Coventry University has called in the police after Jewish students found a swastika on campus. The swastika was found on 1st December by Josephine Davidoff and Zac Davies in the library. The swastika was depicted using masking tape on a radiator. CCTV has been checked for evidence unsuccessfully, but Coventry University’s Jewish Society has commended the firm handling of the incident by university authorities.

Last month, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Programme Manager was attacked by an antisemite whilst walking through Coventry.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism into the activities of the “European Forum for Ethnic Minority Individuals, Communities and Organizations” (EFEMICO) has revealed that it is in fact a front organisation run by an antisemite.

EFEMICO is in fact a one man band run by Schumann. Draped in the flag and colours of the EU, its official-sounding website, efemico.eu, claims to represent all minority “migrant settlers to the EU” but explicitly excludes Jews.

But the man behind the website, Jason Schumann is an antisemite who recently told a Jewish Facebook user: “It is Jews who are the real nazis. [sic] No group of people more insidious, more evil, or more pernicious. An eternal curse upon them.” His personal Twitter account has been suspended.

EFEMICO came to our attention when it targeted three organisations, Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Community Security Trust and Jewish Human Rights Watch, accusing them all of harassing innocent individuals and menacing them with a Charity Commission investigation, repeatedly tweeting: “Whilst antisemitism is wrong, anyone harassed by @CST_UK, @antisemitism or @jhrwatch, please contact us to take further. @ChtyCommission”

https://twitter.com/efemico_online/status/801379608331489280

Additionally, EFEMICO believes in the existence of a nefarious “Jewish lobby”. 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” is antisemitic.

Our investigators contacted EURid, the EU’s website domain registration service, enquiring as to the ownership of efemico.eu, but found that the owner had entered no name, a non-functioning telephone number and the address of a serviced office centre in Manchester. We instigated the formal process to force the owner of the website to reveal their true identity, establishing that the owner of the website is Jason Schumann.

We contacted Schumann via his efemico.eu e-mail address, inviting him to comment on his antisemitic Facebook remark, and for transparency, all of our correspondence with him is reproduced below.

He has now taken down the efemico.eu website, blaming “cyber attacks”, whilst also penning a blog post in which he refers to Campaign Against Antisemitism’s private prosecution of Alison Chabloz and threatens: “If you read this, Gideon [Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism], despite the fact that I disagree with Alison [Chabloz]’s methods and many of her views, because of your recent threats to me and subversive efforts to misuse the law to push a wider agenda; be mindful that I haven’t finished with you or CAA yet, so watch this space. I promise you it will not end well!”

Through EFEMICO, Schumann has tried to intimidate organisations which fight antisemitism by falsely suggesting that they engage in harassment of innocent individuals. This incident shows the sophisticated techniques now being used against Jews, even to intimidate them from taking action against antisemitism.

Now that they are aware of the situation, EURid, which granted Schumann his official-looking online presence, should cease to play a part in the EFEMICO charade. You may wish to contact EURid about this matter through their website.

Jason Schumann is an antisemite and he should face the consequences of his hatred. We have reported his antisemitic comment to the police.

Our Correspondence with Jason Schumann

E-Mail to Schumann

From: Campaign Against Antisemitism <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 at 01:17
Subject: Request for comment
To: <***********@efemico.eu>

Jason,

We have been passed the attached screen capture of a conversation on Facebook.

In particular, we draw your attention to the following passage:

“Jason Schumann: Rakel, It is Jews who are the real nazis. No group of people more insidious, more evil, or more pernicious. An eternal curse upon them.”

We note that the comment is not on Facebook now.

We may make the screenshot public.

If you have any comments, please send them to us by e-mail in the next 24 hours.

Campaign Against Antisemitism

Response from Schumann

From: efemico.eu <***********@efemico.eu>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2016 at 07:35
Subject: Re: Request for comment
To: Campaign Against Antisemitism <[email protected]>

Without Prejudice and In Confidence

Dear Sir or Madam,

You will kindly refer to me as Mr Schumann.

You do not have the right or privilege to refer to me by my first name.

Furthermore, if you wish me to respond, you will reply to this email as a named individual.

Lastly, any more threats will be considered harassment and reported to both the Charity Commission and the police.

(I had planned to email you about the Charity Commission. All in good time)

To be clear, unless you are willing to reply as a named person, you will receive no further communication about this particular matter.

I do hope that I have made myself clear.

Sincerely,

Mr. Schumann

Further Response from Schumann

We have removed the names of various private individuals and a limited company which Schumann incorrectly believes to be associated in some way with Campaign Against Antisemitism, but we have not concealed the names of other Jewish organisations Schumann appears to be interested in.

From: Jason Schumann <**************@gmail.com>
Date: 13 December 2016 at 21:07
Subject: For Comment
To: Campaign Against Antisemitism <[email protected]>

Without Prejudice and In Confidence

Dear CAA,

Please respond to the following questions:

  1. Why are your ‘volunteers’ engaged in covert activity to spy on Alison Chabloz, including via her Facebook page?
  2. Has either Gideon Falter or CAA itself instructed them to do so?
  3. What are Gideon Falter and CAA’s connections with R****l (R****l D****k) D*******a, Eye On AntiSemitism, CST, and A*******e ‘Shittyknickers’ S*****t?
  4. Re point 3, are A*******e and R****l ‘volunteers’ for CAA?
  5. If point 4 is not applicable, please describe relations between said parties?
  6. Why is CAA and Gideon Falter spying on Alison Chabloz, Jason Schumann, and EFEMICO?
  7. Why has CAA and Gideon searched EFEMICO’s website?
  8. Why has CAA and Gideon made a malicious report to EURID regarding the contact details of EFEMICO’s website?
  9. Why, after EFEMICO’s contact details (via EURID) were updated, after enquiries and a complaint made by Gideon and CAA, did CAA send a threatening email to Jason Schumann?
  10. Why, after this complaint, did Gideon send an email to EFEMICO after 01:00 a.m GMT, dated the 11 December 2016?
  11. Why has CAA instigated a DDOS attack upon EFEMICO’s website?
  12. Has or does CAA condone DDOS?
  13. Does CAA have a volunteer code of conduct policy? If so, please disclose a copy
  14. What authority or law of the land does CAA have to act as a lawyer enforcer and vigilante?
  15. Re point 12, please provide evidence granting such permissions by authority of her majesty or her representative.
  16. Re 12 and 13, how is this compatible with charity law in the UK?
  17. Please describe how spying, vigilantism, and covert operations are compatible with charity law and CAA’s Objects?
  18. Is the Charity Commission aware of 12 – 17? Please provide evidence.
  19. Are the police and UK govt aware of 12 – 17? Please provide evidence.
  20. Who are the registered Trustees of CAA and on what grounds have the been hidden from public view. Please provide supporting evidence.
  21. Does CAA have any connection to or with ‘S*****t T*****e Limited’ and/ or its Directors?
  22. Are any parts of CAA’s business or operations registered offshore?
  23. Please provide full accounts for CAA and its partners or subsidiaries for the last 10 years.
  24. How many UK politicians and civil servants have CAA staff met with in the past 24 months?
  25. What are CAA’s links and communications with R****t F*******n of Jewish Human Rights Watch, employees, volunteers, or Trustees of?
  26. How many police officers has CAA met with in the past 24 months?
  27. Disclose details of any gifts, including accommodation, meals, flights, tickets, holidays provided to supporters of CAA, including police, Mps, charities, EU officials and all other beneficiaries?
  28. How many private prosecutions has CAA been involved with in the last 24 months? Provide details.
  29. How much financial support and resources has CAA provided to pursue such private prosecutions?
  30. Why has CAA condoned attempted social media hackings on anti-Zionist accounts?
  31. A list of donees since 2010 over and above £5K.
  32. Disclosure of personal information held by CAA and Gideon Falter related to Jason Schumann, including all social media, electronic and manual filing systems.
  33. Disclosure of data regarding CAA’s time, resources, staffing, and financial contribution toward funding Gideon Falter’s private prosecutions?
  34. A signed response in compliance with the attached Notice of Cease of Desist regarding Harassment?

I am not done with you, yet; and your response to each of the above will determine how I may choose to deal with you.

You should be mindful never to ever again threaten me.

I will not tolerate such infringements on my liberty by any one or any organisation.

NEVER poke a bear!

Regards,

Jason Schumann

!!!Zionism IS Racism!!!!

A man has been convicted of incitement to racial hatred over his antisemitic Facebook posts and a speech on YouTube.

Lawrence Burns was found guilty of two charges of publishing threatening, abusive or insulting written material with intent or likely intent to stir up racial hatred by a jury at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday, over his efforts to spread “vile and offensive sentiments” after jury deliberations lasting over thirteen hours. He is expected to be sentenced early next year.

The jurors had heard how Burns, aged 26 from Coldham’s Lane in Cambridge, spoke in a YouTube video memorialising American white supremacist leader David Lane, accusing Jews of being “parasites” that wanted to create a “mongrelised race”.

Burns pleaded not guilty, but prosecutor Mark Weekes said: “This is a young man who is an extremist and has expressed racist views, particularly towards the Jewish and Afro-Caribbean community. On his public Facebook account, which has more than 90 friends, he expressed some of the vilest and most offensive sentiments possible. Many of the posts are abusive and insulting towards Jews, who he refers to as ‘sub human animals’.” In one post, Burns compared Jews to “maggots in a decaying body” who are “hijacking the genes of a superior white race”.

Adrian Davis, who was defending Burns said he was a “rash young man” who had never intended his words to be read by a wide audience.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched its first private prosecution. We felt obliged to act after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed to prosecute Alison Chabloz of Glossop, Derbyshire.

Alison Chabloz has been summoned to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in Central London tomorrow.

The summons alleges: “That on or around the 8th day of June 2016, Alison Chabloz did send or cause to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter, namely a YouTube video under the title ‘(((Survivors)))’ that was grossly offensive in that it was antisemitic, contrary to section 127(1) of the Communications act 2003.”

In the video entitled “(((Survivors)))”, Alison Chabloz performs a song to the camera in which she refers to various antisemitic tropes and makes a mockery of those who lived through and during the Holocaust, including:

  • “Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes. Eternal wandering liars haven’t got a clue, and when it comes to usury, victim’s always me and you.”
  • “Now Auschwitz, holy temple, is a theme park just for fools, the gassing zone a proven hoax, indoctrination rules.”
  • “Tell us another, come on, my brother, reap it, the cover, for tribal gain. Safe in our tower, now is the hour, money and power, we have no shame.”
  • “History repeats itself, no limit to our wealth, thanks to your debts we’re bleeding you dry. We control your media, control all your books and TV, with the daily lies we’re feeding, suffering victimisation. Sheeple have no realisation, you shall pay, all the way, until the break of day.”

The case of Alison Chabloz is one of many that we intend to prosecute privately. Last year was the worst year for antisemitic crime on record, with crime targeting Jews rising by 26% and a 51% surge in antisemitic violence, however of the 15,442 hate crimes prosecuted by the CPS, only 12 are known to be cases of antisemitic hate crime.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is represented pro bono by Stephen Gilchrist (solicitor) and Jonathan Goldberg QC, Jeffrey Israel and Senghin Kong (leading and junior counsel).

After we initiated our private prosecution, the CPS decided to go ahead with other cases against Alison Chabloz which had been awaiting a decision by the CPS for a year.

Antisemitism in the United Kingdom is reaching a tipping point. Incitement against Jews online is now translating into violent attacks on Jews. Our research shows that a growing percentage of British Jews are having thoughts about leaving the country and we cannot let that happen. We have called for zero tolerance enforcement of the law against antisemitism and that is what politicians have promised, but the Crown Prosecution Service has failed to take action, so now we must act instead.

A man and a woman have been arrested after allegedly shouting antisemitic abuse at volunteers from Stamford Hill Shomrim who suspected them of involvement in burglaries.

Volunteers from Stamford Hill Shomrim were on a routine foot patrol when they noticed a man and a woman whom they suspected might be linked to a spate of recent burglaries. The Shomrim volunteers immediately called the Metropolitan Police Service, which arrested the pair.

During the arrest, the man allegedly looked at the Shomrim volunteers, who are charedi Jews, and said: “Funny-looking f***ers” at which point the police officers warned him that he would be committing a criminal offence if he continued. He allegedly then shouted: “Shame Hitler didn’t finish the job, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler, Allahu Akbar” and the woman added: “F***ing Jewish c***” as they were loaded into a police van.

They were both arrested on suspicion of involvement in two attempted burglaries, and additionally for their antisemitic abuse.

We commend Stamford Hill Shomrim for their valuable work on behalf of all residents of the area, and we applaud the officers involved for their firm stance against antisemitism.

Today, we are proud that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, will announce that the British government will become the first in the world to formally adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. This definition 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.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has worked hard over many meetings for the government to take this step and we applaud the Prime Minister’s leadership. We also recognise the major contribution of Sir Eric Pickles to this important result.

Following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism, violent neo-Nazi group National Action will now finally become a “proscribed organisation” when Home Secretary Amber Rudd declares it a banned terrorist group tomorrow.

National Action is a growing neo-Nazi group in Britain. Whilst seeking prosecutions for its relentless incitement against Jews, including calling for a new Holocaust, Campaign Against Antisemitism has also long campaigned for the Home Secretary to declare the group a terrorist organisation.

In common with other terrorist groups, National Action radicalises and indoctrinates the young, teaches them violence, attacks the police and the public and demands the annihilation of Jews.

In recent weeks, National Action has lauded the murder of Jo Cox and attempted to assert control over territory in Liverpool and Newbury. Last month we increased our work in the media and on social networks, including releasing our five-minute video exposing the true nature of National Action, and successfully freezing donations by the public to the group.

Tomorrow, under section 3(3)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary will issue an Order adding National Action to the list of Proscribed Organisations, which will instantly render it a criminal offence to recruit for, be a member of or in any way support National Action, including displaying National Action flags, posters or banners.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has worked hard for this change, along with others. This decision by the Home Secretary is something we have long called for and sends a strong message that the far-right is in the government’s sights and will not be permitted to continue its incitement and violence.

We would also like to thank everyone who supported our work.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the Charity Commission after SOAS Students’ Union, which is a registered charity, told a Charity Commission investigator that “we do not believe that there was any antisemitism” at an antisemitic lecture, and that the lecture was “an appropriate meeting for the Palestine Society to run in the way it was run”. The comments were in a letter from the trustees of SOAS Students’ Union to the Charity Commission which has been seen by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The lecture in November was given to SOAS Palestine Society by Thomas Suarez to promote his book, “State of Terror”. Throughout the lecture, antisemitic comments were made which SOAS Palestine Society failed to challenge.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit (DEMU) found that during the lecture, it was claimed that Zionists are mobilising subversive power to “outlaw” criticism of their activities, the creation of Israel was a “racist”, “facist” endeavour, the actions of Zionists and Israel are comparable to those of Nazi Germany, and Zionists historically radicalised Jewish children and engineered increases in antisemitism, all of which is antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The only intervention by SOAS Palestine Society was to threaten to “call security” when they became suspicious that a woman was recording the lecture.

Citing recent findings of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee and the International Definition of Antisemitism, Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the Charity Commission to point out the blatant antisemitism contained in the lecture, including the following quotations:

  • “Zionists are so terrified of daylight on their cult, that there are moves afoot to outlaw any derogatory reference of the word”
  • “The wildcard to this is the US participation in World War I. Even at the time, some people alleged that Palestine was payback for the use of Zionist pressure to get the United States to enter World War I. There is no proof of that. What is clear in Cabinet records is that there was something going on with World War I, with Zionists in the United States and the US entering. That is clear in the records, but to go so far as to say there was a deal made with that is not a premise.”
  • “the idea of going somewhere where one could act out racial superiority was seductive”
  • “Israel has one of the largest militaries, but its most powerful weapon, the weapon without which all of its others would be impotent is its narrative, its creation of its autobiography. This narrative does not merely put a pretty gloss on this reality, as all nations have their narratives, it actually turns the truth upside down. And this complete arsenal in this narrative is embodied in a three-word bullet. That bullet is a three-word phrase: ‘The Jewish state’. This is a unique phenomenon in the World. No other nation has such a device as this. Israel does not use Judaism as a national religion. In fact, I may be wrong, but as far as I am aware, Judaism is not a national faith of Israel. Rather, crammed into those three words are all of Jewry, Judaism, Jewish history, culture, persecution, and most cynical and exploitative of all, the Holocaust. This three-word phrase expropriates all of these into a human shield.”
  • “The fascist nature of the Zionist enterprise was apparent to US intelligence, British intelligence and Jewish informants.”
  • “The radicalisation of children was the methodology of the Jewish Agency.”
  • “Zionism was a parallel movement to Nazism”
  • “Israel can hold Jewish identity for ransom”
  • “Zionist so-called immigration was from the beginning the expropriation of land, labour and resources”
  • “[Zionists] conspired to try and increase antisemitism in order to force Jews to Palestine”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Regulatory Enforcement Unit has also complained directly to SOAS, prompting an investigation.

A senior Scottish Rabbi has told MSPs at a meeting in the Scottish Parliament about an antisemitic attack on him in front of his family last month.

Rabbi Yossi Bodenheim,  the Jewish Chaplain for Scottish Universities, said that the incident occurred near the Scottish Parliament last month, when we was walking with his wife and children.

He said: “My wife and I took our four young children for a walk in this beautiful city. However, as we were walking, a woman pushed my wife aside, grabbed my kippah [Jewish skullcap], threw it on the ground and ran away. That took place less than a mile from here, in front of my young children. You can imagine how distressed they were.”

Nicola Livingston, Chair of the Jewish Student Chaplaincy Scotland, added: “I know the family were quite traumatised, it’s quite a difficult thing to speak about publicly, you don’t want to be seen as too vulnerable. The Scottish Government needs to condemn such incidents when they happen.”

Moving on to speak about antisemitism on Scottish campuses, Rabbi Bodenheim said: “Chessed is kindness, empathy and support for others. That hatred is the very opposite of chessed. As Scotland’s Jewish student chaplain, my role is to bring chessed to Jewish students and to make sure that they are comfortable on campus, whether it is ensuring their welfare, providing social and educational events, or just being a listening ear. I also have to help them cope with antisemitism, because unfortunately it is an issue on campus as well.”

In the past year, reports from Scotland have shown antisemitism gathering pace. One report found that  it was becoming relatively common for Scotland’s 5,887 Jews to keep their Judaism secret, and that many of the 400 Israelis living in Scotland hide their nationality and do not speak Hebrew in public. Noting that a growing number of Scottish Jews could name nothing positive about being a Jew in Scotland, the study reported that some Scottish Jews were considering leaving Scotland due to rising antisemitism. Some respondents told researchers that they had stopped attending synagogue services due to fear of antisemitism, were the victims of antisemitic jokes or social media posts and felt victimised for being Jewish. Jewish students in particular have reported a rise in antisemitism and statistics from Police Scotland have shown that Scottish Jews are bearing the brunt of racism online.

It is now barely a week since Labour’s Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, stood before a Labour Friends of Israel lunch and declared: “Let me say something before we get any further today about taking on antisemitism in the Labour Party: that’s a moral responsibility. I am ashamed that I am saying antisemitism and Labour in the same sentence. But dealing with it can’t be something we do for show, for the sake of it, because we’ve come under media pressure, or because we need to deal with a political problem. It’s a commandment. I know that people here are understandably frustrated by how long it’s taking the Labour Party to deal with antisemitism in our midst. You’re right to be. It should have been quicker. I know there are still some outstanding issues that cannot be ignored. They won’t be ignored. Action is being taken now and if, G-d forbid, we find these problems again, action will be quicker in the future.”

As if to publicly right what he seems to see as a wrong, the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has met with one Hatem Bazian: a founder and leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the pro-Islamist American Muslims for Palestine. The event, significantly, was Bazian’s book signing and was hosted by Press TV, the international television channel of the Iranian regime, by which Mr Corbyn has previously been paid as a presenter. The event was organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission Trust, organiser of an annual march through London brazenly supporting proscribed genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation Hizballah, which led Campaign Against Antisemitism to complain about the Trust to the Charity Commission, on which we await an outcome.

