared antisemitic posts on Facebook says that scrutiny constitutes “intrusion and misrepresentation”

Alison Gove-Humphries, who has been selected to stand for Labour in Birmingham City Council’s Hall Green by-election in May, has been exposed for sharing antisemitic posts promoting conspiracy myths on her Facebook account. She shared articles putting forward the conspiracy myths that Israel is the “key link in exporting ISIS oil” and that the “Israel lobby manufactured [the] UK Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis.”

Gove-Humphries, a keen supporter of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has defended her posts in a statement to the Birmingham Mail: “I am extremely saddened by the allegation that my private Facebook posts were antisemitic. I merely shared a link to third-party posts with no commentary or opinion. I share many topical new pieces across a broad spectrum on my Facebook account and it is clear to me these old posts have been taken completely out of context.” She went on to claim that the allegations against her constituted “intrusion and misrepresentation” and said that she did not want to be “distracted by these hurtful allegations.”

Trying to deflect attention, Gove-Humphries said that she has demonstrated her commitment to diversity by co-producing articles for the Holocaust Education Trust, co-ordinating Black History Month events and hosting events where Holocaust survivors spoke to school children.

While the West Midlands Labour Party has declined to comment, Gove-Humphries is facing calls to step down from Labour Councillor Barry Henley, who said: “These are clearly antisemitic postings. In my view there should be a Labour Party investigation into Gove-Humphries’ membership and suitability to be a candidate, and in the meantime a new candidate should be put in place. As a Jewish member of the Labour Party I have written to them and asking for an investigation.”

The articles Gove-Humphries knowingly shared on Facebook are glaringly antisemitic in line with the International Definition of Antisemitism. Campaign Against Antisemitism echoes Councillor Henley’s principled and sensible call for Gove-Humphries to step down and an investigation launched.

We have little confidence, however, that any decisive action will be taken. For example, in September last year the Labour Party refused to investigate Birmingham Councillor Zafar Iqbal Said, who shared an antisemitic video produced by a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klax Klan. He claimed that he had “no idea” how the video on how the “Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking” came to be posted on his Facebook timeline.

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.