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CAA criticises BBC’s Director General for discussing broadcaster’s impartiality in Parliament with no reference to antisemitism

The Director General of the BBC attended a hearing at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, along with the Chair and the Chief Operating Officer, to take questions from MPs on a range of subjects relating to the public service broadcaster, including impartiality.

It was disappointing that, despite our past requests, the Committee did not ask about recent high-profile controversies relating to the BBC’s reportage on issues relating to antisemitism, such as the appalling Oxford Street coverage of last Chanukah, where the BBC baselessly tried to claim that Jewish victims of antisemitic abuse might themselves have made provocative racial remarks.

The Committee also did not explore other areas of BBC bias that have long concerned the community.

Worse still, Tim Davie, the Director General, did not address these issues himself at all. Instead, he insisted that the Corporation was “doing well” when it came to tackling bias and “doing a pretty good job” when it came to neutrality. He said: “We do have hundreds of thousands of hours of output…and overall, I think we are delivering well, I do think that and it’s important we’re proportional about this.”

Whatever Mr Davie thinks, polling that we conducted in 2020 for our Antisemitism Barometer  revealed that two thirds of British Jews were deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55 percent by its handling of antisemitism complaints. It is likely that these figures would be even higher if polled today.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is disappointing that the Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee did not see fit to question Tim Davie on antisemitism, despite our repeated requests for the BBC to be held to account.

“Regardless, Mr Davie’s failure to address the BBC’s lamentable standing amongst British Jews is shameful. Judging issues by the number of complaints received, as Mr Davie does, is a wholly unjust metric for a minority as small as the Jewish community. His insistence that, ‘overall, I think we are delivering well,’ clashes profoundly with the experience of British Jews. Our polling has shown that two thirds of the Jewish community is deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and a majority by its handling of antisemitism complaints, the process for which is notoriously demeaning and Kafkaesque. These are not figures that reflect satisfaction with the broadcaster’s supposed impartiality, and the BBC cannot claim to be upholding its obligation to be impartial as long as the Jewish community views our nation’s public service broadcaster as biased against Jews and the issues that they care about.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].

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“They need to see zero tolerance towards antisemitism”: Rabbi Menachem Margolin on what European countries must do to ensure Jewish life

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the Chairman and founder of the European Jewish Association (EJA), an organisation that promotes and defends Jewish interests in Europe, a large part of which involves raising awareness of, and tackling, antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about the EJA’s first-of-its-kind index which polled the best European countries for Jews to live in.

When asked if he was surprised that the report ranked Italy and Hungary as the top two countries for Jews to live in, while Poland, Belgium and France came out bottom, he said that he was not.

“What is important is not what the media says” he said. “We have to concentrate on what is important for Jewish life.”

Rabbi Margolin said that in the case of Hungary, he noticed “a renaissance of Jewish life” taking place, noting the country’s growth of synagogues as an indicator.

Rabbi Margolin said that he hoped that world leaders would take notice of the findings and that they would back up any promises to enhance Jewish life with actions. 

“The action,” he explained, “is providing the Jewish communities the conditions they need to grow. They need security, they need freedom of religion, they need support, they need to see zero tolerance towards antisemitism, they need to see the government is really committed to combating antisemitism, they would like to see governments treat Israel in a fair way; not with double standards.”

Throughout the interview, Rabbi Margolin touched upon a variety of other issues which included the rise of antisemitism in the United States and his advice for tackling antisemitism.

The podcast with Rabbi Margolin can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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CAA reveals Abdel Bari Atwan believes “massive Jewish institutions” try to silence him because they “believe they own the entire universe and control all the media”

Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that the inflammatory broadcaster and regular BBC contributor, Abdel Bari Atwan, believes that “massive Jewish institutions” try to silence him and others because they “believe they own the entire universe and control all the media.”

In an interview broadcast on the Beirut-based, Arabic-language Al-Mayadeen news channel on 14th April 2022 that has been unearthed by Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Online Monitoring and Investigations Unit, Mr Atwan complained of a campaign of as long as 25 years to silence him “led by Israeli security services, Mossad, Shabak and others.” At the time that the interview was broadcast, the JC was urging YouTube to remove a video of Mr Atwan where he reportedly “railed against ‘Jewish Israeli lobbies’ in Parliament, calling the terrorists who killed Israelis ‘martyrs’ and describing their actions as ‘a legitimate right’.” The JC also reported at the time that Mr Atwan characterised the shooting of three Israelis in Tel Aviv as a “miracle” and described the terrorist as a “hero” and those fleeing for their lives were, he claimed, “like mice”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is now able to reveal that Mr Atwan, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the Rai al-Youm Arabic news and opinion website, asserted in the newly-unearthed interview that “in the UK, as well as in many European countries, Israel is considered above the law. It can challenge whomever [it] wants, it can muzzle mouths.” He went on to engage in antisemitism-denial, declaring that “We have witnessed how Israel and its lobbies succeeded in sabotaging the UK Labour Party and isolating the Chairman, who is Jeremy Corbyn [sic], by means of campaigns and accusations that he is, I mean, antisemitic.”

Speaking in Arabic throughout, he also complained that he was not able to refer to a terrorist who murdered Jewish Israelis in Tel Aviv as a “martyr” because of Israeli interference in the media, saying: “Now that things have evolved so that you are forbidden from describing these martyrs as martyrs. These Israelis started interfering with everything. Look, six, I mean, colleagues, journalists, they expelled them from Deutsche Welle, the German television, just because they criticised Israel.”

He was referring to the sacking of several journalists at the German broadcaster after it emerged that they had reportedly used antisemitic language, such as saying that a “Jewish lobby controls many German institutions” to prevent criticism of Israel, and comparing Jews to “ants” that had invaded “through our weak points.”

Mr Atwan emphasised in his interview that “now the Zionists have succeeded in taking control over the media outlets,” and that “They [the Zionists] [have] become stronger than international laws, stronger than British laws, stronger than German laws.” Referring to the Tel Aviv terrorist attack in April, he insisted that “resistance is a legitimate right, all laws have enshrined it, secular and divine.”

Asked by the interviewer, “Who exactly are the bodies who aim to silence Abdel Bari Atwan and seek to incite against him in the UK?” Mr Atwan answered: “Massive institutions. Massive Jewish institutions. And institutions loyal to Israel. And there are also parties. These parties, for example, the Conservative Party, right now, it is controlled, there is control, one way or another, by these institutions, they want it to adopt what is the Israeli policy. There is also the Labour Party, there are groups, Israel’s friends in the Labour Party, Israel’s friends in the Conservative Party, it is they who want to silence us. They want to enforce the Israeli policies upon us. This is the story.

“And these people, they have deep roots in British society. However, in exchange there are people who support the right cause, the cause of justice, the Palestinian cause, and defend it. They were expelled from British parties because of these positions. But they, these people, although the number of Jews in the UK does not exceed 350,000, 400,000 people, nevertheless, they have seventy members in the House of Commons, do you hear? Seventy representatives in the British Parliament, because they have formidable financial power and economic power, and all of them form an alliance against Abdel Bari Atwan. It is because they don’t want voices. They know the extent of these voices’ influence. They know the extent to which people have reacted to these voices, the extent of the blow to their plans of obstruction and coverup in which these Jewish Israeli lobbies engage within British society. This is the gravity of the matter.”

Needless to say, there are not seventy Jewish MPs in the House of Commons and, even if there were, that should not be a cause for concern, any more than if numerous MPs from any other ethnic or religious minority were sat in Parliament in noteworthy numbers.

Mr Atwan ended by claiming that these interests were pressuring the BBC to stop featuring him, but that, he is relieved, thus far the BBC has resisted, concluding: “[They] believe that they own the entire universe, that they control all the media. This is the truth.”

The Al-Mayadeen news channel is viewed by some as pro-Hizballah and supportive of the Syrian Government.

This revelation comes after the BBC came under pressure yet again for hosting Mr Atwan after other recent inflammatory comments.

The controversy relates to a JC report that Mr Atwan recently defended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remark that Israel has committed “50 Holocausts” and his refusal to condemn the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack on Israeli athletes. Mr Abbas was condemned by the German Chancellor for his comments, which he made at a joint press conference with the Chancellor on a visit to Berlin, and is facing an investigation by German police.

Mr Atwan reportedly wrote in an article for the news site Raialyoum earlier this month: “I support [Mahmoud Abbas’s] refusal to apologise for the killing of 11 Israeli participants at the 1974 (sic) Munich Olympics, and his use of the term ‘holocausts’ to describe the many massacres to which Palestinians have been subjected by Israeli forces.”

He also reportedly claimed in the article that the Munich terror attack was “not committed by Abbas or by the Black September squad that abducted them” but by “Israeli Mossad operatives and German police,” apparently adding: “[Israeli Prime Minister Yair] Lapid’s hands are soaked in the blood of Palestinian children…Israel, supported by Germany’s guilt complex, considers itself above any law and feels free to twist the facts.”

On the same day as the article, Mr Atwan appeared on the BBC’s Dateline London programme, and said in relation to the recent violent attack on the author Sir Salman Rushdie: “The Satanic Verses actually is blasphemy completely and it is offensive. You know, Salman Rushdie, he was very, very cruel when he talked about the Prophet Muhammad and his wives, and actually, to talk about the wives of the Prophet is really very, very dangerous.” The attack is believed to have been inspired by the fatwa issued and promoted by Iran’s theocratic regime, which has a long history of antisemitic policies.

In 2007, Atwan is reported to have said: “If Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.” In 2010, it is claimed that Atwan told an audience at the London School of Economics that “the Jewish lobby… [is] endangering the whole world”. In 2021, he is reported to have said that “Israel today is in a state of confusion and panic, they know very well that what happened in Kabul airport will repeat itself at Ben Gurion airport. But Ben Gurion Airport will be closed, there will be no planes in it, they will have no other option but to flee through the sea.  By Allah, they should listen to the advice of Hassan Nasrallah and start learning how to swim because their only option will be Cyprus, their only option will be the Mediterranean Sea.” Mr Nasrallah is the leader of the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hizballah.

Mr Atwan’s remarks have drawn concern that he may be accused of having glorified terrorism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the BBC and considering legal options.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These new revelations of Abdel Bari Atwan’s apparent view that ‘massive Jewish institutions’ are silencing him, that ‘Zionists’ control the media and that it is lamentable how many Jews there are in Parliament because of the Jews’ ‘formidable financial power’ must surely now force the BBC to drop him as a regular contributor. This man has no place on our television screens, and it is shameful that the BBC has yet to recognise that. We shall be writing to the BBC and considering legal action over Mr Atwan’s possible glorification of terrorism.”

Polling that we conducted in 2020 for our Antisemitism Barometer already revealed that two thirds of British Jews were deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. It is likely that these figures would be even higher if polled today.

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].

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Policewoman once praised for confronting anti-lockdown protestors suspended after posting inflammatory social media messages and being in contact with suspect Jihadist in Syria

A policewoman who received praise for confronting lockdown protestors has been suspended after apparently posting inflammatory social media messages and being in contact with a suspected Jihadist in Syria.

In August 2021, the Metropolitan Police launched an urgent investigation into Ruby Begum, 26, who joined the Metropolitan Police in 2016 and inspired others as a young officer wearing a hijab on the frontline of police work.

However, it was alleged that she posted social media messages in 2014 comparing Israel to Nazis, in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism, and referred to non-Muslims as “kuffars”.

The officer from the Met’s Taskforce, a unit which deals with public order, is alleged to have written on Twitter in January 2015: “It’s alright when Israel does it #HolocaustRemembranceDay,” as well as “Zionists have no hearts! They’ll get what’s coming to them subhanallah [glory be to God]” and “Dirty Zionist. Jahannam [hell] is awaiting.”

In 2014, on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she allegedly wrote: “Must be stupid if you think I’m gonna do 2mins silence for 9/11.” On the 2019 anniversary, by which time she was working in the Met, she is claimed to have written: “Omg it’s 9/11 today? Jokes, I only noticed.”

Ms Begum has also reportedly written, “Kuffar lips have been all over my mug there is no way I’m using that thing again” and is claimed to have described Pakistanis as “p***s”.

She is further believed to have communicated for many months with a woman thought to have left Europe for the ISIS caliphate in Syria in 2014, and Ms Begum also reportedly disclosed without explanation that her own passport had been confiscated for a month, raising serious questions about the Met’s vetting processes. It is understood that there is no indication that Ms Begum ever tried to join ISIS or travel to Syria herself, and that some of her tweets express disgust at the terrorist group’s activities.

Ms Begum’s suspension comes after The Independent Office for Police Conduct launched an investigation once The Mail on Sunday drew attention to the case, with Ms Begum initially being placed on “restricted duties”.Recently, the Metropolitan Police saw one of its own convicted for far-right terrorism.

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CAA to complain to BBC over latest regular appearance of inflammatory Abdel Bari Atwan

The inflammatory broadcaster and regular BBC contributor, Abdel Bari Atwan, has appeared on the BBC News channel once again, despite his recent inflammatory comments.

The JC reported that Mr Atwan recently defended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remark that Israel has committed “50 Holocausts” and his refusal to condemn the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack on Israeli athletes. Mr Abbas was condemned by the German Chancellor for his comments, which he made at a joint press conference with the Chancellor on a visit to Berlin, and is facing an investigation by German police.

Mr Atwan reportedly wrote in an article for the news site Raialyoum earlier this month: “I support [Mahmoud Abbas’s] refusal to apologise for the killing of 11 Israeli participants at the 1974 (sic) Munich Olympics, and his use of the term ‘holocausts’ to describe the many massacres to which Palestinians have been subjected by Israeli forces.”

He also reportedly claimed in the article that the Munich terror attack was “not committed by Abbas or by the Black September squad that abducted them” but by “Israeli Mossad operatives and German police,” apparently adding: “[Israeli Prime Minister Yair] Lapid’s hands are soaked in the blood of Palestinian children…Israel, supported by Germany’s guilt complex, considers itself above any law and feels free to twist the facts.”

On the same day as the article, Mr Atwan appeared on the BBC’s Dateline London programme, and said in relation to the recent violent attack on the author Sir Salman Rushdie: “The Satanic Verses actually is blasphemy completely and it is offensive. You know, Salman Rushdie, he was very, very cruel when he talked about the Prophet Muhammad and his wives, and actually, to talk about the wives of the Prophet is really very, very dangerous.” The attack is believed to have been inspired by the fatwa issued and promoted by Iran’s theocratic regime, which has a long history of antisemitic policies.

In April, the JC revealed that Mr Atwan characterised the shooting of three Israelis in Tel Aviv as a “miracle” and described the terrorist as a “hero” and those fleeing for their lives were, he claimed, “like mice”.

In 2007, Atwan is reported to have said: “If Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.” In 2010, it is claimed that Atwan told an audience at the London School of Economics that “the Jewish lobby… [is] endangering the whole world”.

Mr Atwan’s remarks have drawn concern that he may be accused of having glorified terrorism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the BBC and considering legal options.

A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Abdel Bari Atwan appeared on Dateline as a commentator primarily to give his view on Saudi Arabia’s dealings with Donald Trump, and the allegations that Mr Trump had passed nuclear secrets to the Saudi state. We also felt it was important to cover the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie. We believe the discussion was fair and duly impartial and we believe it was editorially justified for Abdel to appear. If extreme views are expressed on the BBC, we would always seek to challenge them.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is time that the BBC is held to account for regularly platforming Abdel Bari Atwan, who has allegedly spoken in the past about how ‘the Jewish lobby’ is ‘endangering the world’ and has reportedly expressed support for violence against the Jewish state.

“Now, while appearing to offer apologetics for the violent attack on Salman Rushdie because the author’s writings are ‘offensive’, he apparently has no qualms offending Jews and all decent people by doubling down on Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to condemn the Munich terror attack and his claim that Israel has committed ’50 Holocausts’ and is thus worse than the Nazis, which is a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

“We are submitting a complaint to the BBC and considering legal action over Mr Atwan’s possible glorification of terrorism.”

Polling that we conducted in 2020 for our Antisemitism Barometer already revealed that two thirds of British Jews were deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. It is likely that these figures would be even higher if polled today.

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].

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NUS President Shaima Dallali reportedly suspended amidst antisemitism investigation

Shaima Dallali, the President of the National Union of Students (NUS), has been suspended amidst investigations into her conduct following allegations of antisemitism, according to LBC’s Political Editor.

It is reportedly the first time in the Union’s 100-year history that a President has been suspended.

The investigation, which is concerned with allegations against both the Union and Ms Dallali specifically, arose following a string of controversies surrounding the NUS and its leadership. 

The announcement came after Robert Halfon MP wrote together with Campaign Against Antisemitism to the Charity Commission calling for an investigation into the union’s charitable arm. The full dossier on NUS, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, can be read here. In addition, over twenty former NUS Presidents wrote a letter expressing their “serious concerns about antisemitism”, and another letter, organised by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and signed by over 1,000 Jewish students and allies, called for NUS to launch an independent investigation.

The investigation came in the wake of numerous controversies involving NUS. In one recent scandal, the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey, was due to headline NUS’s centenary conference last month. After initially dismissing the concerns of Jewish students, who pointed out the rapper’s inflammatory record, the union came under media scrutiny and eventually Mr Dennis withdrew from the event. As the scandal erupted, Robert Halfon MP excoriated NUS for failing to send a representative to attend a hearing held by the Education Select Committee, which he chairs.

This scandal was immediately followed by the election of Shaima Dallali as NUS’s new President, despite her history of antisemitic tweets and other inflammatory social media posts. 

Ms Dallali was forced to apologise for tweeting the words of an antisemitic chant. In 2012, during an escalation of tensions between Israel and the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hamas, Ms Dallali tweeted the words “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud.”

Translated into English, this chant means “Jews, remember the battle of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” It is a classic Arabic battle cry referencing the massacre and expulsion of the Jews of the town of Khaybar in northwestern Arabia, now Saudi Arabia, in the year 628 CE.

Ms Dallali issued a statement on 23rd March, saying: “Earlier today I was made aware of a tweet I posted ten years ago. During Israel’s assault on Gaza I referenced the battle of Khaybar in which Jewish and Muslim armies fought. I was wrong to see the Palestine conflict as one between Muslims and Jews. The reference made as a teenager was unacceptable and I sincerely and unreservedly apologise.”

It also came to light that Ms Dallali’s output on Twitter also included other inflammatory messages, including one last May allegedly saying that “organisations like UJS [the Union of Jewish Students] have a history of bullying pro-Palestine sabbs [sabbatical officers] and activists. You speak one word of solidarity and they’re after you. UJS and their likes need to be called out.”

Another alleged tweet from 2018 read: “So your special forces invade the Gaza Strip, attempt to kidnap a Hamas commander, kill him and others. Then cry about Hamas being the terrorists. Makes perfect sense. #GazaUnderAttack.” Hamas is an antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation that is proscribed in the UK.

An NUS spokesperson said: “We cannot comment at this time as we are in the middle of an independent QC-led investigation into allegations of antisemitism. But as we have said before, we are prepared to take any and all actions recommended by Rebecca Tuck QC’s investigation.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While the details of this unprecedented reported suspension of Shaima Dallali are not yet clear, it may be a very promising first step by NUS as the investigation by Rebecca Tuck QC, to which we have contributed, progresses. We hope that this suspension represents the first acknowledgement by NUS of how dreadful its relations with Jewish students have become, and augurs real change at the union, but it is too early to tell. We will continue to ensure that NUS is held to account for its record and is supported if it shows, for the first time, a real good faith effort to reform.”

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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“This is not a case merely of a few bad apples”: Labour’s NEC election results underscore Party’s enduring cultural problem over antisemitism

Last night, the results of the election of members to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) were announced.

While most of the results indicated that Labour is trying to move on from its scandal of institutional antisemitism, a number of successful candidates have worrying records that raise questions about the Party’s progress.

Foremost among them is Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, the Media Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour, which is an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation. Ms Wimborne-Idrissi received the endorsement of well over one hundred of the 650 Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) – which poll their members to decide whom to endorse – as well as sufficient votes to win a place on the NEC. She has previously been suspended from the Labour Party before inexplicably being reinstated.

Another is Yasmine Dar, the pro-Corbyn former Chair of Labour’s disputes panel who did not believe that the Party has a problem of institutional antisemitism even as her brother was suspended over antisemitism allegations.

There were other concerning figures as well, such as Young Labour Chair Jess Barnard, who has expressed support for Jeremy Corbyn, amongst other worrying positions.

A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, we’ve made progress in tackling antisemitism. We are implementing our EHRC antisemitism action plan and are rolling out antisemitism awareness training across the party with the Jewish Labour Movement. Keir Starmer pledged to pull antisemitism up by its roots and that work continues.”

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The outcome of the election of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee shows that there still remains a significant section of the Party’s membership that is intent on returning – or even newly elevating – the extremists of yesteryear to power, including those who undermined the disciplinary process and made their names denying the Party’s antisemitism.

“This is not a case merely of a few bad apples that happened to get elected, but rather a problem with the cultural soil of the Party. These fruits are the flowering of the rotten roots that Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly pledged to tear out.

“It must be asked why these people remain members of the Party and therefore able to stand for office at all, and why a group like Jewish Voice for Labour has still not been proscribed, as other groups have been. Then there is the much harder question of why there are so many people in Labour who are electing them.

“Yes, progress has been made since Sir Keir became leader, but his recent claims to have solved the antisemitism crisis are belied by this result, which in any other major political party would be utterly scandalous.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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“People who look white but aren’t”: YouTuber exposed for inflammatory remarks about Jews

Following an investigative article in The Times, a British YouTuber has been exposed for his inflammatory remarks about Jews, all made using euphemisms and codewords to trick the platform’s artificial intelligence filters.

James Owens, 37, who goes by the codename, The Ayatollah, complete with a fake profile picture and a pretend accent, is described as being “Britain’s most racist YouTuber”, according to one member of an anti-fascist collective.

Mr Owens, who has reportedly referred to the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, as “our uncle”, seems to have described Jews as being “people who look white but aren’t” and called Jews “a group of people who tell you what happened to them but don’t tell you why”.

The latter comment is a common trope among far-right groups which suggests that Jews deserve to be persecuted.

Mr Owens has apparently spoken disparagingly of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, saying that “Zelenskyy is doing it for his people. We know who his people are. They ain’t Slavs.”

According to the investigation, Mr Owens believes that Jews are to blame for the “grooming gangs” who sexually abused and exploited young girls in towns in the north of England, as he claims that Jews imposed mass immigration to Britain and are therefore responsible for a significant number of the gang’s perpetrators, many of whom were of Pakistani origin.

Further, it has also been claimed that Mr Owens argues that growth of the transgender community derives from the work of Magnus Hirshfeld, a German-Jewish doctor.