Bazian has allegedly quoted in public the infamous Haddith enshrined in the Hamas constitution: “The Day of Judgment will not happen until the trees and stones will say, ‘Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” His organisation has constantly breached the International Definition of Antisemitism, comparing Israelis to the Nazis and calling into question Israel’s very right to exist. Bazian himself is alleged to have raised money for Hamas, a genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation. This litany demonises Israel as the ‘Jew among nations’. He has publicly asked whether Jews should “have to pay reparations for slavery”

Bazian is credited with presenting his antisemitic movement as ‘progressive’ to a whole generation of students, yet SJP members have reportedly intimidated, harassed and even allegedly assaulted a Jewish student. Their demonstrations feature chants in support of terrorism targeting Israeli Jews.

Trust between the Jewish community of this country and the Labour Party is at an all-time low. The antisemites of the Oxford University Labour Club, Sir Gerald Kaufman MP, Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, and scores of others have still not been disciplined. The Chakrabarti report has drawn a veil over new cases of antisemitism. The cross-party House of Commons Home Affairs Committee  has issued a warning about antisemitism within the Labour Party and on university campuses. It therefore beggars belief that on Wednesday night Jeremy Corbyn chose to fête Hatem Bazain.

For a man who leads Her Majesty’s Opposition to take time out of his onerous schedule to meet Hatem Bazian in public, is unmistakable in its symbolism and signalling: the leopard not only does not change its spots, but is parading them for Tom Watson and the Jewish community to behold.

We still await a response to our complaint to Tom Watson about Jeremy Corbyn.

Neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine has been sentenced to an additional two years in prison for the racially-aggravated harassment of Jewish MP Luciana Berger. The two-year sentence is the maximum that Mr Justice Spencer was permitted to hand him. Yesterday Bonehill-Paine was unanimously convicted by a jury under Section 32 (1)(a) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. He is already serving a three year and four month sentence for trying to incite antisemitic demonstrations against the “Jewification” of parts of London, has been tried over the racially-aggravated harassment of Jewish MP Luciana Berger.

He will now remain in prison until at least April 2018, when he becomes eligible for release on licence.

Sentencing Bonehill-Paine, Mr Justice Spencer said: “In my judgment it is difficult to envisage a worse case than this of racially aggravated harassment of this kind…The message needs to go out loud and clear that racial hate crime, where the intention is to harass the victim, will be dealt with very severely, and deterrence must be an important element of the sentence…Joshua Bonehill-Paine, for this offence of racially aggravated harassment I sentence you to 2 years imprisonment. That sentence will run consecutively to the sentence you are currently serving.”

Joshua Bonehill-Paine conducted a vile campaign of harassment against Luciana Berger based exclusively on the fact that she is Jewish. In so doing, he abused her with many well-worn antisemitic tropes that have been employed across centuries to justify the persecution of Jews. These included the Jew as Christ killer, the Jew as sexually deviant, the Jew as vermin and the Jew as a grasping money-grabber. This verdict should stand as a warning to those currently riding the wave of resurgent antisemitism that this kind of hateful behaviour is criminal, and that it will be severely dealt with by the law.

The court found that Bonehill-Paine wrote five articles written between October 2014 and January 2015 in response to the jailing of neo-Nazi, Garron Helm. Helm had been convicted for tweeting 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. Though Helm pleaded guilty at his trial, Bonehill-Paine held Ms Berger to be responsible for his imprisonment, and believed that she should be targeted for this.

Prosecutor Philip Stott had told the court that Bonehill-Paine began his campaign of harassment with five articles with the headlines:

  • “Racist Anti-White Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger Exposed”
  • “Is the Labour Party a Jewish Party?”
  • “ZOG [Zionist Occupied Government] attacks The Daily Stormer in relation to successful Berger campaign”
  • “Joshua Bonehill: on the eve of battle”
  • “The Legacy of Operation Filthy Jew bitch”

All of the articles were published on two websites run by Bonehill-Paine and described Ms Berger as “a rodent”, an “evil money-grabber”, “a dominatrix”, and “responsible for the death of Jesus”. The articles also included photographs of Ms Berger’s face superimposed onto a rat, Ms Berger being spanked by Ed Milliband, Ms Berger cradling a baby bearing the head of Chukka Umana (she had recently given birth), and a sexually explicit picture which we will not describe here. One of the articles supported a campaign by The Daily Stormer which urged its readers to “Call her a Jew, call her a Jew communist, call her a terrorist, call her a filthy Jew bitch. Call her a hook-nosed yid and a ratfaced kike. Tell her we do not want her in the UK, we do not want her or any other Jew anywhere in Europe. Tell her to go to Israel and call for her deportation to said Jew state.” Three videos of Bonehill-Paine expounding on his ideas were also played to the jury, including one entitled “The Jewification of Great Britain”.

Mr Stott said that “Both the language and imagery deployed in these articles are strongly offensive” and told the jury that Bonehill-Paine claims the comments in the articles are reasonable and fall within the right to free speech. He said that the articles would have caused alarm to the Jewish community in general and to Ms Berger in particular.

Bonehill-Paine’s barrister, James Palfrey stated that his client did not mean his comments to be taken literally, and that they were “a puerile attempt at satire”. Mr Palfrey told Ms Berger that nobody would take seriously the claim that she had killed Jesus, or would believe that any of the images were really of her. He also told Ms Berger that she was not the intended audience for the articles.

Giving evidence, Ms Berger stated that the articles had left her “troubled and concerned” and “sickened”. The “military language” used by Bonehill-Paine and the encouragement of others to become involved in the campaign of harassment had left her more concerned for her personal safety than she had ever been since her election. She told the court that the articles had resulted in the implementation of safety measures.

In one farcical moment, Mr Palfrey, told the court that his client would not be giving evidence, to which Bonehill-Paine shouted from the dock that he would. In the event he did not testify, and Mr Stott told the court that he had failed to give evidence because he “can’t defend the indefensible”. Even Bonehill-Paine’s barrister agreed that he was simply a narcissist after recognition. Bonehill-Paine’s evidence would have been unlikely to sway the decision, as the case largely relied on archived web pages and videos, and the records from a laptop which police found hidden behind a board in Bonehill-Paine’s kitchen.

Ultimately, Bonehill-Paine stood little chance, damned by his own hand.

For the past three days, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a neo-Nazi who is already serving a three year and four month sentence for trying to incite antisemitic demonstrations against the “Jewification” of parts of London, has been tried over the racially-aggravated harassment of Jewish MP Luciana Berger.

Today he was convicted by a jury of racially-aggravated harassment under Section 32 (1)(a) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine conducted a vile campaign of harassment against Luciana Berger based exclusively on the fact that she is Jewish. In so doing, he abused her with many well-worn antisemitic tropes that have been employed across centuries to justify the persecution of Jews. These included the Jew as Christ killer, the Jew as sexually deviant, the Jew as vermin and the Jew as a grasping money-grabber. This verdict should stand as a warning to those currently riding the wave of resurgent antisemitism that this kind of hateful behaviour is criminal, and that it will be severely dealt with by the law.

The court found that Bonehill-Paine wrote five articles written between October 2014 and January 2015 in response to the jailing of neo-Nazi, Garron Helm. Helm had been convicted for tweeting 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. Though Helm pleaded guilty at his trial, Bonehill-Paine held Ms Berger to be responsible for his imprisonment, and believed that she should be targeted for this.

Prosecutor Philip Stott had told the court that Bonehill-Paine began his campaign of harassment with five articles with the headlines:

  • “Racist Anti-White Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger Exposed”
  • “Is the Labour Party a Jewish Party?”
  • “ZOG [Zionist Occupied Government] attacks The Daily Stormer in relation to successful Berger campaign”
  • “Joshua Bonehill: on the eve of battle”
  • “The Legacy of Operation Filthy Jew bitch”

All of the articles were published on two websites run by Bonehill-Paine and described Ms Berger as “a rodent”, an “evil money-grabber”, “a dominatrix”, and “responsible for the death of Jesus”. The articles also included photographs of Ms Berger’s face superimposed onto a rat, Ms Berger being spanked by Ed Milliband, Ms Berger cradling a baby bearing the head of Chukka Umana (she had recently given birth), and a sexually explicit picture which we will not describe here. One of the articles supported a campaign by The Daily Stormer which urged its readers to “Call her a Jew, call her a Jew communist, call her a terrorist, call her a filthy Jew bitch. Call her a hook-nosed yid and a ratfaced kike. Tell her we do not want her in the UK, we do not want her or any other Jew anywhere in Europe. Tell her to go to Israel and call for her deportation to said Jew state.” Three videos of Bonehill-Paine expounding on his ideas were also played to the jury, including one entitled “The Jewification of Great Britain”.

Mr Stott said that “Both the language and imagery deployed in these articles are strongly offensive” and told the jury that Bonehill-Paine claims the comments in the articles are reasonable and fall within the right to free speech. He said that the articles would have caused alarm to the Jewish community in general and to Ms Berger in particular.

Bonehill-Paine’s barrister, James Palfrey stated that his client did not mean his comments to be taken literally, and that they were “a puerile attempt at satire”. Mr Palfrey told Ms Berger that nobody would take seriously the claim that she had killed Jesus, or would believe that any of the images were really of her. He also told Ms Berger that she was not the intended audience for the articles.

Giving evidence, Ms Berger stated that the articles had left her “troubled and concerned” and “sickened”. The “military language” used by Bonehill-Paine and the encouragement of others to become involved in the campaign of harassment had left her more concerned for her personal safety than she had ever been since her election. She told the court that the articles had resulted in the implementation of safety measures.

In one farcical moment, Mr Palfrey, told the court that his client would not be giving evidence, to which Bonehill-Paine shouted from the dock that he would. In the event he did not testify, and Mr Stott told the court that he had failed to give evidence because he “can’t defend the indefensible”. Even Bonehill-Paine’s barrister agreed that he was simply a narcissist after recognition. Bonehill-Paine’s evidence would have been unlikely to sway the decision, as the case largely relied on archived web pages and videos, and the records from a laptop which police found hidden behind a board in Bonehill-Paine’s kitchen.

Ultimately, Bonehill-Paine stood little chance, damned by his own hand.

Payment processing firm Liberapay has frozen the account of neo-Nazi group National Action and promised to close it down after Campaign Against Antisemitism called for the company to “do the right thing”.

In an interview about National Action, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, told Byline Magazine’s Colin Cortbus: “The online donations platform, Liberapay has already refused to handle transactions for neo-Nazi news hub, The Daily Stormer. By continuing to process donations for National Action, it is enabling that group’s incitement of violence against the UK’s Jewish community. If National Action is proscribed under the Terrorism Act as we expect, Liberapay could soon find themselves on the wrong side of terrorism legislation. It’s not too late to do the right thing voluntarily.”

When Cortbus contacted Liberapay and its payment enabler, Mangopay, for comment, Mangopay decided to cease all transactions, leaving Liberapy to freeze and close down National Action’s accounts. Liberapay told Cortbus that it had not actually transferred donated funds to National Action yet, and would be returning donations to the donors rather than sending them to the neo-Nazi group.

We commend Liberapay and Mangopay for their action. Payment providers should not be enabling this growing neo-Nazi group to raise funds.

National Action radicalises and indoctrinates the young, teaches them violence, attacks the police and the public and demands a new Holocaust. Many of its activities are already criminal, but its members are not being prosecuted.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has asked the Home Secretary to proscribe National Action under section 3(3)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which would instantly render it a criminal offence to recruit for, be a member of, raise money for or in any way support National Action.

Last week, we released a video about National Action, and called on supporters to sign a petition adding their voices to our call for National Action to be proscribed.

 

The Charity Commission has published a report confirming that it will not punish Abdurraheem Green, the founder and Chairman of the Islamic Education and Research Academy over comments captured on video in which he demanded that a Jewish man be removed from his sight.

Green was recorded saying: “Why don’t you take the Yahoudi [Jew] over there, far away so his stench doesn’t disturb us?” The charity said that the comment was “aimed at a habitual heckler in Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner, in a highly charged forum of debate, who happened to be Jewish. It was not aimed at any community or meant to be antisemitic in any way. However, recognising that it could be misconstrued, he has apologised openly for such errors of judgement made more than 20 years ago.” The comment was referred to the Commission as part of a report by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

The Commission wrote in its report that it will not act over the incident because it found Green’s comments to have been made in a “personal capacity and not on behalf of the charity or at an event it organised,” though it did concede that the comments exposed the charity to risks.

For over a year, the Commission has been investigating cases referred to it by Campaign Against Antisemitism in which we have alleged serious misconduct and maladministration due to the promotion of antisemitism by the charities, but the Commission has yet to reach decisions.

This year the Commission sought and received new powers which it claimed would enable it to adopt a firmer regulatory stance.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is hiring an Operations Manager. Could you help us find the right candidate? Could it be you?

We have reached the point where we need an Operations Manager to coordinate our day-to-day work and help us to scale effectively.

Working closely with our volunteer directors and our various specialised units, the role of the Operationa Manager will be to ensure that antisemitism is punished, and to support our work with the media and the government.

For more details, please take a look at the full job description and application details.

You might also like to join the team as a volunteer, or donate towards our running costs.

A troubling new survey commissioned by the Policy Exchange think tank says that more British Muslims blame Jews for the 9/11 terrorist attacks than blame terrorists from Al Qaeda. The research, carried out by polling company ICM, claims that only 4% of British Muslims believe that Al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 atrocities, whereas 7% believe that “Jews” were to blame (52% of British Muslims said they did not know who conducted the attacks, and 31% thought the American government was behind the attacks).

The results are in sharp contrast with the beliefs of the general British population, 71% of which blames Al Qaeda and only 1% of which blames Jews (10% attributed the attacks to the American government and 16% did not know who did it).

The foreword to the report by Khalid Mahmood MP, noted: “So many British Muslims seem ready to entertain wild and outlandish conspiracy theories about the way the world works, believing that dark forces are at work to ‘do us down’ as Muslims. From the attacks of 9/11, down to the more recent conflict in Syria, too many people seem ready to believe that these events are being deliberately organised and manipulated — whether by the American Government, Jews, or some other force – with the express intention of damaging Muslims.”

The report pointed out that conspiracy theories were part of the “extremist worldview”. Focus groups carried out by ICM gave one reason for blaming Jews as being “the widely circulated, fraudulent claim that several thousand Jews failed to turn up for work on 11 September 2001, a sign that they had foreknowledge of the attack — and were therefore implicated in the crime.”

In April this year, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of ICM data produced for Channel 4 and Juniper Television showed that antisemitism is far more prevalent amongst British Muslims than amongst the rest of the British population.

Actress Miriam Margolyes has been caught on film appearing to suggest that “Jews and blacks” are stingy. The film, exposed by The Sun, shows Margolyes at an autograph signing event at which fans were charged £5 for a signed photograph with various stars. Some fans were taking photographs on their smartphones, prompting Margolyes, who appears in the Harry Potter films to jeer “can’t you afford five quid?” She then pointed at a black man and said: “Jews and blacks, they get a discount.”

A fan who filmed the incident said she thought Margolyes, who is Jewish “was being racist” and that she “singled out” and “humiliated” the black fan. It is unclear whether recognisably Jewish fans were also taking photographs. A spokesman for Margolyes told The Sun: “Miriam’s comments were made in jest and she would be mortified if anyone took offence.”

Last year, Margolyes said in an interview in The Telegraph that “nobody likes Jews”, blaming antisemitism on Israel. She explained: “People understandably and correctly associate Israel with Jews and Jews are killing people. Innocent people. And the Jewish community thinks it’s OK because they say that the Palestinians want to destroy Israel. And some of them do, that’s quite true, so they feel it’s alright to treat them in the way that they’re being treated. But I don’t think it is. I just can’t bear to see it.” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity” and “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

Merseyside Police have announced that they have arrested a 29-year-old man following an investigation into neo-Nazi signs found on lampposts and street signs in south Liverpool and Knowsley. The man, who is from the Childwall area, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of possession of racially inflammatory material which is intended or likely to stir up racial hatred and publishing or distributing written material which may stir up racial hatred. The man is currently in custody and will be interviewed by officers today. The maximum sentence for such crimes is 7 years’ imprisonment.

The stickers were placed on lampposts, doors and pelican crossings around Aigburth and other parts of south Liverpool and Knowsley on Remembrance Sunday last month. The stickers were branded by National Action, the violent neo-Nazi group and absurdly declared parts of Liverpool a “Nazi controlled zone”. Thames Valley Police has also confirmed that it is investigating an incident in which National Action has tried to claim territory after National Action stickers were been found declaring parts of Newbury to be a “White zone”, with a drawing of a man with his face covered making a Nazi salute.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has asked the Home Secretary to proscribe National Action under section 3(3)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which would instantly render it a criminal offence to recruit for, be a member of or in any way support National Action.

National Action is a growing neo-Nazi group in Britain. It radicalises and indoctrinates the young, teaches them violence, attacks the police and the public and demands a new Holocaust. Many of its activities are already criminal, but its members are not being prosecuted. Earlier this week, Campaign Against Antisemitism released a video about National Action, and called on supporters to sign a petition adding their voices to Campaign Against Antisemitism’s call for National Action to be proscribed.

There are now positive signs that proscription is nearing for this violent neo-Nazi organisation. If you have not already done so, please show your support by signing our petition and calling on your friends to do so too.

For the second time in a month, violent neo-Nazi group National Action has tried to claim territory. Last month, National Action absurdly declared parts of Liverpool a “Nazi controlled zone”. Now, National Action stickers have been found declaring parts of Newbury to be a “White zone”, with a drawing of a man with his face covered making a Nazi salute.

In a statement, Sergeant Holly Nicholls, of Newbury Police Station, said “Thames Valley Police has received a complaint from a member of the public. The offensive nature of the ‘white zone’ posters, in addition to the fact that they were fly-posted, led to the removal of the posters. If you witnessed anyone hanging these posters, see any posters of concern, or have information that will help our investigation, please call Thames Valley Police on 101 citing reference number 43160334514.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has asked the Home Secretary to proscribe National Action under section 3(3)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which would instantly render it a criminal offence to recruit for, be a member of or in any way support National Action.

National Action is a growing neo-Nazi group in Britain. It radicalises and indoctrinates the young, teaches them violence, attacks the police and the public and demands a new Holocaust. Many of its activities are already criminal, but its members are not being prosecuted. Earlier this week, Campaign Against Antisemitism released a video about National Action, and called on supporters to sign a petition adding their voices to Campaign Against Antisemitism’s call for National Action to be proscribed.

There are now positive signs that proscription is nearing for this violent neo-Nazi organisation. If you have not already done so, please show your support by signing our petition and calling on your friends to do so too.

Animal rights activists calling themselves the “East London Chicken Save” have accused non-vegan Jews of perpetrating a “Kosher Holocaust”, storming a kosher slaughterhouse and daubing it and the road outside with graffiti including “Stop the Holocaust” and “Kosher Holocaust” along with a Star of David.

Following an initial peaceful protest at the Kedassia abattoir in Hackney Wick, the activists returned, forcing their way through the gate and shouting “F***ing bastards” at the staff, who they accused of “helping to kill babies”.

Accusing Jews of perpetrating a Holocaust is hateful and offensive. Six million Jewish men, women and children were brutally murdered by the Nazis. The kosher food industry slaughters less than 0.2% of the 760 million chickens killed in the UK each year. The targeting of a kosher slaughterhouse along with the use of this outrageous language gives reason for serious concerns about the motivations of these activists.

chicken-save-2

National Action is a growing neo-Nazi group in Britain. It radicalises and indoctrinates the young, teaches them violence, attacks the police and the public and demands a new Holocaust.

Many of its activities are already criminal, but its members are not being prosecuted.

Under section 3(3)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary can issue an Order adding National Action to the list of Proscribed Organisations, which would instantly render it a criminal offence to recruit for, be a member of or in any way support National Action.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has asked the Home Secretary to proscribe National Action under the Terrorism Act.

Add your voice at antisemitism.org/petition.

Fans of Chelsea Football Club have defied a warning from their own club, and have been filmed singing crude antisemitic chants whilst riding the London Underground. According to footage provided to the Daily Mirror, Chelsea fans chanted “I’ve got a foreskin, haven’t you? F***ing Jew!” The supporters can be seen singing both on the train and as they walk through a station.

