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Abortive British Association of Social Workers motion against International Definition of Antisemitism proposed by Cardiff University lecturer and Plaid Cymru activist with worrying record

It has emerged that the proposer of an abortive motion against the International Definition of Antisemitism at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is a professor at Cardiff University and a Plaid Cymru activist with a worrying record.

That motion has now been deferred.

But it has now emerged that Motion 8 at the BASW Annual General Meeting, which called on the union to abandon the Definition, was proposed by Abyd Quinn Aziz. Mr Aziz is the Director for the MA in Social Work at Cardiff University and a prominent activist for the Plaid Cymru Party. Mr Aziz’s online output is full of support for figures who have made inflammatory comments about Jews.

Mr Aziz appears to have a good relationship with the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey. Mr Dennis 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. Mr Dennis has previously described Israel as a “racist endeavour” in direct and deliberate contravention of the International Definition of Antisemitism, described Zionism as “antisemitic”, spoken of the “Zionist lobby” in the context of global capitalism, has reportedly backed the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson, defended the disgraced academic David Miller, and has repeatedly supported the antisemite Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Aziz has also said on Twitter that there is “ethnic cleansing in Israeli psyche [sic]” and retweeted an article which describes Zionism as a “Jewish supremacist ideology”.

Mr Aziz is also the BME Section Chair for Plaid Cymru, and has used his position to offer his public support for the controversial party figure, Sahar al-Faifi, who also has a history of making inflammatory remarks about Jews. 

Mr al-Faifi’s comments include the claim that Jews “cause corruption”, accusations about the “Rothschilds Jews” in reference to the well-known historically-Jewish Rothschild banking family, accusations that “pro Zionists pro-war individuals [sic]” were behind the 2017 London Bridge terror attacks, a post that compared Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis, and the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel was somehow behind the murder of George Floyd in June 2020.

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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Antisemitic Jeremy Corbyn describes claims he is antisemitic as “foul, dishonest and utterly disgusting and appalling”

The antisemitic former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has described allegations that he is antisemitic as “foul, dishonest and utterly disgusting and appalling.”

In an in-depth and candid interview with Declassified UK, he was asked if he thought that the antisemitism scandal that engulfed him “was the result of his pro-Palestinian political position,” and replied: “Very largely that is the case.”

He insisted: “I have spent my life fighting racism in any form, in any place whatsoever. My parents spent their formative years fighting the rise of Nazism in Britain, and that is what I’ve been brought up doing. And when in the 1970s the National Front were on the march in Britain, I was one of the organisers of the big Wood Green demonstration to try to stop the National Front marching through.

“And somehow or other I was accused of being antisemitic. The allegations against me were foul, dishonest and utterly disgusting and appalling from people who should know better and do know better. People that have known me for 40 years, never once complained about anything I’d ever said or done in terms of anti-racism, until I became leader of the Labour Party. Interesting coincidence of timing. Disgusting allegations which obviously we sought to rebut at all times. And I’ll be forever grateful for the support given by Jewish socialists, the many Jewish members of the Labour Party all over the country, and of course the local Jewish community in my constituency.”

He said of the allegations against him: “It was personal, it was vile, it was disgusting, and it remains so.”

Declassified UK characterised the antisemitism allegations against Mr Corbyn variously as “an extreme example of a tried-and-tested tactic used by pro-Israel groups across the world”, as a “slur” and as a tactic “instrumentalised to destroy critics of the Israeli state”, which is an example of the antisemitic Livingstone Formulation. 

Mr Corbyn replied: “The tactic is you say that somebody is intrinsically antisemitic and it sticks and then the media parrot it and repeat it the whole time. Then the abuse appears on social media, the abusive letters appear, the abusive phone calls appear, and all of that. And it’s very horrible and very nasty and is designed to be very isolating and designed to also take up all of your energies in rebutting these vile allegations, which obviously we did. But it tends to distract away from the fundamental message about peace, about justice, about social justice, about economy and all of that.”

Other portions of the interview also strayed close to tropes about outsized Israeli influence and control over British politics and the Labour Party.

With regard to Labour Friends of Israel, for instance, Declassified UK suggested that it is a front for the Israeli Embassy and Mr Corbyn questioned the funding of the faction: “I’m not opposed to there being friends of particular countries or places all around the world within the party, I think that’s a fair part of the mosaic of democratic politics. What I am concerned about is the funding that goes with it — and the apparently very generous funding that Labour Friends of Israel gets from, I presume, the Israeli Government.” Despite his ostensible tolerance for the faction even as he has suspicions about its funding, he also questioned why Labour never took action against the group and tellingly listed some of the senior Labour MPs who have been involved with it.

He also claimed that then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “also weighed in on this and said that I must not become Prime Minister. Sorry, who is Benjamin Netanyahu to decide who the British Prime Minister should be? It’s not for me to decide who the Israeli prime minister should be…so who is he to make that kind of comment?”

There is no evidence that Mr Netanyahu ever made such a comment. Declassified UK itself could only assume that Mr Corbyn was referring to a 2019 report in a British newspaper in which Mr Netanyahu had reportedly said that “Israel may halt its intelligence co-operation with the UK if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister,” which is merely a change in Israeli policy that doubtless would have mirrored changes in British policy had Mr Corbyn been elected. What Mr Netanyahu actually said is therefore entirely different from the impression of attempted Israeli domination of British democracy that Mr Corbyn tried to give.

Mr Corbyn, who has repeatedly played down Labour antisemitism, is indefinitely suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party but remains a member of the Labour Party after his brief suspension was overturned.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has 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 Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) 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.

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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Social Workers Union disgracefully refuses to endorse International Definition of Antisemitism

A prominent union representing social workers in the UK has released a statement saying that it will not endorse the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The Social Workers Union (SWU), which is an independent trade union and member of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), admitted in its statement that the Definition is “helpful”, but it erroneously states that the examples used to support the Definition “have been regularly used to conflate criticisms of Israel with antisemitism and to frame defending Palestinian rights as antisemitic.”

The statement concludes by saying that “It is the union’s position that antisemitism must be fought at every turn, and that the fight against antisemitism should not be used to delegitimise the fight against the oppression of Palestinians by Israel’s apartheid system.”

In response, a lecturer in Social Work and Social Care at the University of Sussex has expressed his concerns on behalf of Jewish social workers, who reportedly feel deeply concerned by this decision.

Dr Paul Shuttleworth says that Jewish social workers feel “scared” and “uncomfortable” by how their colleagues have responded to the fight against antisemitism.

Dr Shuttleworth tweeted: “It’s uncomfortable being a Jewish social worker at the moment. We are not being listened to and non-Jews are deciding whether we are allowed to define antisemitism. Yes this is real. It puts Jewish experience up for debate by non-Jews.”

The SWU also reportedly backed a motion brought by members of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the BASW conference to reject the Definition. That motion has now been deferred.

Image credit: Google

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“Cancel Israel” poster found outside Golders Green station

A poster calling for the destruction of Israel was found outside of Golders Green station this week.

The poster had the words “Israel = ISIS” written on it. Below, it said “Restore Palestine” and “Cancel Israel”.

At the bottom of the poster, it said: “The Bible was written a long time ago.”

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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Gang in Stamford Hill reportedly responsible for attacks on visibly Jewish children

It has been reported that a gang in North London is responsible for two separate attacks on visibly Jewish children. 

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

At 20:39 on 9th June, an eleven-year-old boy on a bicycle was chased by three male teenagers. Video footage appears to show one of the teenagers, also on a bicycle, cornering the boy in an attempt to prevent him from escaping. The suspect reportedly told the boy to get off of his bike before the boy shouted for help, prompting the suspect to flee. 

In a separate incident that occurred at 17:10 on 13th June, a nine-year-old boy was walking down the street when teenagers reportedly threw a metal box at his leg, severely bruising it. Video footage of the reported incident shows a boy trying to walk away but grabs his leg and falls to the ground.

Both incidents took place on Old Hill Street in Stamford Hill and were reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information on either incident, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number 4616258/22 in relation to the incident on 9th June and 287214/06/22 in relation to the incident on 13th June.

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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Swastikas found in children’s playground in Norwich suburb

Reports have surfaced that a roundabout has been removed from a children’s playground in a suburb of Norwich after it had been covered with swastika graffiti.

The roundabout at Fitzmaurice Park in Thorpe St Andrew has been removed after authorities were made aware of the vandalism, which seems to have been effected using marker pens.

A statement posted to Facebook by a spokesperson for Thorpe St Andrew Town Council said: “This kind of behaviour is a tremendous strain on both our working hours and the public funds which sustain open spaces and is the sort of thing we regularly deal with behind closed doors, so please bear with us whilst we make good.”

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.

Image: Thorpe St Andrew City Council

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South Yorkshire Police classify arson attack on Jewish cemetery in Doncaster as merely anti-social behaviour

South Yorkshire Police have denied that an arson attack on a Jewish cemetery in Doncaster was an antisemitic hate crime, classifying it as an example of anti-social behaviour instead.

The police responded to a call from the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service at about 14:50 on 11th June reporting a fire at Rose Hill Crematorium on Cantley Lane, Doncaster. Recognising that the fire was started deliberately, the police are treating it as an act of anti-social behaviour rather than motivated by antisemitism.

Formal synagogue services there stopped in the 1970s, and there has not been a funeral held at Rose Hill since 2006.

Rabbi Yonosan Golomb of the United Synagogue Sheffield said: “The fire, if an antisemitic arson attack, is an indication of to what level such people will sink in desecrating the resting place of the deceased.”

A member of the community told Campaign Against Antisemitism that he was perplexed by the police force’s decision.

A spokesperson for South Yorkshire Police said: “Enquiries are ongoing at this time. If anybody has any information which could assist enquiries, or was in the vicinity of the crematorium or cemetery at the time and saw or heard anything suspicious, this can be passed to officers by calling 101, quoting incident 604 of 11 June.”

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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“Antisemitism is a scourge on our society”, says GMB chief as union unanimously passes motion to condemn antisemitism

GMB, one of the biggest trade unions in the United Kingdom, has unanimously passed a motion which states that antisemites should “face the full force of the law”. This even present GMB members.

Motion 213 was backed by GMB General Secretary, Gary Smith, and the leadership of the union across the country during the GMB Congress in Harrogate.

The motion states: “This congress strongly challenges the disturbing rise in antisemitism across the UK. This unacceptable behaviour and the perpetrators should be subjected to the full force of the law. Where such behaviour may be present from any member of GMB Union, including social media posts, our Union should take immediate action to investigate and apply appropriate measures to address this within rule.”

Mr Smith, who was a strong critic of the antisemitic former Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Antisemitism is a scourge in our society, and the GMB is clear that we won’t tolerate it. We stand firm against antisemitism in this union. There is no room for hatred in our union. Those who commit it should face the full force of the law.”

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Sixteen-year-old Jewish boy chased by three schoolboys whilst on the way to synagogue in North London

It has been reported that a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy was chased by three schoolboys in North London.

The victim was riding his bicycle on the way to his local synagogue when he was allegedly chased by three boys wearing Gladesmore School uniforms who were shouting “Let’s catch him!”

The incident took place on the corner of Crowland Road and Elm Park at 08:17 on Friday 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 7088 12/6/22

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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“You Jews are evil, I will break into your houses”: Man arrested after allegedly abusing Jewish people in Stamford Hill

It has been reported that a man has been arrested after he hurled verbal abuse at Jewish people in North London.

Video footage shows a man yelling in a Jewish-owned pizza restaurant in which he appears to shout: “What, you don’t speak English?”

The man is also reported to have yelled: “You Jews are evil, I will break into your houses”.

Additional videos appear to show the same man later that night yelling at people on a quiet residential street, and subsequently being arrested.

The incident 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 7906 12/06/22

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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Brick thrown from third-floor window at Jewish father and children in Stamford Hill

It has been reported that a brick was thrown from a third-floor window at a Jewish father and his children.

The victim was standing on the corner of Seven Sisters Road and Eade Road in Stamford Hill with his two children, three and six, when the brick was reportedly thrown, missing them by centimetres. 

The incident took place at 15:55 on Sunday 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 5200 12/06/22

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.

Image credit: Google

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Man reportedly yells that “the war in Ukraine is because of the Jews” on London Underground 

It has been reported that a man on the London Underground yelled that “the war in Ukraine is because of the Jews.”

In addition, he was also alleged to have said that “Jews control the world and the banks, they have the money.”

The suspect is believed to have boarded the Victoria Line train heading southbound at Seven Sisters and yelled the abuse in the presence of a visibly Jewish man who later stated that he felt threatened, intimidated and scared.

The incident took place at 10:16 on 1st 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: CRIS 2814358/22.

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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Ofcom decides against LBC after reporter repeatedly describes Israel’s Embassy in the UK as the “Jewish embassy”

Ofcom has decided against the broadcaster LBC after one of its reporters repeatedly described Israel’s Embassy to the UK as the “Jewish embassy”.

In a report on the radio channel on 15th May 2021, during the antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation Hamas’s war with Israel, LBC covered one of numerous anti-Israel protests in London, providing coverage over a four-hour period over the course of the afternoon.

Opening the report, the reporter, on the ground, said: “About 40 metres down the road from me is the gates to the Jewish Embassy but between me and them is a sea of protestors. Thousands are down this street with lots and lots of different signs, ‘free Palestine’, ‘long live Palestine’, ‘free Gaza’, and hundreds of Palestinian flags being waved as well. Protestors have climbed up on to the walls of the nearby hotel and about ten of them are on top of a bus stop as well. There is a huge amount of people down here at the moment. It started at Hyde Park Corner at twelve o’clock and then walked all the way here to the Jewish Embassy. Ben Jamal was the Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He told me he wants the protest to stay peaceful”.

Ben Jamal was interviewed, saying: “We believe that everyone has equal rights and we believe in principles of freedom, truth, justice, and equality. Those are the principles and firm anti-racist principles that inform why we are marching. And we ask everybody to respect that. Everybody will know when you bring ten, twenty, thirty thousand people on the streets, you will have a few individuals who don’t respect those principles. We ask them to, that’s in their responsibility to adhere to that.”

The reporter then noted: “The Jewish Embassy’s gates are closed. There are lots of police officers outside it. In front of the main gate is a stage where this protest is being conducted from. And the Israeli Embassy sent me a statement which says, ‘Hamas is a radical terrorist organisation that fires rockets indiscriminately on civilian populations. Their charter calls for the establishment of an Islamic state instead of Israel. It is regrettable to see citizens of a democratic country giving legitimacy to such an organisation and its violent actions. Unfortunately, over the last week we’ve seen an incitement to violence and antisemitic signs and slogans chanted in demonstrations. This has forced the Israeli Embassy in the heart of London to need to be barricaded by the police for protection’. That is the Israeli statement. And it’s understood that there are no people in the embassy today. It is Shabbat today as well…” 

According to Ofcom, a recording or version of this report was broadcast three times during the rolling coverage, each time referring to a “Jewish embassy”, sometimes alongside references to the “Israeli embassy” as in the version quoted above.

Ofcom considered that the reports potentially breached Rule 5.1 and 2.3 of the Broadcasting Code, the first covering “due accuracy” and the second referring to “generally accepted standards”, including discriminatory or offensive language. Ofcom’s investigation was prompted by two complaints that the references to a “Jewish embassy” could contribute to antisemitic hate speech and attacks in the UK, which were skyrocketing at the time.

LBC argued that the reporter had “tripped over his words in error during the hear of the moment”, noting “the difficultly of reporting live from a high-stress and tense environment” and observed that the reporter “had to rely on the ‘hostile environment’ training they had received.” LBC also noted that the reporter did correct his language during the initial broadcast and that, once it had identified that the report was repeated twice later on, LBC removed the full four-hour programme as quickly as possible from its catch up services. LBC insisted that “there was absolutely no intent to cause any harm or offence during the recording or broadcast of this report,” noting that, while the error was “far from ideal”, it was “in no way malicious or purposefully intended to offend the Jewish community.” The station also blamed COVID social distancing requirements for causing its usual review procedures to fall short.

Ofcom decided that the report “was not duly accurate, in breach of Rule 5.1 of the Code.”

Regarding Rule. 2.3, Ofcom decided that “the interchanging use of the terms ‘Israeli Embassy’ and ‘Jewish Embassy’, as well as being clearly inaccurate, conflated Israeli national identity with Jewish, including British Jewish, identity. We considered that this was potentially offensive to some listeners in the context of a series of news items reporting on a protest against the policies and action of the Israeli Government in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. We considered that it was potentially offensive as it implied that ‘Jews were collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel’.” This phrasing is one of the International Definition of Antisemitism’s examples of antisemitism.