Mr Owens was once an aspiring sports journalist who used to produce podcasts about football in his own voice. Since his apparent turn to far-right politics, however, Mr Owens seems to have used YouTube to cultivate fans across the world with his channel “Tollahvision – The Ayatollah”, which has received 414,000 views in over a year.

The only episode of The Ayatollah that YouTube removed derided the Labour Party MP for Tottenham, and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, David Lammy. Mr Owens seems to have claimed that Mr Lammy was a funded Jewish funded agent because Jewish lawyers offered him financial support in order for him to become the first Black British person to attend Harvard Law School.

Another reason that Mr Owens allegedly targeted Mr Lammy is that Mr Lammy’s wife, the artist, Nicola Green, has Jewish ancestry.

Mr Owens’s true identity was revealed after he accidentally announced that he was in fact The Ayatollah to an infiltrator at a neo-Nazi event and, during a YouTube video, explained that he made an appearance at a far-right gathering wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

The YouTube channel is also allegedly used to recruit members for the far-right party, Patriotic Alternative.

Patriotic Alternative is a UK-based group headed by the former leader of the youth wing of the BNP, Mark Collett. Mr Collett is reported to have dabbled in Holocaust denial, is regularly heard as a guest on the radio show of the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, and has described the Holocaust as “an instrument of white guilt”.

The group is known for its efforts to recruit youth to its white nationalist ideology. Previously, the far-right group published an online “alternative” home school curriculum condemned as “poison” and “hateful” and attempted to recruit children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

The founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism (MAAS), Fiyaz Mughal OBE, said that the activities of Mr Owens show that “The far right is gaming the system to get access to Big Tech.”

Muslims Against Antisemitism (MAAS) is a charity comprising British Muslims whose mission is to tackle antisemitism, and Mr Mughal appeared on Season 1 Episode 23 of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed the growing danger of online radicalisation. The podcast with Mr Mughal can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Owens said that “I use YouTube to communicate with, entertain, and hopefully lift the spirits of other non-compliant white people, by which I mean white people who reject the psychological abuse, dispossession and humiliation of the present, anti-white order. I am trying to provide myself and the audience with a bit of relief in a very hostile, alienating world. I outright reject the concept of ‘racism’. It’s simply an anti-white libel, and a weapon of mass psychological abuse devised and wielded to keep white people from thinking and acting in our own interests while our sovereignty and our homelands are taken from us.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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“It started with just a bunch of Jewish students who were fed up”: Isaac de Castro on the creation of ‘Jewish on Campus’

Isaac de Castro, an activist and journalist who was integral to the creation of the ‘Jewish on Campus’ movement, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke openly about the challenges Jewish students in the United States are facing.

Mr de Castro said that “‘Jewish on Campus’ started with just a bunch of Jewish students who were fed up and were meeting on the internet at the very beginning, and height of, [COVID-19]. We were all stuck at home online yelling into the void about what was happening to us on college campuses and how difficult that was and at the same time, everyone was turning to social media to do activism in which they were dragging in antisemitism.

“That, I think, was very fresh and very stressful to everyone. We thought of the stakes of speaking out on antisemitism and how it became so taboo to talk about it because Jews are not perceived as an oppressed group or because supporting Israel is seen as a very, very negative thing on college campuses.”

He explained that the way the organisation managed to convince students to say what was happening to them was to anonymise it.

“[The movement] grew exponentially…thousands of followers a day,” he said. “It was really special, and it was a catalyst for understanding antisemitism on college campuses in the United States. I think people were not really getting the scope of it and these stories put a face to it because it wasn’t just numbers of how many Jewish students have faced antisemitism in which campuses, it was ‘this is my story, this is what I went through, this is what my professor said to me, this is what my peers said to me.’ There was no way of denying how powerful that was.”

When asked what advice he would offer to Jewish students experiencing antisemitism, the activist said: “Find community, whether its a Hillel House or the Jewish student union or confiding in ‘Jewish on Campus’, confiding in Jewish friends. I think it’s very, very important to not isolate yourself and to have like-minded people in which you can confide in because dealing with that by yourself is not great. You’re stronger when you’re united.”

Mr de Castro’s work also looks at the stories of Latino Jews of Sephardic descent, which is the focus of his newest project.

Mr de Castro, himself a Panamanian Jew of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi descent who now lives in the United States, said that his work has been inspired by speaking to people who “have no idea what these communities are like.” 

Speaking on some of the many generations of Latino Jews now living in the United States, Mr de Castro said that “There is a difference in terms of outspokenness, in terms of antisemitism or even understanding antisemitism…there is a difference for sure.”

Throughout the interview, Mr de Castro touched upon a variety of other issues which included his own story of moving to the United States and Jewcy, the Jewish magazine at which he is the editor.

The podcast with Mr de Castro can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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DNA study reveals human remains found in Norwich belonged to Jewish children murdered in medieval antisemitic massacre

Researchers studying human remains that were discovered in a medieval well in Norwich have said that they are the bones of Jews who may have been murdered in an antisemitic massacre.

The DNA of these seventeen skeletons, first found in 2004, may now enable researchers, who published their findings in the journal Current Biology, to find out new information about the medical history of Jews in Europe. It may also allow historians to identify the victims of a pogrom written about by the contemporary writer, Ralph de Diceto. 

The account describes how, in February 1190, crusaders stopped in Norwich on their way to Jerusalem, and massacred “all the Jews who were found in their own houses.”

The bodies were first found eighteen years ago by a group of construction workers.

Using recent advances in genetics, the genomes of six of the bodies – who were mostly children at the time of their deaths – are being analysed. These samples are the oldest Jewish genomes to have ever been sequenced.

This may indicate that the origins of Ashkenazi Jews date back a few centuries earlier than the commonly-accepted account.

Once the researchers had established to whom the remains belonged, the local community organised a formal Jewish burial for them.

The research was co-authored by Professor Mark Thomas from University College London and the evolutionary geneticist, and Merit Researcher at London’s Natural History Museum, Ian Barnes.

Dr Barnes said: “When you study ancient DNA from people who’ve died hundreds to thousands of years ago, you don’t often get to work with a living community at the same time. It’s been really satisfying to work with this community on a story that’s so important to them.”

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“I will take you Jews to Africa and burn you all,” says alleged synagogue vandal in Stamford Hill

A synagogue and a Jewish school in Stamford Hill have been vandalised.

A 50-year-old man is accused of drawing symbols in what appears to be marker pen on and around Bobov Synagogue on Egerton Road on 20th August.

When the alleged perpetrator was confronted by an identifiably Jewish man, he is reported to have said: “I will take you Jews to Africa and burn you all.”

The incident was reported on by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD4243 30/08/22

Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely with Shomrim, with whom we have a data-sharing agreement.

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

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Jeremy Corbyn praises “energy and good messages” of inflammatory rapper and activist Lowkey

Jeremy Corbyn, the antisemitic former leader of the Labour Party, has come under fire for praising the “energy and good messages” of the inflammatory rapper and activist, Lowkey.

Mr Corbyn tweeted his support for Lowkey, whose real name is Kareem Dennis, following a performance by Lowkey in Amsterdam. Lowkey wrote on Twitter: “A beautiful conclusion to 4 city tour of the Netherlands in Amsterdam last night. Thank you to all who came out!”

Mr Corbyn responded: “Well done Lowkey, what energy and good messages you carry!”

Lowkey’s songs include lyrics such as “nothing is more antisemitic than Zionism”. He is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). A month-long investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst PSC supporters on social media. Lowkey has previously described Israel as a “racist endeavour” in direct and deliberate contravention of the International Definition of Antisemitism, described Zionism as “antisemitic”, and spoken of the “Zionist lobby” in the context of global capitalism.

More recently, Lowkey has reportedly claimed that the “mainstream media” has “weaponised the Jewish heritage” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “stave off” inquiries about far-right groups in Ukraine. He has also appeared on the disgraced former MP Chris Williamson’s show on Press TV, an Iranian state-owned news network whose British broadcasting licence was revoked by Ofcom in 2012. Lowkey has appeared alongside the disgraced academic David Miller, and was recently embroiled in a controversy at the National Union of Students.

Mr Corbyn currently sits as an independent MP as he is indefinitely suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party, but he remains a member of the Labour MP, from which he was briefly suspended before outrageously being readmitted.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The controversial rapper and activist Lowkey has previously described Israel as a ‘racist endeavour’ and Zionism as ‘antisemitic’, and has spoken of the ‘Zionist lobby’ in the context of global capitalism. He has also repeatedly associated with the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson and the conspiracist and disgraced academic David Miller, and was recently embroiled in a controversy at the National Union of Students.

“Whether despite or because of this inflammatory record, Lowkey has drawn praise from none other than Jeremy Corbyn for the ‘good messages you carry’. Yet still, the Labour Party is happy to have Mr Corbyn as a member. Why is the Party so stubbornly unable to see what all of the rest of us can?”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has lodged a complaint against Jeremy Corbyn, holding him responsible for conduct that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Labour Party, as the Leader during the period of the EHRC’s shameful findings. Given the serious detriment that this conduct has caused, we are seeking Mr Corbyn’s immediate resuspension and, if the complaint is upheld, we will be requesting his expulsion. On the day of the publication of the EHRC’s report, we also submitted a major complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party, and they must be investigated by an independent disciplinary process that the EHRC has demanded and Sir Keir has promised but has yet to introduce.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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GB News deletes interview with Peter Sweden after controversy over his alleged past Holocaust denial and other inflammatory comments about Jews

GB News, the conservative news and opinion channel, has deleted the video of an interview between host Neil Oliver and the far-right blogger Peter Sweden, after controversy erupted in relation to his past comments, which he now denies having made.

Peter Sweden, whose real name is believed to be Peter Imanuelsen and who has over 330,000 follows on Twitter, first gained notoriety offline in 2017 after Katie Hopkins, the political commentator who has long courted controversy with remarks about various minorities, including Jews, published a picture with Mr Imanuelsen, before deleting it after an outcry.

At the time and since, more and more tweets attributed to him about the Holocaust and Jewish people have surfaced.

On the Holocaust and Nazis, he is alleged to have tweeted:

  • “If you want to know my position on the holocaust btw, I don’t think it happened. Note I’m not a nazi. [sic]”
  • “The claim that 6 million jews were gassed seem highly unprobable. The concentration camps didnt have the facilities for that. [sic]”
  • “I don’t like fascism, but I think hitler had some good points. I am pretty certain that the holocaust actually never happened. [sic]”
  • “I believe the holocaust is a lie to further the agenda of NOW [New World Order]? [sic]”
  • “I have also heard that concentration camps actually had swimming pools, cinema, theatre, football fields etc (photos). Opinion?”
  • “By the way just so you know i am not a nazi : ) I think hitler had some good points, but i don’t agree with fascism or socialism [sic]”
  • “I’m not a nazi, but they sure managed to keep rapefugees out of germany… [sic]”
  • “they even had a commemorate coin with a swasitka on one side & a so called “star of david” on the other side… [sic]”

Numerous alleged tweets have propagated conspiracies about Jewish power:

  • “How is the protocols of the elders of zion ‘anti-semitic’? Is the jews own text on jewish supremacism anti-semitic? [sic]”
  • “Globalist cabal. In other words, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Goldman Sachs, George Soros etc. The aforementioned are Jewish.”
  • “The globalists (mainly Jews) are the ones bringing in the muslims to europe. They seem to work together. [sic]”
  • “The jewish supremacists are the very ones bringing in the muslims. Both are issues. [sic]”
  • “Jews think they’re superior & they think they are going to have gentiles as slaves. Judaism is an antichrist religion.”
  • “Since you are jewish, why don’t you mention that nearly all pornographic studios are owned by jews ? [sic]”
  • “It is the vatican & the jews who are behind NOW {New World Order]. [sic]”
  • “According to statistics 40-75% of jewish households owned slaves. Only 1.4% of whites did” and “These are official stats from the US government. [sic]”
  • “Blair is not jewish from what i have heard. But he is a neocon which are mostly run by jewish people. [sic]”
  • “I think symphatetic jews could be allies, but at a distance. We dont want people like Milo in the AltRight. [sic]”
  • “Why is it often jewish people who are against nationalism…? [sic]”

On the Jews and Christianity, he is alleged to have tweeted:

  • “The way i see this, it is jews hate christianity. That is why they want to try and destroy the west. [sic]”
  • “Look for him ? Jesus has already come. The jews rejected Jesus Christ = they are anti-christ. [sic]”
  • “Im not blocking jews from salvation. If any jew wants to convert & accept Jesus then that is great news ! [sic]”
  • “There has of course been good jews, Peter, John, Paul etc. I suggest you listen to what the bible says about jews. [sic]”
  • “I would suggest you read Martin Luthers book ‘On the Jews and Their Lies’. I think you will be surprised”; “I see you stand with israel. I suggest you read Martin Luthers book ‘On the Jews and Their Lies’”; “Read Martin Luthers ‘On the Jews and Their Lies’. You can see they had a problem with jews using usury back then too”; and “Have you read Martin Luthers views on the jews? [sic]”

These tweets were predominantly from 2016. Following the outcry in 2017 in relation to Ms Hopkins’ picture with him, Mr Imanuelsen apologised, saying: “My views now are very different and I strongly regret things I have said when I was young”. He added that he now believed that the Holocaust happened and that it was a “horrific crime”.

Years on, however, as the controversy erupted this weekend, he has doubled down, claiming: “It is fascinating to see the left hate the truth so much they come with FAKE, photoshopped, so called screenshots with outright LIES about me I have NEVER been a Holocaust denier and anyone claiming I am are LIARS.”

He has described claims that he denied the Holocaust as “categorically false and libel” and has reportedly deleted his previous apologies, possibly because of the paradox of at once apologising for tweets and at the same time claiming that they were never published in the first place.

GB News has now deleted the video of the interview that it posted to Twitter.

A spokesperson for GB News told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “We’ve been made aware that Peter Sweden, also known as Peter Imanuelsen, who appeared on GB News yesterday to talk about falling birth rates, has been accused of being a holocaust denier. As a result of this information, we have removed clips of Mr Sweden’s interview from our website and our social media channels while we investigate. GB News abhors antisemitism and all other forms of racism.”

Peter Imanuelsen told Campaign Against Antisemitism: ”I find it sad to see the mainstream media smearing people with lies, stating that I have been/or are a Holocaust denier. This is completely untrue. I have never denied the Holocaust and it is a lie from the far-left trying to discredit me with views I never had. The truth is that when I was young and started to see the lies in the media, like the lies they now publish about me, I as many lost trust in them and speculated in different views – but Holocaust denial was not one of them.

“These views, like doubts about the moon landing, conspiracy theories about the ”New World Order” and many other views, I have long left behind and strongly distanced myself from. I find it so disingenious to smear people like me with lies, and secondly that people are so full of hate that they cannot accept that someone had bad views and left them behind. But Holocaust denial is a view I never had, and to claim that I did is an outright lie.

“Neither is there any proof to back it up, just some fake, photoshopped screenshots with so called citations from me that are either completely untrue or taken completely out of context. It doesn’t require much technical skill to open a web browser in developer mode and create a fake statement. That I never have been a Holocaust denier is clearly proved to any honest person reading what I actually have written both on my homepage and my Substack.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is extraordinary that GB News would platform someone who has allegedly propagated Holocaust denial and repugnant conspiracies about Jews. This is, at best, a monumental vetting failure that should give the channel pause about where it looks for some of its guests. GB News was right to delete the video, but we and the general public still expect an apology from the station.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].

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New research shows 34% of young people believe Jews have an “unhealthy control over the world’s banking system”

New research shows that over a third of British young people in the 18-24 age bracket agree that Jews have an “unhealthy control over the world’s banking system”.

The findings come from polling conducted by the anti-racism charity, Hope Not Hate. The organisation investigated attitudes across British society, and the results reportedly show that 34 percent of those questioned between the ages of eighteen and 24 believe the statement about Jews and banking to be “probably” or “definitely” true.

This number falls to 28 percent among people in the 25-34 demographic, and is as low as twelve percent among those over 75 years of age.

The authors of the survey describe these findings as “shocking” and said that they indicate “a higher degree of openness to conspiracies in those under 35…it is clear that while socially liberal beliefs are more common amongst the majority, there is a large cohort of young people who hold more reactionary views, and a smaller minority who hold even more extreme beliefs”.

Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “These are frightening statistics. Even a fraction of these figures would serve to highlight just how widespread antisemitic conspiracy theories have become. The numbers here are downright terrifying. It is particularly alarming that these tropes are so popular among the younger population, which raises serious questions about the quality of formal education in this area and the critical role that social media plays in propagating these racist ideas. It means that the fight against antisemitism is only going to have to intensify and more must be done to prevent the indoctrination of children into antisemitic conspiracy online.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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

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Abdullah Qureshi pleads not guilty to reinstated racially/religiously aggravated charges

Abdullah Qureshi has pleaded not guilty to the reinstated racially/religiously aggravated charges that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially dropped, before intervention by Campaign Against Antisemitism and other groups.

On 7th April, Mr Qureshi, 28, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates’ Court to one count of assault by beating and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent. The charges related to a series of assaults on 18th August 2021 in Stamford Hill in which five religious Jews in the North London neighbourhood were violently attacked.

In one incident at 18:41 on the day of the attacks last August, an Orthodox Jewish man was struck in the face with what appeared to be a bottle. In another at 19:10, a child was slapped on the back of the head, and in yet another at 20:30, a 64-year-old victim was struck and left unconscious on the ground, suffering facial injuries and a broken ankle. Two further incidents were also alleged.

The incidents received significant media attention at the time, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, condemned “this appalling attack,” adding: “Let me be clear, racist abuse and hate crime, including antisemitism, have absolutely no place in our city.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism then revealed that the CPS had dropped the racially/religiously aggravated element of those charges as part of a plea deal with Mr Qureshi. After we, Shomrim, CST and other communal organisations made representations to the CPS, it agreed to reinstate the aggravated elements, but Mr Qureshi appeared in court to resist the reinstatement of the aggravated element.

Earlier this month, Stratford Magistrates’ Court agreed to reinstate the racially/religiously aggravated element to the charges against Mr Qureshi.

Today’s plea hearing in relation to the three reinstated charges took place at Thames Magistrates’ Court, where Mr Qureshi pleaded not guilty. He did not have legal representation, having previously dismissed his lawyer.

The prosecution argued today that Mr Qureshi travelled from Dewsbury to Stamford Hill “to deliberately target the Jewish community” and “commit antisemitic assaults on Jewish victims,” describing the victims as “noticeable members of the Jewish community.”

Mr Qureshi questioned the extent of the victims’ injuries.

He has been given conditional bail, with an order not to enter N16. The judge initially considered maintaining the GPS tag but Mr Qureshi argued that he had observed his bail conditions and therefore that it was unnecessary, and the tag was removed.

The trial is scheduled to take place in November at Stratford Magistrates’ Court.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While it is regrettable that it took an intervention by us and others to get us here, we are nonetheless pleased to see this case progressing and the CPS making the argument that these were racially motivated crimes. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that the victims of these violent crimes have justice.”

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UFC fighter reveals he used to defend cousins against antisemites

Natan Levy, currently the world’s only Israeli fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, commonly known as UFC, a mixed martial arts promotion, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he revealed that he used to defend his cousins against antisemites.

When asked about modern-day antisemitism in France, where Mr Levy grew up for a time, the fighter said: “I can tell you it’s not new. It’s been going on for years. With my cousins, we’d fly to France a few times a year and from a certain age, it would be, ‘Hey Natan, this kid took my kippa (skullcap), they took my bicycle.’ I’d be like ‘Who is it? Show me who it is.’ And we’d go take care of it.”

He added: “I was never looking for fights but if there was a reason to fight, I’m not gonna back down. I might even be a little excited for it, a little bit scared, but I know what needs to be done.” 

Mr Levy commented how “it was like this years ago,” and “now it’s only worse…more violent and what we’re seeing right now in antisemitism is that it’s all physical attacks…it’s getting out of hand.”

“Every Jewish person in the world should learn martial arts,” the fighter urged.

Speaking on his pride as a Jewish person and his opposition to antisemitic tropes, Mr Levy said that “When I’m in the cage and I’m fighting, I want to show that we’re brave, we fight, and we can take care of ourselves. We are not weak.”

Mr Levy also revealed that a young fan and aspiring swimmer contacted him after she was told that her peers told her that “She’s a Jew and she could only be a manager.” 

The fan informed Mr Levy that he gave her the inspiration to keep on swimming, a feeling which he described as “way better than winning a fight.”  

During the interview, Mr Levy discussed how he plans to donate the proceeds from auctioning off his ring gear to Holocaust survivors, and the antisemitic comments he received in response. 

“At one point I was so nervous for my fight, it was the biggest fight of my life,” he said, “I really needed this win. You’re going to get into a fist-fight, you’re anxious, you need to make weight. And on the other hand, it’s Holocaust Memorial Day and I said to myself, ‘What am I worried about? What am I stressed about? It’s a sport, I’m choosing to do this. Look at what these people went through, the atrocities.’”

He added that his mentality surrounding his fight was to “Fight for them.”

Addressing some of the online comments he received in response to his announcement surrounding the proceeds, which included people threatening to bid without paying and “Free Palestine” tweets, the latter of which he stated had “nothing at all” to do with the Holocaust, he said that he was “not surprised” and that “if you have a good grasp on reality, you will assume it’s going to happen.”

“It’s okay,” he added. “I would rather they commented and everyone can see how disgusting they are…I think it’s better when they talk and just say what they would like to do, what their intentions are, just to show their true face.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Levy touched upon a variety of other issues which included being inducted into the Israeli Federation of Martial Arts Hall of Fame and his advice to Jewish people experiencing antisemitism.

The podcast with Mr Levy can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Banned Chelsea fan who allegedly tweeted “Gas them all” about Tottenham fans returns

Sources have claimed that a football fan who was banned for performing Nazi salutes and who allegedly wrote tweets about gassing Jews attended the recent clash between Chelsea and Leeds United.

In 2016, Chelsea fan Fabian Richardson was banned from football grounds in the UK for three years and ordered to pay £365 after making thirteen Nazi salutes in fifteen minutes during his team’s game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Richardson admitted religiously aggravated harassment but, at first, he claimed that he was waving at friends, saying: “I’m not a racist, I was just an idiot.”

However, new revelations have since come to light. It has been reported that, when watching Chelsea play against the Amsterdam-based team, Ajax, on television, Mr Richardson allegedly tweeted about the Dutch team’s supposed connection to the city’s Jewish community and its record during the Second World War of hiding Jews from the Nazis.