The antisemitic chanting follows a match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, at which Chelsea specifically warned that if any of their supporters engaged in antisemitic abuse, the club would seek to identify them and report them to the police.

Following the conviction of a Chelsea fan earlier this month, we are hopeful that the club will repeat its success in this case too.

Last month, a protest at UCL became violent and intimidatory. Protesters against the presence of an Israeli speaker at the university surrounded a room full of predominantly Jewish students, allegedly assaulted three female students, and even jumped through a window to confront the terrified audience. Campaign Against Antisemitism then found antisemitic tweets by one of the ringleaders of the protest, which we reported to the university and the police.

Now, Campaign Against Antisemitism and UCL’s Jewish Society are holding a public meeting at UCL on 30th November at 19:00 at which Campaign Against Antisemitism Chairman, Gideon Falter, will talk about the relationship between antisemitism on campus and anti-Israel activism.

Please book your free place by entering your details:

On 16th November, a Jewish member of the public contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism after entering Nin Com Soup at Old Street Tube Station in London, only to discover among the smoothies on offer one called “Nutzy”, emblazoned with a swastika.

She told us: “I entered the coffee shop Nin Com Soup in Old Street Tube Station to get a drink. In their fridge they had various smoothies, each with a big number on them to differentiate the flavours. One drink didn’t have a number but a large swastika, and the label said it was called ‘Nutzy’. I went to the staff at the counter to discuss this and they called their manager.

“He explained that it was an inverted swastika which was a Hindu symbol of health and prosperity, which is indeed right but the swastika was not inverted, and the Hindu sign includes dots within the symbol. When I asked about the name of the drink, he said it was a play on ‘having the nuts’, meaning ‘having the courage’ and was a pun as the drink contains nuts. I told him how offensive that was for certain people. He asked why I would find that so offensive, to which I responded that I lost my family to the Nazi regime and that despite the Hindu use of the symbol, this along with the name of the drink was extremely offensive. He said that London is a free city.

“I left the shop almost in tears and shivering as it proved to me how much antisemitism and fascism is still utterly present. That man had no shame whatsoever to tell me that I should not be offended by what I saw, when the use of the swastika and the name of that drink is clearly not a coincidence.”

The next day and the day after, Campaign Against Antisemitism sent volunteers from our investigations team to the shop and found that “Nutzy” was still listed, but out of stock. The following Monday, we found that, “Nutzy” was back in stock, but the swastika had bizarrely been replaced with an image of the Pope waving.

It beggars belief that this shop created a Nazi-branded drink by unwitting coincidence. The Nazis murdered six million Jewish men, women and children during the Second World War as well as almost half a million people from Britain alone in the most devastating war and genocide ever committed. It was unavoidable that this would be immensely offensive to Jewish people and anyone who lost members of their family to Nazi brutality.

Mockery of the Holocaust is not a criminal offence in and of itself, and so our only options were to contact the shop’s landlord, Transport for London, and the media, following which the drink has been removed from sale.

Antisemitic graffiti was found in Aberdeen on Viewfield Road opposite Gordon Highlanders, close to the venue of the Shalom Festival which celebrates Israeli culture.

The graffiti shows as Star of David and the number 666, described as the “number of the beast” in the Textus Receptus manuscripts of the Christian bible’s Book of Revelation. Alongside the graffiti is the shorthand “M2S” which is sometimes used to mean “Menace to society”.

The police have been informed and Aberdeen City Council has removed the graffiti.

Three Jewish students have accused Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge of covering up an extremely severe antisemitic incident.

The College said it has 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 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 sporting societies of Christ’s College.

One of the victims, Shlomo Roiter-Jesner, 25, told The Telegraph: “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.

On November 18, Mr Roiter-Jesner received an e-mail from Professor Stapleton merely informing him: “The internal disciplinary process of the tutors is now concluded and two students have been disciplined. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is in contact with the victims as it appears that crimes were committed, which should be investigated by the police.

 

Chelsea Football Club has warned fans not to engage in antisemitic abuse when the team plays Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow. The warning comes after Chelsea fan Fabian Richardson was banned from football grounds for three years and ordered to pay £365 after making 13 Nazi salutes in 15 minutes. Richardson was convicted after being identified by Chelsea.

In a statement ahead of Saturday’s match, Chelsea Football Club said: “A small minority continues to tar this derby with abhorrent antisemitic abuse. It was an isolated incident at last season’s corresponding fixture in May, but an individual who made Nazi-style salutes during the game was reported by a supporter who was able to remain anonymous. Chelsea FC worked with the police to identify the culprit who was recently found guilty in court and received a three-year football banning order and was banned by the club indefinitely. This is a clear example of our belief such behaviour has no place in our stadium or society and of our zero tolerance approach.”

The statement continued: “We encourage reports to be made, we have a sophisticated CCTV system and work with the police to take prompt action on all hate crime. If you hear discriminatory chants during the match, report it to a police officer or steward, or text anonymously to 07894 937 793. Please note the stand, row and seat number of the person, as well as their appearance, height and build.”

We commend Chelsea Football Club for its stance, and for taking robust action against antisemites in conjunction with the police.

Antisemitic graffiti has been found in Southwick in West Sussex. Journalist James Lillywhite came across the graffiti and tweeted: “It takes a lot to shock me, but this extremely racist and antisemitic graffiti in #Southwick is very offensive and worrying”.

The graffiti feature a caricature of a Jew with a huge nose, says that “[Jews] did 9/11” and “Jews r evill [sic]”. The graffiti is accompanied by what appears to be “Odin’s Cross”, a white supremacist symbol.

Mr Lillywhite has contacted Sussex Police and the local Council so that the incident can be investigated and the graffiti can be removed.

David Irving, the convicted Holocaust denier who has been banned from several countries, has reportedly to the Jewish Telegraph in an e-mail: “I have led groups of international tourists to the sites where the Holocaust really occurred in Latvia and Poland (like Sobibór, Treblinka and Belzec). But then Britain’s Jewish guests objected even to those tours. They are some hard-to-please people.” When we asked Irving to elaborate on ‘Britain’s Jewish guests’ comments, he reportedly responded: “The non-British Jews arrived in the years before 1938 and settled here,” refusing to comment further.

David Irving’s tour will visit 21 venues, but the exact locations will only be revealed to vetted ticket-buyers.

In 2002, David Irving was bankrupted after unsuccessfully suing historian Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher for libel, after she called him a Holocaust denier, a racist and a bigot in her book.  Lipstadt told the Jewish Telegraph: “As Anthony Julius said to me during my legal battle, ‘fighting David Irving is like the s*** you step in on the street — it has no intrinsic importance unless you fail to clean it off your feet and you bring it into your home’. He will preach to his small choir who are convinced and will remain convinced of the rectitude of his position.”

In its ruling on Irving’s libel lawsuit, the court found that Irving was an active Holocaust denier, antisemite, and racist, who “for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence” to distort the history of Adolf Hitler’s role in the Holocaust to depict Hitler in a favourable light.

Irving has a long history of the most vile Holocaust denial. For example, in October 1991 Irving told a conference to ridicule Holocaust survivors, and then added: “Ridicule alone isn’t enough, you’ve got to be tasteless about it. You’ve got to say things like ‘More women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.’ Now you think that’s tasteless, what about this? I’m forming an association especially dedicated to all these liars, the ones who try and kid people that they were in these concentration camps, it’s called the Auschwitz Survivors, Survivors of the Holocaust and Other Liars, ‘ASSHOLs’. Can’t get more tasteless than that, but you’ve got to be tasteless because these people deserve our contempt.”

Irving’s humiliating defeat by Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher is the subject of a new film starring Rachel Weisz, Andrew Scott and Timothy Spall due to be released in Britain in January.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has commended Sussex Police for correcting a mishandled complaint which we reported to the force.

Mr Lev Eakins, a Sussex resident, believed that a recent letter by Baroness Tonge had crossed the threshold of criminal incitement. Within hours of making his report to Sussex Police, he received an e-mail from a contact handler stating that the messages were “pro Jews, not anti-Jews as you suggest.”

In addition to displaying a disappointing level of ignorance as to the nature of post-Holocaust antisemitism, the officer had failed to apply the Macpherson Principle, as recommended in the findings from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. This requires police forces to treat incidents as racist if the incident “is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.” All of the UK’s police forces have adopted the Macpherson principle.

After being contacted by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Sussex Police swiftly launched an investigation into the incident, which resulted in appropriate disciplinary action, education and a reaffirmation of the importance of the Macpherson principle when dealing with complaints of racial hatred.

All too often, the general public encounters resistance when reporting antisemitic incidents to the authorities. It is gratifying to see that Sussex Police takes these matters seriously, and that it is committed to ensuring its officers are equipped to respond appropriately.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Programme Manager, Ben, was attacked on Wednesday evening whilst passing through Coventry on a nationwide mission to help students deal with antisemitism on campus.

At approximately 20:00, a man aged 40-50 with a shaved head and dressed smartly in a coat and tie, accosted Ben as he passed the ruins of Coventry’s famous cathedral which was bombed during the Second World War.

The man, who appeared to be drunk, asked Ben, who wears a kippah (Jewish skullcap) whether he was Jewish, which Ben confirmed he was. The man followed Ben, saying that he was a Catholic, and Jews do not belong near a cathedral. The man demanded that Ben “go back where you’re from”, to which Ben replied that he is from England. The man asked “How would you like it if I went to your places?” Ben told him he would be very welcome to visit.

The man then swung his arm at Ben, grabbing his hand and refusing to release it. Ben used this to keep the man at arm’s length as he continued to swing violently, repeating several times that this is Britain and he is British, adding “You shouldn’t be here, you don’t belong.”

After succeeding in knocking Ben’s kippah from his head, he told him to “have a good night” and ran away.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Crime Unit is in touch with West Midlands Police, however it is not currently believed that the incident was caught on CCTV and this will likely be yet another case in which a recognisably Jewish person is assaulted whilst the perpetrator goes unpunished. Ben is shaken but otherwise fine.

86-year-old Herminio Martinez has been convicted for racially aggravated threatening behaviour after launching into an antisemitic tirade on 8th February following a city planning meeting at which Jewish businessmen were permitted to construct a block of flats.

Property developers Michael and Joseph Gerrard were leaving the city planning at Haringey Civic Centre when Mr Martinez, who had opposed the planning application, called Michael Gerrard “Shylock”, a reference to the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice who famously demands a “pound of flesh” in settlement of a debt.

Mr Martinez denied the offence, but the magistrates convicted him on the basis of video footage of the aftermath of the incident filmed on a smartphone, handing him a 12-month conditional discharge and ordering him to pay £625 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

We commend the victims for taking action to ensure that this racist was punished.

Regrettably such convictions are rare due to reluctance on the part of the Crown Prosecution Service to take action against antisemites. While 2015 saw the worst level of antisemitic hate crime on record, we only know of 12 cases of antisemitic hate crime that the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted, out of a total of 15,442 hate crimes prosecuted that year.

A group of Jewish people, including children, gathered outside a synagogue on a major shopping street in Hendon have been subjected to antisemitic abuse. The incident took place at 14:50 today, when a car suddenly stopped outside the synagogue where a celebration had just taken place. The driver, descried as a white male in his mid-late twenties reportedly shouted “F*** Jewish, f*** Jewish, Heil Hitler” and performed Nazi salutes. Some reports say that a passenger in the car may have joined in.

Hendon is home to a large Jewish community, and Brent Street, where the incident took place, is a hub for the local community, as the home to many kosher shops and restaurants.

Once again, the most easily identifiable members of the Jewish community have been targeted for abuse on the streets of London. Saluting Adolf Hitler is sickening behaviour, chosen with the specific intent of wounding the victim in the most hurtful way possible. It must be met with the full force of the law. On Remembrance Sunday we commemorated the sacrifice made by so many brave man and women to protect our country from the Nazis, and the fact that the far-Right is regaining its foothold in this country betrays their memory.

Shomrim North West London, a volunteer-run Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, is seeking witnesses to the incident and can be contacted on 0300 999 1234. Alternatively, please call the police on 101, citing CAD reference 4948 14/11/2016.

Neo-Nazis from National Action have marked Remembrance Sunday by declaring Liverpool a “Nazi controlled zone”.

National Action is an antisemitic neo-Nazi organisation which tries to propagate fascist ideology and sees as its role models some of the most hideous figures in history. The group’s purpose is incitement to racial and religious hatred and its activities range from vandalism to violence. This group is not a dying vestige of British neo-Nazism but a new, young movement whose stunts are brazenly criminal.

Earlier this year a group of neo-Nazis from “National Action” paraded in the centre of Newcastle at the foot of Grey’s Monument with a “Hitler was right” banner. Members of the group performed Nazi salutes in the centre of the square. Some local people remonstrated with them but at least one onlooker returned their Nazi salute. When a musician in the square attempted to play saxophone music, one of the neo-Nazis violently attacked him.

The group previously attempted to demonstrate in Liverpool in August and September 2015, causing widespread public disorder and the cancellation of their demonstrations, with the group humiliated in August when they were unable to leave Liverpool Central train station. They then returned unannounced in November 2015 and delivered short speeches outside various public buildings and monuments in Liverpool, including speeches against Jews saying that: “Jews don’t care about me. They don’t care about you. They don’t care about any of us. All they care about is money and power.” Their video of the event contained additional antisemitic graphics and quoted from Adolf Hitler’s antisemitic diatribe, Mein Kampf. There have been no arrests.

In June 2015, “National Action” filmed themselves desecrating a menorah in Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park by spraying graffiti and hanging a Nazi flag from it. There have been no arrests.

It is high time that the leaders of National Action and its adherents were charged with the crimes that they are committing. We are in touch with the Home Office to discuss this latest incident.

National Action attack busker in Newcastle, January 2016

National Action corralled in train station in Liverpool, August 2015

Residents of Alkham Road in North London awoke this morning to find that their vehicles, parked near a Jewish girls’ school, had been daubed with swastikas. The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating.

Last year, Shomrim Stamford Hill, the volunteer-run Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, found multiple instances of vehicles being vandalised with swastikas and having their tyres slashed.

Last month, a protest at UCL became violent and intimidatory. Protesters against the presence of an Israeli speaker at the university surrounded a room full of predominantly Jewish students, allegedly assaulted three female students, and even jumped through a window to confront the terrified audience. Campaign Against Antisemitism then found antisemitic tweets by one of the ringleaders of the protest, which we reported to the university and the police.

Now, Campaign Against Antisemitism and UCL’s Jewish Society are holding a public meeting at UCL on 30th November at 19:00 (please note the change of date) at which Campaign Against Antisemitism Chairman, Gideon Falter, will talk about the relationship between antisemitism on campus and anti-Israel activism.

Please book your free place by entering your details:

Calling all lawyers and paralegals, our Investigations and Enforcement Directorate needs your expertise to help us pursue criminal, professional and regulatory sanctions for antisemitism. We need your legal skills, but you do not need any experience of criminal, employment or regulatory law.

We are holding a special recruitment evening in Central London on 21st November. Please sign up by entering your details at antisemitism.org/volunteer. If you know lawyers or paralegals who might be interested, please send them a link to this page!

The Home Office has yet again failed to prevent a vehemently antisemitic neo-Nazi band from entering the country, despite receiving ample warning from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Some of Legion Twierdzy Wrocław’s songs are intrinsically antisemitic, Przetrwać by Zwyciężyć, appears to use coded neo-Nazi language to call for the annihilation of the Jewish People: “I will not rest until the vanishing of the whole tribe, the Khazars [a coded euphemism for Jews], The war lasts for generations. The flame that does not go out…My Aryan Homeland”. The band also uses the Auschwitz death camp entrance gate slogan “Arbeit macht frei” on its Facebook page, which is also filled with photographs of and information about the Nazis. The band also repeatedly uses a coded number, 1488, which means “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. Heil Hitler.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism was alerted to Legion Twierdzy Wroclaw’s gig by journalist Colin Cortbus, an expert on the far-Right. We immediately made representations to the Home Office, calling on the band to be banned from entering the country, and the Metropolitan Police Service.

The band has now posted on its Facebook page that it played in London and will be “back soon”.

The band is believed to be part of the dangerous international neo-Nazi “Blood and Honour” network which recently organised a weekend rave in Cambridgeshire which attracted neo-Nazis from all over Europe. Attendees performed Nazi salutes in response to calls of “Sieg Heil” from the stage and sported swastikas, including a Union Jack superimposed with a swastika. Vehemently antisemitic songs were performed, including “Once a nation, now we’re run by Jews” before declaring: “It’s time we drove out the traitors” — clear criminal incitement to racial hatred.

The far-Right was once considered a spent force in Britain but for some years it has been re-establishing its foothold, aided by neo-Nazi and fascist organisations across Europe and the United States. British neo-Nazis must not be allowed to gain strength through links with foreign neo-Nazi groups.

It is horrifying that neo-Nazi bands are repeatedly being allowed by the Home Office to enter the country. This neo-Nazi incitement is dangerous and threatens the safety of British Jews. We will be taking this up with the Government.

Fabian Richardson, a fan of Chelsea Football Club, has reportedly been banned from football matches for three years after making a series of Nazi salutes during a game against Tottenham Hotspur Football Club at Chelsea’s home ground in May.

Richardson admitted religiously aggravated harassment after being caught making 13 Nazi salutes in 15 minutes, however at first he claimed that he was waving at friends, saying: “I’m not a racist, I was just an idiot.”

Robert Simpson, prosecuting, said: “It was the Chelsea-Tottenham game, and the defendant was seen by members of the public doing a Nazi salute towards the Tottenham fans. A photograph was placed on a forum of Kick It Out, and he was identified by Chelsea Football Club. He had his arm out at a 90 degree angle in a Nazi salute. He did this 13 times in 15 minutes. Asked in interview by police he said he didn’t know what it was, and asked if he had seen it in war films he said he didn’t think so. He told them he was waving to friends but couldn’t name any.”

Richardson has been handed a three-year football banning order, meaning he cannot attend any football matches in the UK, and must surrender his passport when the England’s national team play abroad. Additionally he was handed a £250 fine, ordered to pay £85 costs, and a witness tax of £30. His season ticket was also suspended.

District Judge Mike Snow addressed comments to 21-year-old Richardson directly, saying: “You didn’t grow up during the dark period of football in the 70s and 80s. During that time football matches were marred by abusive violence and language. We can’t slip back into that period. You and I both know that Tottenham and Chelsea is one of the feistiest matches of the season. We both know, in reality, that Tottenham is a club associated with the Jewish faith. You and I both know those fans are regularly the subject of abuse based on that presumption.”

Sadly antisemitic gestures and chants are still far too common at many football matches, so we commend Chelsea Football Club for identifying this criminal and taking action. Fabian Richardson has now been deprived of his passion for football, any employer will see his criminal record, and anybody searching his name on the internet will see that he engaged in such revolting antisemitic conduct. We applaud the police, Prosecutor Robert Simpson and District Judge Mike Snow for taking firm action in this case.

Regrettably such convictions are rare due to reluctance on the part of the Crown Prosecution Service to take action against antisemites. While 2015 saw the worst level of antisemitic hate crime on record, we only know of 12 cases of antisemitic hate crime that the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted, out of a total of 15,442 hate crimes prosecuted that year.

Last Thursday, the Palestine Society at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) organised a lecture by Thomas Suarez to promote his book, “State of Terror”. Throughout the lecture, antisemitic comments were made which SOAS Palestine Society failed to challenge.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit (DEMU) found that during the lecture, it was claimed that Zionists are mobilising subversive power to “outlaw” criticism of their activities, the creation of Israel was a “racist”, “facist” endeavour, the actions of Zionists and Israel are comparable to those of Nazi Germany, and Zionists historically radicalised Jewish children and engineered increases in antisemitism, all of which is antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The only intervention by SOAS Palestine Society was to threaten to “call security” when they became suspicious that a woman was recording the lecture.

Citing recent findings of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee and a recent decision of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, Campaign Against Antisemitism is filing a complaint with SOAS alleging multiple breaches of its “Core Values” and “Student Charter”.