Ofcom concluded that the report did not constitute antisemitic hate speech, but that there was still the potential to cause offence, and that LBC’s mitigating actions were “insufficient to mitigate the potential offence or justify the broadcast of the potentially offensive content in this programme.” It therefore found that LBC had also breached Rule 2.3.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously provided training to Ofcom in the use of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “LBC has a strong journalistic record of exposing antisemitism. Nevertheless, Ofcom has made the correct decision here. During Hamas’s war against Israel, antisemitism was skyrocketing in Britain, with too many people seeking to hold British Jews collectively responsible for the actions and perceived actions of the Israeli Government. For a major radio station to appear, even if in error, to lend credence to this conflation by describing the Israeli Embassy as the ‘Jewish embassy’, cannot go without unremarked. We have trained Ofcom in the use of the International Definition of Antisemitism and are pleased to see that the regulator has appropriately applied it in this instance.”

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 contact@antisemitism.org.

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Southampton primary school faces backlash after dropping Judaism from Religious Education curriculum

Members of the Jewish community have expressed concern after it was revealed that a primary school in Southampton presented a Religious Education syllabus that does not include Judaism.

Foundry Lane Primary School presented its new syllabus at the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) meeting at Southampton City Council. It does not include Judaism as a “core” subject, but will cover some Jewish traditions and festivals, including Shabbat, Sukkot, Hanukkah, and Passover.

A representative of the school justified the decision in a statement, saying: “We do not have any Jewish students or teachers in our school. We have a focus on teaching Islam to try to combat the rise of Islamophobia.”

Some members of the Jewish community, however, have expressed about the omission, explaining that it is precisely because there are no Jews in the school community that it is important to teach Judaism, because if children never encounter any Jews and are not taught about Jewish faith and practice, they may develop inaccurate or false ideas which may affect them later in life.

Campaign Against Antisemitism works to raise awareness of antisemitism among all faith and minority communities.

Image credit: Google

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Burnley FC launch probe following outcry over stand named after former chairman who claimed Jews “run TV”

Burnley Football Club are under pressure to rename a stand in their stadium that is currently named after a former chairman who is known to have made a public antisemitic remark.

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.

Burnley Football Club has confirmed that it is launching an investigation into the matter and said: “Antisemitism continues to be a problem in the UK and in our society. Antisemitism must be understood for what it is – an attack on the identity of people who live, contribute, and are valued in our society. It is extremely important to Burnley Football Club to keep an open dialogue with the local and wider Jewish community, and we urge anyone who has experienced or been impacted by antisemitism in football to report it directly to Kick it Out using their online reporting form or via the dedicated Kick it Out reporting app.”

However, the Burnley Football Club Supporters Group appeared to offer a different view of Mr Lord’s remark, saying that “What Lord said was unpleasant, but it was one incident. He was rightly condemned at the time,” adding: “It was so long ago that many of our supporters don’t even remember Bob Lord who passed away in 1981.”

The outcry over Bob Lord comes 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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Labour suspends multiple councillors after multiple controversies emerge in wake of local elections

The Labour Party has implemented a raft of suspensions following a series of controversies at local councils.

Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, who is the leader of the Labour group on Pendle Council in Lancashire, has reportedly been suspended by the Party over remarks that he made in a speech last month 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.”

Yasser Iqbal, another Labour councillor who serves as the town’s mayor, reportedly cited Pastor Niemoller’s famous anti-Nazi poem denouncing those who did not “speak out”, saying, according to the JC, that those who failed to speak out against the Jewish state were culpable.

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: “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. Cllr Yasser Iqbal reportedly did not respond to a request for comment.

The motion to fly the flag passed unanimously in the Council, where the Conservatives are in the majority. Among their number is Cllr Mohammed Aslam, who was formerly a Labour councillor and has previously (as a Conservative) been embroiled in controversy, with Cllr Mohammed Iqbal among those calling on the Conservatives to take action.

In Haringey, Cllr Joy Wallace has reportedly been suspended by the Labour Party. Cllr Wallace, who won election last month, allegedly accused a rabbi of being “paid handsomely” for criticising Jeremy Corbyn on Radio 4, among other inflammatory remarks.

The Labour leader on the Council has called on councillors to disclose any controversies or latent scandals in an apparent effort to pre-empt further revelations, as another councillor, Ibrahim Ali, was also suspended by Labour after it emerged that he was previously employed by the controversial CAGE activist group, and in 2015 he reportedly defended the description of the terrorist known as Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” while speaking to a Parliamentary committee.

In Hillingdon, Cllr Labina Basit has reportedly been suspended by Labour over her past alleged views on antisemitism in the Party, including apparent opposition to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

In Milton Keynes, Cllr Ansar Hussein has also reportedly been suspended by Labour. He was alleged to have shared conspiracy theories about the Jewish state on social media, including some that appear to compare Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

Other controversies have also arisen elsewhere.

A handful of Labour councillors have now been suspended since the local elections, with Newham’s Cllr Belgica Guaña having been suspended just hours before the polls opened. Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported her to the police and Newham Council.

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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Three England fans arrested in Munich for allegedly performing Nazi salutes before Germany game

Police in Munich have arrested three England fans for allegedly performing Nazi salutes.

The salutes were reportedly made before England’s Nations League Clash with Germany on 7th June.

Since the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany has made it a criminal offence to perform the Nazi salute in any form, with or without the accompanying phrase “Heil Hitler”. Doing so is punishable by up to three years in prison.

This comes amid a spate of recent incidents at football matches in which Nazi salutes have been performed by fans of Burnley, West Ham United, Newcastle United, Vitesse Arnhem, and Union Berlin.

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

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Tony Greenstein humiliatingly capitulates in his failed defamation case against CAA for calling him a “notorious antisemite”

Tony Greenstein has surrendered what remains of his claim against Campaign Against Antisemitism for calling him a “notorious antisemite”. Having humiliatingly lost his libel claim and been bankrupted in the process, he seems to have held onto one belief throughout: that he cost us a fortune.

When a supporter of Campaign Against Antisemitism was raising money for our work among her family and friends, Mr Greenstein found the fundraiser and donated £1, enabling him to leave a message on the fundraising page saying: “I can’t imagine what prompted this [fundraising request]!! Surely Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs isn’t running out of money! No matter I’ve cost you bastards £200K…I think we can plan some more ambushes.”

The fantasy that his failed defamation lawsuit against us had damaged us financially was the silver lining in Mr Greenstein’s black cloud of legal failure. We can now reveal to him, however, that as soon as he filed his initial claim against us in 2018, we contacted our insurers, Hiscox, who covered our costs in full. This previously undisclosed information brings any fantasy to an end.

After the Supreme Court spurned his attempt to appeal rulings against him, Tony Greenstein has now filed a Notice of Discontinuance in the High Court, bringing a humiliating end to his failed defamation case against Campaign Against Antisemitism for calling him a “notorious antisemite”.

An expelled member of the Labour Party and founder of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Mr Greenstein has long sought to have Campaign Against Antisemitism struck off the register of charities, and in 2018 he brought a case against us alleging that we had libelled him when we described him as a “notorious antisemite” in 2017.

In 2020, his legal action humiliatingly backfired, as the High Court ruled that it was permissible for us to describe him as such.

We applied to strike out Mr Greenstein’s case because it had no hope of success at a full hearing and should not proceed, and the court agreed to dismiss the entirety of his libel claim, leaving only other minor aspects of the case to be determined at a later hearing. The judgment was significant not just for its ruling but also because it referenced the International Definition of Antisemitism in coming to its decision.

In 2021, three Lord and Lady Justices sitting at the Court of Appeal dismissed Mr Greenstein’s appeal of the High Court ruling, deciding in favour of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Later that year, we had Mr Greenstein declared bankrupt for failing to pay our legal costs, as the court had ordered him to do. We then alerted the Charity Commission, which removed him as a trustee of The Brighton Trust, formerly known as the “Trust 4 Unpopular Causes”, as bankrupts are not permitted to serve as charity trustees.

Mr Greenstein’s failed case has affirmed our entitlement to call him a ‘notorious antisemite’ and set an important legal precedent in the fight against antisemitism, while his hope of having at least damaged us financially is also utterly dashed.

Campaign Against Antisemitism was represented by Adam Speker QC, instructed by solicitors Keith Mathieson and Alex Wilson of RPC, and advised pro bono by solicitor Dr Mark Lewis who is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism. We were represented by Karl Anderson in the insolvency proceedings.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The humiliating failure of Tony Greenstein’s defamation case against us has affirmed our entitlement to call him a ‘notorious antisemite’ and set an important legal precedent in the fight against antisemitism. It seems that only Mr Greenstein is surprised that the High Court and Court of Appeal sided with us in recognising our right to identify and call out those we consider to be antisemites.

“We can also now reveal that from the outset of Mr Greenstein’s claim against us, we have been steadfastly supported by our insurers, thwartings his rather contemptible attempt to drain our charity’s funds and dashing his abject search for consolation in the fantasy that he had cost us a fortune in legal fees. Our legal team and insurers performed perfectly, so the outcome of Mr Greenstein’s legal misadventure is that the courts have confirmed that we can legitimately label him a ‘notorious antisemite’. Not only that, but having sought to have our charity struck off the Register of Charities, due to his bankruptcy as a result of this case it is now he who has been disqualified from being a trustee.”

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Cardiff Council reconsidering sculpture of radio pioneer due to his role in “excluding Jewish scientists”

Cardiff Council is considering abandoning plans to erect a sculpture honouring radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.

The announcement came after the Council became aware that Mr Marconi was a supporter of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his exclusion of Jewish scientists in the academic world.

Mr Marconi, who is regarded as the “father of radio”, jointly won the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his pioneering work in wireless telegraphy. This included making discoveries that permitted messages to be sent by radio waves.

In 1897, Mr Marconi transmitted a radio signal across open sea off the Welsh coast, which is why the city of Cardiff intended to honour him with a four-metre high sculpture in the Cardiff Bay barrage area. This was, however, prior to the Council’s discovery of Mr Marconi’s fascist ideology.

In 2002, historian Annalisa Capristo unearthed documents that show that Marconi deliberately prevented Jewish scientists from joining the Academy of Italy during his time as its President. Mr Marconi had marked applications by Jews with an “E”, which refers to the Italian word Ebreo, meaning “Jew”.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council said: “Whilst Flat Holm Island is rightly famous as the site of the world’s first radio transmission over open sea, radio pioneer Marconi’s involvement with the Italian Fascist Party, and his role in excluding Jewish scientists from the Academy of Italy is less well-known and understood.

“Having been made aware of these matters, the project team will be contacting all funding partners immediately and beginning a review of the sculpture proposals to ensure that the fascinating history of Flat Holm Island is celebrated in a way that’s consistent with Cardiff’s values as a tolerant and welcoming city where equality and diversity is championed and celebrated.”

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SNP’s Tommy Sheppard reported to have spoken at rally with antisemitic signs

An SNP MP is reported to have spoken at a rally that featured antisemitic signs.

Tommy Sheppard MP made a speech calling for pressure on the British Government “to make sure that Israel does answer for its actions.”

However, at the sparsely-attended protest, there were signs with cartoons condemning “bogus antisemitism” and making use of the antisemitic Livingstone Formulation. The “Livingstone Formulation”, named by sociologist David Hirsch after the controversial former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is used to describe how allegations of antisemitism are dismissed as malevolent and baseless attempts to silence criticism of Israel. In its report on antisemitism in the Labour Party, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that suggestions of this nature were part of the unlawful victimisation of Jewish people in the Party.

The signs also claimed that “Zionism is Racism” and described the Labour Party’s Jewish affiliate and Friends of Israel faction are a “cancer”.

The signs appear to be associated with Labour Against Zionism and Islamophobic Racism (Lazir) and the so-called “Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism”, both of which were founded by suspended Labour member Pete Gregson, who was expelled from the pro-Corbyn pressure group Momentum and from the GMB trade union and suspended from the Party after suggesting that the Holocaust was exaggerated and for abusive behaviour towards a female Jewish Labour member.

The rally Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh took place on 3rd June.

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

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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Alex Davies jailed for over eight years after being convicted of membership of neo-Nazi terrorist group, National Action

Alex Davies, 27, has been sentenced today to eight and-a-half years after he was convicted last month of membership of the neo-Nazi terrorist group, National Action.

Mr Davies, of Swansea, was found guilty last month by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of being a member of the proscribed group, which he founded in 2013, between 17th December 2016 and 27th September 2017.

National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

Following the ban, Mr Davies was involved in the development of a “continuity” organisation, designed to continue the work of the banned group and initially called the Southern Activist Network, later renamed NS131. That group was also banned as an alias of National Action nine months after the proscription of its predecessor organisation.

During the trial, Mr Davies explained his ideology, saying that “If we were to take power, our aim is to have an overwhelmingly white Britain as it more or less has been for centuries. It’s only in the past 50/60/70 years we have had mass immigration. It would be to return to the status quo of before the Second World War.” He was asked if he would repatriate Jewish families with British heritage dating back centuries and replied: “Yes, that’s how repatriation would work.”

The court also heard that he was photographed in 2016 performing a Nazi salute in the Buchenwald death camp execution chamber, and said that he did not believe that the Holocaust occurred. He said that he felt “badly” about the photograph, and, regarding the Holocaust, insisted: “I do not believe there was a systematic extermination of Jews. I can’t be a national socialist if the Holocaust occurred, I cannot support an ideology that supports genocide. I have the same moral compass as anyone else, I believe murder is wrong and I cannot support something that engaged in systematic genocide of people because they are Jewish.”

The jury heard that Mr Davies contacted prospective members on the secure messaging platform Wire, explaining that the group had a “revolutionary Nationalist Socialist ideology”, but needed to “be able to ‘swim’ among the general population without trouble.”

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson told Winchester Crown Court that National Action was banned after it “terrorised” towns including Liverpool, Newcastle, York, Swansea and Darlington, during which its members could be heard “screaming Nazi-era proclamations through megaphones”, including one occasion in York where Mr Davies reportedly spoke in front of a banner that read “Refugees not welcome: Hitler was right.”

Sentencing Mr Davies today at the Old Bailey in London, Judge Mark Dennis QC said: “You are an intelligent and educated young man but you have held, over a period of many years, warped and shocking prejudices.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Alex Davies is the epitome of a youth wasted, devoted as it was to ignorance and malice. The ban on National Action, secured after calls from Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, was the first step, and convictions of its members are the second. Firm custodial sentences such as these are the third. The message is clear: neo-Nazis have no place in British society.”

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

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Charity Commission confirms investigation into NUS’ charitable arm following letter from Robert Halfon MP and CAA

The Charity Commission has confirmed that it has opened an investigation into the National Union of Students’ (NUS) charitable arm, following a letter calling on the regulator to do so from Robert Halfon MP and Campaign Against Antisemitism.

In his letter, Mr Halfon, who is the Chair of the Education Select Committee, wrote to “voice my dismay at the actions and behaviour of the National Union of Students and its trustees, in regards to their treatment of Jewish students and the Jewish community’s concerns regarding antisemitism. Together with Campaign Against Antisemitism…I politely request that the Commission launch a Section 46 inquiry, pursuant to the 2011 Charities Act into the NUS and look forward to receiving your response.”

Mr Halfon enclosed a dossier of evidence by Campaign Against Antisemitism detailing how NUS has failed Jewish students. He wrote that he is “particularly concerned about the enclosed dossier of antisemitic events that have taken place within the NUS over the past several years — and which come following decades of concerning trends — which was prepared by CAA.”

Mr Halfon made particular reference in his letter to the recent scandal involving the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey, who 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, Mr Halfon excoriated NUS for failing to send a representative to attend a hearing held by his committee.

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. Prior to the election, she apologised for one such tweet.

As the dossier produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism observes, “Despite [its] ostensible and much-vaunted commitment to anti-racism, NUS has a long record of controversy in relation to Jewish students and antisemitism, dating back decades.

The dossier notes that antisemitism on campus has surged to record levels, with CST recording a 191% increase in antisemitic incidents on campus in 2021, and that Campaign Against Antisemitism’s latest Antisemitism Barometer found that an overwhelming 92% of British Jews believe that antisemitism in universities is a problem.

“NUS’s blind spot when it comes to inclusion of Jewish students and openness to their concerns is significant, giving rise not only to a failure of representation but also to a toleration of hostility to the needs of Jewish students within NUS and even instances of outright antisemitism. The result is tangible harm to Jewish students,” the dossier explains. “As an organisation, NUS is failing in its objective to represent and advocate for all students, and, as a charity, it is failing to act for the benefit of the public.”

Since the letter and dossier were published, UJS organised a mass open letter, over twenty former NUS Presidents called for action, NUS announced its own internal investigation (its third relating to antisemitism in the last two decades) and the Government severed relations with NUS, questioned the new President’s election and also called for an investigation by the Charity Commission.