Mr Richardson allegedly wrote: “Into these Jewish hiding f***ing Dutch c***s”

Two weeks later, Mr Richardson allegedly tweeted “Gas. Them. All” during the kick off of a match between West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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SNP MP meets with expelled Labour Party member

An MP for the Scottish National Party (SNP) is facing criticism for meeting with an activist previously embroiled in antisemitism allegations who was reportedly expelled by the Labour Party. 

Tommy Sheppard, who represents Edinburgh East, is reported to have met with Pete Gregson, who was expelled from the pro-Corbyn pressure group Momentum and from the GMB trade union and suspended from the Labour Party after suggesting that the Holocaust was exaggerated and for abusive behaviour towards a female Jewish Labour member.

Mr Sheppard apparently organised the meeting in order to dampen efforts to make the Scottish capital a twin city with Gaza.

This follows Mr Sheppard’s appearance at the controversial Gig for Gaza, an anti-Israel rally held in Edinburgh in June, which was organised by Mr Gregson.

During the event, Mr Sheppard made a speech calling for pressure on the British Government to “make sure that Israel does answer for its actions.” He also appeared alongside signs that claimed that “Zionism is Racism” and described the Labour Party’s Jewish affiliate and Friends of Israel faction as a “cancer”. The signs appear to be associated with the organisations Labour Against Zionism and Islamophobic Racism (LAZIR) and Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism, both of which were founded by Mr Gregson.

In 2017, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards opened an investigation into an event hosted by Mr Sheppard, in which it is alleged that Jewish people were deliberately excluded.

In 2019, Mr Gregson was suspended by the Labour Party and expelled from the pro-Corbyn pressure group Momentum and the GMB union for saying that Israel was a “racist endeavour” which “exaggerates” the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis for “political ends”.

In the same year, Mr Gregson set up LAZIR to support Jeremy Corbyn, to campaign for the International Definition of Antisemitism to be dropped by Labour and for Labour’s Jewish affiliate to be thrown out of the Party. 

In September 2019, police officers removed an antisemitic poster outside the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. The poster depicted the then-Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, piloting a fighter jet labelled “the lobby” and yelling “Antisemite! Antisemite! Antisemite!” at the then-Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who is standing at a podium labelled “Palestinian rights”. The implication of the poster is that the Israeli Government or the “Israel lobby” — portrayed in a militaristic fashion — has weaponised antisemitism and is behind defamatory accusations of antisemitism against the Labour leader, and that Israel wields significant power over British political affairs. The poster was designed and put up by Mr Gregson.

Mr Gregson is believed to be a member of the Resist Movement, headed by the disgraced former Labour MP, Chris Williamson, and is believed to be the chair of the antisemitism-denial group Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Labour councillor claims tweets questioning Israel’s existence and referring to radio presenter as “that Jew” were “taken out of context”

A councillor for the Labour Party in Leeds who came under fire for making inflammatory comments about Jews on Twitter has claimed that his online output has been “taken out of context”.

In May, Leeds’s Labour group launched an investigation into two social media posts written by Councillor John Garvani in 2012. 

However, when local press asked to be updated on the progress of the case, the group’s spokesperson now claims Cllr Garvani was sanctioned for his comments by the Party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) a year earlier but did not state how exactly the councillor was reprimanded.

In one post, Cllr Garvani had allegedly written “Why can’t we question the existence of Israel?” accompanied by a link to an article with that title on a political website.

In another post, written five months later, Mr Garvani referred to a guest on BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme as “that Jew”.

Cllr Garvani had been slated to chair a council meeting after he was elected, but the Leeds Labour Group prevented him from standing as a candidate for the role at the authority’s Annual General Meeting when his tweets came to light.

When he was asked if he had any regrets about what he had said, Cllr Garvani said: “I regret that they’ve been taken out of context. They’ve been dealt with by the Party and I was reminded of the Party’s social media code of conduct.”

Cllr Garvani claimed that the tweet about Israel was misunderstood because people seeing the post after the fact had not read the accompanying article. 

Regarding the tweet about the radio guest, Cllr Garvani maintained that he had only referred to them as “that Jew” because he could not remember their name and it was a case of using “rapid shorthand”: “If it had been an Islamic guest I’d have referred to them as ‘that Muslim’ and if it had been a Christian I’d have referred to them as ‘that Christian’.”

A Conservative Party councillor in Leeds, Dan Cohen, who is Jewish, said in May after the tweets first came to light that “I consider these tweets to be antisemitic and grossly insulting.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Palestinian Forum in Britain reportedly brands Jewish-Muslim interfaith work “faithwashing”

Efforts to encourage interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims have been denounced during the meeting of an anti-Israel organisation.

Speakers at a meeting of the anti-Israel group Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) have reportedly described attempts for Jews to enter into dialogue with Muslims as “faithwashing”.

The group held a meeting at an art gallery in London entitled “How interfaith groups are being used to normalise Israeli apartheid”.

Video footage of the meeting appears to show the Director of the news website Middle East Monitor, and the former Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, Daud Abdullah, saying that interfaith dialogue, which received the backing of “rich Jewish philanthropists” is used to “cover up the crimes committed against the Palestinian people” and soften the opinions of Muslims towards Israel.

James Thring, who has apparently been linked to the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke and who spoke unchallenged about Holocaust denial at a Keep Talking event, claiming that no deaths were recorded at the Auschwitz concentration camp, also appeared at this meeting and said that Israeli policy is determined by how Jews “think they are the chosen people, they think they have the right to attack other people, to deceive other people, to rob other people.”

Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism and the interfaith network Faith Matters, told the JC that “Those who seek to smear, falsify and undermine interfaith work do not understand what binds our communities together, and their malicious attempt to politicise this must be rejected.”

Mr Mughal has spoken at Campaign Against Antisemitism’s events in the past and in May, he appeared on Podcast Against Antisemitism, which can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

Rabbi David Mason of Muswell Hill synagogue said: “I’m proud we have built positive relationships with Muslim communities in my borough and across London…The idea that such positive interfaith work is a Zionist plot grotesquely misses the point of our achievements.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that almost eight in ten British Jews consider the threat from Islamists to be very serious.

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Labour councillor criticised for using term “Jewess” in local Party WhatsApp group

A Labour Party councillor has been criticised for using the term “Jewess” in a local Party WhatsApp group.

Coventry City Council’s Christine Thomas, who was elected to represent the Binley and Willenhall ward, used the term, which is widely understood to be a derogatory slur for a Jewish woman, in reference to a conversation she had with a fellow activist regarding the antisemitic former Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

A screenshot from the conversation appears to show Cllr Thomas write: “I had [a very] interesting encounter with a [Jewess] at [a] conference. She was furious. She said it was a lot of crap set to discredit [Jeremy Corbyn]. She even said so from the platform. Saying that the Jewish Labour group did not speak for her. We have Jewish members in [Coventry] South. I know them well. Never have they ever said ANYTHING about antisemitic behaviour.”

According to the Jewish News, fellow Labour members have reported Cllr Thomas’ message to the Party’s compliance unit for investigation. 

A fellow Party member said: “Cllr Thomas clearly seems to be supporting the view that the existence of widespread antisemitism in the party under the previous leader was just a smear.

“As for her use of the word ‘Jewess’, just why does she think it’s OK to use such an obviously offensive term?”

Cllr Thomas has since apologised for the message, stating: “The term used to describe a lady who follows the Jewish faith that I used is apparently regarded as a slur. I was not aware of that fact and I can assure you no such insult or slur is intended. Therefore if it has offended anybody I apologise for my ignorance in using an outdated term which is now frowned upon.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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“Technology companies have a responsibility”: Brooklyn’s tech rabbi on tackling online antisemitism

Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, one of the key figures spearheading the social media of Chabad.org, the official website of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed means of tackling online antisemitism.

“You have an issue with the platforms where you have these platforms that allow people to push out disinformation and antisemitism at such scale, so quickly, and it’s so hard to get down. It’s like a whack-a-mole, if they do pull down one thing it pops up in a bunch of other places. And I do think that technology companies do have a responsibility to do this.”

Rabbi Lightstone revealed how he had a video in which he was baking bread swiftly removed due to a perceived copyright infringement over a piece of music, despite him actually having had the rights to the song.

“When there’s an incentive when it comes to content in other ways, they have the ability to use [artificial intelligence] and stuff like that to help filter out potential issues, so you have to imagine if antisemitism is a priority, the ability to help get it down should exist.”

Turning his attention to social media users, Rabbi Lightstone acknowledged that both trolls and ignorant but well-meaning users exist. In the first instance, he spoke of an interaction he had with a Twitter user in which the user stated that “Jews are horrible people” and that he “tried to avoid them” as much as he could, to which Rabbi Lightstone replied: “You realise you just spent fifteen minutes arguing online with a Hasidic rabbi, right?”

Speaking about Twitter users who may make ignorant remarks but are willing to learn from their mistakes, Rabbi Lightstone said: “For some people, there is an education issue. Sometimes, you do have well-meaning people. And I’ve had an experience where I’ve seen someone say something online, and it’s very easy to jump on them…you see the account, there’s a real person behind it, really making, in their minds, a good attempt…there’s a way to engage in dialogue that is constructive.”

He added: “That won’t weed out the trolls. The trolls aren’t there in good faith anyway.”

Throughout the interview, Rabbi Lightstone touched upon a variety of other issues including telling the history of the deadly Crown Heights riot and how he is raising funds for Torah scrolls using NFTs.

The podcast with Rabbi Lightstone can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Suspended Labour Councillor appears to continue to enjoy membership in Labour Group

A Labour Party councillor who was reportedly suspended by the Party appears to continue to enjoy membership of his Council’s Labour Group.

Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, who served, until his reported suspension, as the leader of the Labour Group on Pendle Council in Lancashire, was reportedly suspended earlier this year by the Party over remarks that he made in a speech in April in which he called for the flag of the Palestinian Authority to be flown from the town hall.

He reportedly said: “The fact is that what’s going on in Ukraine, Palestine, and other areas I’ve mentioned, reminds me, I barely passed my GCSE history at school, but many people in this room will remember what justification Hitler had for what he did to the Jews in the Second World War.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

Cllr Iqbal reportedly told the JC at the time: “I disagree that this is antisemitic. I have friends who are Jews and Israeli friends who are Jewish and from other faiths.” He apparently added that several Jewish people had contacted him to express their support.

However, Campaign Against Antisemitism has now been informed that Cllr Iqbal continues to enjoy membership of the Labour Group at the Council, despite his apparent suspension. We have, for example, seen a press release sent via e-mail by Cllr Iqbal on behalf of the Labour Group, and a sign-in sheet in which he continues to be listed as a Labour councillor.

Earlier this year, Conservatives in Bury also came under scrutiny after it emerged that a suspended candidate appeared to represent the Party at a hustings.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Flyers asserting that “challenging Jewish privilege” is “social justice” distributed to homes in Brighton and Hove

Flyers claiming that “challenging Jewish privilege” is “social justice” were distributed to homes in Brighton and Hove recently.

The flyers utilise classic antisemitic tropes of power and control in asking why Jewish people “get special privilege when it comes to top universities?”

It goes on to state: “Challenging White Privilege and Jewish Privilege is not antisemitic. It is not defamatory. It does not insult anyone. It is social justice.”

The flyers also depict the yellow star containing the word German ‘Jude’, meaning ‘Jew’, that was forced upon Jewish people during the Holocaust and advertises the online domain of the Goyim Defense League (GDL).

The GDL is a hate group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis and is understood to be led by Jon Minadeo II, who created t-shirts carrying antisemitic slogans such as the Holocaust was “a hoax”. The GDL is responsible for stunts such as hanging a banner from a bridge in Austin, Texas that read “Vax the Jews” and driving around Los Angeles dressed as Nazis.

The group is divided into regional branches and regularly distributes antisemitic flyers across the United States. 

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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British contestant on Israeli reality TV programme says antisemitism made him leave the UK

A British contestant on an Israeli reality TV show has said that antisemitism forced him to leave the United Kingdom.

The singer, Josh Brennan, who was gaining an increasing following in the UK, and who has performed in venues across the country, appeared on the programme Rising Star.

Mr Brennan received overwhelming support from the judges and the audience, but revealed that he had moved to Israel due to an antisemitic incident he experienced on the streets of London.

Mr Brennan said that “someone walked past me while I was wearing a Magen David [Star of David] necklace. Someone shoves me, spits to my feet and says to me, ‘you and your family belong in the [gas] chambers.’”

In a video clip from the show, the viewer can hear both the judges and the audience gasp in shock when Mr Brennan tells his story.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that over two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

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Democratic Unionist Party councillor condemns “vile and racist” playground swastika graffiti

A councillor representing the Democratic Unionist Party has condemned antisemitic graffiti found in his local park, and claimed to have spent an hour attempting to remove it.

Alderman Mark Baxter has branded the graffiti “vile and racist”. The graffiti included attempts to draw a swastika and was found in a children’s play area in Waringstown, County Down.

Mr Baxter said that he “did manage to get rid of the worst of it. I just can’t comprehend what goes through people’s heads.”

A spokesperson for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council said that the Council “strongly condemn[s] these acts of vandalism and anyone caught causing criminal damage to play park equipment will be reported to the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland].

“The graffiti which recently appeared in Waringstown play park was cleaned and removed by council staff the morning after it was reported, an unfortunate incident which has now occurred twice at this spot.”

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

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Far-right group Patriotic Alternative hang “White Lives Matter” banner over Clifford’s Tower where 150 Jews were murdered

The far-right group, Patriotic Alternative, hung a “White Lives Matter” banner over Clifford’s Tower in York earlier this week.

In 1190, a massacre of York’s 150 Jews took place after the community gathered there seeking refuge from the belligerent townspeople. The massacre at York was one of a series of antisemitic pogroms in England in 1189-90 which also included Norwich and Lincoln.

Video footage of the stunt depicts dramatic music and drone shots of the Tower as activists from the far-right group unfurl the banner. 

In the group’s Telegram, it wrote that it “narrowly avoided disaster and a mob of 40 Hasidic Jews”.

Patriotic Alternative is a UK-based group headed by the former leader of the youth wing of the BNP, Mark Collett. Mr Collett is reported to have dabbled in Holocaust denial, is regularly heard as a guest on the radio show of the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, and has described the Holocaust as “an instrument of white guilt”.

The group is known for its efforts to recruit youth to its white nationalist ideology. Previously, the far-right group published an online “alternative” home school curriculum condemned as “poison” and “hateful” and attempted to recruit children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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CAA and Shomrim showcase collaborative efforts at Stamford Hill Open Day attended by thousands

Campaign Against Antisemitism showcased our collaborative efforts with our friends and partners at Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, at a well-attended community event earlier this week.

We participated in the volunteer group’s annual Open Day where we met with members of the Stamford Hill community, including communal leaders, and spoke to attendees about our work.

The event comes amid a recent spate of incidents carried out against identifiably Jewish members of the community in Stamford Hill. These include children being attacked, women being assaulted, and Jewish-owned shops being smashed.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is proud to work closely with Shomrim, with whom we have an information-sharing agreement, enabling us to collaborate in real-time on cases.

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

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Poster asking if antisemitism is “humane” found on Golders Green bus stop

A poster asking if antisemitism is “humane” was found on a Golders Green bus stop earlier this week.

Also written on the poster were the words “Israel = ISIS” and “Restore Palestine”.

In June, a near-identical poster was discovered, also in Golders Green. 

Golders Green is a neighbourhood renowned for its large Jewish population. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” and “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” are both examples of antisemitism. 

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The creator behind the popular Instagram page, jewishmemesonly, on dismantling antisemitic conspiracies with memes

Shoshana Gottlieb, a writer, content creator and podcaster who is best known for running the popular Instagram account ‘jewishmemesonly’, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she discussed how she uses memes as a means of mocking and dismantling antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

“Memes are a recurring internet joke. It’s usually a picture or a video that you can take and turn on its head, and repurpose in other contexts,” Ms Gottlieb explains. “I started making them because I reached a point where I realised I could make them, because I had the meme knowledge and I had the Jewish knowledge, and I put those two things together.”

Ms Gottlieb’s content playfully exposes how ludicrous and nonsensical antisemitic beliefs can be, as well as highlighting some of the weird and wonderful aspects of Jewish culture. In the past, she has used her platform to mock antisemitic tropes such as the Rothschild conspiracy, allegations of media control and the cliche that all Jews are rich.

Speaking on how she created a meme in which she used an image from the television programme The Simpsons to poke fun at those who believe in tropes of Jewish power and control, Ms Gottlieb said: “Someone posted the image of [Marge Simpson] with money coming out of her hair and a bundle of cash, and I’m like ‘Well, people say Jews have a lot of money and people say Jews get money at these secret meetings’…it’s just connecting the dots.

“You find the absurdity. I remember learning about [The Protocols of] the Elders of Zion at school and being like, ‘That’s crazy, no one could ever believe that.’ And now you’re in a YouTube comments section and people are quoting it.”

However, there are some lines that the content creator refuses to cross.

“I stay away from serious antisemitism. I’m not going to make a joke about a synagogue that’s been held hostage, I don’t make jokes about the Holocaust. But when it comes to antisemitic conspiracy theory, at a very superficial level, it’s ridiculous. Before it becomes harmful, it’s just insane. That’s the stuff I’m making fun of,” she said.

Ms Gottlieb revealed that while the response to her content has largely been positive, she has received some antisemitic comments in the past.

“As for antisemitism, I have zero tolerance. Every so often, once in a blue moon, someone will comment something on a post. And the internet, for me, is a fun place. I don’t come on to fight battles and I don’t come on to try to talk down people who literally spend their time finding Jewish creators. 

“I report them to Instagram because I don’t think they should have a platform, I block them, I delete their comment and I continue on my way. My internet experience is infinitely happier for it.”

Ms Gottlieb told us that her experience of online antisemitism has not been limited to Instagram. 

“One time on Twitter, someone was creating lists of Jews, lists for the next gas chambers. It was really bad, and it was me and a bunch of other Jews on Twitter,” she said. “I think there are some people you can push back on when you say antisemitic things, but when it’s people who come in to purposefully annoy you, what’s the point? They just want to get a rise out of me. I’m not going to give them that.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Gottlieb touched upon a variety of other issues that included the importance of high-quality Holocaust education, representation of Jews in the media, and her own podcast, Pop Culture Parasha, in which she and her co-host pair that week’s Torah portion with a film or television programme and discuss the similarities.

The podcast with Ms Gottlieb can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Jewish Voice for Labour’s Glyn Secker says “Jews who place Israel at the core of their being” are an “obscenity”

A senior Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) official has said that “Jews who place Israel at the core of their being” are an “obscenity”.

In footage published by the Jewish News, Glyn Secker, the Secretary of JVL, can appear to be heard making the remarks in his speech at a protest this week organised by Stop The War, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aqsa.

In his recent report, Martin Forde QC ludicrously suggested that JVL, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, should have a role in antisemitism education in the Labour Party, of which JVL is still, outrageously, considered a legitimate faction.

In the past, Mr Secker has said that Jewish organisations are “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”, among other inflammatory comments.

Young Labour Chair Jess Barnard also spoke at the protest.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Rabbis who quit Len McCluskey’s Unite over stance on antisemitism join GMB

A group of rabbis who quit the Unite union during Len McCluskey’s tenure as General Secretary have this week joined the GMB union after it passed a motion condemning antisemitism.

In 2018, five Progressive rabbis terminated their membership of the Faith Workers’ Branch of Unite over Mr McCluskey’s stance on Labour antisemitism. In a letter to the union at the time, they wrote: “Len McCluskey’s most recent comments about the leadership of the Jewish community are not only unhelpful, but are disingenuous, for in so doing he attempts to rewrite the story of the last 6-months and plays down the genuine concerns of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community, as expressed by our leadership.

“Moreover, his line: ‘before the political estrangement between them and the Labour Party becomes entrenched’, feels a little too much like a threat and does nothing to calm the anxieties we keep hearing from our congregants and across the Jewish community.”

They have now joined the GMB, which recently passed a resolution condemning antisemitism.

At the launch of a new branch for Jewish faith workers within the union earlier this week, GMB’s General Secretary, Gary Smith, pledged: “I give you this absolute commitment that when we encounter antisemitism within our ranks it will be dealt with head on. We don’t want a league table of racists. Antisemitism will be dealt with like any other form of racism.”

Some of the new rabbinical members have written in the JC about their decision.

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England and Wales Cricket Board charges former Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale over alleged antisemitic historic tweet

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has charged a former Yorkshire coach over an alleged antisemitic historic tweet.

A tweet allegedly posted by Andrew Gale surfaced during the recent scandal of racism claims in cricket.

Mr Gale, who has denied “each and every” accusation made against him and reportedly described the ECB investigation as a “witch hunt”, has been charged in relation to a 2010 tweet that included the words “Button it y**!” The tweet is believed to have been sent in reply to Leeds United Football Club’s then Head of Media, Paul Dews.

Mr Gale, a former captain of Yorkshire who became the county’s coach in 2016, is one of seven current and former cricket players charged over the scandal, and an additional charge has been filed against him after he reportedly refused to attend a disciplinary hearing.

The tweet resurfaced at the same time as historic antisemitic comments by former cricketer Azim Rafiq, the leading whistleblower in the racism scandal, who has apologised for his past comments.

Yorkshire initially suspended Mr Gale pending a discplinary hearing into his message, but he was then fired along with Yorkshire’s entire coaching staff. The cricket club then admitted that unfair dismissal complaints by him and five of his former colleagues were “well-founded” as part of wider legal battles over the terminations.

Mr Gale told Jewish News at the time the tweet resurfaced: “This post is part of a conversational thread between Paul Dews and myself. Paul worked for Leeds United Football Club at the time and I am an avid Huddersfield Town fan. The reference is to a chant that was prevalent at the time in relation to Leeds fans.

“Within a few minutes of the post, Paul called me and explained the meaning of the word and that it was offensive to Jews. I was completely unaware of this meaning and removed the post immediately. You must have been sent a screenshot of the post that someone took at the time and waited eleven years to release. I would never have used the word had I been aware of its offensive meaning and I have never used it since.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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Teenager sentenced to over three years in young offenders’ institute in first conviction from wave of antisemitic incidents in May 2021

A teenager has been sentenced to three years and seven months in a young offenders’ institute in what is the first conviction from the wave of antisemitic incidents in May 2021.

Rabbi Rafi Goodwin, who leads the Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue in Essex, was driving outside the synagogue on 16th May 2021 when two men walked in front of his car, forcing him to brake.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Friday that the men then attacked him and stole his mobile phone.

Leeds-born father of two Rabbi Goodwin, who is in his thirties, was brutally beaten, punched five times in the face until he fell to the floor and then hit on the head with a brick, sustaining head injuries, according to the police. The United Synagogue, the umbrella body to which Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue belongs, said that Rabbi Goodwin sustained injuries necessitating a stay in hospital so that he could be treated and assessed for concussion. A police statement issued soon after the incident added that he was treated for cuts to his head and eye.