The letter drew SOAS Director Baroness Amos’ attention to various parts of the lecture including the following quotations:

  • “Zionists are so terrified of daylight on their cult, that there are moves afoot to outlaw any derogatory reference of the word”
  • “The wildcard to this is the US participation in World War I. Even at the time, some people alleged that Palestine was payback for the use of Zionist pressure to get the United States to enter World War I. There is no proof of that. What is clear in Cabinet records is that there was something going on with World War I, with Zionists in the United States and the US entering. That is clear in the records, but to go so far as to say there was a deal made with that is not a premise.”
  • “the idea of going somewhere where one could act out racial superiority was seductive”
  • “Israel has one of the largest militaries, but its most powerful weapon, the weapon without which all of its others would be impotent is its narrative, its creation of its autobiography. This narrative does not merely put a pretty gloss on this reality, as all nations have their narratives, it actually turns the truth upside down. And this complete arsenal in this narrative is embodied in a three-word bullet. That bullet is a three-word phrase: ‘The Jewish state’. This is a unique phenomenon in the World. No other nation has such a device as this. Israel does not use Judaism as a national religion. In fact, I may be wrong, but as far as I am aware, Judaism is not a national faith of Israel. Rather, crammed into those three words are all of Jewry, Judaism, Jewish history, culture, persecution, and most cynical and exploitative of all, the Holocaust. This three-word phrase expropriates all of these into a human shield.”
  • “The fascist nature of the Zionist enterprise was apparent to US intelligence, British intelligence and Jewish informants.”
  • “The radicalisation of children was the methodology of the Jewish Agency.”
  • “Zionism was a parallel movement to Nazism”
  • “Israel can hold Jewish identity for ransom”
  • “Zionist so-called immigration was from the beginning the expropriation of land, labour and resources”
  • “[Zionists] conspired to try and increase antisemitism in order to force Jews to Palestine”

The complaint, drafted by Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Regulatory Enforcement Unit concludes: “Baroness Amos, Jewish students are currently feeling threatened and isolated, not only at SOAS but at universities around the country. SOAS has the opportunity and the obligation to show in the firmest possible manner that those who engage in antisemitism at the School will suffer dire consequences for their actions, and that those who belittle or tolerate antisemitism will similarly be shown no quarter. SOAS is sometimes referred to in the Jewish community as the ‘School of Antisemitism’. We hope that by your actions you will demonstrate that this reputation is no longer deserved.”

According to an article posted by a Facebook group for UK Independence Party (UKIP) supporters, Jews are conspiring to subvert British democracy and engage in “treason” by undermining ‘Brexit’, Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Posted by ‘The UKIP Society’ Facebook page as a “very interesting observation”, the article attempts to expose a Jewish conspiracy by highlighting the people involved in Thursday’s High Court decision against the Government’s proposed Brexit process whom the author suspects of having Jewish heritage.

The post has been shared dozens of times, including by the ‘UKIP Hertford and Stortford’ Facebook page, and has attracted appalling antisemitic comments.

Facebook user ‘Darren Brown’ observed: “Rothschild. Soros. Rockefeller. Warburg. Du Pont. Morgan. ALL JEWS. ALL central banks are owned by Jews. It isn’t a coincidence they run the world.” Facebook user ‘Theresa Guilfoyle’ added: “No doubt. Rothschilds and rich bankers right behind it.”

Facebook user ‘Sue Thorpe’ complained: “Who else is going to poke their nose into our business? After what we did for the Jews during WWII they have a short memory! Just leave us alone to get on with our own lives!”

Facebook user ‘Maggie Tucker’ was sceptical that Jews oppose “British rule” but added “Mind you these Jews are all wealthy and that makes a difference now as in the past.”

Facebook user ‘Peter Baker’ earned a number of likes with his comment: “Tell the to keep their big noses out it’s not their business.”

Facebook user ‘Fred Matthews’ echoed Nazi propaganda, simply writing “Parasites”. ‘Jim Dunn’ contributed his solution: “Open up Hitler’s gas chambers the Jews know the way in”.

Facebook user ‘Nik Schofield’ was so outraged that he wrote: “Zionist c**ts these are the worst ya dont have to be Jew to be Zionist but all Zionists are Jews end of”.

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.

The post was found by Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Everyday Antisemitism project, and has now been referred to our Online Monitoring and Investigations Unit, our Political and Government Investigations Unit, and our Crime Unit, all of which are run by volunteers.

A Jewish man has said that a passerby “deliberately tripped” him, called him a “Jew” and a “four by two” (Cockney rhyming slang for a Jew) and told him that he knew where he lived. The incident took place yesterday afternoon at around 15:00 in Stanmore in London. The victim said he was walking down the road when another man tripped him up. He then challenged him and began filming with his smartphone. The man can be heard on video being calmly abusive and threatening before telling the victim to “go f*** yourself”. The victim told the JC: “I was stunned and saddened that there is still this undercurrent of antisemitism in existence today.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is trying to contact the victim through the JC but would appreciate it if any of our supporters could get in contact if they know either the victim or the man shown in this video. We will also be discussing the case with the Metropolitan Police Service.

Polish neo-Nazi band Legion Twierdzy Wroclaw is set to enter the United Kingdom and play at least one gig in London. Campaign Against Antisemitism has alerted the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police Service, requesting that the band be prevented from entering the country. The gig is currently due to go ahead on Saturday night in Dagenham, under the name of “United Skinheads”, which appears to be a name made up especially for the event.

The band is believed to be part of the dangerous international neo-Nazi “Blood and Honour” network which recently organised a weekend rave in Cambridgeshire which attracted neo-Nazis from all over Europe. Attendees performed Nazi salutes in response to calls of “Sieg Heil” from the stage and sported swastikas, including a Union Jack superimposed with a swastika. Vehemently antisemitic songs were performed, including “Once a nation, now we’re run by Jews” before declaring: “It’s time we drove out the traitors” — clear criminal incitement to racial hatred.

Campaign Against Antisemitism was alerted to Legion Twierdzy Wroclaw’s gig by journalist Colin Cortbus, an expert on the far-Right. We immediately made representations to the Home Office, calling on the band to be banned from entering the country, and the Metropolitan Police Service.

The band’s music is intrinsically antisemitic. For example, Cortbus reports that one of their songs, Przetrwać by Zwyciężyć, appears to use coded neo-Nazi language to call for the anihiliation of the Jewish People: “I will not rest until the vanishing of the whole tribe, the Khazars [a coded euphemism for Jews], The war lasts for generations. The flame that does not go out…My Aryan Homeland”.

Cortbus has also found that Legion Twierdzy Wroclaw used Auschwitz death camp entrance gate slogan “Arbeit macht frei” on its Facebook page, which is also filled with photographs of and information about the Nazis. The band also uses a coded number, 1488, which means “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. Heil Hitler.”

The far-Right was once considered a spent force in Britain but for some years it has been re-establishing its foothold, aided by neo-Nazi and fascist organisations across Europe and the United States. British neo-Nazis must not be allowed to gain strength through links with foreign neo-Nazi groups, and we are making very clear our demand that existing rules should be enforced to ban neo-Nazi groups from entering the country.

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has condemned Sheffield Hallam University for failing to properly address a Jewish student’s complaint about antisemitism, and has ordered the university to pay him compensation of £3,000.

The student made a formal complaint to the university over its tolerance of anti-Israel activity that crossed the line into antisemitism and harassment, including tweets and Facebook posts by the university’s Palestine Society reportedly comparing Bethlehem to the Warsaw Ghetto and “Zionists” to Nazi criminals, and accusing Israel of harvesting the organs of Palestinian civilians. After deliberating for nearly nine months, the university comprehensively rejected the complaint, but the student took his case to the OIA.

The OIA strongly criticised the university’s handling of the complaint and found that the Palestine Society’s activity did cause him distress and inconvenience. The OIA cited the International Definition of Antisemitism which states that “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

In a highly-significant move, the OIA reportedly described the definition as being “of particular relevance” and said the university should have engaged with the complainant’s request that it formally adopt the definition. The recognition by the OIA of the International Definition of Antisemitism in accordance with calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, and others sets an important precedent.

The university has been ordered to pay compensation of £3,000 to the student, review its policies and work with the students’ union to ensure complaints are dealt with fairly, and raise awareness across campus of the legal framework governing freedom of speech and the university’s responsibility to ensure that staff, students and others are “protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.”

We commend the student for making the complaint, and solicitor David Lewis and lecturer Lesley Klaff for assisting him. The precedent set by this decision will help Jewish students who are harassed and victimised by antisemites claiming merely to be critical of Israel. If you know of anybody who has suffered from antisemitic harassment, please contact us.

A passenger on a tram in Manchester has been filmed delivering a tirade of abuse at fellow passengers, during which he told a Jewish man: “Why don’t you f*** of where you come from?”

After boarding the busy tram at Market Street, he was captured on film by another passenger before he disembarked at Abraham Moss in Crumpsall. Greater Manchester Police are treating the incident as a hate crime.

Transport for Greater Manchester’s Metrolink Director, Peter Cushing, told The Mirror: “This type of behaviour has no place on Metrolink or anywhere else. We won’t stand for it and neither will our customers. We will work with Greater Manchester Police and share CCTV footage to help try and identify the individual.”

Last week, Baroness Tonge finally stepped down after the Liberal Democrats suspended her over yet another antisemitism crisis of her own making. This time, she had hosted an event at the House of Lords organised by the Palestine Return Centre (PRC) at which Jews were blamed for the Holocaust. The PRC were the very same hosts of a Parliamentary event last year at which Sir Gerald Kaufmann MP claimed that “Jewish money” controlled British politicians.

It has now emerged that in 2009, Jeremy Corbyn accepted a trip to Syria at the PRC’s expense, along with Baroness Tonge, to greet and praise the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In writing an account of the trip, he repeated a worn antisemitic conspiracy myth, in declaring that “the Israeli tail wags the US dog”, as well as characterising the Balfour declaration as “infamous”.

Mr Corbyn repeatedly claims that he “condemns antisemitism” yet he fails to act against it, and even normalises it. That was the finding of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report into antisemitism, which criticises Mr Corbyn directly and makes clear that under his leadership the Labour Party has not done enough to stem a flood of antisemitism amongst its supporters. The report demonstrates that at the very heart of Mr Corbyn’s politics lies a deep and profound denial of the nature of post-Holocaust antisemitism, reflected in his disavowal of the International Definition of Antisemitism, a definition that the Committee itself recommended be formally endorsed by the Government and all political parties.

The International Definition of Antisemitism incorporates a necessary understanding of the antisemitism of the period since the Holocaust in which Islamism and the far-Left from which Mr Corbyn hails have played a well-documented part. By making his claim that an Israeli tail controls the United States dog, Mr Corbyn is guilty, in the terms of the International Definition, of “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.”

The denial at the heart of the Labour Party’s antisemitism problem is embodied by Mr Corbyn. He can repeat indefinitely his assertion that he condemns antisemitism, but until he acknowledges its recent history, and accepts the definition endorsed by historians, governments, our Police and his parliamentary peers, he will continue to expose himself as a man supporting notions that are increasingly exposing British Jews to persecution.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has referred the leader of a ‘violent’ protest at UCL last week to the Metropolitan Police Service and UCL over antisemitic tweets which have come to light.

The protest last Thursday against the presence of an Israeli speaker at the university reportedly resulted in three female students being assaulted, whilst protesters surrounded and trapped attendees despite efforts by university security and police to separate them from the protesters. At one point protesters jumped through a window to confront the terrified audience of predominantly Jewish students.

Now, Campaign Against Antisemitism has contacted the police and the university regarding security at the event, the conduct of the protesters, and in particular their leader, UCLU Friends of Palestine Society President Yahya Abu Seido. Though Abu Seido’s Twitter account is protected, CAA has obtained tweets stating that:

  • “ISIS serves Israel”
  • The media is “Zionist”
  • “Zionists own the economy”
  • Israel should be destroyed
  • Israel is pursuing “Nazism”
  • “Little Israeli girls get brave on Twitter”

Several of the tweets are antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

CAA has also seen video footage appearing to show Abu Seido at the protest saying: “I hope you guys will think twice now next time you think about coming here.”

In a letter to UCL’s Provost, Professor Arthur, Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism called on him to take firm disciplinary action, writing: “The nature of the protest was intimidatory from the outset, and there is no question that attendees were terrified by the large mob of protesters seeking to surround and trap them.

“Footage of the protesters shows their leader telling attendees at the event: ‘I hope you guys will think twice now next time you think about coming here.’ Whereas criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, this protest was not criticism but part of a deliberate campaign of harassment and bullying, whose targets are overwhelmingly Jewish students. If reports that three female students were assaulted by the protesters are true, then that is a very serious matter, and the perpetrators must be expelled if they are found to be students.

“Jewish students are currently feeling threatened and isolated, not only at UCL but at universities around the country. UCL has the opportunity and the obligation to show in the firmest possible manner that those who bully, intimidate and harass Jewish students will suffer dire consequences for their actions, and that those who belittle or tolerate antisemitism will similarly be shown no quarter.”

The letter also called on UCL to investigate a statement by UCL Union which appeared to condone the protest.

Earlier this month, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee released its report into the rise of antisemitism in Britain. In relation to antisemitism at universities, the Committee said that “The unique nature of antisemitism requires a unique response” and that “pro-Palestinian campaigns [must be educated so as to] avoid drawing on antisemitic rhetoric”.

This week, students attending an event about Israeli interactions with the Palestinian Authority have reported being surrounded, harassed and even assaulted. The students had to be escorted from the event by police for their own safety. This is the second time that we have received a flood of videos from our supporters of predominantly Jewish students being barricaded inside a room whilst those outside threaten and even attack them.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is concerned with antisemitism, as our name suggests, so when we hear about incidents like this, we look at whether the incident was antisemitic. We use the international definition of antisemitism which states that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

The fact is that almost half of the world’s Jews live in Israel, which is the physical centre of the Jewish religion. There are very few strands of Judaism which renounce all connection with Israel, yet universities are quite happy for violent bullies to protest anything short of Jewish students in Britain fully severing their ties with Israel.

Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, but these protests are not criticism, they are a deliberate campaign of harassment and bullying, and their targets are overwhelmingly Jewish students.

A phenomenon that we have come across on social media in particular, is when antisemitism becomes so disguised, that we find people engaging in antisemitism without even realising that what they are doing is antisemitic. In other cases, we find antisemites very deliberately targeting Jews and pretending that they are simply protesting against Israel. The motive is important to us, but more important than the motive is the antisemitic act itself.

When campus protests against Israel repeatedly become violent and overwhelmingly target Jewish students, the motive scarcely matters. We simply do not care what the protesters say they are protesting against, they have become thugs whose targets are Jews.

The perpetrators who committed crimes or breached university rules must be investigated and punished. Additionally, universities must get their act together and provide proper security on campus, seeking the assistance of police forces when necessary. Whilst enforcing penalties for this kind of behaviour is essential, the problem must also be fought through education, which is the very purpose for which universities exist; the rhetoric which leads to expressions of hatred such as we saw this week must be counteracted, and universities should fill that role.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be in touch with the university and police to satisfy ourselves that they are doing everything possible to bring to justice those who committed criminal acts or breached university rules. This work will be undertaken by the volunteers of our Regulatory Enforcement Unit and our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit.

Londoner Stuart Birnie has been sentenced to six months in prison, beginning immediately, at a sentencing hearing at Wood Green Crown Court today.

On 17th December 2015, Mr Birnie saw a Jewish pedestrian and crossed the road to confront him, shouting: “Oi you go f*** yourself, I’m going to kill all the Jews.” He then yelled that “Jews produce too many kids” before repeating that he would “kill you and all the Jews.”

Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol deployed immediately and tracked Mr Birnie until police officers arrived to arrest him.

Mr Birnie told probation officers that the “situation in Stamford Hill is epidemic” as though Jews are a plague.

Miss Recorder Spiro said in delivering the sentence that the victim “was targeted purely because he was Jewish” and was left “frightened and heartbroken”.

In a statement, Jacob Weiss from Stamford Hill Shomrim said: “I welcome the immediate custodial prison sentence, it sends out a strong message that such behaviour is wholly unacceptable. Mr Birnie went out of his way to target his victim solely because he was Jewish.”

After a spate of light sentences, this is a very welcome result. The decision to imprison Mr Birnie for his actions sends a strong message that antisemitism carries severe consequences. We commend Stamford Hill Shomrim for their swift response to ensure that this racist was brought to justice.

Regrettably such convictions are rare due to reluctance on the part of the Crown Prosecution Service to take action against antisemites. While 2015 saw the worst level of antisemitic hate crime on record, we only know of 12 cases of antisemitic hate crime that the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted, out of a total of 15,442 hate crimes prosecuted that year.

Neo-Nazi barrister Ian Millard was banned from the profession yesterday by the Bar Standards Board over his antisemitic tweets.

A five-person disciplinary tribunal of the Bar Standards Board convened in London yesterday and found Millard to be guilty of professional misconduct due to his extensive use of Twitter as a vehicle to publicise his extreme right-wing views.

A cursory glance at his timeline reveals that most of his racism is directed at Jews. Seven tweets from November 2014 formed the basis of the complaint against him. Five of these were overtly antisemitic, including:

  • “Pro-Zionist, pro-Jew expenses cheat Michael Gove, now diminished shrunk to his true level (2 inches off the ground). Liar.”
  • In reference to former French President, Nicholas Sarkozy: “@HeretoWhiteMan thank you. When one looks at that little Jew, one has to wonder what the French people saw in him, as he gesticulates etc.”
  • In reference to former co-chairman of the Conservative Party: “A million British people forced to use foodbanks and all the Jew Shapps can say is to parrot a list of hackneyed propaganda phrases.”
  • “Strange seeing Dominic Grieve, who reminds me of the days when many/most Conservative MPs were English gentlemen, not Jews or yobs.”
  • The fifth tweet was a picture of a swastika bearing the caption “Juden sind hier unerwunscht” (“Jews not wanted here.”)

Representing himself, Millard admitted authoring the tweets but denied that they were seriously offensive. In a rambling defence, he attempted to justify his actions by insisting that his views were either factually accurate or, in the case of the swastika, no different to material printed by the press. He also claimed that he was the victim of persecution, citing the fact that the Bar Standards Board had been alerted to his activities by Jonathan Goldberg QC, a director of UK Lawyers for Israel, as evidence of “Jewish-Zionist influence”. He also attempted to impugn the integrity of Baroness Deech, a patron of UK Lawyers for Israel, who chaired the Bar Standards Board when the complaint was brought against him.

The tribunal upheld all the charges against Millard, finding him guilty of behaving “in a way which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in you or in the profession”. He was immediately disbarred.

Within hours of the verdict, he was back on Twitter, tweeting his support for Baroness Tonge in the wake of her suspension for hosting an antisemitic event at the House of Lords, as well as a video of a rabidly antisemitic speech by Adolf Hitler.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported Millard to the police over his incitement to racial and religious hatred.

https://twitter.com/ianrmillard/status/791707088779173888

https://twitter.com/ianrmillard/status/791753498073436165

https://twitter.com/ianrmillard/status/791884330150817792

Following her suspension from the Liberal Democrat party pending investigation, Baroness Tonge has resigned from the Party. She had already had the Party whip withdrawn in 2012 over antisemitic comments that Israel should be destroyed.

Her resignation is the culmination of a long history of baiting Jews.

We are pleased that she is no longer a member of the Liberal Democrat party, but it shames the Party that she was allowed to remain a member for so long, despite her comments.

Attention will now turn to Baroness Tonge’s ongoing membership of the House of Lords, which she used on Tuesday to host an event at which attendees compared Israel to ISIS and claimed that Jews “provoked” their own genocide in the Holocaust.

It is high time that Baroness Tonge was stripped of her peerage.

Baroness Tonge specialises in baiting Jews, as we have been reminded in recent months by her renewed antisemitic statements.

We welcome Baroness Tonge’s suspension from the Liberal Democrats in response to complaints from Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, but Party Leader Tim Farron must now procure Baroness Tonge’s long-overdue expulsion from the Party.