A spokesperson for NUS reportedly said: “We proactively contacted the Commission on 8th April to discuss how we should best keep them informed of the allegations surrounding NUSUK, which is a separate legal entity, and any action taken by NUSUK to address them. The Charity Commission have engaged with us, since 13th April, via the compliance visits and inspections team. We are still in the process of responding to any further questions the regulator may have and note their statement that they have ‘made no finding of wrongdoing at this time’.”

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission told Civil Society News: “We have opened a compliance case into NUS Students’ Union Charitable Services in relation to the recent allegations made about the National Union of Students and the impact on the charity. We are engaging with the trustees and assessing all of the available information to inform any next steps.”

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

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Charity Commission orders immediate dissolution for charity funding TV channel that described Jews as “cursed people” and blamed them for Holocaust

A charity with a multi-million-pound revenue that it used to fund a television channel has been dissolved by the Charity Commission after presenters called Jews “cursed” and “a cancer”.

Peace TV broadcasts described Jewish people as being “like a cancer”, “evil”, full of “poison”, a “cursed people” and a “cursed race”. The Dubai-based channel broadcasts in several languages and claims that it reaches some 200 million viewers worldwide.

The Urdu-speaking preacher, Israr Ahmed, reportedly used his Peace TV platform to compare Jews to pigs and blame them for the Holocaust. In one such broadcast, Mr Ahmed said that “the mark of this cursed race, that does not take advantage of the opportunity to repent, which is why they are afflicted by great calamities and the example is what happened to them at the hands of the Germans”.

A series of ten rulings by the regulator Ofcom between 2009 and 2019 condemned Peace TV for broadcasting hate speech and encouraging “violence and dangerous or seriously anti-social behaviour”.

Following a two-year investigation, in late May the Charity Commission announced that the Islamic Research Foundation International, the charity that directed most of its funds to Peace TV, must be immediately dissolved, and that Zakir Naik, who headed the charity, is no longer permitted to hold office in any charity in the future.

Tim Hopkins, Assistant Director of the Charity Commission, said: “This charity was mismanaged by its trustees, including through their failure to manage the charity’s relationship with Peace TV following Ofcom’s findings. The commission’s intervention has secured its dissolution. As part of our intervention, we determined that Dr Naik’s conduct makes him unfit to act as a trustee or hold senior management positions in any charity in England and Wales. Our order protects charities by prohibiting him from acting.”

Image credit: JC

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Disbelief as former journalist Paul Mason appears on Labour Party’s longlist for Stretford and Urmston seat

Observers have reacted with disbelief after it emerged that the controversial former journalist Paul Mason is on the longlist to become the Labour Party’s candidate for Parliament in the Stretford and Urmston constituency.

Mr Mason, a former Economics Editor of Newsnight and Channel 4 News, was a staunch backer of the antisemitic former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, opposed the former leader’s suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party and has repeatedly called for the whip to be restored.

He opposed the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet, which was widely considered a potential turning point in Labour’s handling of antisemitism in the Party.

Mr Mason was also allegedly a member of the Facebook group “Palestine Live”, whose membership reportedly included numerous antisemites and Jew-baiters and where antisemitism was brazenly on display, although there is no suggestion that Mr Mason was himself involved in any such expression.

He has, however, spoken out in the past against the “reflection” of antisemitism in the Labour Party, although it is not entirely clear what the phrase meant.

Meanwhile, in Derby North, it is understood that Nadine Peatfield, the leader of the Derby Labour Group, has been dropped from the longlist for candidates in that seat, after it emerged that she had signed a letter of support for the constituency’s then-Labour MP, the disgraced Chris Williamson. She has reportedly accepted her removal from the list, saying:“I regretted signing the letter very soon afterwards as more information was revealed and I disassociated myself completely from that person from the moment of his second suspension. For my misplaced support of the former MP and for any associated harm to the Jewish community caused by my words or actions related to that support, I apologise unreservedly.”

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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Neo-Nazi David Musins jailed for three years for remaining a National Action member after the group was banned

A neo-Nazi has been jailed for three years for continuing to be a member of the far-right terror group National Action after they had been named as a proscribed organisation.

David Musins, 36, pleaded guilty to belonging to National Action, contrary to section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He is one of at least 25 members to have received custodial sentences since the group was banned in December 2016.

National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

Mr Musins’s online activity dating back to early 2016 saw him engage with the fascist Iron March forum, publishing posts that demonstrated an interest in National Socialism.

Soon after, Mr Musins took part in a National Action meeting in London, a training camp organised by the far-right group, Legion, which combined combat training with lessons in neo-Nazi ideology. Later, Mr Musins went to a National Action rally in Darlington alongside other groups like the Scottish Defence League and the North-West Infidels.

When officers from the Metropolitan Police raided Mr Musin’s address in late 2017, they found clothing and spraypaint which connected him to National Action, and a USB stick that contained a digital journal with information about his time at the Legion training camp, and pictures of Mr Musins alongside others giving a Nazi salute.

Sentencing Mr Musins at the Old Bailey on 27th May to three years’ imprisonment with an extended period on licence of twelve months, Judge Anthony Leonard QC said: “That you left the group voluntarily is particularly significant, but it cannot expunge your earlier behaviour, which is abhorrent.”

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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Labour publishes latest antisemitism statistics just as spate of new incidents among local councillors emerges

The Labour Party has published its latest statistics in connection with antisemitism disciplinary cases in the Party, just as a spate of new incidents among local councillors has emerged.

The statistics have been published in accordance with Labour’s Action Plan, agreed with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) following its damning report into Labour antisemitism which came following the EHRC’s investigation in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant.

According to the latest figures, of the 148 cases dealt with by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) since the last report in January, 81 percent involved antisemitism. Just under ten percent involved online conduct, two per cent related to bullying and under one percent involved anti-Muslim hatred.

While some Labour activists hailed the figures, others were more sceptical, with Labour Against Antisemitism pointing out that the number of expulsions for antisemitism cases remains comparably low.

A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “Antisemitism, like many other hate incidents, has unfortunately been spread by the widespread use of social media and there are many antisemitic conspiracy theories circulating, which are often used to insult, belittle, blame and demonise Jewish people for many different things within our society and government structures. None of this is acceptable, and such behaviour from Labour Party members will not be tolerated as it does not align with our aims and values. The Labour Party has made a commitment to require all members who are respondents in upheld complaints of antisemitism, to undertake appropriate education or training modules.”

At the same time, however, numerous Labour councillors are facing mounting pressure over their social media activity.

Cllr Belgica Guaña, who won re-election in Newham this month, is alleged to have posted on Facebook a horrific article titled “The Holocaust Hoax and the Jewish Promotion of Perversity” arguing that “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today.” The allegation that Cllr Guaña posted the article was made in the JC, based on research by Labour Against Antisemitism. Cllr Guaña was suspended by the Labour Party on the eve of the local elections, reportedly a week after Labour Against Antisemitism submitted its complaint to the Party but, notably, immediately after the allegations were published in the JC. Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported her to the police and to Newham Council.

In Milton Keynes, Ansar Hussain, who was elected in 2021 and has previously served as Wolverton’s mayor, has been alleged to have shared conspiracy theories about the Jewish state on social media, including some that appear to compare Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism. Contacted by the JC, Cllr Hussain reportedly said that he “disagreed with antisemitism” and, regarding the posts, that “I don’t remember these posts.” A Labour Party spokesperson 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.”

Since Ibrahim Ali won election in Haringey this month, it emerged that he was previously employed by the controversial CAGE activist group, and in 2015 he reportedly defended the description of the terrorist known as Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” while speaking to a Parliamentary committee. Cllr Ali has reportedly been suspended by Labour pending an investigation.

Also in Haringey, Joy Wallace, who also won election this month, allegedly accused a rabbi of being “paid handsomely” for criticising Jeremy Corbyn on Radio 4, among other inflammatory remarks. According to the JC, Labour is investigating, but action is yet to be taken.

In Hillingdon, Cllr Labina Basit is also facing scrutiny over her past views on antisemitism in the Labour Party, including alleged opposition to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

In Leeds, Cllr John Garvani has had his nomination for the chairmanship of one of the most high-profile committees on Leeds City Council withdrawn following revelations about his inflammatory social media activity, according to the Jewish Telegraph.

In Derby North, Cllr. Nadine Peatfield, who is looking to become Labour’s candidate for Parliament in the constituency, allegedly defended the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson in the past.

Separately it has been reported that the Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown and Hove and Portslade Constituency Labour Parties will no longer control their local candidate selection due to concerns over antisemitism and a lack of ethnic minority representation. The decision was approved by Labour’s NEC, which, together with the Regional Executive Committee, will now appoint a five-member panel to vet future candidates.

The move comes after antisemitism allegations among the local council’s Labour group – and the subsequent suspensions and resignations – saw power pass from Labour to the Greens, with one of the councillors at the heart of the scandal being readmitted and then re-suspended from the Party on the eve of the local elections earlier this month.

Finally, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, who is the Media Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, is running for a position on the NEC, and has the endorsement of Mr Corbyn; the actress Maxine Peake who has previously promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory; the controversial actress Miriam Margolyes; Andrew Feinstein, who was involved in a group raising legal funds for Mr Corbyn and who is allegedly a member of JVL; and Louise Regan, the Chair of the Nottingham East Constituency Labour Party who was reportedly suspended and reinstated by the Party in the past.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “British Jews reading reports alleging that Labour councillors have shared material justifying the persecution of Jewish people, promoting conspiracies about the Jewish state, opposing the International Definition of Antisemitism and other antisemitic material, will be feeling a sense of déjà vu. It has been two years since Jeremy Corbyn stepped down as leader of the Labour Party, and yet here we are again, with another spate of incidents among Labour officeholders, in some cases newly elected.

“Public statements from Labour and Sir Keir Starmer over the past few months extolling the progress that the Party has made in tackling antisemitism are increasingly divorced from reality. Some progress notwithstanding, clearly Labour is still infested with people who have antipathetic views of Jews and the Party’s vetting process is an offensive joke. Whether the failures of that process are due to enduring procedural deficiencies or the same cultural problems that have bedevilled the Party for years now, or both, Labour is required to address them, and, as these stories show, it has yet to succeed in doing so.”

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.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article reported that Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi had also been endorsed by Syed Siddiqi who, according to Dame Margaret Hodge MP, has in the past associated with the expelled Labour member and antisemite Jackie Walker and the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson, whom Mr Siddiqi has reportedly defended in the past. After the article was published, Jewish Voice For Labour wrote to us saying: “The endorsement by Syed Siddiqi was included in error in a post to our members that was corrected soon after. Syed Siddiqi has endorsed no candidates for the NEC election.”

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Schoolgirls reportedly shout “Hitler, Hitler” at Jewish couple leaving East London hospital

It has been reported that three schoolgirls shouted “Hitler, Hitler” at a Jewish couple leaving a hospital in East London.

The girls, described as being Black and around fourteen years of age, allegedly shouted the comments outside of The City Academy in Hackney. 

The victims, a man and his pregnant wife, were leaving a hospital in Homerton following a maternity appointment.

The incident took place yesterday 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 2275 27/05/22

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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West Ham fan who performed Nazi salutes to Austrian supporters is banned from attending football matches for three years

A West Ham fan who performed Nazi salutes to Austrian supporters during an international game has been banned from attending football matches for three years.

Daniel Garner, 26, performed the antisemitic gestures during a Europa League game between West Ham United and Rapid Vienna at the London Stadium on 30 September.

Appearing at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Mr Garner pleaded guilty to one count of using threatening or abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment or alarm or distress.

In addition to being subjected to a three-year football ban, Mr Garner was also fined £166.

Nosheen Hussain, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Football fans from any country should never have to tolerate abusive behaviour. Daniel Garner’s conduct was insulting and inciteful.

“The prosecution case included CCTV footage which clearly showed Garner making offensive Nazi salutes toward Austrian fans. During police interview [sic] he claimed to be intoxicated – but this is no excuse for such vile behaviour.

“The CPS will always aim to prosecute those who seek to cause harassment.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Another football match, another instance of Nazi salutes. We applaud West Ham and the criminal justice authorities for identifying, prosecuting and sanctioning the culprit. Nazi gestures and antisemitism have no place in the beautiful game, and we call on other clubs to emulate this example of best practice, with fines and bans on all those responsible for injecting racism into sport.”

Last week, two West Ham supporters appeared in court on charges of racially aggravated harassment of a visibly Jewish man on a Ryanair flight last year.

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“Hitler should have killed all you Jews, I will be back”: Elderly Jewish staff member reportedly faces antisemitic abuse in North London kosher supermarket

A man is alleged to have hurled antisemitic abuse at a Jewish member of staff in a kosher supermarket in North London.

The incident unfolded after a man, described as being of Asian descent, attempted to purchase a drink but was unable to do so after his bank card was declined. Upon being informed of this by the member of staff, the man then reportedly opened the drink and placed it back down on the counter, before picking it up again and walking off with the drink. 

The man is also accused of telling the woman: “Hitler should have killed all you Jews. I will be back.”

The victim, reported to be an elderly woman, is said to be in a state of shock.

The incident took place yesterday in the ‘Egg Stores’ supermarket in Stamford Hill and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 8238 25/05

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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Disgraced Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer faces ban by Church of England

The disgraced Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer is facing a ban by the Church of England.

Rev. Dr Sizer, 68, who was ordained in 1984 and served as a vicar at Christ Church in Virginia Water, Surrey, appeared at an ecclesiastical court in London this week facing eleven allegations of conduct that “provoked and offended” the Jewish community between 2005 and 2018. The Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese Rev, Sizer’s church is located, suspended him in 2018 pending the outcome of this hearing.

It is the first such hearing to be public, as usually tribunals under the Clergy Discipline Measure are held in private, but the defendant has the right to request that the hearing be public, and it is believed that this is the first time that such a right has been applied. If the hearing at St Andrew’s Court finds against him, Rev. Dr Sizer could face sanctions ranging from a rebuke to expulsion from the priesthood.

Rev. Dr Sizer has claimed that an Israeli conspiracy was behind 9/11, and in February 2015 he was ordered by the Church of England to stop using social media. While the Church said that the material that Rev. Dr Sizer posted was “clearly antisemitic”, the Daily Mail revealed that former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote to the Church defending Rev. Dr Sizer, saying that he was being victimised because he “dared to speak out against Zionism.”

According to The Times, court documents list allegations that include that Rev. Dr Sizer attended a London conference at which a Hizballah politician spoke in 2005; that he met with a “senior commander of Hizballah forces” in 2006; that he spoke at a conference in Indonesia at which a Holocaust denier also spoke in 2008; that he “promoted the idea that Israel was behind the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 by posting a link in January 2015 to an article entitled ‘9/11: Israel did it’ that blamed Israel for the attacks”; and that he posted on Facebook in 2018 that Mr Corbyn was “a victim of the hidden hands of Zionists”.

Nicholas Leviseur, presenting the case against Rev. Dr Sizer, said that the disgraced vicar is accused of “conduct unbecoming and inappropriate for a clerk in holy orders” and argued that his behaviour went “far beyond” normal political commentary or activity, adding that “there appears to have been an unusual amount of behaviour…promoting the views of others which are bluntly antisemitic in character.”

Rev. Dr Sizer’s counsel, Stephen Hofmeyr QC, argued that Rev. Dr Sizer had said “repeatedly, unreservedly and very publicly that…antisemitism must be repudiated unequivocally” in his writings about “Christian Zionism”, and had written that: “Legitimate criticism of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians must not be used as an excuse for racism or attacks against Jewish people.” He summarised that Rev. Dr Sizer’s case “is that he is not antisemitic and that his words or conduct never have been antisemitic.”

In addition to the incidents noted above, Rev. Dr Sizer allegedly told a radio programme in 2008: “My concern is with so-called Christian Zionist organisations that…equate the Gospel with helping Jews…without telling them about the Cross…my concern is with those so-called Christian organisations that do not engage in Evangelism, that do not share Jesus with Jewish people: that’s antisemitism.”

In 2010, he reportedly posted photographs of Israeli soldiers under the title “Herod’s Soldiers Operating in Bethlehem Today”, likely a reference, reminiscent of the blood libel, to the Book of Matthew where Herod orders all baby boys in Bethlehem to be killed in an effort to kill Jesus.

Among his other inflammatory comments and activities, it has been alleged that he has a history of association with elements of the far-right, and his books have reportedly been removed from sale by a leading Christian publisher.

The hearing follows the Church of England’s apology earlier this month for centuries of antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism works to raise awareness of antisemitism among all faith and minority communities.

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John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana under pressure for speaking at rally where chants for Hamas to blow up Israeli city were reportedly heard


Former Labour Party Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, and Labour MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana, are under pressure to explain why they took part in a rally in which the crowd allegedly called for the genocidal antisemitic terrorist group Hamas to blow up an Israeli city.