Rabbi Goodwin’s children were in the car at the time and witnessed the gruesome attack.

Souraka Djabouri, 19, of Ilford, admitted religiously aggravated damage to Rabbi Goodwin’s vehicle and theft of a mobile phone, and was sentenced for grievous bodily harm without intent.

The second attacker, believed to have been 25 at the time of the attack, has not been identified.

Recorder Richard Conley told Mr Djabouri: “The reason for this behaviour was the fact you and your associate recognised Mr Goodwin was a member of the Jewish faith,” adding: “It’s nothing short of miraculous that Mr Goodwin didn’t sustain life-threatening or life-changing injuries.”

The court heard that Rabbi Goodwin has “fully recovered” from his physical injuries but has also become “hypervigilant about who’s around me” and “looking over my shoulder”.

Mr Djabouri reportedly showed a “genuine level of remorse,” the court heard.

The judge observed that the number of attacks on British Jews had become “increasingly and worryingly commonplace.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It has taken almost a year and a half, but finally one solitary person has been convicted and sentenced for an incident that formed part of the record-breaking wave of antisemitic crimes that took place in May 2021 – and he pleaded guilty. It is not at all reassuring that the number of other defendants facing hate crime charges in relation to incidents in that period can be counted on one hand. The police, CPS and courts all have a duty to help deliver justice to the Jewish community, and we will continue to hold them to account until they do.”

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that over two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

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Labour expels Brighton councillor Anne Pissaridou, but not over antisemitism

The Labour Party has reportedly expelled Cllr Anne Pissaridou, but not over antisemitism.

Cllr Pissaridou, along with one of her colleagues in the Labour Group on Brighton and Hove Council, was apparently expelled for belonging to a proscribed organisation.

Earlier this year, Cllr Pissaridou, representing North Portslade in Brighton, was suspended by the Party for a second time after new revelations about her social media output. She was accused of posting messages on social media downplaying antisemitism allegations in the Labour Party and reportedly appeared to condone an online attack on a Jewish party member.

Cllr Pissaridou said: “I am taking legal advice in respect of appealing the decision and do not have any further comment to make at this time.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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CAA challenges CPS’s claim that it takes antisemitic hate crime seriously

In an article in the Jewish News last week, Lionel Idan, the hate crime lead prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claimed that the CPS takes antisemitic crime seriously. Our experience, however, has suggested otherwise.

In our response in this week’s Jewish News, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, Gideon Falter, argued that “most of the article sought to defend the CPS against the accusation levelled by 59 percent of British Jews in our most recent polling that his organisation fails to do enough to protect our community,” but that the examples and statistics that he cited failed to provide the reassurance that the CPS believed that they would.

To find out why, read the full article at https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-smoke-and-mirrors-from-the-cps-cannot-hide-the-truth/

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

If you need advice in relation to an antisemitic incident, please contact us in confidence at [email protected] or call +44 (0)330 822 0321.

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DHL removes deliveryman who wrote “signed for by jews” on parcel, apologises and offers compensation after intervention by CAA

DHL has removed a deliveryman who is claimed to have thrown a package in a driveway and recorded that it was “signed for by jews [sic]”.

The recipient of the package, who is a member of the Jewish community in London, reported to us that their package was left in the driveway by a representative of the delivery company. No attempt had been made to ring the doorbell, even though the recipient was at home.

The package was left in a damaged state, as evidenced in a photograph provided to us.

The recipient, who lives in a heavily-Jewish neighbourhood, received a notification claiming that the package had been signed for, which was apparently not true, and that it had been “signed for by jews [sic]”.

After correspondence with the victim and intervention by Campaign Against Antisemitism, DHL has removed the deliveryman, apologised and offered the victim compensation.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is not the first time that deliverymen, from any company, have made racial comments about Jewish people. For someone simply waiting to receive a package and relying on a basic service to have to endure antisemitic abuse is intolerable. We are grateful that the victim came forward and we applaud DHL for doing the right thing by removing this deliveryman from service, apologising and offering compensation.”

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Court allows reinstatement of racially/religiously aggravated element to charges against Abdullah Qureshi after CAA and others pressure CPS

A court has agreed to reinstate the racially/religiously aggravated element to charges against Abdullah Qureshi. The decision comes after Campaign Against Antisemitism and other groups applied pressure to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which had earlier dropped the hate element from the charges.

On 7th April, Mr Qureshi, 28, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates’ Court to one count of assault by beating and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent. The charges related to a series of assaults on 18th August 2021 in Stamford Hill in which five religious Jews in the North London neighbourhood were violently attacked.

Campaign Against Antisemitism then revealed that the CPS had dropped the racially/religiously aggravated element of those charges as part of a plea deal with Mr Qureshi. After we, Shomrim, CST and other communal organisations made representations to the CPS, it agreed to reinstate the aggravated elements, but Mr Qureshi appeared in court to resist the reinstatement of the aggravated element.

Explaining the reinstatement at court, the prosecutor said that these are “serious allegations” and that “the file was reviewed again and a decision was made to proceed with the offences.” However, counsel for Mr Qureshi argued that this submission should not be accepted, describing it as “ridiculous” and an “abuse of process”.

The CPS was instructed to provide its reasons in writing, with an opportunity for the defence to respond in writing, followed by a hearing in the summer.

That hearing took place today at Stratford Magistrates’ Court, where the court decided in favour of the reinstatement. There will now be a plea hearing later this month at Thames Magistrates’ Court.

In one incident at 18:41 on the day of the attacks last August, an Orthodox Jewish man was struck in the face with what appeared to be a bottle. In another at 19:10, a child was slapped on the back of the head, and in yet another at 20:30, a 64-year-old victim was struck and left unconscious on the ground, suffering facial injuries and a broken ankle. Two further incidents were also alleged.

The incidents received significant media attention at the time, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, condemned “this appalling attack,” adding: “Let me be clear, racist abuse and hate crime, including antisemitism, have absolutely no place in our city.”

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“Find other Jews you can talk to”: Meet the Jewish actors calling out antisemitism

Dan Wolff and Sam Thorpe-Spinks, two Jewish actor-producers, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where they shed light on the antisemitism they experienced at drama school that now serves as inspiration for their upcoming play.

Their play, Emanate Presents: A Night of New Jewish Writing, features six, stand-alone short scenes. Mr Wolff and Mr Thorpe-Spinks supplied the writers, directors and actors with the questions “How do we define ourselves as Jewish?” and “How is that changing?” as prompts.

Playing at London’s Kiln Theatre on 8th and 9th of August, the production was created as a response to the duo’s experiences of antisemitism, examples of which included being asked if they were going to pick pennies up off of the floor and being told that “the Jews run New York”.

Speaking on the discrimination they faced at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Mr Wolff stated that much of the antisemitism was not the fault of the School specifically but rather caused by their peers, adding that he viewed it as more of a higher education issue.

Mr Thorpe-Spinks admitted that the two felt frustrated in the fact that being two of the only Jews in their year made calling out antisemitism difficult, and often resulted in them not saying anything at all. 

“We didn’t talk about it much, and I don’t know why it is. Recently, having this chance to talk to you and talk to the School, we suddenly start saying things and we go, ‘Oh, actually that wasn’t okay’. 

For some reason, I thought, ‘You get little jokes and that’s just part of it’, but actually when you start saying it, you go ‘No, why should we have had to put up with that? Why didn’t we speak out or make a formal complaint?’ Not just in drama school but in rehearsal rooms, professional rooms…the moment you do start talking about it, sometimes for the first time, you hear yourself and you go ‘Wow, I was going to be okay with that’.”

“And what happens is,” Mr Wolff added, “with each little remark, it chips away at something inside of you. It chips away, essentially, at your sense of pride of being Jewish. And with each little thing, it gets stripped away and it gets poked at and it gets damaged, so then you start to internalise it and you start to go ‘Well, the jokes are sort of true…we’re the butt of the joke and it’s sort of okay because someone has to be.’ 

“It’s an accumulative process that happens over years and years and years where you internalise it and you get to a point where you start to not hear it. It’s terrifying, the idea you become numb to the sense of discrimination. So I suppose we’re trying to thaw out the numbness in a way with this project. It’s about a defrosting of this internalised antisemitism.”

Mr Wolff explained how a core tenet of acting is being able to trust the actor that you are performing with, and that if that actor says something antisemitic, it becomes impossible to fully trust in them, which results in the work suffering.

“Essentially, what happens is you go ‘I’m with you in this space and I’m with the work but I fundamentally cannot be myself and I cannot be truly open because there is a part of me that is so integral to me that you cannot accept,” Mr Wolff said.

When asked for what advice they would give to Jews in the acting industry who may be experiencing antisemitism but aren’t sure what to do, the actor said: “Find other Jews that you can talk to and you can say, ‘This happened and I’m not sure about that,’ and more often than not, someone else can go ‘That is antisemitism,’ or ‘That’s not okay’. 

“Just try and talk as much as possible. And if you can, call it out. You’d probably be surprised that people are willing to listen. If I could say something to myself ten years ago, I would say call it out more.”

Mr Thorpe-Spinks explained that he found it easier to call out antisemitism once he began tracing his familial roots back, which offered him an appreciation of his Jewish heritage, allowing him to feel emboldened enough to say something.

“It made me understand who I am a bit more, and was proud of who I am, and I think that sense of empowerment would make it easier to call things out,” he said. “For a lot of my childhood, I was Sam who was technically Jewish but wasn’t interested, and maybe when I experienced antisemitism, I would not have associated myself with it, to be honest. But because I have discovered my ancestry, I suddenly go ‘I am proud of what they went through and of who I am’, and I think there’s a real empowerment to that kind of self-discovery.” 

Throughout the interview, the duo touched upon a variety of other issues, including whether non-Jews can play Jewish characters and last year’s incident in which the Royal Court Theatre came under intense scrutiny after the greedy billionaire character in its play Rare Earth Mettle was given the name Herschel Fink.

The podcast with Mr Wolff and Mr Thorpe-Spinks can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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More Jewish-owned shop windows smashed in Stamford Hill

More windows of Jewish-owned shops appear to have been smashed in Stamford Hill, just days after vandals attacked other Jewish-owned shops in the area, reportedly causing £25,000 worth of damage.

The incidents were reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 4620417/22 or CAD 8616 02/08/22

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

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Rapper apologises for wearing anti-fascist t-shirt with confusingly prominent swastika at music festival

A British rapper has apologised after he was filmed wearing a t-shirt featuring the word “destroy” over a very prominent swastika.

Tyron Kaymone Frampton, known as Slowthai, justified his choice of the anti-fascist t-shirt, but also said that he is aware that it caused some fans confusion when he performed in it at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal.

One Twitter user expressed their dismay, writing that “Today at the Osheaga music fest, Slowthai performs wearing a swastika t-shirt. At what point does his manager, festival organisers, or stage managers step in and say this symbol of hate has no place at the festival, in Quebec, or in Canada?”

The rapper tweeted an apology, saying that “I’m sorry to anyone who is offended by me wearing an anti-fascist/anti-regime t-shirt and the use of the symbol it represents. I want you to know I stand firmly against antisemitism and fascism of any kind, something the t-shirt was meant to illustrate wth the word “destroy” above the symbol.”

The Osheaga Festival tweeted a statement which said that: “A performer appeared on stage Saturday wearing a controversial t-shirt displaying a swastika that caused confusion. The t-shirt denounces the regime. We sincerely apologise to anyone who may have misinterpreted this message and felt hurt.”

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Labour Party suspends councillor who allegedly quoted KKK’s David Duke and compared Israel to Nazis

The Labour Party has suspended a councillor from Blackpool based on allegations that he wrote Facebook posts full of inflammatory comments about Jews.

The Party has suspended Councillor David Owen for eighteen months after investigating eight posts that he is alleged to have written between September 2016 and July 2020, including comments that quote the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, and another comparing Israel to the Nazis.

Cllr Owen remains, however, part of the Labour group on Blackpool Council.

Cllr Owen released a statement in which he said that “I have tried to remove all my posts which cause offence. I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has read any or all of them and, particularly, I express my sincere regrets to Jewish people as individuals and collectively whom I have wronged through my reckless actions.”

Though Cllr Owen reportedly said that he accepted that his comments were antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, he maintains that the Definition “almost shut[s] down free speech” when it is applied to the State of Israel.

Cllr Owen said: “I am not an antisemite though I have transgressed the definition of what that is in the Labour Party.”

He announced that he intends to appeal his suspension because he feels that the penalty is “disproportionate”.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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After three years, Jewish student finally receives apology and financial compensation from Bristol University after complaint upheld by OIA

After three years, a Jewish student at the University of Bristol has finally received an apology and financial compensation for the handling of an antisemitism complaint that they submitted.

The student’s vindication follows a decision by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA).

This is not the first time that a university has apparently resisted recognising that it may be at fault. In 2016, the OIA also upheld an appeal in respect of a complaint of antisemitic hostile environment harassment under the Equality Act 2010 at Sheffield Hallam University. The complainant received financial compensation, reportedly partly due to the delay in deciding their complaint.

Both the University of Bristol and Sheffield Hallam University have adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism but have recently been embroiled in high-profile antisemitism controversies.

In a statement, UJS said: “This situation should never have reached this point. Universities must respond to complaints of antisemitism in a timely, professional and considerate manner. Bristol University has committed to improving its complaints procedures. This decision vindicates the complainant and sends a clear message to universities across the country that they must respect and protect their Jewish students.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The resistance by some universities to recognising their shortcomings when it comes to how their tackle antisemitism is another example of how adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism is only a first step. It is not enough merely to express solidarity with Jewish students; universities have an obligation to take action to protect them as well.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by universities.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected]. 

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Woman reportedly used rod as a weapon and threw liquid over two Jewish women in separate incidents

A woman has reportedly used a rod as a weapon against, and also threw liquid over, two Jewish women in separate incidents, both occurring in Stamford Hill.

In the first incident, a Jewish woman was said to have been returning from a hospital visit when she was accosted at a bus stop on Seven Sisters road and was hit over the head by a female suspect brandishing a wooden stick who shouted: “I am doing it because you are a Jew.”

The suspect then reportedly threw a liquid over the victim. 

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: 4620417/22

In a second incident, occurring on Wargrave Avenue, the suspect allegedly assaulted a Jewish mother who was pushing her baby in a pram. 

The suspect reportedly brandished a stick and shouted “show me your baby” before spraying a liquid substance over the infant.  

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 363 29/07/22

The suspect has been described as being a physically imposing Black female of around 40 years who wore a turban.

Both incidents were reported on Friday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

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

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£25,000 worth of damage reported following attacks on Jewish-owned shops in Stamford Hill

£25,000 worth of damage has been reported following attacks on Jewish-owned shops in Stamford Hill.

Images uploaded online appear to show shops boarded up after the windows of the buildings were smashed in.

The incident was reported on Sunday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: 4620417/22

Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely with Shomrim, with whom we have a data-sharing agreement.

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

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Daily Telegraph Books sells antisemitic hate preacher David Icke books despite bans by other retailers

The books section of The Daily Telegraph is continuing to sell books by the conspiracy theorist and antisemitic hate preacher, David Icke, despite his output being banned by some other retailers.

The website currently lists eleven David Icke titles, available either in hard copy or e-book formats. 

They include the upcoming self-published tract, The Trap: What it is, how it works, and how we escape its illusions, which will be available from 1st September, which the website has put it in the “Philosophy of Mind” category.

Mr Icke has self-published all of his work since the mid-1990s, after his endorsement of the notorious antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in his books The Robots’ Rebellion (1994) and And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995) saw him dropped by his publisher, Gateway.

This has not, however, prevented Mr Icke’s books being available from some mainstream retailers. Although, in 2020, Britain’s most popular book retailer, Waterstones, said that it would remove all of Mr Icke’s books from sale, WH Smith was still found to be selling his books and DVDs by May 2021.

Mr Icke uses social media, his books and his stage performances to incite hatred. His preaching is so absurd that since the 1990s he has been dismissed as a crank, but because he is dismissed, there has been no major opposition to him and he has built up a following of thousands upon thousands of disciples whom he has persuaded to adamantly believe that the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists”. His repertoire includes conspiracy myths and tropes classified as antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British Government. Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully persuaded some venues to pull out of hosting his events.

After years of pressure from Campaign Against Antisemitism, Mr Icke was banned from most social media platforms.

Campaign Against Antisemitism shall be writing to The Daily Telegraph.

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Woman shouts “F*** you Jews, I will kill you” at people leaving Stamford Hill synagogue

A woman has been witnessed shouting “F*** you Jews, I will kill you” at identifiably Jewish people leaving a synagogue on Portland Avenue, Stamford Hill.

The incident occurred on 29th July and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 2480 01/08/22

Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely with Shomrim, with whom we have a data-sharing agreement.

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

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“Jews don’t belong on the pavement”: Hundreds of Jewish people abused leaving synagogue in Stamford Hill

Hundreds of Jewish men and boys have been abused on their way home from attending prayers at their local synagogue, it has been reported.

A woman allegedly blocked the group’s path and shouted “Jews don’t belong on the pavement” and “f****** Jews”.

The incident is believed to have occurred on Friday night in the North London area of Stamford Hill and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 8214 31/07/22

Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely with Shomrim, with whom we have a data-sharing agreement.

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

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DHL deliveryman throws package in driveway and claims it was “signed for by jews”

A deliveryman for DHL is claimed to have thrown a package in a driveway and recorded that it was “signed for by jews [sic]”.

The recipient of the package, who is a member of the Jewish community in London, reported to us that their package was left in the driveway by a representative of the delivery company. No attempt had been made to ring the doorbell, even though the recipient was at home.

The package was left in a damaged state, as evidenced in a photograph provided to us.

The recipient, who lives in a heavily-Jewish neighbourhood, received a notification claiming that the package had been signed for, which was apparently not true, and that it had been “signed for by jews [sic]”.

We are in touch with the victim and are writing to DHL.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is not the first time that deliverymen, from any company, have made racial comments about Jewish people. For someone simply waiting to receive a package and relying on a basic service to have to endure antisemitic abuse is intolerable. We are grateful that the victim has come forward and we will be writing to DHL and expect the company to take urgent action.”

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Thirteen-year-old Jewish boy called “f****** Jew” and has skullcap snatched in Stamford Hill

A thirteen-year-old Jewish boy called was reportedly called a “f****** Jew” and had his skullcap snatched from him in Stamford Hill.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The incident is believed to have occurred on Manor Road in North London and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 155 29/07/22

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

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Gang members reportedly smash identifiably Jewish eight-year-old boy’s head against lamp post

An identifiably Jewish eight-year-old boy has reportedly been attacked by two gang members in North London.

The gang is believed to be associated with the nearby Webb Estate and is accused of harassing Jewish residents for years.

The boy was said to have had his head smashed against a lamp post and a photograph in connection with the incident appears to show a young child with a head wound. 

The incident is believed to have occurred yesterday at approximately 18:00 in Clapton Common and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 6113 26/07/22

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

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From Egypt to England; Khaled Hassan speaks on disavowing his antisemitic views and becoming Jewish

Khaled Hassan, an Egyptian political risk and intelligence analyst whose research looks at antisemitism, Islamism and conspiracy theories, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he recounted his story of how he went from living in Egypt and harbouring antisemitic views to living in the United Kingdom and not only disavowing those views, but converting to Judaism. 

When Mr Hassan was asked what his impression of Jewish people was during his time in Egypt, he said: “This is actually one of the most difficult questions to answer. Not necessarily because I don’t know how to describe it but because I want to explain to someone born in Europe or the [United States] how it actually works. 

“I think the best way to put it is, imagine you find out that your neighbour did something so hideous and horrible that the whole community just hates them. The whole community wants to avoid them because obviously, any association with them would actually also put you under scrutiny and people would question you, question your convictions. Sadly, this is how Jews are viewed in [much of] the Middle East, in Egypt and the Arab-speaking world.” 

He continued: “[Jews are viewed as] this group of people who are fundamentally evil, who are fundamentally horrible, in a way, and that’s why nobody is even willing to consider Hebrew literature, everyone’s terrified of touching even one simple book. So that is really the perception that we’ve had, it’s one of suspicion, of fear, and obviously thinking that they are inherently evil. And education does reinforce it.”

Explaining how he unlearned these views, the political risk and intelligence analyst said: “I was very different from an early stage because I loved tourism, I loved seeing people from different places, I loved America. Unlike a lot of Egyptians, I loved the idea of American rights.”

Mr Hassan explained how the term ‘radicalisation’ is often misinterpreted as being inherently negative.

“It’s not always something bad,” Mr Hassan said. “A radical is just somebody who believes in views that are uncommon where they are, within their own environment. And it always begins with this sense of grievance, you always feel that something is wrong, and you need to right this wrong, and this is when you start to find answers to questions that you have. So this is precisely what happened to me when I was a teenager.

“In radicalisation, we call something a ‘cognitive opening’. It’s this willingness to actually listen, this willingness to actually hear information. For me, it all started when I started examining where I want to study. As a teenager, I just wanted to study somewhere where I could actually view these ideas, and that was always the U.S., so I would say this was really the changing point for me.

“And one of the key turning points for me was definitely my involvement in peace talks between Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Israelis, because I was very fortunate to be involved in some of these discussions on a grassroots level.”

On his conversion to Judaism, Mr Hassan said: “So that’s my journey; I started questioning all of these beliefs around me when I was a teenager and decided that I’m not going to inherit any beliefs, I will just find the beliefs that suit me. And it really took years. I examined different faiths and eventually made the decision that Judaism is right for me.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Hassan touched upon a variety of other issues including the Colleyville synagogue hostage attack, the ‘Free Palestine’ convoy in North London in May 2021 and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

The podcast with Mr Hassan can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Burnley Football Club decides not to change stand named after former Chairman who claimed Jews “run TV”

Burnley Football Club has rejected calls to rename a stand after a former Chairman who made an antisemitic remark in public.

The Bob Lord Stand is dedicated to the late local businessman who ran a chain of butcher shops before becoming Chairman of Burnley Football Club.

However, in 1974, Mr Lord spoke at a variety club dinner and said that “We have to stand up against a move to get soccer on the cheap by the Jews who run TV.”

This prompted many of the guests to leave the dinner early and a complaint from Bryan Cowgill, Head of BBC Television Sport, and his television counterpart, Bill Ward, to Sir Andrew Stephen, Chairman of the Football Association, and Len Shipman, President of the Football League,

Mr Lord later issued a partial apology, saying that: “If I have hurt anybody’s feelings. I apologise.”

However, the issue has recently come to light after some members of the Jewish community expressed their concerns, pressuring the Club into potentially renaming the stand.

Burnley went on to launch a six-month-long investigation into the incident, which included consultations with Jewish representatives and advisers, but concluded that the Club did not need to take any further action.