Baroness Tonge’s ongoing membership of the House of Lords and the Liberal Democrats is a disgrace to both institutions. It is indefensible that the Liberal Democrats withdrew the whip in 2012 over her antisemitic remarks then but have allowed her to remain a Party member since. Her latest remarks have caused multiple complaints to her Party, including from Campaign Against Antisemitism, and the departure of at least one senior Liberal Democrat, but so far the Party has simply defended her. Each day that Mr Farron allows people like Baroness Tonge and former MP David Ward to remain in the Party leads more Jews to wonder quite how serious the Liberal Democrats are about fighting antisemitism.

The Liberal Democrats must now act decisively to purge their Party of high-profile antisemites and ensure that this cannot happen again by adopting our manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties as backed by the Home Affairs Committee.

 

 

Whilst Liberal Democrat Baroness Jenny Tonge and Liberal Democrat Councillor and former MP David Ward have baited Jews in recent weeks, the Liberal Democrats have allowed both to remain Party members and Party leader Tim Farron has even defended David Ward.

Whilst Tim Farron appears to take no action whatsoever against two senior figures in his Party over complaints of antisemitism, a Jewish former candidate for the Party has decided to leave.

Matthew Harris, who stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate to become MP for Hendon in 2010 has had enough. In a blog post he wrote that the Party’s decision to defend Baroness Tonge was the “final straw”.

The Liberal Democrats have so far declined to answer Campaign Against Antisemitism’s letter regarding antisemitism in the Party.

On Friday, a report by Universities UK was released which made recommendations on fighting antisemitism. The 114-page report, which covers violence against women, harassment and all types of hate crime is the culmination of a study by a specially-convened Universities UK Taskforce. It is a tremendously disappointing document.

The report set out by spectacularly failing to grasp the scale of campus antisemitism. Firstly, the report cited figures for 2015 from the Community Security Trust noting that 21 incidents of antisemitism had been reported to the charity’s reporting helpline by students, comprising just 2% of the cases reported. The report based its assertions that antisemitism was not at alarming levels on that data, despite admitting that under-reporting was likely to be a significant problem. Indeed, the likely reason that so few cases of antisemitism are reported on campus is that such incidents have become so frequent, and the response so lacking, that Jewish students see reporting incidents as a waste of their time. Under-reporting is a symptom of a failure to enforce, but Universities UK did not draw that conclusion.

The report also cited a study from 2011 by the Equality Challenge Unit which asked just 20 Jewish students whether they felt discriminated against or harassed. Despite a quarter of them saying that they did, Universities UK concluded that the “vast majority” did not suffer problems. We would suggest that a quarter of Jewish students suffering from antisemitism is no cause for celebration, but in any case we wonder how Universities UK can possibly justify reliance on a survey of just 20 Jews.

The report’s principal failure however is not to have recommended firm steps against antisemitism. Instead, the report offered no significant new recommendations, instead merely congratulating universities on their good work and merely exhorting them to continue what they already do.

Whereas the report was commendably thorough in analysing violence against women, it cited multiple definitions of antisemitism but did not lend its backing to any of them.

Antisemitism at universities is a major problem. Those responsible for tackling it must have a detailed understanding of the challenges Jewish students face, and the forms antisemitism on campus often takes.

Universities UK missed the opportunity to meaningfully grapple with antisemitism. They failed to show any evidence in their report that they had understood the challenges that Jewish students face, and by recommending more of the same when it comes to fighting antisemitism on campus, Universities UK is simply sentencing Jewish students to a future in which antisemitism continues to rise, relatively undisturbed. All the more reason to be thankful for the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report on antisemitism in the UK, which addressed antisemitism at universities with specific recommendations.

The Crown Prosecution Service has now concluded a consultation on the prosecution of crime on social media, paving the way for its new guidance on the issue to be adopted. Antisemitism on social media is a growing problem, made all the worse by the culture of impunity which allows UK-based antisemites to incite hatred against Jews without fear of the law, but Campaign Against Antisemitism does not expect the Crown Prosecution Service’s new guidance to make much difference.

The problem is not that the old guidance was inadequate, or that the new guidance fails to make improvements: we were happy with the old guidance, we participated in the consultation, and we are happy with the new guidance.

The problem is that out of 15,442 cases of hate crime prosecuted last year, we only know of the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuting twelve cases of antisemitic hate crime. The same year that the Crown Prosecution Service managed to so resoundingly ignore cases of hatred against Jews, crimes against Jews reached the highest level on record. This failure by the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute antisemites sends three messages: it tells the police that effort investigating antisemitism is probably going to be wasted, it tells Jews that they are not going to be protected, and it tells antisemites that they can continue to stoke the flames of antisemitism.

The Crown Prosecution Service is badly broken, and no amount of guidance will fix that unless the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, starts to authorise prosecutions against antisemites. At present, she shows no signs of doing that.

An exposé in The Telegraph appears to confirm our suspicions that Shami Chakrabarti’s peerage was a reward for her whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. Baroness Chakrabarti was then named Shadow Attorney General.

Shami Chakrabarti’s inquiry into antisemitism was suspected of being a fraud from the moment she promised to conduct it in Labour’s interests. Sure enough, she delivered a whitewash which failed to deal with Labour’s antisemitism problem in any meaningful way. She did not tackle allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party or their woeful handling by Jeremy Corbyn, and she even refused to adopt a definition of antisemitism.

According to The Telegraph, “Jeremy Corbyn discussed giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage with his team in March, it has emerged, amid claims she was aware her name was listed before agreeing to conduct a Labour report into antisemitism…The Shadow Attorney General’s name was added [to the honours list] before she was approached to conduct a report into antisemitism and Labour sources have claimed that the peer was told this prior to the announcement on 29th April that she would chair an independent inquiry into antisemitism and other forms of racism in the Labour party.”

Shami Chakrabarti, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party have all repeatedly denied that the offer of a peerage was made before Baroness Chakrabarti concluded her report into antisemitism.

The failure of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party to stamp out antisemitism in its ranks was exacerbated by Shami Chakrabarti’s report into antisemitism and contributed to an institutional failure to address antisemitism which has made the Labour Party unsafe for British Jews.

Writing in The Times, the President of the Union of Jewish Students, Josh Seitler, has called on the President of the National Union of Students, Malia Bouattia, to fight antisemitism head on, or step down. In a scathing article, Seitler told Bouattia: “you have failed to act and so I am forced to say that the time for action is fast running out; it’s time to act now or it might be time for you to step down.”

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 then drew further condemnation in July when she used her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative. Student leaders have even gone so far as to write open letters expressing embarrassment and apologising to Jewish students for the actions of Bouattia and the National Union of Students.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report into the rise of antisemitism in the UK released two weeks ago said that Bouattia “does not appear to take sufficiently seriously the issue of antisemitism on campus, and has responded to Jewish students’ concerns about her previous language with defensiveness and an apparent unwillingness to listen to their concerns…Referring to Birmingham University as a ‘Zionist outpost’ (and similar comments) smacks of outright racism.” In response, members of the National Union of Students’ Executive Committee joined an open letter claiming that the Home Affairs Committee was on a mission to “delegitimise NUS, and discredit Malia Bouattia”.

Bouattia continues to refute both criticism and attempts at dialogue, including from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The following letter from Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, was sent to the newly-elected Chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, and sent in copy to the MPs on the Committee who contributed to the Committee’s report on the rise of antisemitism in Britain.

Dear Ms Cooper,

I would like to congratulate you on your election as the new Chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.

As you know, the Committee published on Sunday its report on the rise of antisemitism in Britain, including recommendations that we have long called for. We hope that the report will prove to be a turning point in the fight against antisemitism in our country.

We have a limited window of opportunity to turn the tide against antisemitism in Britain. As I noted in my evidence to the Committee, Jews are leaving mainland Europe in their thousands, and antisemitic crime in Britain continues to rise to record levels. Should we succeed, Britain will remain a beacon of tolerance and justice, but should we fail, we British Jews will find ourselves on the same dark trajectory as Jews across mainland Europe.

For too long, Campaign Against Antisemitism has often been a solitary voice calling for the Government and political parties to adopt the international definition of antisemitism, for police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service to properly record, investigate and prosecute antisemitic crime, for the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats to fight antisemitism rather than normalising it, for the student movement to end the isolation and abandonment of Jewish students, and for social networks to shoulder their responsibility to cut off the torrent of hatred online.

The Committee listened, and by endorsing the measures we have called for, the Committee has forcefully challenged those responsible for allowing the normalisation of antisemitism. It was brave of the Committee to adopt the positions it has taken, and to pull no punches in doing so.

The Committee’s recommendations must be executed swiftly and in full. We hope that the first recommendation to be implemented will be the widespread adoption of the international definition of antisemitism by the Government, its agencies, and political parties, for as we have seen over the years, efforts to tackle antisemitism without defining it are doomed to failure.

There are only two respects in which we disagree with the report.

Firstly, the Committee found the performance of the justice system to be “for the most part, excellent”. Last year was the worst ever year on record for antisemitic hate crime, with a 26% rise in crime and a 51% leap in violent antisemitic crime, yet whilst the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted a record 15,442 cases of hate crime, we are only aware of 12 prosecutions for antisemitic hate crime. We can assure the Committee from bitter experience in dealing with the Crown Prosecution Service that its shameful refusal to tackle antisemitism is only set to continue. Unless the failure of the Crown Prosecution Service is urgently addressed, the Committee’s other recommendations will ultimately prove to be ineffective on their own. For example, no action taken by social networks alone will be successful if the worst offenders face no criminal sanction for their persistent efforts to incite hatred against Jews.

Secondly, the report found the Cross-Government Working Group on Antisemitism to be “an effective forum for relationship-building, sharing of information and collaborative work aimed at addressing antisemitism in all communities” yet in reality the Working Group is exclusive, not inclusive. The organisations already represented on the Working Group determine the Working Group’s membership, and they use their position to ensure that less established voices are locked out. It is for that reason that Campaign Against Antisemitism has been forced to establish its own strong relationships with the Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Office, police forces and other Government bodies, rather than joining discussions within the Working Group. The consequence of allowing this situation to endure is that rather than the Government and its agencies having one discussion on antisemitism with all of the voices within the Jewish community, there are multiple disconnected conversations. That is best exemplified by the near total exclusion of the Ultra-Orthodox Charedi Jewish community from Government discussions, even though the Charedi community is the most visible Jewish community and therefore the most easily targeted.

Of course, the effectiveness of the Committee’s report will be judged by its implementation, but we are enormously grateful to the Committee for having taken this important first step, and there is no forum better suited to ensuring that the report’s recommendations are faithfully executed than the Committee itself.

We look forward to meeting with you and your colleagues on the Committee in order to discuss how we can work with you to the benefit of the entire Jewish community, and to our society as a whole.

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

A man has been convicted after making antisemitic death threats in September. Shehroz Iqbal pleaded guilty and was given a suspended sentence today of 16 weeks’ imprisonment and 80 hours’ unpaid work.

The incident took place on 11th September, when Iqbal shouted “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill all of you Jews — you killed my brothers” at a Jewish motorist. Volunteers from Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, followed Iqbal’s car until officers from the Metropolitan Police Service arrived to arrest him. Once again, Shomrim’s vigilance and swift action has secured the arrest and conviction of a brazen antisemite.

Iqbal’s conviction is unfortunately one of very few. While 2015 saw the worst level of antisemitic hate crime on record, we only know of 12 cases of antisemitic hate crime that the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted, out of a total of 15,442 hate crimes prosecuted that year.

More Nazi graffiti has been found in Stamford Hill by volunteers from Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol. Swastikas and the German “Fick euch” (f*** you) was found on a fence near Jewish-owned shops and is believed to be fresh. The graffiti is thought to have appeared between 18:00 and midnight on Thursday night. Shomrim have reported the graffiti to the police so that it can be swiftly investigated and removed.

The Government has not yet formally responded to Sunday’s release of the Home Affairs Select Committee report on antisemitism, but Theresa May endorsed it today during Prime Minister’s Questions, and challenged other political parties to do the same. Jeremy Corbyn has already attacked the report. The report contains recommendations long called for by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

A neo-Nazi gig in Scotland has reportedly been called off after the Scottish Justice Minister called on the Home Secretary to intervene to ban the US-based band from entering the UK.

Various anti-fascist groups had said that Bound for Glory, a white supremacist band would be playing a gig in Falkirk on Saturday, but the event has apparently been called off.

Up to 500 neo-Nazis had been expected to attend.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Vice Chair of the Chingford branch of the Chingford and Woodford Green Constituency Labour Party, and the founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, has taken to the airwaves to say that Israel has “inflicted” the Holocaust on other people and “they use and exploit” the Holocaust for political ends.

She said: “When it comes to the Holocaust, of course, there must never be any minimisation of that horror. It’s inflicted on other people in the sense that apologists for Israel use the suffering of Jews to excuse the suffering of Palestinians. I hear it all the time: ‘Oh, they’ve suffered so much, let them get on with it.’ I’m not saying that Israel is committing a Holocaust. I’m saying they use and exploit the fact of the Holocaust to justify what are, in some cases, crimes against humanity…So the mass slaughter of Jews in Europe should never be inflicted on others. That’s my view and that includes Palestinians. But for that, I’m called a self-hating Jew.”

Her statement is antisemitic according to the international definition of antisemitism which the Home Affairs Select Committee on Sunday unanimously recommended that all parties should use, in accordance with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties.

The definition says that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

Wimborne-Idrissi’s latest tirade came less than three weeks since she last appeard on LBC and moved a Labour MP to tears by accusing Ruth Smeeth, a Jewish Labour MP, of having staged an antisemitic incident as a means to attack Jeremy Corbyn. At the time, she claimed that Smeeth “is against Corbyn, against his whole Socialist vision”. Referring to the whitewash Chakrabarti inquiry, she added: “The Chakrabarti Commission has been undermined at every turn by people like Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman [another Jewish Labour MP] and others like them who have a political agenda. The question of antisemitism is being used as a weapon in a political battle.”

We are not aware of any disciplinary action having been taken against Wimborne-Idrissi, but in any case the Labour Party has refused to reveal whether it is disciplining members accused of antisemitism.

 

The day after the publication of the Home Affairs Select Committee report on antisemitism in Britain, two well-known Liberal Democrats, have made comments baiting Jews on social media. Both Baroness Tonge and former MP — now a Councillor — David Ward, have previously had the whip withdrawn by the Liberal Democrats, but they remain members of the Party and have recently been defended by the Party.

On Monday, Baroness Jenny Tonge complained on Facebook that her letter blaming Israel for antisemitism in the UK had been rejected by The Guardian. In her letter, without a trace of irony, she welcomed the Select Committee’s report, then continued “It is difficult to believe that a 75% increase in antisemitism it reports, have been committed by people who simply hate Jewish people for no reason. It is surely the case that these incidents are reflecting the disgust amongst the general public of the way the government of Israel treats Palestinians and manipulates the USA and ourselves to take no action against that country’s blatant disregard of International Law and the Geneva Conventions.”

Her explanation for antisemitism is in fact antisemitic according to the international definition of antisemitism which the Select Committee on Sunday recommended that all parties should use, in accordance with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties. The definition says that “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” and “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about…Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic.

Additionally, late on Sunday night Councillor David Ward (a former MP) tweeted in response to the report that “The Zionists are winning despite the appalling racism of the State of #Israel and its supporters — don’t give up — good will triumph bad”.

The report said that “the word ‘Zionist’ (or worse, ‘Zio’) as a term of abuse has no place in a civilised society…[and] this should be communicated by the Government and political parties”.

Both Tonge and Ward have been defended recently by the Liberal Democrats.

Last week, Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, told the Home Affairs Select Committee that Councillor Ward had “served his time” after he had the whip withdrawn while he was a Liberal Democrat MP for comments equating the Jewish people with Nazis while implying that it is for the victims of the Holocaust to learn a lesson from it, as well as questioning Israel’s right to exist at all.

Three weeks ago, the Liberal Democrats declined to expel Baroness Jenny Tonge from the Party over her various antisemitic statements, including her recent call in the House of Lords for British Jews to “publicly to condemn settlement building by Israel and to make clear their support for universal human rights”. The Liberal Democrat Party wrote to people who complained about Baroness Tonge’s remarks to tell them that it was “offensive” for her to have held British Jews accountable for the perceived actions of the State of Israel, but that her remarks “still fall short of being racist”. That is not what the definition of antisemitism endorsed by the Select Committee says.

Both David Ward and Baroness Tonge are serial offenders and it is hard to see why the Liberal Democrats repeatedly refuse to expel them. Just a day after it was released, the Select Committee’s report on antisemitism is receiving its first test. The Select Committee recommended that all parties should use the international definition of antisemitism, in accordance with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties. Under the definition, the offences are clear and the Liberal Democrats must expel David Ward and Baroness Tonge without further delay.

Just on Sunday the Select Committee pointed out that antisemitism flourishes under leaders who tolerate it, as continues to be graphically evidenced in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. For Tim Farron to leave this matter here would amount to a similar display of hypocritical and weak leadership; if he does not comply with the Select Committee’s recommendations by expelling both David Ward and Baroness Tonge, he will be signalling that the Liberal Democrat Party is a safe space for antisemites.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, has written to Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee today published its report following its inquiry into the rise of antisemitism in Britain. The report endorsed recommendations made by Campaign Against Antisemitism over the past two years, tackling the definition of antisemitism, antisemitism in political parties, antisemitism in student politics, the failure of social networks to interrupt the spread of antisemitism and improvements required in policing. The report was swiftly attacked by Jeremy Corbyn, among others, and Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chairman, Gideon Falter, and Head of Political and Government Investigations, Joe Glasman, took to the airwaves to defend it and call for its recommendations to be implemented swiftly. We have also published a summary of the report and our response to it.

Below are three of our interviews conducted today with BBC Radio 5, BBC News and Sky News.

CAA Chairman, Gideon Falter, on BBC Radio 5:

CAA Head of Political and Government Investigations, Joe Glasman, on BBC News:

CAA Head of Political and Government Investigations, Joe Glasman, on Sky News:

 

The following letter by Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, to the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee was included as evidence in the report of the Select Committee among other evidence provided to the Select Committee by Campaign Against Antisemitism. We have published a summary of the report and our response to it.

Dear Mr Loughton,

Inquiry into the rise of antisemitism

You may know that every week, synagogues around the world read a portion of the Torah. A few weeks ago, a portion was read which contains in it three words that form the basis of Western civilisation: tzedek, tzedek tirdof — justice, justice you shall pursue.

These simple words were radical. In a time when power was wielded through the sword and by wealth, the idea that justice should be the ultimate goal of every person and the worthiest form of power was bold and new. It goes to the essence of what civilisation is: without justice we cannot thrive. We cannot consider ourselves civilised.

When I look at the plight of Jews across Europe, I think of those words. I wonder how far Europe will tolerate intolerance. Will Europe pursue justice?

Events answer that question for me.

Law enforcement against extremists cannot wax and wane. If you let hate thrive for decades and decades, then you eventually pass a point of no return. The terrorist attacks we are witnessing around Europe were born in a vacuum; they were born in a vacuum of law enforcement, where extremism was tolerated with minimal disruption by acquiescent liberal states fearful of causing upset.

We talk so much about immigration into Europe that sometimes we forget to look at who is leaving, and Jews are leaving. Thankfully there is no global database tracking the migration of Jews, but Israel does count the number of people availing themselves of the Law of Return, which guarantees Jews unconditional safe haven. Since 2000, 6% of the Jewish population of Europe has emigrated to Israel. In 2014 the rate of Jewish emigration doubled to its highest ever level and rose again in 2015. Leaving your home is not a snap decision, and for it to have sped up so dramatically shows that it has momentum. For many of those who emigrate, it will have been a decision that was ten years in the making. And in addition to that 6%, there are more Jews still, perhaps another 6%, who are leaving mainland Europe and coming to Britain, or the United States.

Jews across Europe are justified in thinking that society and the state have failed to step forward to end the wave of antisemitism that is behind this emigration. Had the only terrorist murders in Paris in January last year been the four Jews doing their weekly shop at the kosher supermarket, would there have been a million people demonstrating in the street? We know from the shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, and the horrific shooting of three Jewish children and their teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse, that the million-man demonstrations do not materialise when the dead are ‘just Jews’. After November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, many started saying that “everyone is a target” but they were already a target — Jews are part of “everyone”. When Jews start leaving, it is the surest possible sign that society itself is collapsing.