Both Mr McDonnell and Ms Sultana attended the demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition held in Whitehall on 14th May. Several hundred people were in attendance.

At one point, the crowd was allegedly heard chanting in Arabic “Abu Ubaida…blow up Kiryat Shmona”.

Abu Ubaida is the spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Kiryat Shmona is an Israeli city near the northern border of Israel.

The Board of Deputies, a Jewish charity, wrote to the two controversial MPs.

Mr McDonnell responded: “I was not aware of the speeches or chants you have cited in your letter but let me make myself absolutely clear that of course I disassociate myself from and condemn any antisemitic statements, speeches or chants or calls for violence if they took place here or on any other occasion. I always have and will always do so.

“One can never control what others say or do at any public gathering but if any actions take place that I disagree with, once this has been pointed out, it is right and important to explain one’s own position.

“With regard to your comments on BDS, again let me make it absolutely clear that I support the policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions, actually like many Israeli and Jewish colleagues, as a means of exerting pressure on the Israeli government to secure a just and fair treatment of the Palestinian people, nothing more.”

Ms Sultana also responded, saying: “I did not hear the chant you reference, and I was not at the demonstration at the time you flag in the recording. I have no hesitation in disassociating myself from such chants, or in condemning any instance of antisemitism. As I am sure you will appreciate, it is impossible for speakers from the main stage of public gatherings like this, which was attended by an estimated 15,000 people, to be aware of the behaviour of every member of the crowd.

“Last May, after a horrifying and widely-reported incident of antisemitic abuse on Finchley Road, I publicly condemned it and expressed my solidarity with the Jewish community in London. As I stated then: the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom is anti-racist at its heart, driven by a conviction that all peoples should live in equality and with dignity.

“Antisemitism can therefore have no place in the Palestine solidarity movement. I will continue to insist on this, as it is incredibly important to me that my anti-racism is universal, and that – especially as minority communities in Britain – we work to build safety through solidarity.”

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 and British Ambassador to Mexico discuss antisemitism in different countries

Jon Benjamin, the British Ambassador to Mexico, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed the varying rates of antisemitism in countries around the world.

Mr Benjamin, who has represented the United Kingdom in several countries throughout his 36-year-long diplomatic career, said: “My experience of antisemitism around the world varies so hugely. It has something to do with whether there is or isn’t a Jewish community in the country concerned. Early on, I was posted to Indonesia, there are effectively no Jewish people in Indonesia. I’ve been in other countries where the Jewish minority is very small, such as in Turkey.

“And there is always a difference between whether people are basing whatever views they have, favourable or negative, on personal interaction or a more abstract notion of a people, or religion or ethnic group, however they define it, which they don’t actually interact with themselves.”

Mr Benjamin went on to note that “perceptions of Israel…of the Middle East, in general, have a lot to do with how Jewish people are perceived in various parts of the world.

“There is always a spike of antisemitism when there is a spike in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, or Hizballah, or in the intifada periods…there’s always some sort of relationship.”

An intifada is a rebellion or uprising, but the Palestinian intifadas were characterised by acts of terrorism targeting Jews.

Speaking on his current country of residence, Mr Benjamin said: “I’m very struck here in Mexico, [when] I’ve met with the leaders of the Jewish community…and they themselves say that they think the Jewish community here in Mexico may be 40 to 50,000 strong in terms of its size, suffers less antisemitism than any other sizeable Jewish community almost anywhere in the world. 

“It doesn’t mean there’s none, and again, it can be linked to what’s going on in the Middle East itself. But it was very pleasing to me in my first meeting with them to hear them say that broadly speaking, they don’t suffer huge waves of antisemitism.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Benjmain touched upon a wide variety of topics which included the incident in which West Ham fans reportedly chanted “I’ve got a foreskin haven’t you, f***ing Jew” to a visibly Jewish man on a flight, how he first became involved in the fight against antisemitism and why he believes that travelling can help combat prejudice.

The podcast with Mr Benjamin 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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CAA to write to Honours Forfeiture Committee and House of Lords Appointments Commission over Naz Shah’s “dear friend” Shaista Gohir OBE

Last week, the disgraced Labour Party MP, Naz Shah, congratulated her “dear friend” Shaista Gohir OBE on her appointment to the House of Lords as a non-party political peer.

Regrettably, Ms Gohir, the founding co-Chair of the Muslim Women’s Network, has her own history of inflammatory social media activity, which we can now reveal.

Judging by her tweets, Ms Gohir believes that Israel controls US foreign policy and American political decision-making. In one tweet, she wrote: “Who controls America’s foreign policy? ISRAEL – they would be the ONLY beneficiaries of a US attack on Syria.” Another tweet read: “Will Israel influence the US vote on whether to invade Syria? Are the AMericans really on control of their own decisions? #JustAsking.”

In fact, she appears to believe that Israel “controls” the US and even has such a “hold” over world leaders that it can “get away with murder”, having written in one tweet that “US warns Israel over Palestine talks failure. I bet Israel are quaking in their boots – NOT! Don’t they control US? http://bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26416958” and in another tweet that “The hold Israel has over world leaders including Muslim ones is extraordinary that they continue to murder Palestinians and get away with it.”

It is not just any sort of murder that the Jewish state purportedly “gets away with”, but genocide comparable to that committed by the Nazis. She wrote: “You cannot continue to victimize someone else just because you yourself were a victim once-there has to be a limit (Edward W.Said) #israel.” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

Ms Gohir is a fan of the ‘right sort’ of Jews, including, it seems, those who ‘learned’ from their experience of the Holocaust. She wrote in one tweet that “It’s a shame that media does not highlight all those Jews who are against the Israeli aggression against Palestinians even in Israel” and in another tweet: “Holocaust survivors condemn Israel http://bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28916761.”

She finds it “Very worrying that increasingly anyone criticising Israeli govt is deliberately being accused of antisemitism to prevent debate.” This is an example of the antisemitic “Livingstone Formulation,” which holds that Jews level baseless allegations of antisemitism in order to silence criticism of Israel.

It is odd that she would utilise the Livingstone Formulation, however, given that she thought that Ken Livingstone should be suspended from the Labour Party, asking in a tweet: “Will #Corbyn take action against his best mate Ken Livingstone? #NazShah suspended despite apology but Ken not regretful & not suspended.”

It is possible, however, that that tweet was just intended to suggest that her friend Ms Shah had supposedly been unfairly treated. After all, in another tweet she wrote: “Instead of suspending @NazShahBfd the @UKLabour should do roots & branches review on #antiSemitism #sexism & homophobia in party.”

She has said some of the right things on antisemitism in the Labour Party, including a tweet with a cartoon showing Labour sweeping complaints regarding “sexism, homophobia [and] antisemitism” under the carpet.

But that could just be because, judging by various tweets, she did not like Jeremy Corbyn who, lest we forget, suspended her friend Ms Shah.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to the Honours Forfeiture Committee and House of Lords Appointments Commission.

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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Government questions election of new NUS President over alleged failure to commit to International Definition of Antisemitism

The Government has 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 has written 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 Minister has called for an investigation by Civica on the basis that Rule 8 of NUS’s “core rules” states that any candidate for office “must have a commitment to anti-racism…and antisemitism as per the IHRA [International] definition”. In the past, Ms Dallali has campaigned against the International Definition of Antisemitism at City University London, where she also served as President of the Students’ Union.

The move comes 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.

In recent weeks, over twenty former NUS Presidents wrote a letter expressing their “serious concerns about antisemitism”, and another letter, organised by UJS and signed by over 1,000 Jewish students and allies, called for NUS to launch its ‘independent’ investigation.

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

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Goldsmiths’ Students’ Union refuses University’s call for antisemitism investigation after President reportedly calls Professor David Hirsh a “white supremacist”

It has been reported that the Goldsmiths, University of London Students’ Union has refused to investigate its President following allegations of antisemitism, despite being requested to do so by the University.

Sara Bafo, the President of the Students’ Union at Goldsmiths, is alleged to have tweeted: “D*vid H*rsch is a far right white supremacist. All you have to do is read his work and tweets and that’s all the confirmation needed.” 

Ms Bafo’s alleged tweet was said to have been written in response to a tweet from Prof. Hirsch, a prominent and highly-respected antisemitism expert, which said: “There is an antisemitic edge to official, institutional, university campaigns to ‘decolonise’ education.”

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the University said that on 10th May, it had requested the Union to investigate whether online messages that had been posted were “antisemitic in nature,” adding: “Goldsmiths Students’ Union is an independent charity which has its own policies and processes for investigating and we expect them to follow these. Goldsmiths remains committed to supporting all members of our inclusive community and demonstrating there is no place for prejudice on our campus.”

In response to the 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.”

Larissa Kennedy, President of the embattled National Union of Students (NUS), came to the defence of Ms Bafo, describing the call for an investigation as a “disgusting move” before labelling it “concerted suppression” and offering “Masses of solidarity to @SaraBafo1”.

However, it has been reported this afternoon that the request for the investigation has been denied on grounds of “free speech”.

Ed Nedjari, Head of the Student’s Union, reportedly said: “Goldsmiths Student Union is an independent charity that believes in justice and inclusivity, as well as freedom of expression. In her tweets, Sara was expressing her opinion about David Hirsh, formed via the experience of attending his lectures as a Black Muslim student.

“Sara’s term as SU President has ended. For that reason – but most importantly, because her comments are protected as free speech – we won’t be investigating this matter retrospectively.”

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

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Britain’s youngest terrorist sentenced but avoids custody order

A fourteen-year-old from Darlington has been sentenced after pleading guilty to terror charges, which made him the youngest person to be convicted on terror offences.

The schoolboy previously admitted three counts of possessing information useful to a terrorist, specifically manuals for making explosives, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He was also reportedly active on racist online forums and, according to the prosecution, he regularly used “racist, antisemitic and anti-Islamic language” and made contact with other far-right radicals online.

The boy, who cannot be named, was arrested last year when he was thirteen in an investigation into extreme right-wing terrorism.

He was sentenced at Newton Aycliffe Youth Court by Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring to complete a “high-intensity” referral order for twelve months. The judge believed that a custody order could undo the “rehabilitative” progress that the child, who has learning difficulties, has made.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

Image credit: Google

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Race to become Labour Party candidate for Wakefield by-election marred by antisemitism allegations

The race to become the Labour Party’s candidate in the coming Wakefield by-election has been marred by antisemitism allegations.

One shortlisted candidate, Kate Dearden, has reported that she has endured taunts from far-left activists that she is a “Zionist”. Ms Dearden, an official for the trade union Community, has worked in the past with the Union of Jewish Students and the Labour Party’s Jewish affiliate.

The taunts reportedly included “Kate seems to have supported Zionists (UJS/JLM),” while another post said: “Dinner with the Zionists is it? How can you be a socialist party when you have kicked out the Socialists. In fact this little vote has collapsed because you are all a farce.” Yet another post read: “Soo surprised to see Starmer’s choice is a Zionist supporter…”

Another prospective candidate, Jack Hemmingway, is alleged to have downplayed antisemitism within the Labour Party, called for the reinstatement of Jeremy Corbyn after the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commision’s (EHRC) report about antisemitism in the Party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, and liked online posts by controversial figures George Galloway and Salma Yaqoob.

On Twitter, Mr Hemmingway defended himself, claiming that his comment arguing that Labour was not institutionally antisemitic came before the outcome of the EHRC report, the findings of which he accepts.

Neither Ms Dearden nor Mr Hemmingway were selected as the Party’s candidate.

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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“Hope you die in another Holocaust, f***ing Jews”, group of Jews told in Hendon

A group of Jews were told “Hope you die in another Holocaust, f***ing Jews” after leaving a restaurant in Hendon yesterday.

Two Caucasian men directed a series of expletive-laden antisemitic insults in the direction of the group as the victims walked up Church Lane yesterday evening.

One of the group told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “What a pitiful way to end our enjoyable evening. The abusers didn’t even appear to be drunk, only hateful. Saddest of all was how unremarkable it felt – a sad reminder of how common this sort of unreported and under-the-radar antisemitism still is in the UK.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2020 showed that three in five British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

Image credit: Google

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Teenage trio break into house and graffiti swastika and the word “Jews”

It has been reported that a house in Elstree that is currently undergoing renovation has been broken into and graffitied with a swastika and the word “Jews”.

Apparently, neighbours informed the owner of the property about the presence of a group of teenagers who had broken into the house on Park Crescent. The owner told them to leave and noticed the graffiti once they had left.

Hertfordshire Constabulary say that they have detained and arrested three males, two aged 17 and one 16, on suspicion of racial or religiously aggravated burglary. The suspects have reportedly been released pending further enquiries by the police.

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.

Image credit: Google

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Alex Davies convicted of membership of neo-Nazi terrorist group, National Action

Alex Davies, 27, has been convicted today of membership of the neo-Nazi terrorist group, National Action.

Mr Davies, of Swansea, was found guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of being a member of the proscribed group, which he founded in 2013, between 17th December 2016 and 27th September 2017.

National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

Following the ban, Mr Davies was involved in the development of a “continuity” organisation, designed to continue the work of the banned group and initially called the Southern Activist Network, later renamed NS131. That group was also banned as an alias of National Action nine months after the proscription of its predecessor organisation.

During the trial, Mr Davies explained his ideology, saying that “If we were to take power, our aim is to have an overwhelmingly white Britain as it more or less has been for centuries. It’s only in the past 50/60/70 years we have had mass immigration. It would be to return to the status quo of before the Second World War.” He was asked if he would repatriate Jewish families with British heritage dating back centuries and replied: “Yes, that’s how repatriation would work.”

The court also heard that he was photographed in 2016 performing a Nazi salute in the Buchenwald death camp execution chamber, and said that he did not believe that the Holocaust occurred. He said that he felt “badly” about the photograph, and, regarding the Holocaust, insisted: “I do not believe there was a systematic extermination of Jews. I can’t be a national socialist if the Holocaust occurred, I cannot support an ideology that supports genocide. I have the same moral compass as anyone else, I believe murder is wrong and I cannot support something that engaged in systematic genocide of people because they are Jewish.”

The jury heard that Mr Davies contacted prospective members on the secure messaging platform Wire, explaining that the group had a “revolutionary Nationalist Socialist ideology”, but needed to “be able to ‘swim’ among the general population without trouble.”

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson told Winchester Crown Court that National Action was banned after it “terrorised” towns including Liverpool, Newcastle, York, Swansea and Darlington, during which its members could be heard “screaming Nazi-era proclamations through megaphones”, including one occasion in York where Mr Davies reportedly spoke in front of a banner that read “Refugees not welcome: Hitler was right.”

Judge Mark Dennis QC anticipated that it was “inevitable” that Mr Davies would be given a custodial sentence at a hearing at the Old Bailey on 7th June.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We commend the jury for convicting this Holocaust-denier and neo-Nazi leader. Alex Davies is the epitome of a youth wasted, devoted as it was to ignorance and malice. Neo-Nazis have no place in British society. The ban on National Action, secured after calls from Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, was the first step, and convictions of its members are the second. We trust that the sentence will be proportionate to the very serious charges on which Mr Davies has been found guilty.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

Image credit: Counter Terrorism Policing

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West Ham fans charged with racially aggravated harassment of visibly Jewish man on Ryanair flight appear in court

Two West Ham supporters appeared in court today charged with racially aggravated harassment of a visibly Jewish man on a Ryanair flight last year.

Lee Carey, 55, and Jak Bruce, 31, who appeared via video link before Judge Loram QC at Chelmsford Crown Court, 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 week, 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. The court has now requested submissions from Ryanair, with hearings scheduled for the coming weeks with a view to holding the trial in February next 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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Burnley supporters arrested after appearing to perform Nazi salutes during match with Tottenham Hotspur

Three supporters of Burnley Football Club have been arrested after video footage emerged of them appearing to perform Nazi salutes during the Lancashire club’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur on 15th May.

The video footage appears to show one man in a baseball raising his arm with a flat palm while another mimics someone crying by rubbing his eyes with clenched fists.

Tottenham Hotspur have a reputation for being a “Jewish” club and fans often find themselves the targets of antisemitic abuse by opposing fans, whether or not they are Jewish.

Tottenham Hotspur’s official Twitter confirmed the arrests and stated that the club will be helping the police with their investigation, saying: “The Club can confirm two visiting supporters have been identified and arrested following discriminatory gestures at today’s match. We shall be supporting the police with their investigation.”

In a statement, Burnley said that “This is now a police investigation and, collectively, we will work with Tottenham Hotspur, Met Police and Lancs Police on this matter.”