A spokesperson for the Club said that Burnley had officially adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Burnley’s current Chairman, Alan Pace, said the Club would continue to take a “proactive stance against all forms of discrimination and hate crime. Adopting the IHRA definition in full is an important step going forwards and ultimately proves clarity across football on the language and actions of staff, players, supporters, and everyone associated with the game. As a custodian of Burnley, I strongly believe everyone should feel safe and welcome, whether watching or attending a football game.”

The original outcry over Bob Lord came less than a month after three Burnley supporters were arrested after video footage emerged of them appearing to perform Nazi salutes during the club’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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Glasgow auction house to sell replica Nazi memorabilia this week

An auction house in Glasgow is reportedly due to sell replica Nazi memorabilia at an auction this Friday.

McTear’s Auction House is offering “A group of reproduction Third Reich badges and medals” at an “Antiques and Interiors” auction this week.

It is our belief that Nazi memorabilia belongs in a museum instead of in the hands of collectors whose motivation for acquiring cannot be known. The auctioning of replica Nazi memorabilia is even more inexplicable, as these items, which symbolise the genocide of six million Jews, are not even of historical interest.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously highlighted the auctioning of Nazi memorabilia in the UK and abroad.

Image credit: Stop Antisemitism

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“Chingford Corbynite” Faiza Shaheen reselected as Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford

Faiza Shaheen has been reselected as the Labour Party’s candidate in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency.

Ms Shaheen received more than 200 votes from local members. Her main challenger, Bilal Mahmood, who was backed by MPs including Stella Creasy and David Lammy, received just over 160.

Ms Shaheen stood in Chingford and Woodford Green in the 2019 General Election, but was defeated by the Conservative MP, Iain Duncan Smith, who won with a majority of 1,263 votes.

Prior to the 2019 election, Ms Shaheen became known for her close relationship with Mr Corbyn, and was dubbed the “Chingford Corbynite”.

Ms Shaheen has also campaigned with the controversial left-wing filmmaker, Ken Loach, and made statements supporting Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi, the controversial Media Officer of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation Jewish Voice for Labour.

In 2018, footage emerged in which Ms Shaheen appeared to say that it was “not a fact” that the 1972 Munich Olympic terrorist attack, in which eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group, Black September, was motivated by antisemitism. Ms Shaheen denies these claims.

In a BBC Newsnight interview immediately following the 2019 election, in which she appeared alongside the veteran Labour politician, Jack Straw, Ms Shaheen claimed that the media had told “lies” about Mr Corbyn’s character in order to misrepresent him to the public and appeared to dismiss Mr Straw’s assessment of antisemitism allegations in the Labour Party and the role they played in the election defeat.

however, in a recent interview with Jewish News, Ms Shaheen said that “every member, including myself, must make all efforts to repair the trust between the Labour Party and the Jewish community.”

She also said that she had “criticised the Corbyn leadership for not taking antisemitism seriously enough, and I think [current Labour leader, Keir] Starmer must do more too.”

Ms Shaheen’s selection has been celebrated on Twitter by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, Emily Thornberry, and Labour MP for Ilford North, Wes Streeting. Mr Streeting has also claimed that the current Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, consulted him about possibly leaving the Shadow Cabinet while the antisemite Jeremy Corbyn was Leader. Whether or not such a consultation took place, Sir Keir went on to remain in Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet and back him “100%”.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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“Antisemitism is actually a Jewish creation”: Ofcom puts Ahlebait TV on notice following breach of hate speech regulations

Ofcom has put the television channel Ahlebait TV on notice following its breach of hate speech regulations.

The media watchdog made the ruling against Ahlebait TV, which offers “current affairs and entertainment programming with an Islamic perspective”, following a complaint from CST.

The breach occurred on an edition of the programme 20th Hour entitled Money Power, Islam and a Just Order in March of last year when David Pidcock, one of the guests on the programme, said: “This is why the Jews have been expelled from 47 different countries and city-states in the last 1,000 years and as they recognise…their antisemitism comes from their actions of impoverishing people and they then respond and then they call it antisemitism but we know that it’s because they do and they get punished and as Allah says, you know, he will expel [sentence incomplete] – send them to all corners of the world to be an excoriation and a hissing and a booing to wherever he had sent them.”

Following this comment, fellow guest Clive Menzies remarked that “It’s worth just noting that antisemitism was created by Theodor Herzl at the back end of the nineteenth century in order to frighten and create the circumstances that would encourage Jews to migrate to Israel so antisemitism is actually a Jewish creation”. 

Ofcom stated that it “considered these breaches to be serious and therefore we are putting the Licensee on notice that we will consider them for the imposition of a statutory sanction.”

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GMP tells CAA it lost track of antisemitic crime data due to new IT system and did not even make Mayor Andy Burnham aware

Greater Manchester Police has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it has lost track of antisemitic crime data due to the installation of a new IT system.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, is in charge of police governance for the city, but in correspondence with his office, we discovered that the police force has yet to provide explanations to him for the scandal. We are grateful to the Mayor for his help.

We have now reported Greater Manchester Police to the Information Commissioner’s Office and appointed lawyers.

Greater Manchester Police serves Britain’s third largest city, which is home to the second largest Jewish community in the country. Its data on antisemitic hate crimes is therefore essential to understanding the nature of antisemitic crime and holding police forces accountable for their performance.

Following requests from us from as long ago as April 2021 for data regarding antisemitic crimes and non-criminal antisemitic incidents recorded by Greater Manchester Police for every month in 2018, 2019 and 2020 — which is data that all other police forces in the country hold and have provided to us and the Home Office — the force has consistently failed to provide the data, apparently because it would take days to extract it from its computers. In other words, it appears to have lost track of this data.

Paradoxically, while insisting that the data requested was not easily retrievable, subsequent to our request the force did publish part of the data on its website. However, a substantial amount of data remains missing. The problem remains so severe that it is the only police force in the UK to have been unable to meet minimum data requirements set by the Home Office.

This problem does not affect antisemitic hate crime alone: even the Home Office’s national crime statistics have, for several years until this year, omitted data from one of the country’s largest police forces.

With the assistance of the Mayor, we are continuing to press the force to explain itself, compile the necessary data and provide it.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is scandalous that one of the nation’s largest police forces has effectively lost its hate crime data. Through its incompetence, Greater Manchester Police has deprived the Government, us and the public of critical information. Most pertinent to us, the force’s ineptitude prevents the Jewish community from understanding the nature of antisemitic crime and holding police accountable for their performance. Manchester is home to the second largest Jewish community in the country; if its local police cannot even retain data that is so crucial to keeping that community safe, it raises serious questions about whether and how it carries out its actual police work.”

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

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Poland’s Chief Rabbi on antisemitism: “About five years ago, things became less good”

Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Poland’s current, and longest-serving, Chief Rabbi, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed the revival of the Polish Jewish community and the way in which the country dealt with antisemitism following the Holocaust.

Outlining the devastating effects of the Holocaust on Polish Jewry, Rabbi Schudrich said: “September 1st, 1939. The beginning of World War Two. At that point, there are 3.5 million Jews living in Poland. The heart, the soul of the Ashkenazi world. Only five years later, ninety percent are no longer alive having been murdered by Germans and accomplices,” before adding: “That statement is so horrific, most people don’t think how many survive. Ten percent survived, that’s 350,000 Polish Jews.

“The question is, ‘Where are they?’ The vast majority of the survivors leave Poland in the 25 years after World War Two. If you want to feel safe saying the statement ‘I am a Jew,’ it made good sense to leave post-Holocaust, Soviet-occupied Communist Poland, and so most of the Jews left. But not all the Jews left and those that stayed, most of them agreed with those that left; Stay Jewish, leave Communist Poland. Stay in Communist Poland, stop being Jewish, to the extent that you often didn’t even tell your children or grandchildren.

“And so while a couple hundred thousand left, some tens of thousands stayed. Most gave up their Jewish identity, keeping the deep, dark secret of who their real identity was for fifty years…from 1939 to 1989, the fall of communism, and at that point, there was a new phenomenon; people were starting to tell their children and grandchildren, friends, colleagues neighbours, that they’re really Jewish. Since 1989, thousands of Poles have rediscovered their real Jewish roots. That’s the Jewish community of Poland today.”

Speaking on the existence of antisemitism in Poland before and after the Holocaust, he said: “It was not socially unacceptable to be an antisemite before the war. The Holocaust changed that. The only thing was, after the Holocaust, many Jews left Poland so quickly and the other ones were hiding, [Poland] never had a chance to deal with what it means to be an antisemite after the Holocaust. And so with the fall of communism in 1989, people could start to look and say ‘What role should antisemitism play in Poland today?’ 

“After 1989, with Poland once again being democratic, they were challenged with recreating the old, new Poland, meaning they kept some values from before the war and they rejected others. So out went communism, out went fascism, and for many, also, it meant rejecting antisemitism. It represented something from the bad, old Poland. It doesn’t mean everyone rejected antisemitism, it doesn’t mean there’s no antisemitism today, but it does mean that there’s less than what people expect.”

However, while Rabbi Schudrich celebrated how far the country’s Jewish community has come, and indeed, how far the country has come in accepting it, he acknowledged that antisemitism has begun to creep up again.

“Unfortunately, about five years ago, things became less good than they were before since 1989. What happened? We have to look at it within a Western world context, meaning Europe and the United States. Something happened five or six years ago where it became more acceptable, more respectable, to say antisemitic things than it was since the Holocaust. And this is something that happened very sadly not only in Poland but throughout Europe and the United States.”

Throughout the interview, Rabbi Schudrich touched upon a variety of other issues including antisemitism in Japan, where he served as the rabbi of the country’s Jewish community, as well as detailing the incidents of an antisemitic attack in which he was involved.

The podcast with Rabbi Schudrich can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Rangers ban fan who reportedly performed Nazi salute during West Ham friendly

Rangers Football Club has banned a spectator from future matches for performing a Nazi salute.

The fan appears to have made the salute during Rangers’ friendly match with West Ham United on 19th July at the Glasgow club’s home ground, Ibrox Stadium. He was apparently seen wearing the strip of West Ham’s rivals, Millwall, which he then allegedly covered up with a jacket.

The Ibrox security team say that the man was then ejected from the ground, but it was reported that he continued to do more salutes as he was being ushered out.

A spokesperson for Rangers said that “We are aware of a video circulating online regarding an individual within the home section who was wearing a football top representing another club. We condemn the appalling actions of this individual who will no longer be welcome at this stadium. This individual was removed from the stadium by our stewards.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We applaud ushers at Ibrox Stadium for their prompt intervention and Rangers for banning the individual from future games. Millwall now also has a responsibility to investigate whether the person in the images attends their matches and prohibit him from doing so. There is no place for antisemitism in football, and clubs must continue to act against Nazi salutes and other antisemitic gestures and chanting wherever they arise.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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CAA exploring legal options after CPS drops antisemitic hate charges in yet another high-profile case, this time in relation to West Ham suspects

Campaign Against Antisemitism is exploring legal options after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped charges against two suspects in relation to a high-profile incident on a Ryanair flight last year.

Lee Carey, 55, and Jak Bruce, 31, were arrested in connection with an incident on a flight from London Stansted to Eindhoven in November 2021 in which numerous West Ham supporters were videoed chanting an antisemitic song, apparently at a Hasidic passenger. They were charged with racially aggravated harassment 

The group was filmed to be chanting “I’ve got a foreskin haven’t you, f***ing Jew”, as they flew to a Europa League match between their team and KRC Genk in Belgium.

In May, the defendants sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction under the Civil Aviation Act and therefore could not hear the case, as there are specific rules about jurisdiction for crimes committed on airplanes. The case was adjourned while the CPS considered the issue. In the meantime, last month, Judge Walker, sitting at Chelmsford Crown Court, rejected an application to dismiss the case, and a further hearing was due later this year.

It has now emerged, however, that the case has collapsed, with the CPS deciding that it has “insufficient evidence” to establish that the alleged offences took place under British jurisdiction and that, therefore, the CPS is unable to advance the prosecution.

A spokesperson for the CPS said: “Following a careful review of all the available evidence, we concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that the alleged offences took place in British airspace and therefore within remit of our courts. The CPS takes racism, homophobia, and antisemitism in sport extremely seriously because of the devastating impact it has on victims and wider society.

“Where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest, we will prosecute these cases. We are working with sporting bodies and the police to advise them on the evidence required to build strong cases so that offenders can be brought to justice.”

This is the third time in almost as many months that the CPS has dropped or reduced charges against suspects in antisemitic hate crime incidents.

Polling for our 2021 Antisemitism Barometer showed that a majority of British Jews do not believe that the CPS is doing enough to protect them.

West Ham confirmed last year that it had banned two supporters for life, although it is not known if those fans are the defendants in this case.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This incident was caught on video that went viral, with plenty of witnesses on the plane, including Ryanair cabin crew. It is beyond belief that sufficient evidence cannot be amassed to establish jurisdiction and that potential culprits are free to go without sanction. This is the third time in almost as many months that the CPS has dropped or reduced charges against suspects in high-profile antisemitic hate crime incidents, and members of the Jewish community are writing to us in indignation. It is no wonder that our polling shows that a majority of British Jews do not believe that the CPS does enough to protect them. With regard to this case, we are exploring legal options to ensure that justice is done.”

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

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Football fan banned from matches for three years for performing Nazi salute at Tottenham Hotspur supporters

A football supporter who performed a Nazi salute at fans of Tottenham Hotspur has been banned from attending matches for three years.

Shay Asher, 24, who is a fan of Newcastle United, admitted to the charge of racially aggravated harassment during the match between Newcastle and Tottenham at Newcastle’s home ground, St James’ Park, in October 2021.

Though Mr Asher initially denied the offence, claiming that he was waving to someone, Newcastle Magistrates’ Court heard that he performed a Nazi salute with his finger over his mouth to make a moustache, and was overheard saying that he wanted to fight Tottenham fans.

The court heard that when the former Royal Engineer was confronted by one of the stadium’s stewards, “his face dropped and he quickly ran off towards the exit.”

Mr Asher was initially fined £200, with £85 costs and a £34 surcharge, but returned to court to challenge a Football Banning Order, which the prosecution had applied for.

The panel decided to impose the Order, however, which includes an order to Mr Asher to surrender his passport should he apply for one, not to enter football grounds and to keep away from England matches.

The court said that the ban was being imposed to help prevent disorder at football matches in the future.

The prosecutor, Brian Payne, said that “This defendant took it upon himself to produce a Nazi salute. He knew or must have known that there was a likelihood of there being a strong Jewish presence among the away supporters. It was a pretty deliberate and cynical action.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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Teenage neo-Nazi becomes first convicted member of far-right group Feuerkrieg Division in Britain

A teenage member of a banned neo-Nazi group has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences at Winchester Crown Court.

Luca Benincasa, 19, has become the first person to be convicted of belonging to the Feuerkrieg Division since it was banned in July 2020.

When the police raided Mr Benincasa’s residence, they found a flag depicting the logo of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary organisation, hanging from his bedroom wall, and a Nazi dagger and parts of an SS officer’s uniform, including a hat and a swastika armband, among his possessions.

His laptop, meanwhile, was found to contain Nazi and neo-Nazi literature and documents.

Mr Benincasa was remanded in custody by Judge Jane Miller QC, and sentencing has been adjourned until 20th September.

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

Image credit: South Wales Police

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In desperate quest for even-handedness highly-anticipated Forde Report fails to pin blame for Labour antisemitism scandal on its culprits

The highly-anticipated Forde Report into issues relating to antisemitism in the Labour Party has been published.

Specifically, the Report (which is the culmination of the inquiry led by Martin Forde QC into a mammoth leaked 2020 report into Labour’s handling of antisemitism complaints), was due to consider the allegations in that report, how it leaked, and the structure, culture and practices of the Labour Party in relation to antisemitism. The investigation into the leak itself was, however, shelved in order not to prejudice an investigation into the same leak by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is believed to be ongoing.

The Report condemns the toxic factionalism of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, which allowed a culture of antisemitism to develop and undermined the procedures in place to address the ensuing complaints. But it also appears to try to divide the blame among the different ‘sides’ in the antisemitism scandal, failing to recognise that, whatever the sins of the various factions, that which contained the antisemites and their enablers was ultimately at fault for the Party’s unlawful victimisation of Jewish people.

One such example is that, incredibly, the Report expresses regret that Jewish Voice for Labour, the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, was excluded from delivering antisemitism education to the Party. It similarly outrageously rejects a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ in favour of a softer approach recommended by an organisation whose Director opposes the International Definition of Antisemitism. Despite the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Report also still appears to relegate antisemitism to just one of numerous racisms that need to be tackled by the Party equally, as if “all forms of racism” have been equally prevalent in the Party in recent years.

The Report does rightly observe that the problem of antisemitism in the Party in the Corbyn era was not overstated, contrary to repeated claims by Mr Corbyn. There is now no excuse for him not to be expelled from the Labour Party,  a move for which we have been calling for years now.

The Report applauds recent reforms to Labour’s disciplinary process, but still warns that they are vulnerable to factional abuse, which is no comfort to the general public, which has yet to witness the new semi-independent disciplinary process in action. However, the report offers no solutions either.

Our complaints against fourteen sitting MPs, for example, have yet to be acknowledged by the Party, much less investigated, and the Report gives no indication of what is to be expected to remedy that.

We have previously lodged a complaint against Mr Corbyn, holding him responsible for conduct that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Labour Party, as the leader during the period of the EHRC’s scathing findings. Given the serious detriment that this conduct has caused, we are seeking Mr Corbyn’s immediate resuspension from the Party and, if the complaint is upheld, we will be requesting his expulsion. On the day of the publication of the EHRC’s report, we also submitted a major complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Taking even-handedness to an absurd extreme, the Forde Report tries to criticise and defend both ‘sides’ in Labour’s antisemitism scandal equally. One ‘side’ was filled with antisemites and their enablers. The Report failed to grasp this elemental truth, rendering it useless.

“Just one such example is the Report’s ludicrous suggestion that the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, should not have been excluded from delivering antisemitism education to the Party.

“It raises more questions than it answers. It welcomes recent reforms to the disciplinary process, but warns that it remains vulnerable to factional abuse. It states that 55 cases were still unallocated as at March 2022, but does not say which ones. We can only assume that they include our complaints against sitting MPs, drafted by counsel, which the Party has yet to acknowledge, much less investigate.

“The Report offers neither explanations nor remedies. Until we see our complaints addressed, we are unable to have confidence in the Party’s leaders and processes, let alone its culture.”

The Labour Party was found by the EHRC to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Anne Frank Trust under fire for inviting guest speaker who allegedly claimed Israeli Jews are committing a “Holocaust”

The Anne Frank Trust has launched an internal investigation after it was revealed that one of its guest speakers had claimed that Jewish Israelis were committing a “Holocaust”.

The Trust, whose aim is to educate children to challenge prejudice, had invited Nasima Begum to lead a creative storytelling workshop for children. However, a series of social media posts from 2011 and 2012 were uncovered in which Ms Begum compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

In 2011, Ms Begum allegedly wrote on Twitter that “What’s sad is that the Jewish population faced genocide themselves in Hitler’s Germany but they’ve implemented the same on Palestine for years.”

A year later, Ms Begum allegedly took to Twitter again to say of the conflict between Israel and the genocidal antisemitic terror group Hamas that had recently taken place that “It’s the Holocaust all over again except this time it’s innocent Palestinians and ironically the perpetrators are you Zionist scum.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

Responding to the controversy, the Trust tweeted that “It has been brought to our attention that a freelance arts practitioner we employed in one of our educational workshops last week may have views that are not consistent with our values. We are launching an investigation into these concerns. We will publish a summary of the findings and any resulting action on our website as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are removing all promotion of the workshop from our social media.”

This is not the first time that the Anne Frank Trust has drawn controversy over its activities and personnel.

Image credit: Jewish News

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Man spits in face of identifiably Jewish woman with young children in Stamford Hill

A man has reportedly spat in the face of an identifiably Jewish woman in Stamford Hill, before allegedly yelling: “F****** Jews, no one will help you”. 

The woman was walking with her five children, aged between two and twelve years old, when the reported incident occurred. 

The incident is believed to have occurred yesterday at 18:50 and was reported today by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 8353 18/07/22

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

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Sir Keir Starmer uses Berlin Holocaust Memorial as prop in political video that does not even mention Holocaust

Sir Keir Starmer has used the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as prop in a political campaigning video that does not mention the Holocaust.

The video, which is about how Sir Keir hopes to draw inspiration from a political party in Germany, uses footage of Sir Keir and Labour MP David Lammy walking through the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. The visit appears to have taken place earlier in the week, when he wrote that “Labour remains committed to learning from the world’s darkest days.”

However, there was no mention of antisemitism or the Holocaust in the campaigning video.

Use of the Memorial as a backdrop is seen as disrespectful in Germany. Berlin’s Tikvah Institute tweeted: “Why do use the #Holocaust #Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) as a background for your election campaign video without even mentioning the #Shoa with any single word?” James Jackson, a Berlin-based freelance journalist tweeted: “This is a massive faux pas in Germany”.

In 2017, Israeli artist and satirist Shahak Shapira created “Yolocaust”, which highlighted the chilling insensitivity of people using the Memorial for their selfies, gaining widespread international media attention.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is a matter of decency and long-established convention in Germany that you never stoop to using the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as some kind of a prop. But to incorporate the Memorial as the backdrop for a political clip that does not even mention the Holocaust is an insult. This is especially so for a political party that itself still has serious problems with antisemitism in its ranks.

“Exploiting a visit to the Holocaust Memorial like this for campaigning purposes is not just tasteless, it is manipulative and repulsive.

“Our most recent polling found that 81% of British Jews feel that antisemitism is still inadequately addressed under Sir Keir Starmer. Many feel that attempts to tackle racism against Jews in the Labour Party has been more of a public relations effort than anything of substance. This offensively crass PR video will do little to dispel that impression.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Court of Appeal sends Nicholas Nelson to prison after CAA demanded review of unduly lenient original sentence

The Court of Appeal has struck down Nicholas Nelson’s original sentence and sent him to prison immediately, after Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the Attorney General’s Office asking that the original sentence be reviewed as it was unduly lenient.

Mr Nelson, the defendant in a criminal case that resulted from first-of-its-kind litigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism, was given an eighteen-month sentence, suspended for two years, at Southwark Crown Court last month. However, given that his campaign of harassment endured for a period of time against multiple victims — including Oscar-nominated writer Lee Kern and communications strategist Joanne Bell — and came after he had committed several similar offences, we considered this sentence to be inexplicably lenient, a mockery of the victims and an insult to the Jewish community.