But Jews are not just leaving because of the major terrorist attacks that make the headlines. They are leaving because of stories like that of Samuel and Diana Blog, both in their late eighties, both Holocaust survivors. One night two men noticed the Jewish mezuzah on their front door in Amsterdam. They pretended to be police officers and barged in. As they shouted “dirty Jews” they beat Samuel until he was blind. They broke Samuel and Diana’s bones until they were wheelchair-bound for life.

So what can we in Britain learn from the rest of Europe? We could comfort ourselves. We could use Jews as a gauge of our society’s health, and our country is one of the best places in the world to be a Jew. We are offering a haven to the afflicted. Some London synagogues are now conducting their services in French. But we should not be comfortable at all.

Four years ago, two British Islamists, Sajid and Shasta Khan, were caught by total fluke. They had been building bombs in their front room and planned to attack the British Jewish community. One day they had an argument which the neighbours overheard and called the police. That is how close we came to a bomb attack on British Jews.

We are in the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days, and once again synagogue-goers will pass airport-style security that has been the norm here for decades. But in 2014, when antisemitic attacks here broke all records during the Gaza war, many tried to explain it away as some sort of rage against Israel. If that is the case, why the following year, 2015, did Campaign Against Antisemitism’s National Antisemitic Crime Audit discover that antisemitic crime had jumped 26% to a new record high? Why, in the absence of the convenient excuse of a war in Gaza, did violent attacks on Jews surge by 51% last year?

The reason is that at the same time as antisemitic crime was breaking new records, the charging of antisemitic crime dropped.

We do not believe that there is a hierarchy of hate, but antisemitism is different from other types of racist hatred. It is no mere prejudice; it endures because it is an ideology. It presents itself as a form of justice. Whereas other forms of racism slur their victims to diminish them, antisemitism does the opposite. Jews are presented as conniving, corrupting, parasites who wield immense power to the detriment of society. Antisemites present themselves as agents of justice, freeing mankind from Jewish dominance.

Like all ideologies, antisemitism has its own antibodies. Every Jewish contribution to society is cast as a bid for power. Every person who does not adopt antisemitism is dismissed as weak and blind. Every opponent of antisemitism is discredited as being part of a Jewish conspiracy or in the pay of Jews. Call an antisemite antisemitic and they will insist that you are smearing them to stop them exposing Jewish power. This has been accelerated by social media, which has enabled antisemitic ideology to become ‘open source’, allowing it to mutate faster than ever before, combining the strains of far-right antisemitism, far-left antisemitism and Islamist antisemitism into one super-resistant antisemitic ideology that is almost invulnerable to the usual social immune defences of reason and opprobrium.

It is due to these traits that antisemitism spreads faster than other prejudices, and for that reason we simply cannot wait for the slow progress that the criminal justice system is making in tackling hate crime as a whole. Antisemitism needs forceful, immediate and specific action.

Instead, the opposite is happening. The Crown Prosecution Service has proudly announced that it prosecuted more hate crime than ever before last year — 15,442 cases — yet as far as we know, only twelve of those cases were prosecutions of antisemitic hate crime. We cannot know exactly because the Crown Prosecution Service refuses to provide any breakdown of its statistics.

Campaign Against Antisemitism deals daily with police forces, regulators and the Crown Prosecution Service. It is our opinion that it is almost impossible for an unaided Jewish layperson to successfully ensure that a non-violent antisemitic crime of which they are victim is investigated and prosecuted. Indeed, even in the cases in which we become closely involved in supporting the victim and dealing with police and Crown Prosecution Service, we are met with flat, unaccountable refusal to act, either by the police or Crown Prosecution Service. This allows antisemitic incitement and low-level crime to escalate and spread as antisemites are emboldened, and as the Jewish community increasingly views reporting antisemitic hate crime as an exercise in futility. The situation has become so desperate that we have now launched judicial review proceedings against the Crown Prosecution Service, and will soon commence private prosecutions.

We have one of the strongest legislative frameworks in Europe for fighting hate crime and extremism but we are not using it effectively. For all the talk about cracking down on hate crime following Brexit, we have seen no evidence of any meaningful action against resurgent far-right groups, the antisemitic extreme-left has taken over the Labour Party, and it has taken over 20 years for us to finally silence the Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary.

There is the political will to enforce the law against antisemites and extremists, but the breakdown occurs in police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service. Antisemitism is rarely a hot topic for long, and in competition with domestic violence or benefits fraud, antisemitism is often left to fester, which is exactly how it thrives. The consequence is that we are treating the cancer of growing extremism only when it is already strong and at its most violent. We are not ripping it out by its roots.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is working to change that. We have earned the support of the Prime Minister and her team precisely because we hold the authorities’ feet to the fire, even taking them to court when necessary. This is the fight for our country and we must not lose.

Unless we act now to act against antisemites as forcefully as the law will permit, then antisemitism will continue to spread, antisemites will become bolder, attacks on Jews will become more common and more ferocious, the Jewish community will become more fearful and start making plans to emigrate, and the golden era for Jews in Britain will have ended.

The words are as true now as they ever were: tzedek, tzedek tirdof — justice, justice we must pursue.

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee today publishes its report following its inquiry into the rise of antisemitism in Britain. Campaign Against Antisemitism has already responded.

The report is extremely critical of Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “While the Labour Leader has a proud record of campaigning against many types of racism, based on the evidence we have received, we are not persuaded that he fully appreciates the distinct nature of post-Second World War antisemitism.” The report then attacked Corbyn’s “lack of consistent leadership on this issue, and his reluctance to separate antisemitism from other forms of racism” which it said “has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people.”

In some of the report’s bluntest comments, it says “This situation has been further exacerbated by the Party’s demonstrable incompetence at dealing with members accused of antisemitism, as illustrated by the saga involving the suspension, re-admittance and re-suspension of Jackie Walker. The ongoing membership of Ken Livingstone, following his outbursts about Hitler and Zionism, should also have been dealt with more effectively. The result is that the Labour Party, with its proud history of fighting racism and promoting equal rights, is seen by some as an unwelcoming place for Jewish members and activists.”

The report also issues a biting verdict on the contribution of Shami Chakrabarti to Labour’s antisemitism crisis. During Corbyn’s testimony, Chakrabarti had to be repeatedly told to stop passing Corbyn notes. The report says: “The Chakrabarti report makes recommendations about creating a more robust disciplinary process within the Labour Party, but it is clearly lacking in many areas; particularly in its failure to differentiate explicitly between racism and antisemitism. The fact that the report describes occurrences of antisemitism merely as ‘unhappy incidents’ also suggests that it fails to appreciate the full gravity of the comments that prompted the inquiry in the first place. These shortfalls, combined with Ms Chakrabarti’s decision to join the Labour Party in April and accept a peerage as a nominee of the Leader of that Party, and her subsequent appointment as Shadow Attorney General, have thrown into question her claims (and those of Mr Corbyn) that her inquiry was truly independent. Ms Chakrabarti has not been sufficiently open with the Committee about when she was offered her peerage, despite several attempts to clarify this issue with her. It is disappointing that she did not foresee that the timing of her elevation to the House of Lords, alongside a report absolving the Labour Leader of any responsibility for allegations of increased antisemitism within his Party, would completely undermine her efforts to address this issue. It is equally concerning that Mr Corbyn did not consider the damaging impression likely to be created by this sequence of events.”

Attacking specific recommendations made by Chakrabarti, the report echoes our call that “The Labour Party, and all other political parties in the same circumstances, should publish a clear public statement alongside every reinstatement or expulsion of a member after any investigation into suspected antisemitism.” The report continues: “We see no good reason for the Chakrabarti report’s proposed statute of limitations on antisemitic misdemeanours. Antisemitism is not a new concept: an abusive, antisemitic tweet sent in 2013 is no more defensible than one sent in 2016. If the Labour Party or any other organisation is to demonstrate that it is serious about antisemitism, it should investigate all allegations with equal seriousness, regardless of when the behaviour is alleged to have taken place…The Chakrabarti Report is ultimately compromised by its failure to deliver a comprehensive set of recommendations, to provide a definition of antisemitism, or to suggest effective ways of dealing with antisemitism. The failure of the Labour Party to deal consistently and effectively with antisemitic incidents in recent years risks lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally antisemitic.”

Taking aim at Labour figures’ constant references to “antisemitism and all forms of racism”, the report warns “If antisemitism is subsumed into a generic approach to racism, its distinctive and dangerous characteristics will be overlooked. In addition, the Labour Party’s disciplinary process must acknowledge the fact that an individual’s demonstrated opposition to other forms of racism does not negate the possibility that they hold antisemitic beliefs; nor does it neutralise any expression of these beliefs.”

In a statement seen by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Jeremy Corbyn has responded. His statement shows that he is still determined to fight the antisemitism of the Holocaust and workplace discrimination whilst ignoring Labour’s abject failure to tackle antisemitism in its midst. He shows that he has learned nothing at all by brazenly holding up the discredited Chakrabarti whitewash as a model approach to fighting antisemitism in political parties.

Jeremy Corbyn’s full statement full is as follows:

“Antisemitism is an evil, which led to the worst crimes of the 20th century. Every one of us has a responsibility to ensure that it is never allowed to fester in our society again. So we must all be concerned when we hear that antisemitic incidents are on the rise again. Last week I spoke at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Cable Street and was privileged to meet some veterans of it. And I had hoped that the Home Affairs Committee report ‘Antisemitism in the UK’ would offer all of us some guidance on how we can take forward the fight against antisemitism.
“I welcome some recommendations in the report, such as strengthening anti-hate crime systems, demanding Twitter take stronger action against antisemitic trolling and allow users to block keywords, and support for Jewish communal security. I will be writing to both Twitter and Facebook to request urgent meetings to discuss tackling online abuse.

“The report in fact echoes much of Labour’s own Chakrabarti Inquiry report, including recommendations on language, stereotyping and training. However, there are some important opportunities lost. The committee chose not to look in any detail at – or come up with proposals for – combatting antisemitism in other parties, our major civic institutions, in the workplace, in schools, in all those places where Jewish people’s life chances might be at risk through antisemitism. In the Labour Party, which has been at the forefront of those struggles for equality, we remain committed to doing so. We continue to work with Jewish and other organisations in that endeavor, and are saddened that those on the Committee have chosen not to contribute to it.
“The report unfairly criticises Shami Chakrabarti for not being sufficiently independent. This fails to acknowledge public statements that the offer to appoint Chakrabarti to the House of Lords came after completion of her report, and was based on her extensive legal and campaigning experience. Commissioning Chakrabarti was an unprecedented step for a political party, demonstrating Labour’s commitment to fight against antisemitism. Labour is already acting on her recommendations, including reform of our internal procedures, changes to the Party’s rule book and expansion of training to tackle antisemitism.

“The Inquiry, which included Baroness Jan Royall, former leader of the House of Lords, and David Feldman, Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism on its panel, was praised by a number of bodies, including the Jewish Labour Movement, and by John Mann, the Chair of the All Parliamentary Party Group against Antisemitism. I am proud that Labour is the only party that has specific protections in place to ensure a zero tolerance approach to antisemitism.

“I am also concerned by some other aspects of the Committee’s report. The Committee heard evidence from too narrow a pool of opinion, and its then-chair rejected both Chakrabarti’s and the Jewish Labour Movement’s requests to appear and give evidence before it. Not a single woman was called to give oral evidence in public, and the report violates natural justice by criticising individuals without giving them a right to be heard. The report’s political framing and disproportionate emphasis on Labour risks undermining the positive and welcome recommendations made in it. Although the Committee heard evidence that 75 per cent of antisemitic incidents come from far right sources, and the report states there is no reliable evidence to suggest antisemitism is greater in Labour than other parties, much of the report focuses on the Labour party.

“As the report rightly acknowledges, politicising antisemitism — or using it as a weapon in controversies between and within political parties — does the struggle against it a disservice. Under my leadership, Labour has taken greater action against anti-Semitism than any other party, and will implement the measures recommended by the Chakrabarti report to ensure Labour is a welcoming environment for members of all our communities.”

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee today publishes its report following its inquiry into the rise of antisemitism in Britain.

We could not have said it better ourselves: we are pleased to see that the Select Committee has listened to Campaign Against Antisemitism and that the report firmly endorses measures we have been calling for for two years.

The Select Committee’s rigorous report is uncompromising on the rise in antisemitism and the danger it presents. It directly accuses the enablers of growing antisemitism, including social networks, those on the far-left who allow vile Jew hatred to masquerade as political discourse, and the student leaders who have abandoned Jewish students.

The inquiry called Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Livingstone, among others, to give evidence. Campaign Against Antisemitism’s evidence included a letter, research and information on our recommendations.

The report makes the following key recommendations, which endorse our own:

  • The international definition of antisemitism used by the College of Policing, the European Parliament, the US Department of State and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance “should be formally adopted by the UK Goverment, law enforcement agencies and all political parties”. We have called for this since we launched our five point plan in 2015 and our manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties last month, and we repeated this in submissions to the Select Committee.
  • Use of “the word ‘Zionist’ (or worse, ‘Zio’) as a term of abuse has no place in a civilised society…[and] this should be communicated by the Government and political parties”.
  • Police forces should improve the consistency and accuracy with which antisemitic crime is recorded and investigated, noting that “we question why police forces operating in counties in which thousands of Jewish people live, have recorded few or no antisemitic crimes”. This echoes the findings of our National Antisemitic Crime Audit, released earlier this year.
  • “The Government, police and prosecuting authorities must…pursue a robust, zero-tolerance approach to this problem”. We are very pleased by this recommendation, which has been at the core of our message since Campaign Against Antisemitism was formed in 2014.
  • Social networks are acting as a “deplorable…inert host for vast swathes of antisemitic hate speech and abuse” and must “significantly expand its enforcement remit to include proactive identification of abusive users”. We have called for this privately in meetings with social networks, and publicly when they failed to cooperate.
  • Police forces should appoint a “dedicated hate crime officer” so that “individuals reporting hate crime…have a single point of contact”.  We called for this in our National Antisemitic Crime Audit, released earlier this year.
  • The National Union of Students and its President should reverse their damaging antisemitic comments and the removal of Jewish students’ rights to choose their own representative. We have called for this repeatedly, along with others.

The report also finds that Jeremy Corbyn has shown a “lack of consistent leadership” has created a “‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people” in the Labour Party. The Select Committee was evidently disgusted by Ken Livingstone’s claims that Adolf Hitler “supported Zionism” as well as Shami Chakrabarti’s whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. The Select Committee additionally criticises the handling of antisemitism in the Liberal Democrat Party and National Union of Students.

The Select Committee’s report quotes extensively from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s research and recognises that antisemitism in Britain has reached a tipping point. The report makes recommendations which endorse the measures we have called for and must be urgently implemented.

Our only criticism of the report is that it is not sufficiently condemnatory of the Crown Prosecution Service whose response to antisemitism has been utterly deplorable. 15,442 cases of hate crime were prosecuted last year, but we know of only 12 prosecutions for antisemitic hate crime. In the same year, antisemitic crime in the UK reached a record high, rising 26% with antisemitic violence leaping by 51%, yet charging dropped. The Director of Public Prosecutions is presiding over an abject failure to crack down on antisemitism.

As Jews once again leave Europe and antisemitism is rising with chilling celerity in Britain, it is absolutely right that the Select Committee has endorsed the measures we have called for. They must now be swiftly implemented: the international definition of antisemitism must be universally adopted and applied — including in political parties — and the authorities must enforce the law against antisemitism with zero tolerance.

In an astonishing announcement, Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, has welcomed a politician he acknowledges to be an antisemite back into the Liberal Democrat fold. Mr Farron admitted freely that David Ward is an antisemite, but that he has “served his time” after completing a period of suspension under Party rules.

Mr Ward has in the past equated the Jewish people with Nazis while implying that it is for the victims of the Holocaust to learn a lesson from it, as well as questioning Israel’s right to exist at all.

According to the international definition of antisemitism, endorsed by this country among 31 others, the College of Policing and the European Parliament, Mr Ward is an antisemite, and he was rightly suspended. Yet he has recently supported the now contrite Naz Shah over her comments that Jews in Israel should be forcibly transported to the United States of America and has also made controversial comments in a debate, indicating that he shows no contrition for his earlier offences.

The Liberal Democrats have form, having declined to expel Baroness Jenny Tonge for any number of antisemitic statements, including echoing the blood libel in her claim that Israeli soldiers sent to help with relief after the Haitian earthquake were there to harvest organs from dead bodies.

Antisemitism flourishes under leaders who tolerate it, as continues to be graphically evidenced in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. For Tim Farron to leave this matter here would amount to a similar display of hypocritical and weak leadership; he should send a clear signal that antisemitism is unacceptable by expelling both David Ward and Jenny Tonge, or he will be signalling that the Liberal Democrat Party is a safe space for antisemites.

The Labour Party is continuing to refuse to comment on cases of antisemitism, and refused today to condemn or say what will happen to Councillor Andrew Slack, who posted an antisemitic image on Facebook.

The image stated that “The modern state of Israel was created by the Rothschilds, not God, and what they are doing to the Palestinian people now is EXACTLY what they intend for the whole world.” The image then shows a photograph of an injured baby with the caption “Today its [sic] a Palestinian child, soon it will be your child” along with a caricature of a hook-nosed Jew, his hands soaked in blood, licking blood from his lips, next to a UN logo with a Star of David replacing the map of the world at its centre.

The image is a modern day blood libel, claiming that bloodthirsty Jews are seeking to harm non-Jewish children. It also uses an extremely antisemitic caricature and explicitly alleges that Jews and Jewish bankers seek world domination.

Councillor Slack told the Guido Fawkes political blog: “I wish to apologise for an offensive post which I shared for a short time without properly reading one content, especially anyone of the Jewish faith. I also apologise to my Labour Party colleagues and point out that it had no connection with any organisation which I am a member.”

When Guido Fawkes asked the Labour Party to comment on what would happen, and whether they condemned one of their Councillors for posting of image, they used absurd new rules introduced by Shadow Attorney General Baroness Chakrabarti to simply say: “We do not comment on individual’s membership status.” The Councillor himself has now admitted that he has been suspended, but the Party still refuses to comment and in any case suspensions for antisemitism in the Labour Party tend not to last very long or have any significant consequences.

A month-long study within part of London’s ultra-Orthodox (Charedi) Jewish Community has revealed the shocking racist abuse suffered daily by the most visibly-identifiable Jews in Britain. The results are said by Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, President of Stamford Hill Shomrim, which carried out the research, to be “the tip of the iceberg”.

Over the course of years of abuse, during which there have been sparse convictions, reporting of antisemitic crime against North East London’s Charedi community has been extremely low, making it very hard to accurately gauge the true extent of antisemitic crime.

For the first time, Shomrim’s study offers a unique insight into the shocking abuse suffered on a daily basis by ultra-Orthodox Jews, including young children, as they go about their lives on the streets of London. Shomrim carried out the study in the month leading up to National Hate Crime Awareness Week, and there was no campaign to increase reporting.

Describing the month as fairly typical, Shomrim recorded 32 antisemitic incidents at a rate of 8 incidents per week, dwarfing official police statistics of 2-3 crimes per month, but still only representing a fraction of the unreported antisemitic crimes perpetrated against London’s most readily-identifiable Jewish community. The incidents included three assaults, two threats to kill, eight threats of violence, eighteen cases of verbal abuse and one incident of criminal damage.

In one incident, a 28-year-old mother boarded a bus with her two children, aged 6 months and 4 years old, when another woman deliberately blocked her path, telling her: “I’m not going to move for you, you Jewish people are selfish, you Jewish people are bad”. In another, an 11-year-old boy was surrounded by youths and told to remove his skullcap. He was then told that he would be beaten up if he did not comply. In yet another incident, a 55-year-old Jewish women was asked whilst praying on the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) if she covered her hair because Hitler had shaved it off, before the perpetrator made a Nazi salute. On another occasion, three Jewish women were chased, terrified, through the street whilst a gang of teenage girls shouted “the Jewish people are rich, horrible Jewish people, give us your money”. At a synagogue, as a 38-year-old man left Shabbat services, a passerby grabbed his religious hat (shtreimel) and threw it to the ground. The youngest victim was an 8-year-old boy who was assaulted near his home by a male who told him he was a “stupid Jew”.