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

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Licoricia of Winchester statue apparently vandalised

A statue of the thirteenth-century Jewish businesswoman, Licoricia of Winchester, appears to have been vandalised.

The statue, a to-scale depiction of Licoricia and her son, Asher, which was unveiled at the Winchester Discovery Centre in February this year, appears to have been attacked. Photographs show that the varnish around Asher’s eye, nose and mouth have been peeled.

It is not currently clear how the damage was caused, with some sources suggesting that the surface may have been damaged by a fizzy drink, while others fear that it may be some other corrosive substance.

Licoricia of Winchester was a Jewish businesswoman and community leader who has been described as “the most important Jewish woman in medieval England”. She married her second husband, David of Oxford, known as the richest Jewish person in England at the time, in 1242, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for surety when he died two years later. She spent the next three decades financing figures throughout southern England. She is also said to have had a close relationship with King Henry III. 

She was found murdered in 1277 in her house in Winchester’s Jewry Street in 1277, thirteen years before King Edward I expelled the Jews from England.

Three men were arrested for Licoricia’s murder, but none of them were convicted, and the murder went unsolved.

Tony Stoller, a trustee of the Licoricia of Winchester Appeal, said: “There is indeed some minor damage to the statue, although there is no reason to think it is targeted vandalism. We’re examining how best it can be repaired, which ought to be straightforward. There is no suggestion whatever that it may be the result of any antisemitic action.”

The story of Licoricia of Winchester was covered in episode 14 of Podcast Against Antisemitism.

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Government sanctions NUS, saying “enough is enough” over antisemitism scandals, following calls by CAA and others

Following a string of controversies surrounding the National Union of Students (NUS) and its leadership, the Government has decided to sanction the organisation, removing it from all official groups and committees and refusing to engage with it. The move follows calls for the measures by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

A Government announcement said that “NUS will be removed from all Department for Education groups and replaced with alternative student representation…The Department for Education has also confirmed that the NUS will not receive any government funding…The allegations of antisemitism, which have been well-documented and span several years, have prompted a feeling of insecurity amongst Jewish students across the country and a worry systemic antisemitism within the organisation is not being properly addressed.”

The news comes despite NUS promising to ‘independently’ investigate itself in the wake of numerous antisemitism scandals. In one recent scandal, the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey, was due to headline NUS’s centenary conference. After initially dismissing the concerns of Jewish students and telling them to stand in a segregation away from Mr Dennis, the union came under media scrutiny and eventually Mr Dennis withdrew from the event.

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. Prior to the election, she 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.”

In a tweet about the new sanctions, Michelle Donelan, Minister of State for Higher Education, wrote: “Enough is enough. I’ve prepared a package of sanctions against NUS following concerning incidents over many years. Disappointed it has come to this but proud to stand up for Jewish students. NUS will not have a seat at the table until we see real change.”

In a tweet backing his colleague, Nadhim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education, wrote: “Jewish students need to have confidence that they are being represented, and student bodies must speak fairly for everyone. This will remain until issues are suitably addressed.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The Government has taken a firm stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish students and the Jewish community at large after years of antisemitism scandals at NUS. We have found the Government to be very receptive to the concerns that we and others have expressed and these sanctions are precisely the measures that we had hoped to see implemented. We will now see whether these sanctions jolt NUS into action, or consign it to irrelevance. Student organisations are supposed to be filled with voices of hope, not bigotry. Those at NUS who have allowed matters to degenerate this far should be deeply ashamed that it has come to this.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others had been calling for the measures. Last month, 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 Mr Zahawi. In addition to Campaign Against Antisemitism, UJS, CST and others have also called for action.

In recent weeks, 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 its ‘independent’ investigation.

In a statement NUS repeated its assurance that it would undertake its own investigation and lamented that “the universities minister [sic] has press released that they will be disengaging with NUS rather than seeking to engage with us directly.”

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

How NUS has failed Jewish studentsDownload
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CAA reports to police Newham councillor alleged to have posted horrific article arguing “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported to the police a Newham councillor alleged to have posted a horrific article arguing that “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today.”

We have also reported the councillor to Newham Council.

Belgica Guaña is alleged to have posted the article, titled “The Holocaust Hoax and the Jewish Promotion of Perversity”, on Facebook in 2016, two years before she became a councillor in Newham in London, where she was re-elected last week.

The article says that “The so-called ‘Holocaust’ is propaganda in an ongoing war between the Jews and those with the courage to stand up to them – a war that began with the National Socialists coming to power in Germany in the 1930s and continues to this very day. The Jews do not have the means or the numbers to defeat Europeans with the force of arms so they have to rely mainly on infiltration, subversion, and economic and psychological warfare, with the Holocaust hoax being the best example of the latter. 

“The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews (which is all that was actually happening), just as we would be today. Hitler and the National Socialists freed Germany from the death grip of the Jews and gave it back to the German people.”

The essay also argues that Jews use pornography to control western societies by way of the “Holocaust hoax”, and pushes the “white genocide” conspiracy theory, as well as claiming that teenage diarist Anne Frank, murdered by the Nazis at Bergen-Belsen, was a “bisexual degenerate” whose popular diary is an “obvious fraud…laced with pornographic and sexually subversive messages”.

In May 2016, Cllr Guaña reportedly shared a post that said that “The Nazi holocaust [sic] was a crime against humanity, and the Israeli Genocide against Palestinians can not be ignored or denied,” and in December 2017, Cllr Guaña is said to have shared a video of the United Nations General Assembly, writing: “If you can have a minute of silence for the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. So how much time should I ask for the more than 50 years of invasion and oppression of the Palestinian people?” Both posts are further breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. Other inflammatory material is also alleged to have been posted by Cllr Guaña, both before and during her term in office.

The allegation that Cllr Guaña posted the article was made in the JC, based on research by Labour Against Antisemitism. Cllr Guaña was suspended by the Labour Party on the eve of the local elections last week, reportedly a week after Labour Against Antisemitism submitted its complaint to the Party but, notably, immediately after the allegations were published in the JC.

The Labour group at Newham Council has repeatedly been the subject of controversy in relation to antisemitism allegations. In 2020, a leaked report reportedly detailed a complaint by the Council’s only Jewish member about a “culture of accepted antisemitism”, and then last year the Chair of Labour in Newham was reportedly to be investigated over alleged antisemitism, just days after his deputy was suspended over alleged antisemitic social media activity.

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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Antisemitism on display at thousands-strong anti-Israel march through London, but support drops to low ebb

A slew of controversial and antisemitic signs and chants were present on the streets of London yesterday during an anti-Israel rally that was organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), but numbers seem to have declined considerably since the last large-scale mobilisation of protesters.

An evidence gathering team from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit was present at the rally, which started outside the BBC’s headquarters, and ended at 10 Downing Street. Our team gathered evidence of numerous antisemitic placards, with a significant proportion equating Israel with Nazi Germany.

One placard read: “Well done Isr*el [sic] Hitler would be proud”, “Say no to fascism say no to Zionism”, and “If genocide wasn’t tolerated in 1945 why do we allow it in 2022?”.

Other signs read: “In Palestine 86% of Jews have no legitimate rights to be there. Palestine From the river to the sea” and “Zionism is racism.”

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

The rally also featured disturbing chants, including “Victory to the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

An intifada is a rebellion or uprising, but the Palestinian intifadas were characterised by acts of terrorism targeting Jews. The chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” appears to refer to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state — and its replacement with a state of Palestine — and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the Definition.

This is not the first time that a PSC rally has been riddled with antisemitism. An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC.

The rally featured several speakers that included Labour Party MPs Zarah Sultana and John McDonnell, Sinn Féin MP ​​Francie Molloy, and Andrew Murray, the Chief of Staff to the Unite union.

Jeremy Corbyn, the antisemitic former leader of the Labour Party, did not attend in person but wrote a speech to be read out on his behalf. However, his older brother, the anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn, did make an appearance.

The rally’s organisers claimed that 10,000 to 15,000 people attended, but our estimate was a fraction of that number.

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.

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West Mercia police won’t investigate Nick Griffin over tweet showing grotesque Jewish spider urging forward horde of zombies to destroy civilisation as it is not “racially offensive language”

West Mercia Police have declined our request to investigate the former leader of the BNP after assessing that his tweet suggesting a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of barbarians – whom he appeared to say should “burn in hell” – to destroy civilisation did not qualify as “racially offensive language”.

Nick Griffin posted the tweet on 6th December 2021 before deleting it. In it, he wrote: “If anyone had told me 5 years ago that I’d post this, I’d have said they’d gone mad. But now the world has gone mad (thanks to its current masters) so this is where I have to stand. All other differences must be left aside until the #GreenResetters burn in hell.”

The text accompanied an image of a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of zombies waving flags and banners in favour of LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, feminism and equality – essentially representing different minority groups apparently under the influence of the Jews – against a Saracen and Christian crusader, presumably representing Western and Islamic civilisations. The clear message is that Christianity and Islam must unite to repel Jewish subversion of civilisation.

The tweet from the notorious figure was originally reported to Gloucestershire Police and then transferred to West Mercia Police, which declined to investigate, logging the case merely as a “hate incident” rather than a crime, despite the explanations that we provided for the numerous antisemitic tropes in the image, ranging from Jewish power to parasiticism and Jewish inhumanity to the corrupting influence of the Jews.

Nevertheless, the police force appears consistently to have looked only at the text of the tweet, explaining that “for an offence to be made out under section 127(a) of the 2003 [Communications] Act the accused must intend for the words to be grossly offensive to whom they relate or must be aware that they may be taken as such. The post was not considered grossly offensive, although it was not pleasant, and would shock and offend, however, there was no use of racially offensive language in the post and it was not directed at one particular group or person.” The police repeatedly failed to address the image in their assessments. Had they done so, they would surely have found that the provisions of the act were made out.

We are considering further legal options.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The notion that a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of liberal zombies and minority groups to destroy civilisation did not qualify as ‘racially offensive language’, and the claim that the tweet ‘was not directed at one particular group or person’ are plainly absurd. Rather than double down on their errors, West Mercia Police should have engaged with our analysis properly. Had they done so, they would have concluded that this tweet from a prominent and notorious racist merited investigation. It is left to us to explore other legal options.”

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CAA writes to Leeds University over its website linking to Twitter account with numerous tweets that breach of International Definition of Antisemitism

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the University of Leeds to point out that its website links to a Twitter account with numerous tweets that breach the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Ray Bush, who holds the Emeritus Professor of African Studies and Development Politics, has a profile page  on the University’s website that links to his Twitter account.

Last year, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the University regarding Prof. Bush, who was then a Professor of African Studies and Development Politics. Prof. Bush appeared to have tweeted from the Twitter handle “@raymondobush” a large number of tweets that breach the Definition.

There were three types of breaches.

First, the tweets stated that Israel’s existence itself is unacceptable, using the exact language of the Definition in referring to Jewish self-determination as “a racist endeavour”. The Definition states that “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic. This claim was repeated on numerous occasions:

  • “#DefyIHRA the state of #Israel is a #racist endeavour” 
  • “#defyIHRA the state of Israel is a racist endeavour. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is a threat to free expression | Ash Sarkar https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/”
  • “#racistendeavour #warcrimes #Israel join the dots and understand why Israel is a zionist entity and settler colonial regime that exists solely because of US money and European guilt. #endtheoccupation”
  • “#Labourparty #NEC big mistake with #IHRA #Israel is a racist endeavour and what about other discrimination? Is NEC recognising defined discrimination and racism of #BAME ? #Corbyn got outflanked by #Zionists time to recalibrate and take offensive against occupation of #Palestine”
  • “So, @Keir_Starmer prefers a #LabourParty without @RLong_Bailey. Shane [sic] on him and all the other #labourparty members failing to recognise #zionism as a pernicious #racist ideology promoted by zealots to dehumanise #Palestinians” 
  • “So it continues, use an anti Semite smear, stop progressive politics #Zionism is #racism amongst other things ….”
  • “Of course @MarkSerwotka is right #Israel #hasbara #zionism #racism”

Second, the tweets breached the Definition by comparing Israelis and Zionists to Nazis. According to the Definition: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. For example, the following was tweeted:

  • “Does it take a nazi to recognise a #nazi #Israel #racism ?”
  • “#nazi-zionistalliance #zionism #settlercolonialism hold onto power whoever you align with”

Third, the tweets contravened the Definition by claiming that concerns about institutional antisemitism in the Labour Party, which were vindicated by the report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, were due to a campaign run by the “Israeli embassy.” The tweets thus supported one of the oldest tropes used to justify acts of antisemitism: the discredited myth of a Jewish conspiracy in which Jews are disloyal and act as a fifth column against the interests of their home countries. The Definition states that: “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic. This was done in tweets including:

  • “The reason they hate Corbyn of course is because he is anti #Zionist and the antisemitic campaign is ran by the #Israeli embassy among others
  • “Always rely on @guardian to get it right on #antisemitism thanks for all your help demonising #Corbyn and #Labour the #Israeli embassy will be delighted. Who is next in your mediocre target?”

The University acknowledged receipt of our letter and pledged to revert to us, but not only did the institution fail to do so, but there is no evidence that any investigation into Prof. Bush and the Twitter account bearing his name ever took place. In the meantime, Prof. Bush has retired, and now holds the prestigious position of Emeritus Professor, which means that he is still connected to the University, and the University’s website links to his offending Twitter account.

Neither the University of Leeds nor Prof. Bush responded to requests for comment when approached in April.

As we recently observed, the University’s apparent failure to take any meaningful action against a professor with a record of tweets that breach the Definition laid bare the emptiness of its adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Not only did the University of Leeds apparently fail to take any meaningful action against a professor whose twitter handle appeared to post tweets in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism, which the University has adopted, but the offending twitter handle is still linked to by the University’s website page. It is bad enough not to apply the Definition when a complaint is made, but it is altogether worse for the University’s official platforms to link to material in breach of the Definition. It is difficult to see how the adoption was anything but a tick-box exercise.”

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 campus@antisemitism.org.

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Expelled Labour member and controversial filmmaker Ken Loach reportedly set to headline Unite union event for political recruits

Ken Loach has reportedly been advertised as the keynote speaker at an event organised by a leading union for its top political recruits.

The controversial filmmaker, who was expelled by the Labour Party last year, has been invited to headline the Unite Political School, an annual event in Durham in July.

Mr Loach is billed as a “great socialist filmmaker” for the two-day conference of guest speakers, group activities and panels.

Mr Loach’s voice was among the loudest of those who attempt to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as non-existent and a right-wing smear campaign. He claimed that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a “torrent of abuse” that was “off the scale” and that regardless of what he did, the “campaign” of antisemitism accusations was “going to run and run”. He described the BBC’s Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism as “disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism…and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn.”

He was also reportedly behind a motion passed by Bath Labour Party branding the Panorama programme a “dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences” and asserting that it “disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.” John Ware, the programme’s reporter, is apparently considering legal action against Mr Loach for his comments.

In 2017, Mr Loach caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is a manifestation of antisemitism. Although Mr Loach later sought to clarify his remarks, he has continued to make inflammatory and provocative statements about Labour’s antisemitism scandal.

While speaking at a meeting of the Kingswood Constituency Labour Party, Mr Loach advocated the removal from the Party of those Labour MPs, some of whom are Jewish, who have taken a principled stand against antisemitism. Shortly after that incident, the Labour Party announced that it would no longer use Mr Loach as a producer of their election broadcasts.

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Painter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors turns her experiences of antisemitism into art

Sharon Schurder, a London-based painter who uses her experiences of antisemitism as inspiration for her artwork, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she provided insight into her creative process.

Ms Schurder revealed how she experienced antisemitism on more than one occasion whilst taking public transport, which led her to feel unsafe to the degree that she felt no other option but to take taxis to work.

“I’m Orthodox, so I had a little siddur with me, so it’s pretty obvious that I was Jewish. And someone tried to send me a picture through AirDrop…I didn’t open it because it was just a guy behind me laughing away so I kind of knew it was going to be something. And he was saying stuff, like ‘blah blah blah, Jewish, blah blah blah’.”

Ms Schurder added that on another journey, someone yelled “you’re killing babies” at her, and in a separate incident whilst waiting on a platform at Borehamwood and Elstree train station, a man screamed at Ms Schurder and her children: “Go chat with Netanyahu…you don’t belong here.”

“I’m a grandchild of Holocaust survivors,” Ms Schurder revealed, “so I’m probably always cognisant of ‘are we really welcome, are we really wanted?’

“It’s London, that can’t be happening, that you can’t just travel normally on public transport. It was unnecessary and terrifying.” 

When asked about the process behind turning her experiences into art, Ms Schurder said: “My aim in every painting is to make people look at that painting and make them stop and think….that activism, trying to be pumped into the paint. 