Accordingly, we wrote to the Attorney General’s Office, which has the power to refer sentences for certain offences which are believed to be unduly lenient, to the Court of Appeal. The Solicitor General confirmed that he would refer Mr Nelson’s absurdly lenient sentence for antisemitic harassment to the Court of Appeal. Alex Chalk QC MP agreed that “the behaviour of Mr Nelson was truly appalling,” and expressed his gratitude that Campaign Against Antisemitism brought this case to his attention.

In handing down the judgement which quashed that of Southwark Crown Court and was made on behalf of himself, Mr Justice Goss and Her Honour Judge Deborah Taylor, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith stated that the “chilling effect on both the lives and the livelihood of Mr Kern and Ms Bell [of Mr Nelson’s actions] are clear to see.”

He further emphasised that the harassment suffered by Mr Kern was “some of the worst kind imaginable,” having earlier stated that abusing him with descriptions of obscene sexual fantasies involving Hitler is “about as low as it can get” and the “most despicable of all in a crowded field.”

The impact of the abuse directed at Mr Kern, which included that “another Holocaust would be too good,” was described as something which could “barely be imagined” given that Mr Kern had lost members of his family in the Holocaust.

The Judges also made clear that “keyboard warriors” may think that they are just “spewing” words, but for the person who receives such messages, it might put them in fear of their lives, and to think otherwise would be a “blinkered perspective.” Indeed, as Her Honour Judge Taylor pointed out during the proceedings, the names of the handles of some of the social media accounts were in themselves threatening on their own.

Lord Justice Stuart-Smith further agreed with Campaign Against Antisemitism that Mr Nelson had shown “complete disregard” for the suspended sentences previously imposed upon him. He noted that Mr Nelson’s existing suspended sentences, which he breached, were required to be taken into consideration by the lower court, Southwark Crown Court, unless thought to be unjust in the circumstances. If it was the latter, Judge Charles Gratwicke of the lower court was required to make clear his reasons, which he failed to do. Accordingly, the first and second suspended sentences that had been breached were to be reactivated, and the Court of Appeal has ordered that those sentences are therefore to be served concurrently with the current, new custodial sentence. It was further emphasised that Mr Nelson had continued to abuse Mr Kern whilst he was on bail from being charged.

Whilst providing a degree of mitigation, the medical evidence advanced as to Mr Nelson’s mental health had limitations, given that it was on the basis of one zoom consultation that he had with a doctor, and the doctor had not corroborated Mr Nelson’s accounts nor did the doctor prepare the evidence for explicit use at court.

Mr Nelson’s case was the culmination of first-of-its-kind litigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism to unmask an anonymous antisemitic online troll. He pleaded guilty at Peterborough Crown Court in January to racially aggravated harassment under section 31(1)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and with sending an electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety under 1(1)(a) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, after he repeatedly sent abusive antisemitic e-mails and messages to Mr Kern and hateful messages to Ms Bell, and harassing a staff member at the Board of Deputies, a Jewish charity, over the telephone.

Mr Kern contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism, which funded a case on his behalf led by Mark Lewis, the esteemed lawyer who is also an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The abusive communications came from accounts that Mr Nelson had worked hard to make anonymous. Victims of abuse from anonymous accounts usually have nowhere to go, because only rarely will the police track down the sender, and the cost of private action is usually beyond victims’ means.

However, a new legal initiative devised by Campaign Against Antisemitism together with counsel breaks through that barrier. It has enabled us to identify the anonymous troll by obtaining a special kind of court order which has its origins in the pharmaceutical industry and has never before been used to unmask an anonymous abuser sending antisemitic messages. The court order requires an internet service provider to disclose details of the owner of an online account so that legal proceedings can be issued.

We used this legal device to identify Mr Nelson and criminal proceedings were commenced, leading to him pleading guilty. Mr Nelson had called for another Holocaust, called Mr Kern “Shylock”, spoke of Jews being used for gun practice, called Jewish women whores, shared obscene sexual fantasies involving Hitler, and glorified the proscribed genocidal antisemitic terror group, Hamas.

Mr Nelson, who lives in Cambridgeshire and was a vigorous supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, also previously sent abusive messages to two Jewish women Labour MPs, branding one a “vile useless c***” and the other a “traitor” who should “end yourself”. At the end of 2018 he pleaded guilty to the same charge and was given a twenty-week suspended sentence for twelve months and ordered to complete 160 hours unpaid work. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to three charges of sending communications of an offensive nature to two other Labour MPs, one of whom is Jewish and the other is an active campaigner against antisemitism. In addition to the charges that Mr Nelson pleaded guilty to today in relation to Mr Kern and Ms Bell, Mr Nelson also pleaded guilty to harassing a member of staff at the Board of Deputies over the telephone.

He had committed the offences whilst apparently already subject to a suspended sentence for other antisemitic offences. This would appear to demonstrate his contempt for the supposedly deterrent suspended sentences that he had already been handed. Nonetheless, instead of going directly to prison, Mr Nelson was instead ordered by Southwark Crown Court to undertake just 30 days of rehabilitation activity and 220 hours of unpaid community service. He must also pay a modest victim surcharge and is subject to a restraining order. This sentence has now been quashed by the Court of Appeal and replaced with a custodial sentence.

In considering the new sentence, the Court of Appeal calculated that the charges should have led to a custodial sentence of 29 months if each were considered on its own and added cumulatively. However, this was reduced to 24 months after adjustment for the “totality” principle, which sets out that when sentencing for more than a single offence, courts should pass a total sentence which reflects all offending behaviour and is just and proportionate. Given Mr Nelson’s recent good conduct, the Court ultimately landed on eighteen months for the final prison term.

In a statement, one of Mr Nelson’s victims, Lee Kern said: “I experienced years of antisemitic abuse from Nicholas Nelson. Despite being found guilty of such crimes for the third time, Nelson was spared jail. However, during today’s review by the Court of Appeal, that lenient decision has been overturned. Mr Nelson’s harassment, which included calls for another Holocaust and perverted sexual fantasies involving Adolf Hitler, started anonymously. With the help of Campaign Against Antisemitism and the lawyer, Mark Lewis, we exposed Mr Nelson’s identity and kickstarted a prosecution, which has now reached an appropriate conclusion.”

In a statement, Joanne Bell, another victim, said: “I am delighted to see that justice has finally been done. Nicholas Nelson subjected so many people to antisemitic, hateful and specifically misogynistic abuse over a sustained period of many years without the judicial system seemingly taking it seriously. I hope that this sends a message to antisemites and racists everywhere that anonymous abuse of any kind, whether digital or in person, will not be tolerated and — now, finally — meaningfully prosecuted.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Nicholas Nelson undertook a sustained online campaign of grotesque antisemitic harassment behind a cowardly mask of anonymity. Together with the esteemed solicitor Mark Lewis, we established a new legal precedent that allowed us to unmask Mr Nelson and bring about criminal charges, which should have resulted in an appropriate sentence for this repeat offender. Instead, Mr Nelson was all but let off, avoiding meaningful sanction for his racist abuse in a denial of justice that added to the ordeal of the victims.

“We are grateful that the Solicitor General agreed with us that the sentence was unduly lenient and referred the case to the Court of Appeal, which has now imposed the custodial sentence that Mr Nelson should have received months ago. This new sentence must send a message to lower court judges who still labour under the misconception that online abuse is secondary to other forms of harassment, and the case should warn other would-be online trolls that their anonymity can and will be lifted. We will do whatever it takes, however long it takes, to ensure that victims and the Jewish community have justice.”

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

Image credit: JC

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“You think you own the bus, dirty Jews!”: Disabled elderly Jewish man, his family and carer abused on London bus

It has been reported that a disabled, elderly Jewish man and his family were abused on a London bus.

The man, who is wheelchair bound, was accompanied by his wife, son, grandchildren and carer when a woman reportedly shouted: “You think you own the bus, dirty Jews! I will punch you!”

The family was said to have been shocked to the point of tears.

The incident is believed to have occurred on a 253 bus from Euston to Leabridge at 18:40 on Sunday and was reported yesterday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 3692 14/07/22

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

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“Let’s punch them in the face”: Gang members reportedly target visibly Jewish children in Stamford Hill

Gang members have abused two visibly Jewish children, it has been reported.

The gang is believed to be associated with the nearby Webb Estate and is accused of harassing Jewish residents for years.

Two boys, eleven and seventeen, were walking to a nearby park with their bikes when members of the gang reportedly approached them and said: “Let’s get their bikes. Punch him in the face”. 

The boys managed to escape but claimed that these incidents occur on a daily basis.

The incident is believed to have occurred on 7th July in Springfield Park and was reported yesterday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 3692 14/07/22

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

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Warwick professor who praised comment linking Zionism with Nazis is cleared of antisemitism by University

A University of Warwick professor who praised a comment linking Zionism with Nazis as “a good point” has been cleared of antisemitism by the University. 

In a video clip of an online lecture organised by the Institute for Palestinian Studies, Professor Virinder Kalra appears to read out a comment that states: “It is important to point out that Zionists were the only group that broke the Jewish boycott of the Nazis, that many Nazis called themselves Zionists since that would accomplish their ideology of cleansing Europe of Jews.”

Prof. Kalra described this remark as “a good point” and “an important comment”.

Additionally, he remarked that the International Definition of Antisemitism is “opening a very slippery slope in terms of any criticism of state violence suddenly becomes a criticism of a particular group.”

This incident is particularly troubling given that Prof. Kalra was the individual assigned to lead the antisemitism investigation into the controversial Warwick lecturer Dr Goldie Osuri, whom he cleared of any wrongdoing.

In a lecture on 11th November 2019, Dr Osuri posited in a recording obtained by Campaign Against Antisemitism that “the next time they say that the Labour Party is antisemitic, you know there are some people that are possibly antisemitic, but this idea that the Labour Party is antisemitic is very much an Israeli lobby kind of idea.”

Her conspiratorial comments, alluding to supposed outsized Israeli power and interference in British politics, and dismissal of antisemitism in Labour as a smear, left Jewish students outraged.

Dr Osuri was challenged over her remarks by the Warwick Jewish Israeli Society who said in a statement released jointly with the Union of Jewish Students, said that “there can be no excuse from an academic at such a prestigious university to spread conspiracy theories associated with classic antisemitism.” They went on to point out that Dr Onsuri’s comment “belittles and diminishes the fears, experiences and concerns of the Jewish community and spreads the antisemitic conspiracy that Jews control the media”. 

In an e-mail to students shown to Campaign Against Antisemitism, Dr Osuri doubled down on her claims, promoting the work of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, as well as bemoaning that she was “saddened” that “none of these issues were raised in the seminars.”

Following the news of Prof. Kalra’s remarks, calls have been made to reopen the investigation into Dr Osuri.

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by universities.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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New report shows antisemitic incidents in England’s schools trebled in five years

According to a recently-published report, antisemitic incidents in secondary schools in England have almost trebled in the last half-decade.

The findings, collated by researchers at the Henry Jackon Society think tank, were published exclusively in the JC using an investigation that used Freedom of Information requests on a scale previously not seen before, encompassing more than 3,000 English secondary schools. 

The results showed that there have been at least 1,000 antisemitic incidents in these schools, including 76 that were serious enough for teachers to have reported them to the police, and thirteen instances of students being physically assaulted by their peers.

One of the questions that formed the research asked how many incidents of pupil misconduct, bullying, harassment, or similar, in which the term “antisemitism” was recorded, had taken place in the period between 2017 and 2022.

However, very few – less than one in twenty – of the schools have policies in place to combat antisemitism, and only around 40 percent of the schools that were contacted even responded to the inquiry.

There were a total of 1,030 incidents reported for the period, at the start of which 60 incidents were recorded. That figure almost trebled to 164 in 2022.

581 incidents were recorded but not tied to a specific year within the given period. Given how few schools responded, the overall total may be far higher than this.

58 percent of the incidents involved Jewish students being mocked by others with reference to the Nazis or the Holocaust. This includes the apparently widespread practice of hissing at Jewish students to recreate what it might have sounded like in the gas chambers that the Nazis set up throughout Europe to exterminate Jews. This form of bullying reportedly often takes place after classes about the Holocaust.

Some of the incidents describe include a student who brought a copy of Hitler’s notorious autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, into school and suggested that the class read it together. Another student at the same school discussed the “Jewish conspiracy” that controls the world during a personal development lesson. There were numerous examples of physical and verbal assault, as well as incidents that were not included in the report of pupils being forced to move schools due to the abuse and even Jewish teachers who have resigned rather than suffer antisemitism from their own students.

The report states that schools should adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, that antisemitism policies should be mandatory in all schools, that Ofsted inspectors should assess antisemitism during inspections, and that the number of antisemitic incidents should be submitted to the Department of Education on an annual basis so that figures can be published.

Robert Halfon, Conservative Member of Parliament for Harlow, and chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, said: “This is horrific. It’s hard to believe that in 2022, Jewish students are being subjected to antisemitism and abuse of this kind – and yet nothing seems to be being done about it.”

Do you or your friends/family have stories of schoolteachers or pupils facing antisemitism at schools in the UK? We have received a significant number of reports and the Incident Response colleagues would be keen to hear of further examples if you could share them. Contact us at [email protected] or call +44 (0)330 822 0321.

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Teenager pleads guilty to possessing videos with neo-Nazi content

A teenager who shared videos that promoted white supremacy has been convicted of terrorism offences.

Oliver Riley, eighteen, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday after being accused of uploading videos with neo-Nazi content, contravening the Terrorism Act 2000. 

Mr Riley was convicted of three counts of possession of a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and of sending a message that was grossly offensive. 

He was also convicted of providing a service to others that enables them to obtain, read, listen to or look at such a publication and intended, or was reckless, as to whether an effect of his conduct would be a direct or indirect encouragement, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Oliver Wright, the Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: “Riley has recognised that he committed these offences by being in possession of videos which glorify terrorism and which promote white supremacy throughout.

“Some of the harmful content Riley had promotes the separation of races by violent means, along with some particularly hateful content being directed at the LGBTQ+ community.”

Mr Riley is set to be sentenced on 19th August at the Old Bailey.

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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“Cliches about Jews come from a lack of exposure”: BournRich and Rachel Myers on Jewish visibility in film

The Jewish creative duo of award-winning director Rachel Myers and street artist and activist BournRich appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where they discussed their latest film, the Tiny Kindness Project, and how tackling antisemitism and promoting Jewish visibility are recurring themes in both of their works.

The Tiny Kindness Project, a film directed by Ms Myers that stars BournRich, focuses on the street artist’s project in which he wrote and disseminated messages of hope onto facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat division.

“The world was almost at a standstill and so what I want to do with this film is bring people together, show harmony and kindness, and put messages on masks to let people know everything is okay and to break down their barriers,” BournRich said.

On one of the masks, the word ‘Shalom’, meaning ‘hello’ or ‘peace’ in Hebrew, was written, and the artist’s hamsa (a hand-shaped symbol popular in certain parts of Jewish culture) necklace also featured in the film.

Speaking on the presence of Jewish symbolism in the film, the artist said: “I always have to put something of my Jewish identity in my work.”

Ms Myers explained how the presence of BournRich, who is both Jewish and Black, in her film continued her work’s overarching theme of Jewish visiblity as a means of combating antisemitism.

“I think Jewish identity takes lots of different shapes and forms and one thing that I feel as an artist who’s Jewish is that so often in depictions of Jews on screen, they are a certain type of Jew…I think showing all experiences is really important, and so when I met [BournRich] and saw how his identity came out in his work as an artist, I thought that was very important.

“As an artist, I feel like I’m always trying to dispel myths about what something means…the theme of your podcast is really on point for what the [film] is about because I think the tropes of antisemitism come from these old ideas of this tiny population and I think so often that the cliches that people fall into about what Jews are, Jews in the media, all come from a lack of exposure and misunderstanding, a lack of education.”

Ms Myers went on to reveal that “When I went to college, my roommate next door was a Mormon and she’d never met a Jew before and she’d heard the old antisemitic trope that Jews have horns.” 

The director continued: “I want to show that Jews are many types of people.”

Throughout the interview, the duo also discussed white supremacy in the United States today and the work of the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance which, like previous Podcast Against Antisemitism guest, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, BournRich is a member.

The podcast with Ms Myers and BournRich can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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CAA delivers “highly informative” antisemitism training to Essex Police

Campaign Against Antisemitism has recently completed the delivery of a multi-part training course to Essex Police.

The training was provided to around 60 police officers and other staff over the course of three sessions.

The training follows past engagement with the force on antisemitism cases, and we have delivered similar courses to other forces in the past, including Devon and Cornwall Police.

The material in the course has been described by officers as “ very useful” and “highly informative”, drawing on the personal perspectives and experiences of the course leaders, as well as their expertise.

One police officer has previously said: “I would recommend this training to anyone who wants to know more about antisemitism and for anyone who thinks that there is no longer a problem with hatred against Jews.”

We are grateful to Essex Police officers for their positive engagement with the training and are confident that they will apply insights into their policing.

Campaign Against Antisemitism regularly provides antisemitism training to regulators, police forces, public bodies, university societies and other institutions, free of charge.

If you would like to arrange antisemitism training for your association, please e-mail [email protected].

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Conservative councillor suspended after allegedly sharing social media posts about “Zionist controllers” and “Jewish supremacism”

A councillor representing the Conservatives in Derbyshire has been suspended for five years after allegedly sharing social media posts containing inflammatory remarks about Jews.

It is claimed that Philip Rose shared posts relating to antisemitic conspiracy theories relating to “Zionist controllers”, “Jewish supremacism”, and videos featuring the antisemitic hate preacher David Icke.

Since 2021, Cllr Rose appears to have made at least seventeen remarks online referring to the alleged nefarious activities of “Rothschild Zionists”, “cultural Marxism”, the “Illuminati”, the white genocide conspiracy theory known as the Kalergi Plan and claims that George Soros is encouraging “race war”. Mr Soros a Jewish financier and controversial activist who is often the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Cllr Rose was elected for the Alfreton and Somercotes division in May 2021 and is alleged to have shared the posts in 2019.

It was around this time that Cllr Rose stood as a candidate for UKIP in Erewash and Bolsover for Derbyshire County Council, and for Amber Valley Council, before joining the Conservatives and chosen as a candidate for the 2021 county council elections.

According to a statement released by the Derbyshire Conservative Group, Cllr Rose “expressed fully his genuine regret, embarrassment, and total remorse that he posted the material in question and he offered his sincere and unreserved apologies.” The group added that the councillor may be readmitted to the Party after five years if he commits to undergoing diversity and social media training.

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Man shouts “F*** Jews” at visibly Jewish people in Stamford Hill

Jewish people in Stamford Hill have been racially abused by someone shouting “F*** Jews”.

The incident took place on Egerton Road on 11th July, and was reported by Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol. The alleged perpetrator has since been arrested by the Metropolitan Police for racially aggravated public order offences.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: 4619132/22.

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

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CAA writes to CPS as charges are dropped against two men suspected of being in “Free Palestine” convoy

Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following the news that it has dropped charges against two of the four men originally suspected of involvement with the alleged antisemitic abuse shouted from a ‘Free Palestine’ convoy in North London in May 2021.

Mohammed Iftikhar Hanif, 27; Jawaad Hussain, 24; Asif Ali, 25; and Adil Mota, 26, all from Blackburn, appeared remotely at Wood Green Crown Court last November and pleaded not guilty to charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred.

At a case management hearing last Friday, the charges against Mr Ali and Mota were dropped, but the CPS will continue with its case against Mr Hanif and Mr Hussain, 25, on the same charged.

The incident took place a stone’s throw from a synagogue in West Hampstead and continued into St John’s Wood. The convoy had previously and provocatively passed through other Jewish neighbourhoods as well, including Hendon and Golders Green.

The abuse was condemned by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary.

The solicitor representing Mr Mota, Ghafar Khan, said “We had advanced the innocence of Mr Mota from outset, he has stressed he is not antisemitic and has nothing against Jewish people.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This was an extremely distressing incident. Jewish families told us at the time that they were sent running in fear as a convoy of cars drove through London flying the flag of the Palestinian Authority and shouting the most grotesque racist and misogynistic abuse. This incident, which attracted the attention of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, is one of too few from May 2021 that have reached the courts. It is therefore vital that the right suspects are identified, appropriately charged and, if found guilty, sanctioned to the full extent of the law. We are continuing to monitor the case to hold the authorities to account and ensure that the Jewish community has justice. We have asked the CPS for an explanation.”

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

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Swastika found carved into London Underground carriage  

A carving of a swastika has been discovered on a London Underground carriage.

The Nazi symbol was etched into the armrest of a carriage seat, reportedly on a train heading southbound on the Northern line.

The Twitter user tagged Transport for London, who in turn asked: “What time, direction of service, and location of carriage was this on please?”

The User responded with an image of the carriage number and wrote: “This was the carriage. Arrived at London Bridge (southbound) at 7:05 approx this morning. 2nd carriage (in direction of travel), left side of carriage, first seating section, middle seat, left hand arm rest.”

This is not the first time that antisemitic vandalism has been discovered on the London Underground. 

In February, a London Underground train carriage was reportedly taken out of service after the British Transport Police were alerted that a panel of the carriage was vandalised with the word “YIDS” and a Star of David.

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Far-right extremist with antisemitic views jailed for owning “step-by-step instructions on how to make home explosives”

A far-right extremist has been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to four offences at Manchester Crown Court.

Scott Mason, 36, was found with what the police describe as “step-by-step instructions on how to make home explosives” in the form of the infamous 1971 publication The Anarchist Cookbook. The police also said that Mr Mason holds far-right, antisemitic, racist and homophobic views.

Mr Mason was charged with possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a terrorist, contrary to section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, as well as other offences.

Mason was charged with the possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a terrorist, contrary to section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000; possession of extreme pornography; perverting the course of justice via witness intimidation; and possession of an offensive weapon. He pleaded guilty to the terrorism offence in November 2021 and then, in January 2022, to the weapons offence, for which he received a sentence of three months at the magistrates’ court. The matter was then listed for trial before he pleaded guilty to the outstanding charges in April of this year.

Judge Alan Conrad QC told Mr Mason that he would have faced a four-and-a-half-year sentence if he had not pleaded guilty as early as he did.

Detective Superintendent at Counter Terrorism Policing South West, William Chatterton, said that Mr Mason’s sentencing “reaffirms our commitment to making sure those who pose a risk to our society will be pursued and prosecuted.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

Image credit: Greater Manchester Police

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Sadiq Khan welcomes “All about the Benjamins” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to London as heroine of “equality and inclusion” as she meets with fawning MPs and peers

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has welcomed Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to London as a heroine of “equality and inclusion” as she began a trip that saw her meet with fawning parliamentarians.

In a statement on Twitter, Mr Khan wrote: “From the lakes of Minnesota to the bright lights of London, we must stand firm in upholding progressive values of equality and inclusion in the face of those who seek to divide us”, adding that they had discussed “how we can keep building bridges, not walls.”