According to Shomrim’s statistics, the average age of the victims was 29.5, with the youngest victim just 8 years old, and the oldest 57 years old. 26 of the perpetrators were male, 3 were female, and 3 were of unknown gender. 23 of the perpetrators were described as adults, 6 were children, and 3 were of unknown age. 7 of the perpetrators were described (by the victim) as white, 8 were black, 11 were Asian, 2 were Middle Eastern, one was East Asian, and 3 were of unknown ethnicity.

Stamford Hill Shomrim supported all of the victims whilst ensuring that all of the crimes were reported to the Metropolitan Police Service, and assisting with the arrest of a suspect who was subsequently charged with an antisemitic offence. In the past five weeks, Shomrim has been directly involved with securing the convictions of three males in three separate antisemitic crimes.

This is the first time that antisemitic crime against ultra-Orthodox Jews has been so meticulously recorded. Shomrim does not regularly log and record antisemitic incidents in such detail due to lack of funding, meaning that the vast majority of antisemitic incidents against ultra-Orthodox Jews are not recorded, especially when victims do not wish to contact local police directly.

Recent Metropolitan Police Service figures show that on average 10 antisemitic hate crimes per month were recorded in the area covered by this study. In the Home Office’s most recent Hate Crime Action Plan, published in July, it was noted that “Jewish people from the [ultra-Orthodox] Charedi community are less likely than other sections of the Jewish community to report hate crimes to the authorities”.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, President of Stamford Hill Shomrim said: “It has long been said that antisemitism is under-reported in the Charedi Jewish community, which is the most visible segment of the Jewish community, but these figures are nevertheless shocking, even more so since this is only the tip of the iceberg. The Home Office must take urgent action to work directly with Stamford Hill Shomrim concerning the Charedi Jewish community, a community with a distinct ethos, sensitivities and structures, to enhance and improve the reporting of hate crimes.”

This meticulous month-long study by Shomrim shows the shocking extent to which members of the Jewish Charedi community, including very young children, are being singled out and targeted for racist assaults and abuse. Under-reporting of antisemitism in the Charedi community is largely due to the perception that nothing will be done, and that is why the work of Shomrim is so important, working closely with victims and the police to ensure that incidents are investigated and prosecuted.

Shomrim have been deservedly praised by the Metropolitan Police Service as the model for community engagement, yet their work is often frustrated by a failure to prosecute, and by light sentences when perpetrators are convicted. This makes the Jewish community less likely to report antisemitic crimes, and emboldens the perpetrators who often repeat their crimes. Shomrim operates a volunteer-run proactive neighbourhood watch scheme covering some of the largest populations of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who live predominantly in the boroughs of Hackney and Haringey in an area covering two square miles.

We were pleased that our call and Shomrim’s call for the Home Office to engage directly with Shomrim was adopted in the Hate Crime Action Plan, and this must now happen. Shomrim’s unique contribution to the fight against antisemitic crime is more potent and cost-effective than the police working alone, and so there is a strong case for Shomrim’s work to be extended with the help of a Home Office grant.

Last year, our National Antisemitic Crime Audit revealed that antisemitic crime reached a record high with a 26% increase in crime and a 51% leap in antisemitic violence against Jews. There is no more visible target than the Jewish Charedi community and as the intensity of antisemitic crime rises, now is the time for decisive action to strengthen Shomrim and extend their work.

A group of Jews walking in Manchester near a synagogue in Prestwich were reportedly threatened by a man wielding an axe and shouting antisemitic abuse. The incident is said to have taken place on Monday at 13:30 near a synagogue.

According to the Manchester Evening News, a man in a vehicle brandished an axe at the group whilst making antisemitic threats. A 45-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a racially-aggravated public order offence and possession of an offensive weapon. He has been bailed until 31st October.

Sergeant Steve Wightman-Love, of Greater Manchester Police, told the Manchester Evening News: “This incident remains under investigation and officers in the case are continuing to make enquiries. However, I wish to remind everyone that we take all reports of hate crime extremely seriously.”

We will be following the case with interest.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has failed to object to a neo-Nazi rally for hundreds of fascists from across Europe because they believed the organisers’ claims that they were holding a ‘charity event’. They have also claimed that there was no “crime committed” as hundreds of men performed Nazi salutes in response to antisemitic songs and calls of “Seig Heil”.

Blood and Honour, a neo-Nazi organisation banned in many European countries and Russia, held the event on 23rd and 24th September in Haddenham to commemorate the death of its founder, Ian Stuart Donaldson, in a car crash in 1993.

Hundreds of ‘skinhead’ Nazis from around Europe gathered to camp for two days and held a rave in a marquee, singing about Jews and performing Nazi salutes in response to the call of “Sieg Heil” from the stage.

One song’s chorus laments: “Once a nation, now we’re run by Jews” before declaring: “It’s time we drove out the traitors” — clear criminal incitement to racial hatred.

Blood and Honour organise a event every one or two months in the UK, but this was a major event at which approximately three quarters of attendees came from Europe. A witness told the BBC that there were “a lot of cars, a big bonfire and a lot of music…The one that I heard was a song about white power and this kept going on and on. It was very loud and distinctive.”

The event required a permit from East Cambridgeshire District Council and during the application process Cambridgeshire Constabulary were asked whether they had objections. They said they had none, as the organiser claimed that the event was in aid of Help for Heroes. Help for Heroes, which assists injured soldiers and their families said that the event had nothing to do with them, and that they would not accept donations from extremist organisations.

Now, a Cambridgeshire Constabulary spokesman has told Cambridge News that “We had been in contact with other forces about similar events and were aware of a possible right wing element” but that there was no “crime committed”, despite the brazen antisemitic slogans and Nazi salutes.

From the footage that has emerged, it is very clear that multiple criminal offences have been committed and Cambridgeshire Constabulary must immediately investigate.

blood-honour-2

In response to requests from our supporters, our guide to the law of antisemitism has been updated to include the offence of carrying, wearing or displaying articles which give rise to reasonable suspicion of support for terrorist organisations, including terrorist organisations which seek to murder Jews such as Hamas. The addition to our guide can be read on our website.

Shomrim is supporting the victims of an incident today in which a man approached a Jewish school and shouted “Jews, dirty Jews, I’m Hitler, I’ll kill the Jews” amongst other racist abuse. The incident took place in Stamford Hill at approximately 15:10 today. The perpetrator is described as a black male. No arrests have been made and any witnesses should call the police on 101, quoting reference CAD 5609 06/10/16.

Self-described “Labour activist” Kevine Walcott has subjected a Channel 4 interviewer and the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust to a tirade on Twitter, claiming that Jews should apologise for the slave trade.

The incident took place as Channel 4’s Cathy Newman interviewed disgraced Corbyn ally Jackie Walker over remarks she had made about Jews and the Holocaust, including that Jews were the “chief financiers” of the slave trade, a proposition described by the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project at University College, London as based on “no evidence whatsoever.”

Walcott assumed that Newman was Jewish and demanded in tweets that Newman personally apologise for the slave trade, writing: “you and jewish community has never apologise for your well documented role in the slave trade and its the greatest holocaust [all sic]”.

Walcott followed up with an unsolicited tweet to the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock, calling her a “slave trade denyer [sic]” and “the greatest racist in world” and demanding that she “apologise for the slave trade”.

Various Twitter users said that they would be reporting Walcott to the Labour Party, however the Party now keeps the outcome of its disciplinary process secret, so it is unlikely that we will find out whether Walcott in fact suffers any consequences for her comments.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “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.

 

Disgraced Labour Party activist Jackie Walker has been removed from her post as Vice-Chair of influential pro-Corbyn campaigning group Momentum following remarks in which she criticised Holocaust Memorial Day and counter-terrorism security at Jewish schools.

In a statement, Momentum said that its Steering Committee had voted to remove Walker, but claimed that she had not said anything antisemitic. However, Walker remains a member of Momentum’s powerful Steeing Committee, and though she has reportedly been suspended from the Labour Party, the Party has refused to confirm her status, or the status of any future cases of antisemitism.

Walker has previously been suspended from the Labour Party and then readmitted after claiming that 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.”

Jackie Walker is an antisemite.

She stated that Jews were “chief financiers” of the African slave trade, a decades-discredited canard by Louis Farrakhan described by the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project at University College, London as based on “no evidence whatsoever.”

Jackie Walker is antisemitic, not merely because we say so, but because she has breached the international definition of antisemitism by “making mendacious, demeaning or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such, or about the power of Jews as a collective…”

In addition, she has accused “Jews as a people of real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews” and projecting “sinister stereotypes and negative character traits”.

How this naked racist was readmitted to the Labour Party is a closed mystery, despite our enquiries. She has a close friendship with Jeremy Corbyn, who this month publicly embraced her on stage after her readmission, and sang her praises at a Jewish community centre husting. She also enjoyed support for her return from cheerleaders such as Owen Jones and a wide range of support elsewhere.

All who supported her are complicit, and a disgrace to this country’s traditions of tolerance.

She has subsequently, at Labour conference, diminished the significance of the Holocaust to Jews and questioned whether Jewish schools need special protection. In this she has pursued the modern antisemitic project of attempting to diminish Jewish suffering and remove Jews’ protection, so that they may once again be victimised. In an interview with Channel 4 News, she explicitly referred, twice, to Holocaust Memorial Day as a “celebration” perhaps revealing that she thinks that the Holocaust is something Jews benefit from in some way. The right-wing version is outright Holocaust denial, but on the Left, Holocaust denial is by a thousand cuts.

Walker further stated there was no definition of antisemitism she could “work with”, so what definitions does she use? Could it be the international definition of antisemitism quoted above, re-endorsed by 31 countries this year, including our own, as used everywhere from the UK College of Policing to the US Department of State? No. According to a statement she issued on Wednesday apologising “if offence has been caused”, it turns out she prefers a jokey internet sheet penned by a comedian.

Meanwhile, the Labour party sits on its hands and again fails to execute the justice that should have been instant. In addition, Walker now enjoys the protection of the Chakrabarti report, which conveniently allows justice to be done (perhaps) but not to be seen to be done.

Jewish New Year marks the beginning of the ten days of penitence, wherein Jews look inward to repent of their sins, in the hope they will be judged for good in the year to come. We strongly recommend to the Labour Party that they follow the same course, by repenting of their racism, adopting the international definition of antisemitism endorsed by their nation and police forces, and ensuring that justice is done and seen to be done.

The Labour Party will no longer reveal the outcomes of disciplinary cases, and will keep the public guessing as to whether Party members such as Jackie Walker are suspended, expelled or even punished at all. The revelation came as Labour began responding to questions about Jackie Walker with the line: “We don’t comment on individuals’ membership status.” The new approach appears to be the invention of Baroness Chakrabarti, who wrote a report whitewashing Labour’s antisemitism problem.

Despite being a qualified barrister, in endorsing a secret disciplinary process Baroness Chakrabarti has done away with a century of British jurisprudence. It has been a foundation of modern British justice that “Justice should be done and seen to be done.” In coining the phrase in 1924, Lord Chief Justice Hewart ruled in the case of R v Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy ([1924] 1 KB 256, [1923] All ER Rep 233) that: “a long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.”

The Labour Party’s disciplinary process is not administered by the British justice system, but it should be bound by its key principles. There could be some justification for not commenting until a verdict has been reached, but concealing the outcome of disciplinary proceedings from public scrutiny removes any assurance that justice has been served and completely destroys the legitimacy of the disciplinary process.

The Labour Party has historically fought for a fair and open judicial process, yet today’s Labour Party will shield itself and the antisemites subject to disciplinary proceedings from scrutiny.

Labour MP Alison McGovern became visibly emotional today when a senior Labour activist claimed that a Jewish Labour MP had staged an antisemitic incident as a means to attack Jeremy Corbyn.

The activist who made the claim, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, is Vice Chair of the Chingford branch of the Chingford and Woodford Green Constituency Labour Party, and the founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods.

As Alison McGovern and others in the studio shook their heads in disgust, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi alleged that Ruth Smeeth, a Jewish Labour MP, had used an antisemitic incident to “completely undermine the launch of a really important report about racism”, referring to Baroness Chakrabarti’s whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. Ms Wimborne-Idrissi said that Ms Smeeth was clearly motivated to concoct the incident because she “is against Corbyn, against his whole Socialist vision”.

Continuing, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi claimed that the Jewish MP’s supposed ruse had worked: “Did anybody know about racism after the release of that report? No they didn’t. All they knew was that an angry Jewish MP had run out of the room. That’s all they knew…The Chakrabarti Commission has been undermined at every turn by people like Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman [another Jewish Labour MP] and others like them who have a political agenda. The question of antisemitism is being used as a weapon in a political battle.”

The incident came as Jeremy Corbyn closed the Labour Party Conference with a promise to fight antisemitism with his “every breath”.

The conference has been awash with antisemitic incidents which we are yet to see met with any kind of disciplinary action.

The only Labour Councillor in Shepway, Claire Jeffrey, has left the Labour Party, saying: “As a Jew, I can’t stay in a party that tolerates antisemitism.” Shepway District Council leader David Monk added: “She finds the party she knew and loved is no longer there.”

Later, writing on the Facebook page of Sussex Friends of Israel, Councillor Jeffrey, who represents East Folkestone, commented: “I just cannot stay in a party that tolerates antisemitism and terrorists…Sadly Jews are just not welcome in Corbyn’s Labour. It has been really hard but I had to be true to myself and my beliefs.” Asked by other Facebook users why her Twitter profile had disappeared, she wrote: “I deactivated my Twitter temporarily because I am receiving all sorts of abuse and threats.”

Earlier this week, Lord Parry Mitchell resigned from the Labour Party for the same reason, saying that the leadership of the Labour Party “flirts with antisemitism”.

Dozens of student leaders from around the UK have signed an open letter condemning antisemitism within the National Union of Students (NUS).

The letter condemns the leadership of NUS, but the specific criticism is all aimed at the actions of Malia Bouattia, the new President NUS. In the letter, the student leaders write: “Over the past 6 months, NUS’ Leadership has rightly come under increased scrutiny for its attitude towards Jewish students. They have been held to account for undermining Jewish students’ ability to elect their own representatives, and challenged on antisemitic rhetoric.”

The letter said that “Time and time again Jewish students have not felt safe participating in our national movement, because of the actions and rhetoric of leadership of NUS.” The letter ended with a plea to Jewish students not to feel isolated, and the student leaders even apologised to Jewish students for what had been done in the name of NUS: “We, the undersigned, stand with Jewish students in their right to feel represented, safe and welcome in participating in NUS’ democracy. We must listen to Jewish students when they say something is antisemitic. We apologise for anything or anyone that would make you feel otherwise, and promise to respect, champion and listen to your concerns. The student movement and NUS is absolutely a place for you.”

NUS has been plagued by students’ unions disaffiliating from the national union over antisemitism and other issues.

Fresh from her reinstatement to the party, following her suspension for claiming that Jews were behind the slave trade, Vice Chair of Momentum Jackie Walker has told delegates at the Labour Party Conference that Holocaust Memorial Day is not inclusive enough and that Jewish schools do not need special security.

In response to another delegate, she said that Holocaust Memorial Day should be “open to all peoples who’ve experienced Holocaust” and as delegates angrily heckled her, she told the room: “I was a bit concerned…at your suggestions that the Jewish community is under such threat that they have to use security in all its buildings…I have a grandson, he is a year old. There is security in his nursery and every school has security now. It’s not because I’m frightened or his parents are frightened that he is going to be attacked.” On Monday she said that antisemitism was being “exaggerated” to “undermine Jeremy”.

It is hard to draw any conclusion from her latest outburst other than that she thinks that Holocaust education should focus less on antisemitism, and that the brutal murder of Jews around Europe, including the shooting of Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse four years ago by Islamist terrorist Mohammed Merah, is somehow not linked to antisemitism.

Jackie Walker is in denial about antisemitism at the same time as perpetrating it. It is beyond disgraceful that she was readmitted to the Labour Party and remains Vice Chair of Momentum.

Shortly after her outburst, Jeremy Corbyn closed the Labour Party Conference with a promise to fight antisemitism with his “every breath” but this is just the latest in a string of incidents involving Jackie Walker. What is there to investigate? How many more chances will she be given? Enough is enough. Jackie Walker must be expelled from the Labour Party and Momentum immediately and condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Until Labour matches its rhetoric with action, we remain of the view that the Labour Party is not safe for Jews.

This year has been a tumultuous one. Antisemitism on the far-left burst into the national consciousness with the Labour antisemitism crisis, which continues at this very moment, reawakening society to the evil threat that antisemitism poses. The far-right continues to regain its foothold without fear of repercussions, with worrying signs of success on campuses. The state’s failure to robustly tackle Islamism has been laid bare by the two-decade wait for the conviction of Anjem Choudary.

Never has the need for our campaign been greater. Our National Antisemitic Crime Audit revealed that antisemitic hate crime is at its highest ever level, having soared by 26% in a year (with a 51% leap in violent attacks on Jews) yet the Crown Prosecution Service is failing to take action.

Yet we have risen to the challenge.

  • We have been at the forefront of the fight to expose antisemitism in political parties, providing a powerful voice against antisemitism in the media. Indeed today, for the third time in a week, a story we instigated will be in the national papers and our volunteers will be fielded for major broadcast interviews.
  • Some of our key recommendations have been adopted as policy by the government, including a review of hate crime handling by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
  • We have released legal guidance to the Jewish community explaining how to ensure that the police take action against antisemitism.
  • We have used our Everyday Antisemitism service to help journalists shine a spotlight on antisemitic incidents that would otherwise go unnoticed.
  • Our Investigations and Enforcement team has exposed antisemitism amongst people in positions of power, from politicians through to professionals of every variety, working with regulatory bodies to ensure that antisemites pay a high cost for their acts.
  • We have published unused figures from a Channel 4 survey evidencing the extent of antisemitism amongst British Muslims.

In the coming weeks we will release our 2016 Antisemitism Barometer, revealing the level of antisemitic prejudice in society and its effects on British Jews. We will be expanding our Outreach and Education programme. We will continue to hold the authorities to account when they fail to enforce the law (particularly the Crown Prosecution Service).

We do what we do because this is the fight for the future of British Jews and we cannot afford to lose.

We will continue to recruit impressive, talented individuals who give literally thousands of hours of their time to do all of this work, week in, week out.

And we will continue to rely on your donations to cover the costs our work, especially as we take the authorities to court when they fail to defend British Jews, and as we hire a small team of three employees to support and coordinate the work done by our volunteers.

This Rosh Hashanah, if you care about the future of British society, please help us to beat antisemitism back into the shadows by volunteering or donating. We are reliant upon you for success.

We wish all of our Jewish supporters a shana tova.

A poll of 1,857 British Jewish adults by Campaign Against Antisemitism has found that 87% of British Jews believe that the Labour Party is too tolerant of antisemites in its ranks. Most other parties also fared badly, with 35-48% of British Jews believing that they harboured antisemites. It was only the Conservative Party which scored better, with 12% of British Jews criticising the way that the party handles cases of antisemitism.

The polling was conducted as part of CAA’s Antisemitism Barometer study which will be released in full next year.

Respondents were asked: “Do you feel that any political parties are too tolerant of antisemitism among their MPs, members and supporters?” The results were as follows:

Labour Party: 87%
Conservative Party: 12%
Liberal Democrat Party: 35%
UK Independence Party (UKIP): 43%
Green Party: 48%
Scottish National Party (SNP): 39%
None of the above: 2%
Don’t know: 4%

The results constitute a stark warning over the rise of antisemitism in left-wing political parties. The shift is particularly notable because the Labour Party and left-wing parties were once responsible for leading the fight against racism, whereas this polling shows that British Jews now consider them to be the most tolerant of antisemitism.