“There is a lot of meaning behind it. In my art, it’s very value-based…for me, it’s a lot about combatting antisemitism with a very strong Jewish pride.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Schurder touched upon a wide variety of topics which included discussing her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who also painted, the story of how she began painting, and what it was like being featured in British Vogue.

The podcast with Ms Schurder 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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CAA and CoE’s Diocese of Manchester launch our Love Thy Neighbour teachers’ guides, as featured on BBC Teach

Campaign Against Antisemitism, together with the Church of England’s Diocese of Manchester, launched our Love Thy Neighbour teachers’ guides, which are featured on BBC Teach.

The launch of the free resource yesterday at Canon Slade School in Bolton was hosted by the school’s Rachel Braithwaite, and was attended by local teachers as well as Terry Hart, the Adviser for Religious Education and Christian Distinctiveness for the Diocese Of Manchester; Revd. Canon Steve Williams, the Chair of the Council of Christians and Jews and the Bishop of Manchester’s Interfaith Adviser; Russell Conn, the President of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region; and David Arnold, a former President of the Council and Holocaust educator.

The guides deal with antisemitism, providing historical background, a useful introduction to the Holocaust and also addressing newer manifestations of anti-Jewish racism that children and adolescents are likely to encounter online, as well as discussing prejudice and hatred more generally.

This free KS2/KS3 resource is designed to enable teachers to plan lessons and assemblies on the topic with ease, with versions of the guide specifically tailored to Church of England schools, Roman Catholic schools and non-denominational schools, while fulfilling numerous required learning objectives in the national curriculum.

You can download the guides here or visit BBC Teach here

Judith Hayman, Outreach Presenter at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “For years I have visited schools, talking about Judaism, the Holocaust and antisemitism, and about race hatred and prejudice more generally, and have spoken to about 30,000 school pupils. But there is only one of me, and there are over 40,000 schools in England and Wales. Through CAA and with the help of my friend Canon Steve Williams, we are now able to bring this critical topic to thousands of pupils, taught by their own teachers. With a record rise in antisemitic incidents right now, these lessons are more urgent than ever.”

Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Centuries after the blood libel, Jewish people are still more than four times likelier to be the targets of hate crime than any other faith group in England. To tackle antisemitism, it is not enough to be reactive; we have to be proactive in our education and our cross-communal relations. Jewish educators cannot conquer this problem alone, which is why we have created these extraordinary teachers’ guides, to empower teachers to play this vital role.”

The guides have received considerable praise:

Revd Canon Steve Williams, the Bishop of Manchester’s Interfaith Adviser, said: “With effective illustrations, and well-researched stories, this material offers memorable encounters that will open minds, change perceptions and help the pupils to identify and tackle discrimination and prejudice today – as well as spotting the deadly seeds of what these develop into.”

Anita Peleg, the Chair of Trustees, Generation 2 Generation Holocaust Education Charity, said: “Love thy Neighbour is an extremely useful guide to antisemitism, I am sure it will be helpful not only to History and R.E. teachers when teaching about the Holocaust but also for those involved in Citizenship education and promoting the need for empathy and understanding of others.”

Alastair Ross, A Religious Education adviser in Tameside, said: “Classroom resources are very welcome and help to provide information and examples that support teachers in delivering challenging and accurate lessons. This is a sensitive area and good factual understanding is a key foundation.”

Paul Bastin, a Year 5 Teacher, said: “This high quality, contemporary, fact heavy resource is the ideal way to introduce and/or consolidate learning on this highly emotive subject.”

Revd Nathan Eddy, the Interim Director of the Council of Christians and Jews, said: “Antisemitism is on the rise, and it is changing in truly alarming ways. This resource features a range of voices, Christian, Jewish and other faiths, and is an excellent tool to combat this prejudice — and others. Highly recommended.”

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Ivan Lewis describes suggestion that Labour’s result in Bury South proves Party has repaired relationship with Jewish community as “dangerous and misleading”

Ivan Lewis, the former Labour Party MP who left the Party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, has labelled suggestions that Labour’s result in Bury South proves that the Party has repaired its relationship with the Jewish community as “dangerous and misleading”, describing those who suggest otherwise as being “totally out of touch with reality.”

Mr Lewis, a former MP for Bury South who quit Labour and endorsed the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election, called on voters not to support the Conservatives in the local elections last week due to numerous controversies surrounding the local association. Campaign Against Antisemitism helped to publicise these controversies and has written to the Conservative Party calling for an urgent investigation.

In a Facebook post outlining his interpretation of the local election results, Mr Lewis wrote: “I am pleased that Bury Labour Group retained control of the council. I hope this sends the strongest possible message to Bury Conservatives about tackling the antisemitism in their ranks…Finally, there are some who are suggesting that Labour’s result in Bury South proves the Party has repaired its relationship with the Jewish community and the fear of antisemitism has dissipated. They are totally out of touch with reality and run the risk of sending a dangerous and misleading message to the national Party.

“A significant proportion, possibly a majority of Jewish voters who voted Labour in Prestwich, Whitefield, Radcliffe and Unsworth in the council elections or abstained from voting remain very concerned at the prospect of a Labour Government. They have not yet been persuaded that the Labour Party has left the antisemitism of the Corbyn years behind…They do not dispute Keir Starmer has made serious efforts to improve the situation but continue to mistrust the Party’s instincts and worry about those activists who still deny the scale of the antisemitism problem in the Corbyn years. 

“These voters voted Labour or abstained in the council elections because of their support for local candidates, concern at antisemitism in the local Tory party and in the full knowledge their vote would not lead to a change of Government…”

Mr Lewis’ sentiments echo an analysis conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism of the local election results in the heavily-Jewish borough of Barnet in London. Sir Keir Starmer and other Labour figures claimed that the results in Barnet indicated that the Party has regained the Jewish community’s trust, but our analysis demonstrated that the evidence did not in fact support this contention. Indeed, polling for our Antisemitism Barometer last year showed that an overwhelming majority of Jewish voters — 81% — still believed that the Labour Party is too tolerant of antisemitism. While it is not in doubt that the Labour Party under Sir Keir’s leadership is in a more promising place vis-à-vis antisemitism than it was under his predecessor, it is indisputable that there remains a great deal of work to be done.

Our analysis was protested by some Labour activists, who also pointed to Bury to defend their interpretation of the results. Mr Lewis’ intervention may make those claims even more difficult to sustain.

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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Sussex woman finds swastika carved into tree

A member of the public in Heathfield, Sussex, has approached Campaign Against Antisemitism after her reports of a swastika carved onto a tree only a few metres from her house have allegedly gone unanswered.

The incident, which occurred in a quiet residential area, was reported to Sussex Police on 14th October 2021, but no suspects have yet been found.

If you have any more information, please contact Sussex Police using crime reference number 11401310.

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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“What’s wrong with you people?” Tesco staffer allegedly asks prominent Jewish community figure in supermarket row

A prominent Jewish community figure has alleged that a Tesco staffer asked him “What’s wrong with you people?” in a row in a supermarket.

On 5th May, the victim, who is visibly Jewish, reached into the kosher fridge at the Brent Cross branch of Tesco and alleges that a male staffer who appeared to be in his 50s began shouting in an aggressive manner. The worker was on his knees vacuuming the lower half of the fridge, while wearing large headphones. He is alleged to have suddenly stood up, removed his headphones, turned off the machine, and shouted: “What’s wrong with you people, can’t you see I’m working here. Are you stupid or dumb?” and other comments.

It is believed that he was annoyed that the victim had reached into the fridge while he was working, despite a barrier apparently being located in the centre of the aisle rather than at the fridge.

The victim said in a low tone: “I only wanted the houmous,” and asked, “Why are you getting so aggressive?” as he walked away. The staffer allegedly continued to shout as customers looked on. He allegedly said: “You people know all about what you did to Jesus.” 

The victim asked: “Is that supposed to be an antisemitic comment?” The staffer allegedly replied: “Oh grow up, just grow up.”

Another staffer reportedly gently moved the victim away from the fridge and said that it was not right what his colleague had said. Another young female employee, however, allegedly shouted at the victim: “Yea, look at him, he is so aggressive, just look at him.”

The victim asked for her name but she allegedly shouted: “I’m not giving it to you,” and walked away.

A complaint has been filed with Tesco’s head office, but although the victim was reportedly assured that the store manager would contact him within 24 hours, he says that he did not hear anything. He subsequently filed a complaint with the police.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101, quoting reference number: 2411374/22, CAB 3923 09-05-22.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2020 showed that three in five British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

Image credit: David Howard

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CAA writes to Conservative Party over disturbing pattern of incidents in Bury

Campaign Against Antisemitism has this week written to the Conservative Party in relation to a disturbing pattern of incidents in the Bury North and South Conservative Association, which we and others have publicised in recent weeks.

On 17th February, it was reported that a Jewish councillor, Jordan Lewis, was deselected by the local association and was thereby unable to run with the endorsement of the Conservative Party. Ordinarily, in and of itself this would not have been a matter of concern, were it not for the pattern of incidents in the association that was to come. He was replaced by Shahbaz Mahmood Arif in the new Bury West ward, more on whom below.

On 31st March, it was reported that Dr Shadman Zaman, a prospective Conservative candidate in Besses ward, was asked to remove messages sympathetic to Jewish victims of terrorism of Israel. Although the local association claimed that it wanted to keep the election “local” and said in a statement that “Dr Shadman Zaman was not confirmed as a Besses ward candidate because of his failure to comply with instructions regarding electoral law and Party guidance and not because of any of his expressed views,” again, in view of the pattern of incidents, this defence was not entirely as believable to the Jewish community as it might otherwise have been.

On 12th April, it was reported, Sham Raja Akhtar, a Conservative candidate for Sedgley ward, had his endorsement by the Party revoked after numerous historic and inflammatory social media posts were uncovered, including one allegedly comparing Israeli footballers to “assassins”. However, it was claimed that Mr Raja subsequently represented the Conservatives at a hustings as late as 23rd April.

On 13th April, it was reported that Shafqat Mahmood, a Conservative candidate for Redvales ward, also had his endorsement by the Party revoked after historic and inflammatory social media posts were uncovered, including one saying that “Jews r at it again” in reference to a fake news item from a Pakistani propagandist outlet about an Israeli national supposedly being involved with ISIS. The baseless and offensive notion that Jews or the Jewish state created ISIS or direct it is an antisemitic trope that has developed over the past decade. According to a report, Mr Mahmood, who had backed George Galloway’s Workers’ Party in the Batley and Spen by-election last year, had allegedly also shared a social media post which labelled Sir Keir Starmer a “Zionist”. As the Home Affairs Select Committee has made clear, “‘Zionism’ as a concept remains a valid topic for academic and political debate, both within and outside Israel. The word ‘Zionist’ (or worse, ‘Zio’) as a term of abuse, however, has no place in a civilised society. It has been tarnished by its repeated use in antisemitic and aggressive contexts.”

Also on 13th April, it was revealed that Mr Arif, the Conservative candidate for Bury West ward who had replaced Mr Lewis, had allegedly shared an inflammatory article from the controversial far-left website, The Canary, about how Sir Keir Starmer was in receipt of donations from a “pro-Israel lobbyist” and that such “pro-Israel” figures who were backing Sir Keir had been opponents of Jeremy Corbyn. The undercurrent of the claims were – as was by that time common on the far-left – that those who had opposed Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party had done so in service to Israel or in order to silence his opposition to Israel, a type of antisemitic trope known as the ‘Livingstone Formulation’, which was highlighted in the EHRC’s investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party.

At around the same time, concerns were raised about Mazhar Aslam, another Conservative candidate in Sedgley, over his past social media activity. The Party accepted his apology and stood by him.

The foregoing does not represent the first time that the local association has been rocked by allegations of antisemitism. Last year, Cllr Robert (Bob) Caserta was found to have breached the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Other Voting Representatives four times over comments apparently made during an interview to recruit a senior officer at the Council in July 2019. During that interview, Cllr Caserta was alleged to have referred to “grot spots” in Sedgley and said that it would be difficult to communicate with residents “unless you are able to speak Hebrew”. He had the whip removed but was reinstated by the Party. He was not a candidate in Bury in the 2022 local elections.

The recent incidents have raised urgent questions about the local association’s vetting processes, how it handles the revocation of endorsements, and whether the association has tolerated or indulged in prejudice towards Jewish people among its membership or has sought to exploit perceptions of such prejudice in any target electorate.

We have called on the Conservatives to investigate the local association as a matter of urgency.

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.

Image credit: Google

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Labour candidate for Camden council reveals she was subjected to “levels of antisemitism I’ve never had before” during recent local election campaign

It has been reported that a Jewish candidate standing for the Labour Party in the London Borough of Camden was the target of antisemitic intimidation in the run-up to the recent local elections.

Izzy Lenga, who successfully stood for Labour in Camden’s South Hampstead ward, has revealed that she faced “levels of antisemitism I’ve never had before” after she was made the target of a poster campaign that called for people to not vote for her because she supported “apartheid”.

The harassment campaign is reported to have been based on accounts on anti-Israel websites like The Electronic Intifada dating back to 2014 about how Ms Lenga, a well-known young activist and leader in the Jewish community, once took part in a basic training course in Israel organised by the IDF. Ms Lenga also took part in the BBC Panorama documentary about antisemitism in the Labour Party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Posters publicising this information were plastered on walls and bus stops throughout the South Hampstead Ward in the weeks leading up to the election on 5th May.

The police do not believe that the people responsible for the 2014 articles had any role in the poster campaign, and have arrested a suspect believed to have been involved in the making or distributing of the posters because they apparently repeatedly misspelt the word “apartheid” in the same way each time.

A Metropolitan Police statement said: “We can confirm that a 39-year-old man was arrested on Friday, 29th April on suspicion of a Section 19 offence under the Public Order Act 1986. He was taken to a north London police station and was subsequently released on bail to return on a date in mid-June. Enquiries are ongoing. The arrest relates to two incidents where offensive materials were distributed in the South Hampstead area.”

Cllr Lenga was nevertheless elected as a councillor with the second highest vote in the South Hampstead ward.

Upon being elected, Cllr Lenga tweeted: “I’ve not spoken about it too much, but it’s been a really rough few months. I’ve faced levels of antisemitism I’ve never had before, and am eternally grateful for all those who’ve offered support.”

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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Church of England officially apologises for medieval antisemitic Church ruling, eight centuries after it was passed

The Church of England has apologised for its “shameful actions” against Jews, eight centuries after Church leaders developed a series of antisemitic laws.

After announcing that the Church intended to issue the apology a year ago, on Sunday 8th May, Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford hosted an event featuring key members of the Church hierarchy to commemorate the 1222 Synod of Oxford.

Sunday marked the 800th anniversary of the Synod. Known as the “Magna Carta” of English canon law – the system of laws enforced by the Church hierarchy to regulate its internal and external organisation – the Synod put into place a number of antisemitic doctrines. It forbade social interactions between Jews and Christians, forced the Jews to pay a specific tax, and made them wear a badge to identify them. 

This last condition reflects Canon 68 of the Roman Catholic Church’s Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1213. Named Ut Iudaei discernatur a christianis in habitu (“That Jews should be distinguished from Christians in their dress”) mandated that Jews should wear distinctive items of clothing “so that no Christian shall come to marry them ignorant of who they are”.

Twenty eight similar statutes were put in place in various countries throughout medieval and early modern Europe, including the 1274 Statute of Jewry in England, which forced Jews above the age of seven to year a yellow badge on their outer clothing. During the Second World War, the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear yellow Star of David badges to ostracise them and prepare them for extermination.

Though the Church of England did not exist until the early 16th century, Anglican leaders maintain that the apology is an important step in repairing its relationship with the Jewish community.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was not able to attend the service in person – representatives went in his stead – but he wrote on Twitter that it was a chance to “remember, repent and rebuild,” adding “Let us pray it inspires Christians today to reject contemporary forms of anti-Judaism and antisemitism, and to appreciate and receive the gift of our Jewish neighbours.”

Speaking at a reception following the service, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said it was “deeply appreciated by our Jewish community,” called for the strengthening of Jewish-Christian relations, and said: “Let us not forget that we are still on a journey. There is still so much that needs to be done.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism works to raise awareness of antisemitism among all faith and minority communities. We have also launched a series of antisemitism lesson plan guides for teachers, including specific guides for Church of England schools.

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Jewish home has phone line cut twice, allegedly by neighbour who referred to “those bloody Jews”

A Jewish home in Stamford Hill has had its phone line cut twice, allegedly by a neighbour reported to have referred to “those bloody Jews”.

The victim was reportedly threatened by her neighbour on Firsby Road that her internet would be cut off. The neighbour is reported to have referred also to “bad Jews”.