Rep. Omar has been described as a “virulent antisemite” for saying that “Israel has hypnotised the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

On another occasion, Rep. Omar suggested that Jewish people buy political support. She tweeted: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby”, referencing a song about a $100 bill and AIPAC, a pro-Israeli lobbying group.

This is not the first time that Mr Khan has praised Rep. Omar and her controversial colleagues.

Rep. Omar also met with Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Labour MPs Naz Shah, Zarah Sultana and Sarah Owen, who tweeted selfies, photographs of warm embraces, and words of praise for the controversial Congresswoman.

Ms Shah welcomed Rep. Omar to the Houses of Parliament, tweeting: “It has been an absolute honour to host my fellow Muslim sister @IlhanMN…at Parliament today” before adding: “The sisterhood is international!”

Ms Shah, Baroness Warsi and Ms Sultana have all faced criticism for their inflammatory comments about Jews. According to analysis conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Naz Shah has acted or spoken in ways that breach the International Definition of Antisemitism and therefore qualify as antisemitic discourse on at least four occasions.

Ms Shah’s previous dalliances with antisemitism were so grave that they led to her suspension from the Labour Party even under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and she has appeared to resent how she was held to account. She also shared a platform with Mr Corbyn but has not been disciplined, even though Mr Corbyn, like Ms Shah before him, was suspended from the Party for antisemitism.

In June, Ms Shah reportedly spoke at a rally where calls were made to “lift the curse of the Jews off the Muslims in Palestine!”

In 2017, Baroness Warsi reportedly made divisive comments claiming that Jews, Sikhs and black people do not do enough to speak out against the far-right and anti-Muslim hatred, and only months prior, she claimed that British Jews who volunteer for the Israeli Defence Force should be prosecuted as though they had been fighting for genocidal terrorist groups such as ISIS.

Ms Sultana also has a history of unseemly comments about Jews, including telling a Jewish student that it was “privilege” that allowed them to argue for peace in the Middle East, saying: “it is your privilege that lets you speak on stage and call for peace”; saying that students who “go to Zionist conferences and trips should be ashamed of themselves” because they were advocating a “racist ideology”; describing Israel as a “state created through ethnic cleansing”; saying that “those who lobby for Israel” would “in the near future feel the same shame and regret as South African Apartheid supporters”; advocating for “violent resistance” against Israelis; saying that she would celebrate the deaths of Tony Blair and other past and present world leaders (for which she was forced to apologise and was defended by Labour frontbencher John McDonnell); writing that “the Labour Right are scum and genuinely make me sick. Is there any form of discrimination that they won’t weaponise to politically point score like they’ve done in the past with antisemitism and now with homophobia?”; and accusing Jewish students on social media of being on the payroll of Israel’s Prime Minister.

Also pictured in Ms Shah’s photographs is the expelled Labour Party MP Claudia Webbe, who has previously defended Ken Livingstone after he compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard.

In 2018, when Ms Webbe was the Chair of the Labour Party’s Disciplinary Panel, she tweeted a claim that the “combined machinery of state, political and mainstream elite” are conspiring to smear Jeremy Corbyn with “false allegations.”

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are seeing a budding transatlantic relationship between far-left politicians and even some otherwise moderate left-wing politicians, most of whom have controversial records when it comes to antisemitism. For the UK, these meetings one again undermine Sir Keir Starmer’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims to have addressed the antisemitism problem in the Labour Party.

“But for the US, too, the problem of far-left antisemitism in Labour is looking worryingly like the Ghost of Christmas Future for the Democratic Party if they do not get a grip. In the UK, for years the Jewish community made the mistake of thinking that this ideology was fringe and irrelevant in Labour until suddenly it took hold of the leadership. American Jews and Americans in general cannot afford to make the same mistake.”

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Britain’s biggest bookseller found selling Holocaust denial material on its website

Following an exclusive report by Scout News, it has been revealed that the biggest chain of bookshops in the UK has been selling titles by far-right Holocaust deniers through its website.

According to the report, Waterstones and its partner, Blackwell’s, have been selling books published by publishing houses like Black House, a London-based outfit who are named after the headquarters of Oswald Mosley’s notorious British Union of Fascists, and the Budapest-based Arktos.

This kind of distribution allows tiny far-right imprints to gain a degree of legitimacy that they would not otherwise enjoy.

Some of the items on sale have been penned by Kerry Bolton, a neo-Nazi from New Zealand who has written books such as Babel Inc: Multiculturalism, Globalisation, and the New World Order, which contain passages like “The place of Jews in gentile societies is secure through the destruction of national and cultural cohesion through ‘cultural pluralism’ or multiculturalism.”

Mr Bolton promotes the conspiracy theory known as the Kalergi Plan, which claims that Jews want to encourage mixed-race relationships in order to diminish the influence of, and eventually enslave, non-Jews.

The Kalergi Plan is also pushed by the author Clare Ellis, whose book The Blackening of Europe claims that the plot aims to “predestine Jews to be leaders of urban humanity.”

Another author whose works are to be found on the Waterstones and Blackwell’s websites is Tomislav Sunic, whose Homo Americanus: Child of the Postmodern Age, published by Arktos, states that a “constant commemoration of the Jewish Holocaust” has become “a civic ritual all over the Americanised world, and which prohibits any critical inquiry.”

In another book, The Titans are in Town, Sunic states that the Holocaust has become a religion that is “hardly in need of historical proof, let alone of forensic or material documentation to assert themselves as universally credible beliefs.”

A spokesperson for Waterstones said: “With the size of the catalogue numbering into the millions, we go to great lengths to exclude racist and otherwise unacceptable titles. Inevitably, some escape this scrutiny and these are removed as soon as they are noticed.”

Scout News sent Waterstones a selection of nine books by Bolton, Ellis and Sunic, some of which were listed as “in stock” by the retailer while others were available for purchase through their publishers.

According to the spokesperson, none of those nine books were sold in shops, nor had those particular titles been ordered online, but added that they would be “investigated without delay and removed if found to be unacceptable”.

In 2020, Waterstones announced that it would remove from sale all books by the conspiracy theorist and antisemitic hate preacher David Icke.

Image credit: Google

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“In a generation and a half, it went from tens of thousands of Jews to zero”: Lyn Julius on antisemitism in the Arab world

Lyn Julius, journalist, author and co-founder of the charity Harif, which aims to educate people about Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she explained how the persecution of Jews in the Arab world resulted in a destroyed civilisation almost overnight, and the lasting impact this had on modern Jewry.

Ms Julius said: “The decline was extremely dramatic. In a generation and a half, it went from tens of thousands of Jews to maybe zero or less than ten for most of these countries.”

“So how do we explain this dramatic decline?” she continued. “Arab nationalism played its part. Also, the rise of Islamism, which actually goes back to the 1930s, to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt, and they incited riots against the Jews of Egypt as early as the 1930s. Then, of course, there was the influence of Nazim on Arab nationalists. There was the import of Christian and Nazi antisemitism into this region, Nazi ideas of Jewish conspiracy and control.”

The author added that another contributing factor was the “backlash against Israel’s victory in the first Arab-Israeli war and subsequent wars. The Arab governments really took their frustrations out on what remained of their Jewish communities. It was all these factors, really, that contributed towards the ethnic cleansing of these Jewish communities.”

Elaborating on the role of countries’ governments, Ms Julius said that “there was a lot of state-sanctioned persecution. The Arab League actually drafted anti-Jewish laws stripping them of their citizenship, dispossessing them of their property, freezing their bank accounts. 

“But the main thing they did was to criminalise Zionism and that meant that Jews could be arrested, they could be jailed and they could even be executed for being Zionists. But how do you define Zionism? Is having a Magen David on your tallit, on your prayer shawl, is that Zionist? Is that Zionism? And so all sorts of spurious excuses were produced in order to criminlise Jews, and this of course put Jews in a very precarious and dangerous position. 

“Coupled with outbreaks of violence, and then there were riots in several of these countries in the 1940s, Jews were physically under threat. They could not rely on the forces of law and order to protect them.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Julius touched upon a wide variety of topics which included the challenges faced by Mizrachi Jews and why we still hear the antisemitic “Khaybar” chant at rallies around the world today.

The podcast with Ms Julius can be listened to here, or watched here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Royal Navy promoted submariner who joined far-right group Patriotic Alternative

Reports have surfaced that a submariner from the Royal Navy was promoted by his superiors even though the Ministry of Defence knew of his connection to far-right groups.

Kenneth McCourt was already known to be a part of the Identitarian movement – a network of dozens of regional branches of far-right activists who are strongly opposed to migration into Europe – when he was promoted to the rank of petty officer as a weapons engineering technician submariner.

The Identitarian movement is known to have promoted the “Great Replacement Theory”, an antisemitic far-right conspiracy theory that claims that Jews are the secret masterminds behind a planned “invasion” of non-white immigrants into western countries with the aim of making white people a minority to further an insidious, but largely unclear, agenda.

It has been reported that the movement’s UK branch, Generation Identity UK, of which Mr McCourt was a member, was expelled from the wider pan-European Identitarian network for inviting Colin Robertson (also known as video content creator Millennial Woes), who has said that “antisemitism is hard to resist” and that “there are problems with the Jewish people”.

However, it has now been revealed that Mr McCourt had joined the far-right group Patriotic Alternative only three months prior to his promotion.

Patriotic Alternative is a UK-based group headed by the former leader of the youth wing of the BNP, Mark Collett. Mr Collett is reported to have dabbled in Holocaust denial, is regularly heard as a guest on the radio show of the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, and has described the Holocaust as “an instrument of white guilt”.

The group is known for its efforts to recruit youth to its white nationalist ideology. Previously, the far-right group published an online “alternative” home school curriculum condemned as “poison” and “hateful” and attempted to recruit children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

Mr McCourt identified himself as a member of Patriotic Alternative on the social media platform Telegram, where he is also alleged to have used the “echo”, or “triple parentheses”, a tool used to identify someone as Jewish.

Concerns have previously been raised over the alleged increase in neo-Nazi content on Telegram and last year, we reported that members of Patriotic Alternative used Telegram to share antisemitic conspiracy theories and images glorifying Hitler.

A spokesperson for the Royal Navy said that “Those who engage in extremist activities are fully investigated and suitable measures are implemented. It would be inappropriate to comment on specific allegations.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life, and closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

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Professor who cleared controversial Warwick lecturer Dr Goldie Osuri of antisemitism reportedly linked Zionism with Nazis

The professor who cleared the controversial University of Warwick lecturer Dr Goldie Osuri of antisemitism linked Zionism with Nazis, prompting calls for the investigation to be reopened, it has been reported.

In a lecture on 11th November 2019, Dr Goldie Osuri posited in a recording obtained by Campaign Against Antisemitism that “the next time they say that the Labour Party is antisemitic, you know there are some people possibly that are possibly antisemitic, but this idea that the Labour Party is antisemitic is very much an Israeli lobby kind of idea.”

Her conspiratorial comments, alluding to supposed outsized Israeli power and interference in British politics, and dismissal of antisemitism in Labour as a smear, left Jewish students outraged.

Dr Osuri was challenged over her remarks by the Warwick Jewish Israeli Society who said in a statement released jointly with the Union of Jewish Students, said that “there can be no excuse from an academic at such a prestigious university to spread conspiracy theories associated with classic antisemitism.” They went on to point out that Dr Onsuri’s comment  “belittles and diminishes the fears, experiences and concerns of the Jewish community and spreads the antisemitic conspiracy that Jews control the media”. 

In an e-mail to students shown to Campaign Against Antisemitism, Dr Osuri doubled down on her claims, promoting the work of the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, as well as bemoaning that she was “saddened” that “none of these issues were raised in the seminars.”

However, it was reported yesterday that Professor Virinder Kalra, the person assigned to lead the investigation into Dr Osuri, was found to have made inflammatory remarks of his own relating to Zionism and Nazis.

In a video clip of an online lecture organised by the Institute for Palestinian Studies, Prof. Kalra appears to read out a comment that states: “It is important to point out that Zionists were the only group that broke the Jewish boycott of the Nazis, that many Nazis called themselves Zionists since that would accomplish their ideology of cleansing Europe of Jews.”

Prof. Kalra described this remark as “a good point” and “an important comment”.

Additionally, he remarked that the International Definition of Antisemitism is “opening a very slippery slope in terms of any criticism of state violence suddenly becomes a criticism of a particular group.”

Robert Halfon MP is said to be one of those calling for the investigation to be reopened.

A Warwick University Jewish Society spokesperson said: “The dismissal of the complaint is a sign that Jewish students cannot rely on the processes of the university to protect them.”

However, according to the JC, a Warwick University spokesperson said: “We are satisfied that this complaint was reviewed correctly at the time.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by universities.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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Trial begins for man accused of creating antisemitic and racist podcasts

A trial has begun for a man accused of creating the website “Radio Aryan”, later named “Radio Albion”, in order to upload antisemitic and racist podcasts.

James Allchurch, 50 from Pembrokeshire, appeared at Swansea Crown Court yesterday. He is accused of fifteen counts of distributing a sound recording stirring up racial hatred.

The charges allege that Mr Allchurch distributed recordings that included the titles “Rivers Of Blood”, “Banned In The UK”, “The Leftist Supremacist Mindset”, and “The Usual Suspects”. The alleged offenses were said to have taken place in Gelli, a village in south Wales.

In previous hearings, the defendant requested he be referred to as “Sven Longshanks”, his podcasting name which is apparently taken from King Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks, who expelled the Jews from England in 1290.

Prosecutor Ian Wright, referring to the podcasts in question, told the court that “These recordings are insulting or abusive and were distributed with intent to stir up racial hated,” labelling the recordings “highly racist and highly antisemitic in nature” as well as “white supremacist in nature”.

The court was played an audio clip in which Mr Allchurch reportedly introduced a song that said the world was better when Black people were enslaved and Jews were persecuted under Adolf Hitler as “one of his favourite tracks”.

Other recordings allegedly made reference to Jewish people controlling the media, banks and TV and film industries.

In a raid of his home, police reportedly discovered a notebook belonging to Mr Allchurch containing usernames and passwords which included entries such as “JewsAreTheEnemy”, “RaceWarMessiah” and reference to the numbers 14 and 88. 

1488 is likely a coded reference to the neo-Nazi fourteen-word oath: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”, a slogan initially devised by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group “The Order” which was responsible for the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg. The number 88 refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, and is intended as a code for “Heil Hitler.”

The trial continues.

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Former Labour MP Lisa Forbes, who liked Facebook post claiming Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda”, blames rejected candidate bid on Party “factionalism”

The former Labour Party MP Lisa Forbes, who once liked a Facebook post claiming that Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda”, has said that her candidate bid was rejected due to Party “factionalism”.

Ms Forbes’ remarks, reported earlier today, came after she was asked the reason why she thought that Labour were not backing her to become the Party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Peterborough, her former constituency.

In her response, she said: “I think my crime here is having the audacity to stand in a by-election when Jeremy Corbyn was the leader. Because before that, the party was very supportive of me and my candidacy, but they’re not anymore. 

“I’m prepared to stand under Keir Starmer, as I say, I’m not a factional person. But I think other people are.”

However, according to the Party, each candidate was informed why they were not selected.

A Labour spokesperson said that leader Sir Keir Starmer “is committed to ensuring that being a Labour candidate is a mark of quality,” adding: “The Labour leader is determined to stick to his promise to pull antisemitism up by its roots and the public have a right to know that everyone the Labour Party puts forward at election time is of a high standard.”

On or around 11th August 2018, Ms Forbes signed a letter to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party opposing the adoption of all eleven examples of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into the Labour Party’s code of conduct. 

On or around 15th April 2019, Ms Forbes, who was by then Labour’s candidate in the Peterborough by election, ‘liked’ a Facebook post which stated that Theresa May had a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda,” for which she later apologised.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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“It’s the same slogans and you know where they borrowed them”: Izabella Tabarovsky on the parallels between Soviet and present-day far-left antisemitism

Izabella Tabarovsky, an expert on Soviet and contemporary left antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she discussed the parallels between the two, and how much of the modern-day far-left antisemitism draws from Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda.

Ms Tabarovsky said that much of the antisemitic rhetoric emanating from the far-left is something that “I used to hear,” adding: “I grew up in the Soviet Union. It’s something that I read about in Soviet propaganda materials which I have been researching over the last several years. They make for a pretty depressing read because it’s the same slogans and you also know where they borrowed them. Essentially, it’s a reprocessed antisemitic conspiracy theory. 

“Take ‘Zionism is racism,’ ‘Zionists are fascists,’ ‘Zionists act like Nazis’…the whole idea that Zionism is the greatest evil on Earth and always suspect, and Zionists are always up to no good, that is the conspiracist aspect to it.”

Describing the conflation between the term “Zionist” and “Jew”, Ms Tabarovsky noted that “It’s just a direct parallel and it’s truly incredible for me to be hearing it today in America and in the Western press. I truly thought I left all of it behind when I came to America.”

When asked about recent remarks in which the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Hitler had “Jewish origins” in his latest insulting attempt to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Ms Tabarovsky: “When I saw that, it was as if they’re acting on these old Soviet propaganda memos. But there’s also something new. With antisemitism, we know that it adjusts itself to the current conditions. A new angle is applied to old antisemitic conspiracy theories and rhetoric.

Speaking on Vladimir Putin and Mr Lavrov, Ms Tabarovsky said that “They know really, really well how to manipulate the Jewish topic, the Jewish question, and they know the power of that manipulation. They know it can unify their supporters. Hatred against Jews can unify people across the spectrum, as we know.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Tabarovsky touched upon a wide variety of topics which included her escape from the Soviet Union and why she feels that antisemitism from the far-left manages to go relatively unchecked compared to antisemitism from the far-right.

The podcast with Ms Tabarovsky can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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West Yorkshire Combined Authority adopts International Definition of Antisemitism

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism last week.

Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin said: “West Yorkshire’s strength comes from its diversity but sadly discrimination, racism, islamophobia and antisemitism still exist here.

“That’s why it was important that we today formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of Antisemitism. Our local Jewish communities face increasing threats and it is important we stand by them and understand the changing nature of the scourge that is antisemitism.”

However, this decision does not bind the member authorities of Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale councils as they are independently governed.

Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford councils have all adopted the Definition in full. However, while Calderdale council has claimed to have adopted the Definition, it is currently unclear whether they have included the examples, and Kirkless council has not yet adopted the Definition in any form.

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Outgoing NUS President reportedly accuses Government of “jumping on the bandwagon” whilst discussing antisemitism allegations

Larissa Kennedy, the outgoing President of the National Union of Students (NUS), has accused the Government of “jumping on the bandwagon” whilst discussing the antisemitism allegations against the Union, according to the Jewish News.

The comment was alleged to have been made during a Zoom meeting attended by 100 union officers in which recent antisemitism allegations and the subsequent investigation into NUS, in addition to the Government’s decision to cut ties with the NUS, was discussed.

Ms Kennedy was reported to have said: “I think our movement is capable of saying this needs to be dealt with seriously and that the government is jumping on the bandwagon in a bad faith way when their record on antisemitism and racism is so horrendous.

“Jewish students have been able to raise their voices, have been able to tell us what they want from us and we have been able to act accordingly. That is, if anything, the most important thing here. A lot has been drawn out by people who don’t necessarily know the facts.”

Last month, the Government reportedly demanded an investigation into the election of the new President of the National Union of Students (NUS) over an alleged failure to commit to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

According to the JC, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan wrote to Civica Election Services, which ran the recent election that was won by the controversial activist Shaima Dallali, despite her history of antisemitic tweets and other inflammatory social media posts. Prior to the election, Ms Dallali apologised for one such tweet, but later told The Guardian that it is “absolutely not true” that “I don’t like Jewish people,” nevertheless, “as a black Muslim woman, it [the allegation] is something that I expected.”

The move came just after the Government announced that it is sanctioning NUS, removing it from all official groups and committees and refusing to engage with it, which came following calls for such measures by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others in the Jewish community. Last month, for example, Robert Halfon MP wrote together with Campaign Against Antisemitism to the Charity Commission calling for an investigation into the union’s charitable arm. The full dossier on NUS, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, can be read here. The Government has now also added its voice to calls for an investigation by the Charity Commission. Campaign Against Antisemitism also made representations to the Government on the matter, including at a campus antisemitism summit organised by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi. In addition to Campaign Against Antisemitism, UJS, CST and others have also called for action.

The Government’s announcement came after a string of controversies surrounding NUS and its leadership, including over Jewish opposition to an appearance by the rapper Kareen Dennis, known as Lowkey, at NUS’s centenary conference. The outgoing NUS President, Larissa Kennedy, has now insisted that claims that she suggested that Jewish students who were uncomfortable with the performance could self-segregate in an area intended for those who do not like loud music are false.

After the numerous controversies, NUS announced that it was launching an independent investigation into antisemitism in the organisation, which would be at least the third in two decades after similar investigations in 2005 and 2017. NUS has now announced that the new investigation will be led by Rebecca Tuck QC.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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Following last year’s appeal loss at first stage of defamation case in relation to “Zionist irony” comments, Jeremy Corbyn to give evidence at High Court

Following last year’s appeal loss at the first stage of a defamation case brought by a Jewish activist and blogger, the former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn is set to give evidence at a High Court trial.

On an unknown date in 2013, Mr Corbyn addressed a meeting convened by the Palestinian Return Centre. Referring to a previous speech given by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority’s representative in Britain, Mr Corbyn suggested that “the progressive Jewish element” in Britain at the time of the Balfour Declaration had been against it, and that these same Jewish progressives had been the leaders of the London trade unions and the Labour Party at the time. He continued: “It was Zionism that rose up and Zionism that drove them [Jewish progressive Trades Union and Labour Party leaders] into this sort of ludicrous position they have at the present time.”

He gave as an example of this supposedly “ludicrous position” the meeting in Parliament, at which, he said, the Palestinian envoy’s words had been “dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he’d said. So clearly two problems. One is that they don’t want to study history and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either. Manuel does understand English irony and uses it very, very effectively so I think they need two lessons which we can help them with.”

A video of Mr Corbyn’s comments was shown on The Andrew Marr Show in 2018, and on 13th June 2019 it was reported that one of the activists who had been identified as being the subject of his comments to Andrew Marr, Mr Richard Millett, was seeking libel damages from Mr Corbyn on the basis of his accusation that “Zionists” had “berated” Manuel Hassassian.

Mr Corbyn’s lawyers were said to have argued on the basis that the statement was a ‘statement of opinion’. However, in the ruling, the Judge declared: “In my judgment, it is clear that Mr Corbyn was making factual allegations in the statement as to Mr Millett’s behaviour on more than one occasion.”