Whereas each of the parties concerned has strong policies against racism, the figures show that the Jewish community does not believe that those policies are implemented firmly when it comes to antisemitism. This is likely to be due to a series of failures to deal with individual incidents, such as those involving Labour’s Sir Gerald Kaufman, and the Liberal Democrats’ Baroness Tonge.

It is important to note that there is no evidence that parties’ supporters favour a soft approach to antisemitism. The failure to deal robustly with antisemitism is more likely to be a result of a failure to recognise and understand the many guises of modern antisemitism.

The two major right-wing parties fared very differently. UKIP, which has had several high-profile problems with racism, was felt by 43% of British Jews to tolerate antisemitism in its ranks. Of particular note is that UKIP was rated badly by half as many British Jews as Labour, which has strong roots in the anti-racist movement. In contrast, 12% of British Jews — the lowest of any party — found the Conservatives’ treatment of antisemites to be problematic.

In response to the rise of antisemitism in political parties, CAA is launching its manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties. It calls on parties to commit to three principles: parties should adopt the ‘international’ definition of antisemitism used by the College of Policing; they should investigate antisemitism swiftly and transparently; and they should treat antisemitism by party members in public office particularly severely.

 

The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee has decided that the Labour Party Conference should not vote on new rules that would enable the party to more easily expel antisemitic members.

The Party has been plagued by an ongoing antisemitism crisis which is being excruciatingly badly handled by the Party’s institutions and leadership. Campaign Against Antisemitism has said that “the Labour Party is no longer a safe place for British Jews.”

Responding to the decision in a speech to delegates at the Labour Party Conference, the Jewish Labour Movement’s Mike Katz said that he felt “beyond disappointed”. As he told the delegates that the Jewish Labour Movement would not be “going anywhere” he was met with contrasting open heckling and a standing ovation. He told the delegates that their applause “meant a lot” to the whole Jewish community.

The Labour Party has for some time made loud promises about tackling antisemitism and it is well past time that those promises were acted upon. Applause is very welcome, but it is utterly meaningless whilst the Party fails to act against antisemitism. We did not consider Labour’s proposed rule changes to be adequate as they do not include the definition of antisemitism, but for the discussion of even those deficient rule changes to be postponed by a year is the surest possible indication of the urgency with which the Labour Party intends to address its antisemitism problem.

In a powerful essay for the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has decried the tendency in society to be dismissive of antisemitism, writing: “Antisemitism is at the heart of racism. Yet, because it is so deeply entrenched in our thought and culture, it is often ignored and dismissed.”

Showing a strong grasp of the potent ability of antisemitism to mutate, he wrote: “It latches onto a variety of different issues: financial inequality, wars and depressions, education, politics and government, grave international issues, such as the rights of Israelis and Palestinians, and interfaith tensions. It twists them to its own ends, with the perverted and absurd argument that a small group runs or plots against our society and manipulates international affairs.”

The Archbishop also had strong words about the role of the Church of England in the spread of antisemitism, writing: “It is a shameful truth that, through its theological teachings, the church, which should have offered an antidote, compounded the spread of this virus.”

As patron of the Council of Christians and Jews, the Archbishop has warm relations with the Jewish community. In his essay he listed some of the accomplishments of British Jews and called on society to act against antisemitism for the good of all of society: “The goal is ambitious but attainable: if we eliminate antisemitism we take a huge step in undermining the whole tradition of racism in our society.”

Universities are incredibly diverse places, with a wide array of cultures and nations represented on campus. This diversity has led to a new-found level of respect and tolerance in which students of all backgrounds can flourish. This has not been the case for Jewish students.

While ‘safe spaces’ have been instituted to protect minority students, Jewish students have found that their rights are not respected; they have found themselves subject to hostility and aggression with examples of rising antisemitism across the country from Oxford University Labour Club to Birmingham to York to Edinburgh and many more, antisemitic incidents are becoming increasingly concerning. This is epitomised by NUS and the problems surrounding their leadership.

Antisemitism, it seems, is given free reign on campus with little intervention by campus authorities or student representatives.

It is time for students to stand up and do the job that those in positions of responsibility are failing to do: to push antisemitism off campus. Through the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s three-pronged approach of monitoring, exposing and educating we aim to fight back against hate within universities.

If you are a student and are concerned by the tolerance and prevalence of antisemitism on campus, you can join our Monitoring team to track antisemitic incidents on your campus, become a contributor to our online news source Everyday Antisemitism which publicises antisemitic incidents, or join our Outreach and Education team and fight the ignorance and hate that lies at the root of antisemitism.

To join up, visit antisemitism.org/campus.

The Liberal Democrat Party has written to people who complained about remarks by Baroness Tonge to tell them that it was “offensive” for her to have held British Jews accountable for the perceived actions of the State of Israel, but that her remarks “still fall short of being racist”.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

Baroness Tonge — who was forced to resign the Liberal Democrat whip in the House of Lords over antisemitism, but still remains a member of the main Party — made a speech in July calling on “Jewish faith leaders in the United Kingdom publicly to condemn settlement building by Israel and to make clear their support for universal human rights.” Tonge also claimed that Palestinian terrorist groups have a “justified grudge” against Israel, effectively defending the terrorism that is aimed at Jewish people in Israel and around the world by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organisations. She had previously called for an investigation into supposed Israeli harvesting of human organs, which is the modern-day incarnation of the mediaeval antisemitic blood libel.

When we called on our supporters to complain to the Liberal Democrat Party, the Party bizarrely responded that they would investigate if they received complaints. We then confirmed that our complaint was already a complaint and heard nothing more. Meanwhile Baroness Tonge wrote a misleading letter to The Independent claiming that Campaign Against Antisemitism was in fact an organisation which secretly opposed organ donation.

Today, minutes after we had complained about Liberal Democrat Matthew Gordon Banks’ outburst on Twitter that Jews have control over Party leader Tim Farron, we received an e-mail regarding Baroness Tonge from Jeanne Tarrant, Pastoral Care Officer for the Liberal Democrats.

Ms Tarrant wrote: “We are a liberal party that places immense value on freedom of speech. That includes the freedom to criticise in the strongest terms the actions of states and governments and the causal effects of their policies. However, we also believe we must be very alert to instances where Liberal Democrats cross that line from articulating views that may well be genuinely and passionately held, but offensive, to, in the context of Israel and Palestine, using language or making arguments that are antisemitic. Having reviewed your complaint, our view is that an opinion can be controversial – and even offensive – but still fall short of being racist. Any desire not to offend also needs to be balanced against the right to criticise in the strongest terms the actions of states and governments which is what was happened on this occasion in her House of Lords speech.”

If you believe that Ms Tarrant is wrong, and that she should be applying the definition of antisemitism which prohibits “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” then please e-mail her at [email protected]. You may wish to copy Tim Farron at [email protected].

Jackie Walker, the Vice-Chair of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn caucus within the Labour Party, has reportedly claimed that antisemitism is being “exaggerated” and that the “aim of such allegations is to undermine Jeremy [Corbyn]”.

Walker was suspended and then readmitted to the Labour Party after claiming that Jews were the “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade” and suggesting that Jews murdered during the Holocaust were “victims to some extent through choice”.

According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to accuse Jews of an orchestrated conspiracy designed to subvert political processes, for example by inventing or exaggerating antisemitism en masse as a means by which to weaken a political leader.

Flyers distributed at the Labour Party Conference have called for the expulsion of the Jewish Labour Movement from the Party. The flyers charge that the Jewish affiliate of the Labour Party is using trumped up accusations of antisemitism as a cynical ploy to attack Jeremy Corbyn, motivated by an overriding loyalty to “a foreign power, Israel.” The flyers end a call for the Jewish Labour Movement to be expelled from the Party.

According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to allege that Jews are engaged in a conspiracy to subvert political processes, and to accuse Jews of an overriding loyalty to Israel which causes them to act against the interests of their countrymen.

The flyer was circulated by a group calling itself the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, whose UK chapter is primarily engaged in trying to stop the UK Jewish Film Festival from taking place, according to its website.

The Jewish Labour Movement has also held an event against antisemitism in a pub next to the Labour Party Conference at which Baroness Shami Chakrabarti was invited to speak.

Matthew Gordon Banks, a senior Liberal Democrat adviser who defected to the Party after losing his seat as a Conservative MP, has decried Jewish financial control over Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron. He reportedly tweeted: “What fascinates me is that Farron’s leadership campaign was organised and funded by London Jews” and then added: “I tried to work with them. Very difficult.”

Facing a backlash on social media, the former MP for Southport explained that he was “right” and that “real pressure” had been put on him by Jews when he was an MP, claiming that the religion of the donors to a campaign “affects policy”.

According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to make “stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective”.

You may wish to write to the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, Tim Farron MP, at [email protected], copying Jeanne Tarrant, Pastoral Care Officer at [email protected].

In July, we complained that Baroness Jenny Tonge, who is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party despite having been expelled from the Party in the House of Lords over antisemitism, had declared that British Jews had a special duty to criticise Israel. The Liberal Democrat Party responded to complaints by saying that they would investigate if they received complaints, and then began ignoring e-mails.

https://twitter.com/mwgbanks/status/779952625299099648

Lord Parry Mitchell has announced his resignation from the Labour Party in an anguished article in the Huffington Post, saying that the Party “flirts with antisemitism”.

Writing that he felt forced to “divorce” his party, Lord Mitchell said that he was “devastated”. Lord Mitchell cited the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as well as Shami Chakrabarti’s whitewash of a report into antisemitism in the party and Corbyn’s ennoblement of Chakrabarti as the triggers for his resignation.

Lord Mitchell concluded:

“For me it was the Chakrabarti Report on antisemitism in the Labour Party that finally made me snap. I met Shami whilst she was preparing her report (ironically sitting in the sun on the Terrace at the House of Lords), we had a pleasant enough conversation and when we parted I had high hopes that she would be hard hitting, but she wasn’t, it was an anaemic whitewash. Corbyn then offering her a peerage was to me the final indignity.

“I will never forget how at the launch of Shami’s report, Corbyn stood by when a Momentum thug hurled a tirade of invective against Ruth Smeeth MP, so abusive that she left in tears. It was masterful inaction: Corbyn who should have protected her, joked with a colleague and did nothing.

“After a gut-wrenching summer my choice is now clear. How can I, a Jew and a Zionist, remain in a party where the leadership is so clearly hostile to Israel (even to its very existence) and which also flirts with antisemitism? In the end it was an easy decision, but that makes it none the less painful.”

Lord Mitchell was making good on a promise to resign if Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected, which was published in The Times.

Jeremy Corbyn was today re-elected by Labour members to lead the Labour Party. Yesterday, Campaign Against Antisemitism instigated disciplinary proceedings against Jeremy Corbyn over his promotion of the lie that accusations of antisemitism are dishonest and nefarious.

Reacting to the election result, Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The evidence shows that Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly promoted the lie that Jewish accusations of antisemitism are dishonest and motivated by hidden agendas. Though notable Labour members have struggled bravely to stem the tide, the Labour Party is no longer a safe place for British Jews. We require the Party to adopt and firmly and transparently apply the international definition of antisemitism to the many outstanding cases amongst its members, including the disciplinary complaint that we have now instigated against Jeremy Corbyn. Though we are an apolitical organisation, we are today speaking out to say that the Labour Party now does more to normalise racism than to oppose it.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has today filed a disciplinary complaint against Jeremy Corbyn. The complaint was made in a letter to Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, for presentation to the Party’s National Executive Committee.

The allegation that Jews lie and deceive in order to further hidden agendas is an age-old antisemitic trope. It has now been manifestly deployed by Mr Corbyn in his leadership campaign video. It falls under the definition of antisemitism used by decent nations around the world — including our own — by “making mendacious…allegations about Jews”.

Although Mr Corbyn and his allies have a long history of association with antisemites, it was not until April 5th this year that he crossed the line and made an antisemitic statement. At that point, when his brother, Piers Corbyn, characterised the antisemitic abuse complained of by Jewish MP Louise Ellman as a politically motivated “absurd” attack on his brother, Jeremy Corbyn agreed, saying his brother “was not wrong”. This, at a time when Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Chief Rabbi and others concerned with the welfare of British Jews had all called for firm action to excise the antisemitism in Labour’s ranks.

What ensued over the following months was an institutionalising of the trope by senior Party figures under Mr Corbyn’s leadership. On May 1st, Diane Abbott MP stated on the Andrew Marr Show that any accusations of antisemitism in Labour were “a smear”, while Len McCluskey declared that the row had been “got up” by Mr Corbyn’s enemies. Ken Livingstone and Rupa Huq MP averred. The message was heeded: in a YouGov Poll a few days later, 49% of Labour members were in agreement.

On the 30th of June, 2016 Ruth Smeeth MP suffered antisemitic abuse at the launch of Baroness Chakrabarti’s whitewash report into antisemitism in the Party. Mr Corbyn was unmoved, failed to intervene and moreover was filmed talking in very familiar terms with the perpetrator after the incident. Again, the signal sent to the public was clear; Ms Smeeth subsequently received 20,000 mostly antisemitic abusive messages in the next twenty-four hours, including death threats. She now requires police protection and a bodyguard to attend the Labour Party conference.

The recent leadership hustings were characterised by Mr Corbyn’s supporters’ groans of ennui whenever Owen Smith raised the subject of antisemitism. Any person truly opposed to racism would have taken action to counter this chilling normalisation of antisemitism by discrediting its victims, but instead Mr Corbyn has compounded it.

This week, Mr Corbyn’s personal Facebook and Twitter accounts released a video featuring supporters declaring they were “tired of hearing” about antisemitism, characterising the Jewish community’s complaints as ‘rubbish’ — physically and metaphorically — to be tossed onto the floor. In an admission of guilt, the video has been withdrawn, but by then it had been viewed and endorsed over 200,000 times, and there has been no rebuttal by Mr Corbyn.

As a result of these accumulated acts committed by Mr Corbyn himself or under his direct leadership, Campaign Against Antisemitism has today filed a complaint with the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. We charge that Mr Corbyn has breached the Party’s Conditions of Membership as set out in Chapter 2, Clause I (8) of the Party’s Rule Book by committing acts grossly detrimental to the Party in characterising Jewish people as dissembling and dishonest in their reporting of antisemitism, and by using the influence and prestige of his office to disseminate and normalise that lie, contrary to Chapter I, Clause IV (2) (B) of the Party’s Constitutional Rules.

Our system of justice depends on our institutions having adequate rules, which must be enforced, and seen to be enforced. Under Mr Corbyn, the Labour Party that was once a pioneer in the fight against racism, has made itself deaf to Jews.

Labour’s institutions have failed to act decisively against Sir Gerald Kaufman MP, Ken Livingstone and countless others. It is now high time that the Party acted to preserve its values, and to defend the much-abused Jewish community against the antisemitic lie promoted by Mr Corbyn that our complaints of antisemitism are hollow and motivated by hidden agendas.

The Labour Party has refused to take any action against a Councillor who shared an antisemitic video produced by a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klax Klan. Birmingham Councillor Zafar Iqbal Said claimed that he had “no idea” how the video came to be posted on his Facebook timeline. According to the Birmingham Mail, the video, entitled “CNN , Goldman Sachs and the Zio Matrix”, was captioned “this video reveals how the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking”.

A Labour Party spokesman told the JC that no action would be taken as, without any investigation, the Party had accepted Councillor Said’s explanation that the video appeared from nowhere, saying: “Councillor Iqbal has apologised, we accept his explanation of what happened and we have reminded him of his responsibilities as a Labour councillor.”

The video is unquestionably antisemitic, using the antisemitic term “Zio” and alleging Jewish or “Zionist” control over banking.

Councillor Said was reportedly appointed Justice of Peace in Solihull Magistrates Court in 2007 and awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to education and the community. In a statement, he told the Birmingham Mail: “I have no recollection of sharing this video and have no idea how it was shared on my Facebook page. Anyone that interacts with me on social media knows that I would never knowingly share any racist, abusive or antisemitic content. Nevertheless — I accept that this content was for a period active on my Facebook page and it is now been deleted. I know that this type of content could cause deep offence and I apologise to anyone who was affected by seeing this material. There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party or in our society — and I will continue to work closely with groups of all faiths in Birmingham against racism and prejudice.”

The failure of the Labour Party to investigate this incident properly is a sad reflection of the fact that the Party is increasingly deaf to Jews. Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn’s Facebook and Twitter accounts released a video about things that his supporters are “tired of hearing”. The video presented each topic on a piece of paper. When antisemitism came up, it was tossed to the floor like rubbish, and the video claimed that accusations of antisemitism were being made by people who are “losing the political argument”.

An 11-year-old Jewish boy has escaped shaken but unhurt after a gang of teenagers surrounded him on a London street and forced him to remove his kippah (Jewish skullcap). According to Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, the boy was approached by at least four black teenagers who told him that unless he removed the kippah, they would beat him. The boy refused to comply and instead managed to escape and run home.

The incident occurred on Leaside Road in Hackney. Any witnesses should call the Metropolitan Police Service on 101 or Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

A man has been convicted of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress after shouting antisemitic abuse at members of Shomrim, London’s Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol.

The incident took place on 5th November 2015 when volunteers from Shomrim were called to a burglary. Whilst they assisted the Muslim victim, Mark Zahra saw the scene and assumed that Shomrim were reporting the Muslim victim to the police and shouted at Shomrim’s volunteers: “F***ing Jewish scum. Why do you keep calling them [the police], because he’s Muslim?”

Last Thursday, following testimony by Shomrim’s volunteers, Mark Zahra was convicted at Wood Green Crown Court of racially aggravated intentional harassment alarm or distress under section 4A of the Public Order Act (see the relevant part of our guide to the Law of Antisemitism).

The sentence was a 12-month Community Order and a curfew for 4 months.

Cases of antisemitism are rarely prosecuted and Shomrim’s swift action and perseverance is to be applauded. In 2015, the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted 15,442 cases of hate crime, but Campaign Against Antisemitism, Shomrim and CST are aware of only twelve prosecutions for antisemitic hate crime, despite the 26% rise in antisemitic hate crime during 2015, which made it the worst year on record.

The Labour Party’s annual conference is to begin this year with a rally “against racism and antisemitism” — a rally intended to “heal” deep rifts in the Party, despite being addressed by one of Labour’s most divisive politicians, the newly ennobled Baroness Chakrabarti.

The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has conducted brisk trade in statements condemning “racism and antisemitism” whilst simultaneously alienating Jews and tolerating brazen antisemites. What makes this latest development so astonishing, is that it is the Jewish Labour Movement, an affiliate of the Labour Party of nearly a century’s standing, which has invited Shami Chakrabarti to speak at their the rally, to be held in a pub near the conference.

The Jewish Labour Movement says the purpose of the rally is to “heal” and “redouble the effort to ensure antisemitism and racism have no place within [Labour]” — a stance that begs the question as to how any such healing can be possible when the wounds are wide open, with new injuries being opened up almost daily?

The Labour Party has become a political home of antisemitism and the Jewish Labour Movement has fought hard to save their Party from its grasp. Nothing has undermined that effort more than Shami Chakrabarti’s whitewash of a report which cleared the Party of antisemitism, a feat for which she was rewarded by ennoblement by Jeremy Corbyn to the very institution that he promised never to promote anyone to.

As a matter of policy we do not comment on the work of other organisations engaged in the fight against antisemitism, but in this case we must make an exception. The Jewish Labour Movement’s decision to invite Shami Chakrabarti to address a rally against antisemitism is misjudged to the point of surrealism. Indeed, the very idea that it is possible to hold a rally in a pub to heal antisemitism in the Labour Party is absurd because the Labour Party, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, continues to deny that its antisemitism problem even exists. That is perhaps why the Jewish Labour Movement’s own poll of its members found that only 4% of them back Jeremy Corbyn in the current leadership election.

When antisemitism reaches the levels it now has within the Labour Party, the only effective strategy is to stand up and defy it with dignity.

Campaign Against Antisemitism Chairman Gideon Falter’s spoke at the Henry Jackson Society’s event in the House of Commons on “Europe in crisis — a shattered haven”. The event was held on 6th September 2016 in Committee Room 14 of the House of Commons. Matthew Offord MP chaired the evening which began with the documentary “Europe in crisis — a shattered haven” followed by speeches by Melanie Phillips, Gideon Falter and Tom Wilson.