A BT Openreach engineer came to fix the victim’s internet after the first time that it was cut, and the neighbour reportedly came out to cut it a second time while the engineer was still in attendance.

The victim is suffering from complications from COVID-19 and needs the internet to update the clinic on a regular basis.

The incident 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: CRIS 4611794/22.

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.

image credit: Google

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Jewish family left in shock after man knocks on front door screaming “Get out of the country F**** Jews, you have taken my house!”

A Jewish family has been left in shock after a man knocked on the front door of their home screaming “Get out of the country F**** Jews, you have taken my house!”

The assailant was described as a Caucasian male.

The incident took place on Darenth Road in Stamford Hill on 31st March 2021 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: CAD6798 31/04/21

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.

Image credit: Google

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Conservative councillor apologises for sending allegedly antisemitic video in WhatsApp group

A Conservative Party councillor in Worcester has apologised after he sent a video that was reported to have been antisemitic in nature to a WhatsApp group.

Cllr Allah Ditta sent the video to a group called ‘Campaign News’, which contained several prominent Conservatives, including Worcester MP Robin Walker and leader of Worcester City Council, Marc Bayliss.

The video reportedly contained a clip from an American talk show, during which one of the guests made antisemitic remarks. 

Cllr Ditta, who claimed that the message had been sent when his phone was left attended, said: “As soon as I became aware of this event I immediately deleted the content and sent an explanation and apology to those on the group.

“The chairman of the association acknowledged this as you can see from the message. I absolutely condemn all forms of racism. I have friends across all faiths and believe in diversity 100 per cent.”

Mr Walker said that “By the time I saw the video was shared in the chat, it had been deleted, adding: “Quite rightly so it was looked into at the time but it was established that the video did not come from a member of the group. As an association, we have several Jewish candidates and we never tolerate any form of discrimination, and antisemitism is included in that.”

However, Michael Foster, who previously served as a Labour Party MP for Worcester, drafted a letter to Conservative Party Chairman, Oliver Dowden MP, about the video.

Mr Foster said: “This screenshot and the video were shared with me by somebody who was involved in the group chat. The fact that Cllr Ditta claims this was a mistake and that his phone was left unattended is ridiculous.

“Given what the Labour party went through with antisemitism, it is critically important that this is highlighted and addressed. We have to ask why he has this kind of content on his phone in the first place?”

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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Bishop of Oxford says he was “disturbed” by the climate of antisemitism allowed to develop in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party

The Bishop of Oxford has said that he was “disturbed” by the antisemitism that was allowed to grow in the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The Right Reverend Dr Steven Croft made his admission days before a commemorative event held at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, during which the Church of England offered an apology to the British Jewish community eight centuries after Jews were expelled from England.

Sunday 8th May was the 800th anniversary of the 1222 Synod of Oxford, known as the “Magna Carta” of English canon law – the system of laws enforced by the church hierarchy to regulate its organisation – which put antisemitic doctrines in place, forbidding social interactions between Jews and Christians, taxing the Jews, and making them wear a badge to identify them.

The Bishop took the opportunity of the church’s apology to voice his concerns about the climate of antisemitism during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Labour leader, the other causes of which are the “general kind of fragmentation” of British society and Brexit.

The Right Rev Dr Croft said: “Three or four years ago, I was really disturbed by how deeply Jewish friends and the Jewish community in Oxford were affected by the antisemitism that was growing in society as part of the climate that was around.”

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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Welsh Liberal Democrat council candidate suspended hours after being elected after posting inflammatory TikTok video using the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”

It has been reported that a winning candidate for the Welsh Liberal Democrats has been suspended by the Party just hours after the results were announced for sharing an inflammatory video on TikTok a year earlier.

Little-One Brighouse, the newly elected councillor for Disserth and Trecoed with Newbridge-on-Wye in Powys, central Wales, was suspended by the Liberal Democrats after the Party was made aware of a video that she allegedly shared on TikTok in May 2021 which showed a burning Israeli flag.

In the video, the councillor can reportedly be seen posing in front of the camera while two other video clips play concurrently. In one, the viewer can see a burning Israeli flag. In the other, a caption reads: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which is a popular chant.

The chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state — and its replacement with a State of Palestine — and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

A spokesperson from the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: “We have received a complaint regarding this candidate which has been reviewed under our independent complaints process. As a result they have been suspended from the Party while the complaint is fully investigated. Liberal Democrats have a long and proud record of standing up against antisemitism and continue to champion a liberal, tolerant and inclusive society for all.”

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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Leaked recording shows “alt-right” YouTuber saying he wishes someone would “press the button to wipe Jews off the face of the earth”

A leaked audio recording of a well-known YouTuber reported to have a large following on the far-right appears to show him saying that he would like someone to “press the button to wipe Jews off the face of the earth.”

Paul Joseph Watson runs the Prison Planet YouTube channel, which has 1.9 million subscribers, and is a former editor of Infowars, a website owned by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Mr Watson is a well-known voice in the controversial “alt-right” movement in which inflammatory conspiracy theories commonly circulate.

Mr Watson’s alleged comments were apparently secretly recorded during a private conversation, and they come in the context of other racist and homophobic slurs. The recording appears to show that Mr Watson says he is sick of “media f***** activists” sticking signs “up in my face trying to get me to join the gay f***** Palestinian cause. I don’t give a shit about Israel and Palestine. I care about white people. Not sand n***** Jew P*** f***** c***s.”

Mr Watson’s output rarely contains such explicit racism, and he is known to have appeared on platforms with former members of the youth conservative movement Turning Point USA, Candace Owens, various figures associated with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, figures associated with the Brexit Party, and he has reportedly interacted with billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s claim of restored Jewish trust in Labour following success in heavily-Jewish Barnet not supported by analysis of results

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that the Labour Party’s success in Thursday’s local elections in the heavily-Jewish borough of Barnet in north London indicates that the Party has regained the Jewish community’s trust.

Labour won the council from the Conservatives after famously failing to do so in 2018, despite other electoral trends that year, in what was widely interpreted as a snub by the Jewish community of the Party under the leadership of the antisemite Jeremy Corbyn, who campaigned with local Labour candidates in Islington this week.

Addressing Labour activists in the borough on the morning after the election, Sir Keir said: “My first words as leader of our Party, when I took over in April 2020, was that we were going to root out antisemitism from our Party, not tolerate it any more in our Party, change our Party. I said the test of that will be whether voters trust us again in places like Barnet, and they’ve done it.

“That is your hard work, that is the change we’ve collectively brought about in our Labour Party, the trust that we’re building, putting us on the road to No 10 the road to that general election. That change these last two years has been really hard for us as a party, but we’ve done it, we’ve built those solid foundations, we’ve won here in Barnet, we’ve won across London, we’re winning from coast to coast.”

However, a closer look at the results shows that the wards of the borough with the largest Jewish populations, including Edgware, Finchley Church End, Garden Suburb, Golders Green, Hendon, Mill Hill and Totteridge returned not a single Labour councillor, with the exception of the new ward of Whetstone.

Polling for our Antisemitism Barometer last year showed that an overwhelming majority of Jewish voters — 81% — still believed that the Labour Party is too tolerant of antisemitism.

It is not in doubt that the Labour Party under Sir Keir’s leadership is in a more promising place vis-à-vis antisemitism than it was under his predecessor, but neither is it disputable that there remains a great deal of work to be done.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Sir Keir Starmer’s suggestion that the success of local Labour candidates in the heavily-Jewish borough of Barnet demonstrates that Labour has restored the trust of the Jewish community is decidedly premature. Our latest polling has shown that 81% of the Jewish community still feels that Labour is too tolerant of antisemitism. Yesterday, the most Jewish neighbourhoods in Barnet, including Edgware, Finchley Church End, Garden Suburb, Golders Green, Hendon, Mill Hill and Totteridge, returned not a single Labour councillor. We hope that Labour will concentrate on doing the work of fighting antisemitism rather than misleadingly implying that the problem is solved.”

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.

In recent weeks, we have called out antisemitism and publicised allegations and relevant controversies in the full spectrum of British political parties, including the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, SNP, and Green Party.

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Swastika vandalism reported in same spot in Hull as a few months ago

Swastika vandalism has been reported near Hull just a few months after similar imagery was discovered at the same place.

In the early afternoon of 5th May, a member of the Jewish community found two large swastika drawings in red biro pen on a fence on Kingston Road in Willerby, by Hull. One of the city’s synagogues is also in Willerby.

Sexually obscene drawings were also produced alongside the swastikas.

The vandalism is believed to have been carried out earlier on the day that it was discovered, and it has been reported to the police.

One member of the community concealed the swastikas with paper appended to the fence by drawing pins, but later that afternoon the papers were discovered to have been ripped off to reveal one of the swastikas anew, and the papers had been stamped on.

Members of the community were distressed by the incident, which comes just six months since the carving of a swastika and an illustration of a gas chamber were discovered at the same location on the busy road.

It is understood that Humberside Police closed their investigation of the last incident, allegedly explaining that it was not a proportionate use of police resources to investigate “scratchings on a fence”, according to the community member who reported it.

We are grateful to the member of the public who brought this latest incident to our attention.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or e-mail us at contact@antisemitism.org.

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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“We can’t hide this poison anymore”: Fiyaz Mughal OBE on the growing danger of Islamist antisemitism

Fiyaz Mughal OBE, the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism (MAAS), a charity comprising British Muslims whose mission is to tackle antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed the growing danger of Islamist antisemitism.

Referring to antisemites within pockets of the Muslim community, Mr Mughal said that “We need to tackle them, we need to call them out. We need to inform, we need to educate. But we can’t hide this poison anymore under the carpet.”

He added: “It’s very much linked to Islamism, and the rise of Islamist extremism, and it’s not clearly linked to being a Muslim or Islam but Islamists, the political ideology of taking the religion and fusing it with political ideology, and that political ideology, we know, has been influenced by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood…by groups like Hamas. And these groups actively use antisemitism to draw people into their web, into their activism, to draw money from them, to use them as cannon fodder in conflicts.  

“And so it is clear that antisemitism is part of a campaign by Islamist groups as a means of mobilising more people against Jews. So, we need to tackle it. It can’t just be swept under the carpet, This is dangerous, dangerous stuff.”

Mr Mughal added that whilst it is clear that polling has shown that the majority of Muslims do not harbour such views, Islamist ideas were “quite entrenched” within a “vocal minority” of the community, making the issue, as he sees it, “a long-term problem”. 

“We know that British Muslims just want to get on with their lives. They want to have, like Jewish communities, the opportunity to be Muslims, be British, and to just get a job, get on with their lives,” the MAAS founder said. “But correspondingly, that small but vocal minority within British Muslim communities, has become much more entrenched, much more vocal, much more aggressive, and willing to turn out and intimidate Jewish institutions, Jewish communities, and those where there are larger concentrations of Jews.

“Take for example, who would have thought in London, a convoy of people from Bradford would turn up in Golders Green to talk about raping Jewish women? That is a prime example of the violence, of the state of open violence, in that small but vocal section of Muslim communities.”

Mr Mughal concluded by lamenting that Islamists reduce Islam “to the most basic form of emotion…hate, rage, anger, sadness. They destroy the nuance within Islam. The poetry, the beauty, the flourishing of it. They brutalise Islam, they make it so brittle that it becomes even painful for believers in Islam to sometimes carry on believing in it. This is what Islamists are doing. 

“And so they are damaging the religion from within, and it is essential for British Muslims to take them on…we have to challenge them. They are a threat to Jews, but they are a threat to Muslims and to the identity of British Islam today.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Mughal touched upon a wide variety of topics which included his motivations behind the creation of MAAS, Islamophobic stereotypes, and his speech at CAA’s rally outside the BBC last year where we were greeted by an unwelcome visitor.

The podcast with Mr Mughal 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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Man jailed after carving swastika into walls of Westfield shopping centre with a knife and racially abusing and threatening police officers

A man has been jailed after carving swastika into walls of Westfield shopping centre in Stratford with a knife and racially abusing and threatening police officers.

Andy Koseda, 54, of no fixed address, was arrested on 15th February after police were called to the Westfield shopping centre in Newham, where Mr Koseda had been carving swastikas into a wall using a knife. When police officers tried to arrest him, he reportedly racially abused them and threatened them with the knife.

He was charged with threatening a person with a knife in a public place, racially aggravated harassment, criminal damage, possession of a knife and using threatening words to cause harassment.

He pleaded guilty to all counts at an earlier hearing before being sentenced on 5th May at Snaresbrook Crown Court to two and a half years in prison.

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.

Image credit: Metropolitan Police

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Labour suspends councillor alleged to have posted horrific article arguing “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today”

The Labour Party has reportedly suspended a councillor alleged to have posted a horrific article arguing “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today.”

The suspension came within hours of the JC publicising the allegation, but reportedly a week since Labour Against Antisemitism first filed the complaint, raising questions anew about how Labour is tackling antisemitism in its ranks and reviving concerns about the extent to which PR considerations are a driving factor.

Belgica Guaña is alleged to have posted the article, titled “The Holocaust Hoax and the Jewish Promotion of Perversity”, on Facebook in 2016, two years before she became a councillor in Newham in London, where she is running for re-election this week.

The article says that “The so-called ‘Holocaust’ is propaganda in an ongoing war between the Jews and those with the courage to stand up to them – a war that began with the National Socialists coming to power in Germany in the 1930s and continues to this very day. The Jews do not have the means or the numbers to defeat Europeans with the force of arms so they have to rely mainly on infiltration, subversion, and economic and psychological warfare, with the Holocaust hoax being the best example of the latter. 

“The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews (which is all that was actually happening), just as we would be today. Hitler and the National Socialists freed Germany from the death grip of the Jews and gave it back to the German people.”

The essay also argues that Jews use pornography to control western societies by way of the “Holocaust hoax”, and pushes the “white genocide” conspiracy theory, as well as claiming that teenage diarist Anne Frank, murdered by the Nazis at Bergen-Belsen, was a “bisexual degenerate” whose popular diary is an “obvious fraud…laced with pornographic and sexually subversive messages”.

In May 2016, Cllr Guaña reportedly shared a post that said that “The Nazi holocaust [sic] was a crime against humanity, and the Israeli Genocide against Palestinians can not be ignored or denied,” and in December 2017, Cllr Guaña is said to have shared a video of the United Nations General Assembly, writing: “If you can have a minute of silence for the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. So how much time should I ask for the more than 50 years of invasion and oppression of the Palestinian people?” Both posts are further breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. Other inflammatory material is also alleged to have been posted by Cllr Guaña.

Although Cllr Guaña has been suspended from the Labour Party and therefore no longer enjoys its endorsement in her bid for re-election, she will remain on the ballot paper listed as a Labour candidate, which is unavoidable in view of how close the revelations came before the local elections.

The allegation that Cllr Guaña posted the article was made in the JC, based on research by Labour Against Antisemitism. Earlier this week, Campaign Against Antisemitism announced that it is examining legal options in respect of the posting of the article.

A Labour Party spokesperson 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.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said on Wednesday: “The article allegedly shared by this councillor is a not only an abhorrent collection of antisemitic tropes, from Holocaust denial and paedophilia to comparisons of Israel with the Nazis and support for the far-right ‘Great Replacement Theory’, but it may also imply support for Jewish genocide. In view of just how horrific this post is, we are examining legal options.”

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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Pub manager is out after CAA helps victim of alleged antisemitic abuse and harassment attain justice

A manager at the Stonegate pub chain is no longer employed by the group, after Campaign Against Antisemitism assisted a colleague of his who had made allegations of antisemitic abuse.

The Jewish victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, appealed to us after her line manager at the pub where she worked allegedly engaged in antisemitic abuse and, on at least one occasion, made unwanted physical contact by trying to place his legs on her lap and tried to spit beer over her.

The alleged antisemitic remarks included stating that Hitler was not a fascist and pointing at the victim and saying “a Jew!”.

The pub group, which is one of the largest in the UK, initially declined to take action.

There were numerous allegations of abuse, both before and after the colleague became the victim’s line manager. The incidents were made even more challenging for the victim, as this was her first job. Ultimately the victim decided to leave her position, but bravely insisted on working with us to continue to seek justice.

Citing reasons of confidentiality, the pub group initially refused to tell the victim anything and merely said that the matter would be addressed.

Following contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s General Counsel, the pub group suddenly had a change of mind. It has now been confirmed that the manager in question is no longer employed by them. The victim is satisfied that justice has been done and has expressed her gratitude to us for the legal and other support that we have been able to provide.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “This is one of many examples where we have helped ordinary members of the Jewish community in challenging employment situations. It is important that members of the community contact us at the first signs of a problem so that we can immediately provide legal and other support to secure a just outcome, as we have here.”