At a High Court hearing yesterday, Mr Justice Nicklin considered pre-trial issues. William McCormick QC, who is heading up Mr Corbyn’s legal team, said that Mr Corbyn was mounting a “truth defence” against Mr Millett’s claims.

Justice Nicklin warned lawyers that he would not allow the trial to become “some sort of showpiece”, adding that: “There is the capacity for this to spin into all manner of satellite issues…Sometimes there is a tendency for the settling of scores about issues that are not relevant to the litigation. That will not be taking place in this trial.”

The trial is set to commence on 10th October and is predicted to last fifteen days.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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Goldsmiths undermines its own antisemitism probe announcement by adopting wrecking Jerusalem Declaration and International Definition of Antisemitism but without examples

Goldsmiths, University of London has announced an “independent review into antisemitism at the College” after Professor David Hirsh was reportedly called a “far right white supremacist” by its then-Students’ Union President.

Initially, the Students’ Union apparently refused to investigate Sara Bafo, its now-former President, following allegations of antisemitism, despite being requested to do so by the University.

Ms Bafo’s alleged tweet was said to have been written in response to a tweet from Prof. Hirsh, a prominent and highly-respected antisemitism expert, which said: “There is an antisemitic edge to official, institutional, university campaigns to ‘decolonise’ education.”

In response to the University’s request for the investigation, Ms Bafo tweeted that the University “has tried to get the SU trustee board to investigate me for a tweet I made in response to a Zionist Goldsmiths academic’s explicit racist history & his delegitimisation of ‘Decolonisation’ campaigns,” adding: “This was a dirty tactic from the institution to silence me further as I was leaving.”

However, despite the Student’s Union denying the investigation on grounds of “free speech”, the University has announced that an independent probe will take place.

Frances Corner, the Warden of Goldsmiths, said: “We are supporting Dr Hirsh after unwarranted messages about him were posted on social media which I believe are utterly without foundation. These kinds of behaviours are completely unacceptable and will always be challenged.

“As Warden I want to make it clear that this kind of conduct is not in line with the College’s values and that it brings harm to individuals as well as our good reputation as a place of learning.”

However, in a move that undermines the announcement of its review by disregarding the preferences of the majority of the Jewish community, including Prof. Hirsh, around whom Goldsmith’s own antisemitism probe is centred around, the University has said that it will adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism but “without the case studies.” 

In addition, it will also adopt the Jerusalem Declaration, which is a wrecking document intended to undermine the globally-recognised Definition, owing to the fact that the University’s “academic community” favoured it. 

Shortly after the University’s announcement of its antisemitism probe, Prof. Hirsh released a statement of his own, stating that he initially thought that “Things are turning around,” before continuing: “And then I remember that affirming that I’m not a Nazi is quite a low bar. The authorities feeling the need to put out a public statement that I’m not a Nazi is pretty humiliating in itself, really.”

Prof. Hirsh added that last week was the first time that anybody in authority at Goldsmiths had “ever publicly supported me against those who exclude me from the community of scholarship. It is the first time that the institution itself has affirmed that the claim that my work is racist is false.”

Speaking on the University’s decision not to adopt the Definition in full, Prof. Hirsh suggested that the University’s preference for the Jerusalem Declaration over the globally-recognised Definition could indicate “evidence of the antisemitic academic culture at Goldsmiths.” He went on to say that by not adopting the Definition in full, the University, rather than acknowledging the “seriousness of the kind of antisemitism” present, instead decided to cite “the advice of those who support and legitimate” it.

He added: “The task of seriously addressing the antisemitic hostile environment at a place like Goldsmiths is formidable. Anything that might be done would, in the short term at least, be met by significant antisemitic opposition. One of the predictable effects of taking antisemitism seriously would be to increase the hostility of the environment for Jewish scholars and students. This is not a justification for inaction, it is a statement of the embeddedness of the problem.”

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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“Killing Jews is one of the most desirable offerings for Allah”: BBC Arabic leaves inflammatory comments unmoderated for months

The BBC has admitted that it broke its own guidelines by letting hundreds of viewer comments in Arabic that praised terrorism and minimised the Holocaust stay on its social media pages without moderation.

Since March 2022, the BBC allowed 27 social media posts about Palestinian terrorists killing Israeli civilians, as well as others about the comments made by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, in which he claimed that Hitler had “Jewish origins”.

The news watchdog CAMERA Arabic translated hundreds of inflammatory comments, one of which said that “Killing Jews is one of the most desirable offerings for Allah,” while another wrote: “If these heroes continue with an operation even once a week, there will not be a virus called ‘the Jews of Israel’ left anymore.”

After an attack in Beersheba in which four people were killed and two were injured in a stabbing and vehicle-ramming attack, one comment lamented that “we all want more but four are better than nothing. May Allah increase the number of their dead.”

These comments were left unmoderated on the BBC’s Facebook page until this week, following a complaint from the JC. The BBC conceded that the comments were “offensive and inappropriate”.

Other comments on posts about the wave of terrorist attacks in Israel earlier this year said “Killing the occupier is a religious obligation, “Our Lord destroys the Jews”, and “Five corpses dropped dead, their existence was damaging planet Earth”.

Another said “Excellent, no Israeli should enjoy safety, they must live in constant horror and fear.”

After Mr Lavrov claimed that Hitler had Jewish ancestry, BBC Arabic published a video on the matter, unleashing a wave of comments. They included: “The next Holocaust will be in Palestine, bigger and more total with Allah’s help” and “The real Holocaust has not happened yet, it will soon with Allah almighty’s will”.

Finally, one user said that “the lie of the Holocaust is the excuse used to create the usurper Zionist entity on Palestine’s land.”

Professor Lesley Klaff from Sheffield Hallam University said that “Because those comments are on these social media platforms it gives a message that it’s acceptable discourse and that it’s an acceptable narrative to call for the murder of Jews or to deny the Holocaust.”

A Twitter spokesperson said: “Antisemitism has no place on Twitter. We have removed the majority of the tweets referenced for violations of our Hateful Conduct policy and Glorification of Violence policy. We will continue to take action when we identify any Tweets or accounts that violate the Twitter rules.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that almost eight in ten British Jews consider the threat from Islamists to be very serious.

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CAA submits complaint against barrister who declared on Twitter: “I hope, no Jew will stay silent on this”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has submitted a complaint to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) after a prominent QC posted an inflammatory tweet online.

Jessica Simor QC, a human rights barrister with a large following on Twitter, last week tweeted an extract from a new law relating to immigration, along with the comment: “Heinous. Just like the Rwanda policy. Utterly heinous, heartless, cruel, appalling. And Raab, the son of a Czech Jewish refugee – astonishing he has no sensitivity to this. I hope, no Jew will stay silent on this. #grim”.

In response, we tweeted: “It is racist to observe the ethnic heritage of a politician whose policy you disagree with and extrapolate that everyone in that ethnic group is somehow accountable for his conduct and required to actively oppose it. We are filing a complaint with your regulator.”

Ms Simor then claimed that she had deleted the tweet because she “got a text from someone asking”, but insisted that she stood by it insofar as she had “expressed what I wanted to say.”

In a private e-mail to the barrister, we invited her to publish a statement of apology, recognising the danger of her choice of words. Such an apology would have made a complaint to her regulator unnecessary. Instead of taking the opportunity to inform her significant following of how to recognise and grow from one’s mistakes, she continued to defend herself in a series of further tweets and petulantly published our letter, ludicrously describing it as “threatening” and portraying it as case of “Jews bullying Jews who don’t meet their test.”

The “test” was left unspecified, but a subsequent review of Ms Simor’s Twitter activity gives reason for concern. For example, despite her many tweets on antisemitism in politics, she does not appear to have condemned it in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. In fact, she repeatedly accused the Conservatives of “smearing” the Labour Party by raising the issue. At one point, she even criticised The Telegraph for reporting on large numbers of Jewish people saying that they intended to leave the country if Mr Corbyn had been elected.

She does not appear to have endorsed the International Definition of Antisemitism; indeed apparently her only tweet on the subject was to post an article criticising it.

According to the BSB Code of Conduct, barristers are required to act with integrity and not “discriminate unlawfully against, victimise or harass any other person on the grounds of race… religion or belief…”

Update: The Bar Standards Board investigated the complaint and determined that “We do not consider that it warrants further regulatory action.” It added that the report “can be used, with reports from other sources, to identify trends and patterns of behaviour. Please be assured it has been kept on record.”

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Judge rejects application to dismiss case against two West Ham fans charged with racially aggravated harassment of visibly Jewish man on Ryanair flight

A judge has today rejected an application to dismiss the case against two West Ham supporters charged with racially aggravated harassment of a visibly Jewish man on a Ryanair flight last year.

Lee Carey, 55, and Jak Bruce, 31, were arrested in connection with an incident on a flight to Eindhoven in November 2021 in which numerous West Ham supporters were videoed chanting an antisemitic song, apparently at a Hasidic passenger.

The group was filmed to be chanting “I’ve got a foreskin haven’t you, f***ing Jew”, as they flew to a match between their team and KRC Genk in Belgium.

Last month, the defendants sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction under the Civil Aviation Act and therefore could not hear the case. 

Sitting at Chelmsford Crown Court, Judge Walker today rejected that application, but the matter of jurisdiction has yet to be resolved, with a further hearing due later this year.

West Ham confirmed last year that it had banned two supporters for life, although it is not known if those fans are the defendants in this case.

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

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Alleged repeat offender targets visibly Jewish people in Stamford Hill

Jewish people have reportedly been harassed outside a Kosher supermarket in Stamford Hill.

It is alleged that they are a repeat offender who specifically targets Jews.

The incident took place on Craven Hill Road on 22nd June, and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD2783 22/06/22

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that over two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

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Swastikas drawn on signs outside Jewish Mother and Baby Home in Stamford Hill

Swastikas have been drawn on signs owned by Hackney Council preventing vehicles from waiting or loading goods in the area.

The signs are located outside the Jewish Mother and Baby Home, a centre for mothers with babies to recuperate after birth, on Fairholt Road, N16.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD7249 23/06/22.

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

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Labour councillor apologises for past comments as other repeat offenders undermine Sir Keir Starmer’s renewed claim that Party’s victory in Barnet shows growing Jewish trust

A Labour Party councillor in Birmingham has apologised after past comments on social media emerged in which she apparently accused the sanitation management company, Veolia, of being a “Zionist supporter” and making her “feel guilty”.

Cllr Shabino Bano, who represents the Small Heath ward, posted on Facebook in 2014, apparently about the company: “Even our rubbish is given to the zionist. The government is destroying our souls, we can’t even get rid of rubbish without feeling guilty! Veoli is a zionist supporter! It is sickening to b in a country that u call your own; but your leader is sympathetic to the evil dogs [sic].”

At first, Cllr Bano reportedly claimed that she did not remember making the comments and said that she did not think she had, noting that she had previously had problems with her Facebook account and had been locked out for a period.

But in a new Facebook message, she reportedly wrote: “In recent days historic social media posts of mine have come to light. I take full responsibility for them. I recognise that they are utterly unacceptable and I apologise unreservedly for them. I am also sorry for the harm they have caused, especially to the Jewish community. Since joining the Labour Party, my opinions on many issues have changed and these historic posts reflect ignorant views that I no longer hold. I will be undertaking further awareness training and I look forward to meeting with the Jewish communities of Birmingham to discuss what more we can do to stamp out anti-Semitism in our city. There is no place for racism or discrimination in our society and I remain committed to serving all the people of Small Heath, who put their trust in me at the elections last year.”

It is understood that her apology followed a formal complaint submitted to the Party against her.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously. They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken.”

The apology also comes as new evidence has been unearthed against three other Labour councillors who have previously been suspended but since reinstated.

According to the JC, Newport councillor Miqdad Al-Nuaimi was suspended in 2017 after allegedly comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

He was later reinstated. But in May 2021, during the conflict between the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hamas and Israel, he reportedly posted on Facebook as Israel and Hamas fought: “Why should we expect there to be no reaction from Hamas? Would the British have been happy to have faced such a blockade by Hitler without throwing everything they had to remove that blockade?”

This year, he is alleged to have shared a petition on Twitter about the controversial rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey. He claimed that attempts to remove the rapper from the National Union of Students’ centenary conference, which he was headlining, was due to “pressure from the Israel lobby.” Cllr Al-Nuaimi said: “How dare such insidious lobbies give themselves the right to belittle and suppress the right to free speech so blatantly and arrogantly?” He reportedly declined to comment when approached by the JC.

Peterborough councillor Ansar Ali reportedly posted that he was “boycotting the biased BBC” because it “didn’t want to upset the Zionist Israeli government lobby”. He was suspended but reinstated after investigation. The Labour Party is, however, alleged not to have considered other posts that he published, such as one in 2017 linking to an article asking, “How many British MPs are working for Israel,” which he described as “interesting and thought-provoking,” and another from 2016 referencing “Nazi-Zionist collaboration”.

Cllr Labina Basit of Hillingdon has been suspended, but it emerges that she had been suspended back in 2016 as well, having allegedly retweeted a post using the abusive term “Zio”, before being reinstated. The JC has also now reported that she was a leading figure in Labour Against the Witchhunt, a now defunct antisemitism-denial group that was proscribed by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) last year. In a 2018 Facebook group post, Cllr Basit reportedly wrote: “What we are seeing is the complete and utter weaponisation of antisemitism by the Israeli Lobby, its apologists and neo liberals.”

She also apparently defended the notorious mural and compared Labour antisemitism allegations to the McCarthy hearings. This is in addition to her opposition to the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism and apparent support for Ken Livingstone, Jackie Walker and David Miller.

Meanwhile, Lisa Forbes is reportedly running to become Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Peterborough after her brief stint as an MP for the constituency in 2019, despite her deeply problematic past social media activity. Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Rachel Hopkins has released a statement endorsing Ms Forbes, despite her controversial record.

Campaigns are also heating up for the coming elections to Labour’s ruling NEC, with 117 Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs), which represent eighteen percent of the total 650, voting for Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. She is the Media Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, and has previously been suspended from the Labour Party before inexplicably being reinstated. These CLPs conduct votes among their members, which means significant numbers of the most active Labour members across the country are backing her for a place on the NEC.

At the same time as these events are unfolding, Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly told the Party’s local Labour conference that the Party’s victory in the heavily-Jewish borough of Barnet in last month’s local elections is indicative of a growing restoration of trust in the Party by the Jewish community. This is despite an analysis by Campaign Against Antisemitism of the results, which in fact do not support such a conclusion.

The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.

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“The head of the KKK outed me as a Jew”: Comedian Simon Brodkin talks Twitter pile-ons, Jeremy Corbyn and family members escaping Nazi Germany in new interview

Ahead of his upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the award-winning comedian Simon Brodkin, who in 2018 performed at Campaign Against Antisemitism’s comedy fundraiser, appeared as the first guest of Podcast Against Antisemitism’s second season where he explained his newfound liberation in speaking about antisemitism and his Jewish identity on stage, among other topics.

The comedian previously performed on stage as a variety of characters, the most notable of which being the “happy-go-lucky, south London self-proclaimed legend” Lee Nelson. Through his character of Lee Nelson, Mr Brodkin found great success which included his own television show and numerous live tours.

However, he said that at some point after, he thought: “Hang on, I would like to start doing stuff out of character and as myself.”

“And that was the big change of realising, ‘I can talk about things that have only a connection with myself,’ and that was amazing and liberating and interesting for me,” he said. “And suddenly the whole name of the game with straight stand-up is to connect and talk about things that can only be true to yourself so it’s the complete antithesis of the character comedy. 

“I was sort of hiding behind those characters because I was never quite comfortable in my own skin and that’s been a really cool journey for me talking about things that are close to my heart…my Jewish identity is something that I’ve been open about and talking about and of course, with every bit of Jewish identity, you only have to go one, two, three generations back until you get some antisemitism, and sadly that’s ingrained very much in our culture. 

“My grandma escaped from Nazi Germany and I will not be alone with that. And I started bringing that to the table, bringing that to the stage, and it’s been joyous for me.”

However, Mr Brodkin’s career has not always been smooth sailing. After performing jokes about the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a few years ago, Mr Brodkin unwittingly found himself on the receiving end of a Twitter pile-on.

“The comic needs to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and go ‘That can stand up to scrutiny. I can justify saying that because the punchline to the joke is funny enough but also the target of the joke is a justifiable target.’

“The Jeremy Corbyn thing was really interesting for me because actually, I was slow to the party there. At first, when some of my wiser friends were telling me, ‘This Jeremy Corbyn guy…he’s an antisemite,’ I was like ‘Ah, what? Really? C’mon.’ I was in that camp, and then it clicked for me. I got it, I realised it, I read enough and saw enough and learned enough I was like ‘Oh my God.’ 

“I wanted, then, to make sure that I was doing what I could. If I’m gonna talk about antisemitism on stage, there [was] nothing more relevant at the moment then in the UK than Jeremy Corbyn and so I couldn’t talk about antisemitism, and being a Jew today, without mentioning him and what I thought of him.”

However, the comedian went on to reveal that following a gig at which he performed jokes about Mr Corbyn, he was bombarded with angry tweets. 

“[The audience member] heckled me, after that she had a word with me but then after that, when she got home, she went on Twitter…it was a pile-on.”

My Brodkin said that he wasn’t surprised, however. “I’m used to some other antisemitic pile-ons…the head of the KKK, Mr David Duke, he outed me as a Jew on social media and the pile-on I got after that was insane. It was absolutely mad. 

“It was before I was out of character so I felt much more detached from it. I hadn’t made that move into talking about myself so it was sort of one step removed. Since I’ve done stuff on stage as myself, everything feels more personal which is great because you feel like you’re really pouring your heart out in that emotional connection you get, but then if you get some abuse afterward it feels more about you.” 

Throughout the interview, Mr Brodkin touched upon a wide variety of topics which included the antisemitic rapper Wiley, when to draw the line in comedy and his upcoming tour.

The podcast with Mr Brodkin can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Neo-Nazi terror cell jailed for total of 31 years

Four members of a neo-Nazi gang who shared antisemitic material with each other via the social media platform Telegram have been jailed for a total of 31 years.

The group was convicted under anti-terrorism and firearms legislation in March following a two-month trial.

Concerns had previously been raised over the alleged increase in neo-Nazi content on Telegram. Last year, the far-right group Patriotic Alternative was found to have created neo-Nazi channels dedicated to sharing vile messages, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and images glorifying Hitler.

Samuel Whibley, 29, Daniel Wright, 30, Liam Hall, 31, and Mr Hall’s girlfriend Stacey Salmon, 29, were convicted of fifteen offences, including counts relating to the encouragement of terrorism and the publication and dissemination of materials related to it, as well as firearms offences.

The jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard that all four defendants shared antisemitic videos, memes, and images, including material celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Ms Hall confessed to finding material online in which Jews were alleged to control the media and banks, as well as to watching videos made by neo-Nazis in an attempt to see “both sides of the argument” about Hitler.

The court heard that the group communicated with each other using a public Telegram channel set up by Mr Whibley under the name Oaken Hearth. This was, jurors heard, used as “a gathering place for British white nationalists.” Mr Whibley then audited prospective members, who had to prove they were white by taking a selfie before answering questions about their involvement in neo-Nazi groups.

Mr White joined the chat using the name “Gott Mit Uns”, words found on the belts of Nazi soldiers during the Second World War.

The group also shared racist material aimed at Black people, while Mr Whibley reportedly praised Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik, and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

During the trial, jurors heard that a partially constructed 3D-printed gun was found at Mr Hall’s and Ms Salmon’s home in Keighley, with experts assessing that, once completed, the gun could prove lethal. Other weapons and guides were also reportedly recovered from the gang.

Mr Wright was found guilty of seven offences, including an offence of manufacturing a firearm, and was jailed for twelve years. Mr Hall was found guilty of manufacturing a firearm and possessing a firearm, and was jailed for six years, while Ms Salmon was convicted of possessing a firearm and was jailed for three years. Mr Whibley was found guilty of eight terrorism offences, including the encouragement of terrorism and the dissemination of a terrorist publication, and was jailed for ten years.

Campaign Against Antisemitism closely monitors the far-right, which remains a dangerous threat to the Jewish community and other minority groups.

Image credit: Counter Terrorism Policing Northeast

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Jewish players as young as seven “hissed at” by rivals to imitate sound of gas, Parliament told in debate on antisemitism in football

Numerous shocking anecdotes were shared in Parliament yesterday during a debate on the subject of antisemitism in football.

The Westminster Hall debate was called by Conservative MP Theresa Villers, who cited several examples, including Celtic fans’ treatment of their club’s own Israeli player, Nir Bitton, who was called a “dirty Jew bastard” and a “Zionist rat”, a “Happy Passover” message posted to social media by Aston Villa which was met with negative comments and many thousands of “dislikes”, and the accusation that Jews were “ruining football” when Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur, whose owners are Jewish, looked to break away and form a European Super League.

Ms Villiers also cited examples of behaviour by fans in the stands: a Chelsea supporter who was jailed for posting antisemitic tweets including photos from Auschwitz and someone performing a Nazi salute; an Everton fan who was banned from attending matches for three years for singing antisemitic chants at Tottenham fans; Chelsea fans singing a song that ended in the words “f**king Jew”; and Burnley fans arrested for making Nazi salutes at Tottenham fans.

Ms Villiers also pointed out that there were many more examples than this. She said that “I am afraid time prevents me from embarking on anything like a comprehensive account of the harassment and intimidation to which Jewish people are routinely subjected at football matches.”

Labour Party MP Christian Wakeford said that antisemitism can be found at every level of football in the UK, and cited examples of Jewish players as young as seven being hissed at by their rivals to reproduce the sound of gas chambers. Mr Wakeford said: “I am sure that we can all agree that is truly shameful, shocking and abhorrent.”

The Labour MP for Canterbury, Rosie Duffield, added that hatred of Jews is often left out of anti-racist activism. Ms Duffield said: “Antisemitism, like every form of racism, is ugly, aggressive, and ignorant, but also often overlooked or left out completely when we discuss racism in sport. We applaud the lead taken by Lewis Hamilton, and other national sporting icons, when taking the knee to highlight racism, and the important work of groups such as Show Racism the Red Card, and Kick It Out. But barely a mention is given to the antisemitic chants or language that are seemingly just accepted or ignored on the terraces.”

The Conservative MP Scott Benton also contributed a disturbing anecdote to the debate. Mr Benton recalls being in a pub with some West Ham fans before attending a match at West Ham’s former ground, Upton Park: “After singing disparaging chants about Tottenham [Hotspur], those fans proceeded to hiss and imitate the evil of the Holocaust, in a direct reference to Tottenham’s Jewish heritage. It was not just a few mindless idiots, but dozens of people, and it lasted a long time.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.

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

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