If you would like assistance and free legal support in an employment setting or elsewhere in relation to an antisemitic incident, please contact our Incident Response team at investigations@antisemitism.org or on +44 (0)330 822 0321.

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Basingstoke couple launch campaign to remove swastikas and other hate tattoos free of charge

A couple from Basingstoke have set up an initiative to remove swastikas and other extremist tattoo images from clients’ bodies free of charge.

Hayley Allen and Richard De’Ath from Cliddesden, laser practitioners who reside just south of Basingstoke, said that they wanted to help people who got hate tattoos by mistake and do not want them anymore.

Ms Allen, of the Hayley Aesthetic & Laser Studio, told Campaign Against Antisemitism that the initiative was “A great opportunity to give people the chance to get rid of mistakes”.

Whilst Ms Allen initially felt “A bit anxious about it because of the subject,” she has been heartened to receive positive responses to her announcement.

Ms Allen said that when asked by a man to remove his swastika tattoo, she said: “I’m very used to dealing with people from all sorts of backgrounds so not a lot shocks me, and if something did shock me, it’s just about not letting that be seen.

“He was embarrassed by it, and he’s an older guy now…I think it was a younger, stupid mistake.”

Ms Allen continued: “I’m not very judgmental of people, and I do believe that everyone should have the option to change any mistakes that are made. I wasn’t shocked, I wasn’t disgusted or insulted or anything. And that again is why we decided to do the campaign. We want people to have the option to change and I’m not going to discriminate against them.”

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Labour councillor alleged to have posted horrific article arguing “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today”

A Labour Party councillor is alleged to have posted a horrific article arguing “The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews…just as we would be today.”

Belgica Guaña is alleged to have posted the article, titled “The Holocaust Hoax and the Jewish Promotion of Perversity”, on Facebook in 2016, two years before she became a councillor in Newham in London, where she is running for re-election this week.

The article says that “The so-called ‘Holocaust’ is propaganda in an ongoing war between the Jews and those with the courage to stand up to them – a war that began with the National Socialists coming to power in Germany in the 1930s and continues to this very day. The Jews do not have the means or the numbers to defeat Europeans with the force of arms so they have to rely mainly on infiltration, subversion, and economic and psychological warfare, with the Holocaust hoax being the best example of the latter. 

“The Germans were completely justified in persecuting and expelling the Jews (which is all that was actually happening), just as we would be today. Hitler and the National Socialists freed Germany from the death grip of the Jews and gave it back to the German people.”

The essay also argues that Jews use pornography to control western societies by way of the “Holocaust hoax”, and pushes the “white genocide” conspiracy theory, as well as claiming that teenage diarist Anne Frank, murdered by the Nazis at Bergen-Belsen, was a “bisexual degenerate” whose popular diary is an “obvious fraud…laced with pornographic and sexually subversive messages”.

In May 2016, Cllr Guaña reportedly shared a post that said that “The Nazi holocaust [sic] was a crime against humanity, and the Israeli Genocide against Palestinians can not be ignored or denied,” and in December 2017, Cllr Guaña is said to have shared a video of the United Nations General Assembly, writing: “If you can have a minute of silence for the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. So how much time should I ask for the more than 50 years of invasion and oppression of the Palestinian people?” Both posts are further breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The allegation that Cllr Guaña posted the article was made in the JC, based on research by Labour Against Antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The article allegedly shared by this councillor is a not only an abhorrent collection of antisemitic tropes, from Holocaust denial and paedophilia to comparisons of Israel with the Nazis and support for the far-right ‘Great Replacement Theory’, but it may also imply support for Jewish genocide. In view of just how horrific this post is, we are examining legal options.

“The Labour Party must urgently investigate both the veracity of the allegation and how Belgica Guaña was allowed to become and remain a councillor in spite of the post, and why she was endorsed by the Party in her bid for reelection.”

Cllr Guaña is not the only Labour candidate in the coming elections to be embroiled in controversy.

Cllr Lee Garvey, an independent candidate representing Pallister and Berwick Hills in Middlesbrough, had applied to become a member of the Labour Party, but was rejected after concerns were raised about material that he had allegedly shared online. Cllr Garvey allegedly compared Israel’s policies to the Holocaust and referenced antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild family.

In a 2015 Facebook post referencing then-Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, Cllr Garvey reportedly wrote: “Just saw an interview with [Channel 4 News presenter John] snow and CaMORON where he says, we need to stop the Demonisation of Jews…Lets look at how I see it…Israel is doing to the Palestinians what they themselves suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s [sic].”

On another occasion, Cllr Garvey allegedly complained about the number of Jewish characters on television, saying: “Watch any US sitcom or show, you will find the vast majority have at least one Jewish character if not a Jewish family. Why is this when they make up JUST 2.2% of the population?? And if like me you fear the TV is just a Propaganda, it certainly makes you think [sic].”

In another alleged 2015 Facebook post, Cllr Garvey is claimed to have referenced classic antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, writing: “I also take the sleeping enhancer from those drug companies I despise, use money to purchase items given to us by the Rothschild family who I regard as less than poo and I also maek most of my living in churches and we all know how I feel about them…”

Another Labour candidate, Anne Pissaridou, representing North Portslade in Brighton, has been suspended by the Party for a second time after new revelations about her social media output. She is 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.

A third figure caught up in controversy is former Labour MP Martin Linton. Mr Linton served as the MP for Battersea between 1997 and 2010, but is now running as a council candidate in Wandsworth’s Lavender ward. He has allegedly made a number of inflammatory statements in the past.

In 2010, while Mr Linton was Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, he reportedly claimed that the “Israel lobby” played a malign role in marginal constituencies. During a meeting held at the House of Commons by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of al-Aqsa, Mr Linton is reported to have said that “There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends…When you make decisions about how you vote and how you advise constituents to vote, you must make them aware of the attempt by Israelis and by pro-Israelis to influence the election.”

In an appearance on the Islam Channel, Mr Linton said that the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hamas should not be called “terrorists”. That is, Mr Linton explained “the wrong word to use when you are talking about someone who is fighting a military occupation”. Mr Linton’s preferred term is “Gazan militants”, because, while the actions of individuals may be described as terroristic, the same apparently cannot be said for groups and governments.

In 2010, Mr Linton appeared on the Iranian-backed news outlet PressTV to, it has been claimed, defend Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons. On another occasion, he appeared on PressTV to defend Raed Salah, a prolific antisemite who claims that Israel planned 9/11.

Murad Qureshi, the candidate for the ward of Little Venice in west London, is also embroiled in controversy. Mr Qureshi is alleged to have made comments about the “powerful pro-Israel lobby” in the United States, and retweeted a Twitter post which read “You can get away with offending anyone so lomng as they’re not Jewish”. In a 2013 blog post, Mr Qureshi also reportedly questioned the “legal basis” for the trial of the leading Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Mr Qureshi allegedly wrote that “I am not sure the Eichmann trial can be held up as a model of due processes [sic].” From 2016 to 2021, Mr Qureshi was Chair of Stop the War Coalition, and has been photographed alongside Hamas politicians including leader Ismail Haniyeh.

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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Sixteen-year old boy who said “I am a domestic terror threat. I will bomb a synagogue,” and appeared to begin trying to do so, outrageously avoids custodial sentence

A sixteen-year-old boy who allegedly wrote on Twitter, “I am a domestic terror threat. I will bomb a synagogue,” and appeared to begin trying to realise this ambition has outrageously avoided a custodial sentence.

Liverpool Youth Court heard that the boy, who has autism and cannot be named for legal reasons, searched Google for his nearest synagogue, downloaded instructions for making bombs and was pictured wearing a mask with swastikas on and making a white power salute and Nazi salute.

It is understood that the boy became radicalised after he began playing the free online video game Fortnite, which allows participants to contact other players in virtual “hangouts”.

Gerard Pitt, defending, said that the boy had become part of a hangout oriented towards far-right politics, and then went on to write a number of antisemitic, racist and anti-LGBT posts on social media, as well as some that promoted the “incel” subculture.

Mr Pitt told the court that the boy possessed a “very large library” of far-right content, but has since moved away from these views.

Sentencing, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said: “Virtually every minority group that exists you had something derogatory to say about. I have been doing this job as a judge for twelve years and I have been involved in the criminal justice system for 23 years and this is some of the most appalling behaviour by a young person I have seen in terms of the comments you made, the views you expressed. They are, and should rightly be, abhorred by everyone.”

He added: “It is the scale, scope and nature of your hatred for fellow men and women. In fact my heart sank when I read the case papers for the first time.”

However, Mr Goldspring reportedly opined that it would be inappropriate to impose a custodial punishment and that this could jeopardise the positive rehabilitative steps that the boy has apparently made. Consequently, the boy was given only a twelve-month referral order. Mr Goldspring said: “I’m of the view, albeit I struggled greatly with making the decision, that a non-custodial sentence would be in the public interest.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We are seeing more and more youngsters being groomed and recruited by the far-right, which is immensely troubling. Video games are one of the most attractive mediums for extremist propagandising, and parents, teachers and the authorities ignore them at our peril. The Chief Magistrate, who even admitted that this is one of the most appalling cases in his entire career, is absolutely wrong not to impose a custodial sentence. He may, astoundingly, believe that it is not in the public interest to incarcerate someone who declared his intention to bomb a synagogue and may have sought ways to do so, but the Jewish community would beg to differ. It is not for nought that synagogues in the UK require security guards and other special safety measures. This sentence is grossly insufficient and must be enhanced.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

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New hearing scheduled after Abdullah Qureshi resists CPS’s reinstatement of racially/religiously aggravated element of the assault charges

Abdullah Qureshi, who last month pleaded guilty to numerous assault charges, has today resisted the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) reinstatement of the racially/religiously aggravated element of those charges.

On 7th April, Abdullah 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 revealed last month 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, and Mr Qureshi appeared in court today to face those reinstated charges.

Explaining the reinstatement at court today, 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 has been instructed to provide its reasons in writing, with an opportunity for the defence to respond in writing, followed by a hearing in June.

Mr Qureshi has pleaded guilty to the assault charges, and is merely resisting the allegation that the assaults were religiously or racially motivated.

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’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.

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CAA produces video detailing complete history of legal battle with notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz

Campaign Against Antisemitism has produced a video detailing the complete history of our legal battle with the notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz, which you can watch in full here.

Alison Chabloz is a virulent antisemite and Holocaust denier who has an extensive record of using social media to publicise her hatred for Jews and to convert others to her views about Jewish people. 

She is fixated on the idea that the Holocaust did not occur, and that it was fabricated by Jews and their supporters as a vehicle for fraudulently extorting money in the form of reparations. This forms the basis for her second obsession, that Jews are liars and thieves who are working to undermine Western society. 

She is also connected to far-right movements, at whose meetings she gives speeches and performs her songs, in the UK and North America, and is currently banned from entering France, where Holocaust denial is illegal.

Last month, Ms Chabloz was sentenced to jail once again, after being found guilty of a communications offence following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The two-day trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court concerned a video of the scene in the classic Oliver Twist film when Fagin, a fictitious Jewish criminal (a character that has come under significant criticism over the past century for its antisemitic depiction), is explaining to his newest recruit how his legion of children followers pick pockets. Ms Chabloz uploaded the video and sings an accompanying song of her own about how Jews are greedy, “grift” for “shekels” and cheat on their taxes.

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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Liberal Democrats reportedly reintegrate member once suspended for sharing former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke video denouncing “Zionist globalism”

The Liberal Democrats appear to have reintegrated a member once suspended for reportedly sharing antisemitic material online.

In 2019, local Liberal Democrat candidate Abjol Miah was suspended during a council by-election in the Shadwell ward of Tower Hamlets after he reportedly shared antisemitic content, including a video produced by David Duke, five years earlier.

Mr Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, and runs a daily radio show that promotes the antisemitic “Zionist Occupied Government” conspiracy theory inspired by the infamous antisemitic conspiracy theory The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford’s notorious collection of antisemitic articles, The International Jew. The video reportedly shared by Mr Miah was titled “CNN Goldman Sachs and the Zio Matrix”.

“Zio”, short for “Zionist”, is an epithet invented and disseminated by Mr Duke, used to disparage anything that he deems to have come from a Jewish source, whether or not the individuals in question are actually Jewish themselves.

Mr Miah also allegedly shared other examples of antisemitic conspiratorial material. They include a picture of the globe with a Star of David on it featuring the words “Zionist globalism”, a picture that collected a series of logos of major newspapers and media companies with an Israeli flag in the background and the headline “Zionist dominated media”, and an illustration of a figure with a withered face, its mouth gagged with an Israeli flag, and words that appear to say “Zio globalist tyranny!” above it.

Mr Miah is understood to have campaigned for London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, in 2016, before having his Liberal Democrat membership “revoked, pending an investigation” following his alleged online activity. However, he is now understood to have been reintegrated into the Party as part of the campaign for Rabina Khan to become Mayor of Tower Hamlets

Ms Khan is a former member of George Galloway’s Respect Party who also campaigned for Sadiq Khan in 2016 before switching allegiance to the Liberal Democrats.

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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Jewish children aged eight and eleven physically assaulted by teenagers in Stamford Hill

Jewish children were physically assaulted by teenagers in Stamford Hill, it has been reported.

The two children, aged eight and eleven, were reportedly standing outside of Sainsbury’s in Stamford Hill when they were approached by a teenager who punched one of the children on the arm before laughing and walking over to his friends, saying: “This was a good one, I will do it again.”

The incident occurred on Friday 29th April at 15:45 and 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: CAD 7763 30/04/22

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.

Image credit: Google

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“I can’t stand this f****** community”: Jewish man reportedly verbally abused whilst exiting synagogue in Stamford Hill

A Jewish man was verbally abused whilst exiting a synagogue in Stamford Hill, North London, it has been reported.

The suspect, believed to be a man of black ethnicity wearing a dark puffer jacket, white trainers, dark baseball cap and dark trousers, allegedly yelled “I can’t stand this f****** community” to the Jewish man as he left the building.

The incident occurred on Sunday at 11:00 on Lampard Grove and was reported on the same day 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 3004 01/05/22

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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Jewish sisters reportedly threatened with a knife by gang of five teenagers in East London

Two Jewish sisters aged twelve and thirteen years old were reportedly threatened with a knife by a gang of five teenagers.

It is understood that the teenagers, comprised of four girls and one boy, were aged fourteen and fifteen years old. The group’s members are believed to be of white and black ethnicity and were wearing a blue school uniform. 

One of the female suspects allegedly approached the sisters before revealing a silver knife and holding it to the twelve-year-old’s face. 

The two sisters reportedly managed to run away from the situation.

The incident occurred on Thursday 28th April on Mount Pleasant Lane in Clapton, East London, and was reported the following day 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 3014/29APR22.

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.

Image credit: Google

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CPS reinstates racially/religiously aggravated element of assault charges against Abdullah Qureshi in face of communal outrage, after CAA revealed antisemitic element had been dropped

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reinstated the racially/religiously aggravated element of the assault charges against Abdullah Qureshi, after Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed earlier this month that the antisemitic element had been dropped and we and other communal organisations made representations to the CPS.

On 7th April, Abdullah 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 in Stamford Hill in which five religious Jews in the North London neighbourhood were violently attacked.

In one incident at 18:41, 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.”

However, we reported that the CPS had dropped the religiously/racially-aggravated element of the charges, despite Mr Quershi having attacked only visibly Jewish people — including a child and a 64-year-old man — that day in one of Britain’s most diverse neighbourhoods. So the charges to which he pleaded guilty did not include the antisemitic aggravating element.

Following this revelation, Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, continued to support the victims and made representations to the CPS, as did we, the CST and other Jewish and local groups.

Today, the CPS has reinstated the religiously/racially-aggravated element of all of the charges in the face of unified communal outrage.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “In a violent spree, Abdullah Qureshi attacked innocent Jews as he came across them in the street, from a young child to an elderly man. We applaud the Shomrim for reporting these incidents and the police for identifying the perpetrator. We welcome the CPS’s decision to reinstate the aggravating element to the charges, but it must be said that it is disappointing that it took sustained outrage from the Jewish community to bring this about. Polling shows that a majority of British Jews do not believe that the CPS does enough to protect them. The CPS must recognise that its choices have a serious impact on the Jewish community and it must strive to do better.”

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.

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Robert Rinder MBE opens up about being from a family of Holocaust victims and survivors and praises CAA for its legal work tackling the “enduring dark presence of antisemitism”

Robert Rinder MBE, the criminal barrister and television and radio broadcaster, best known nationwide for his ITV reality show, Judge Rinder, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he opened up about being from a family of Holocaust victims and survivors and observed how antisemitism endures today.

“I know people who live in certain communities that feel that they don’t want to put a menorah in their window outside of Jewish communities because they felt that it was inviting attack,” Mr Rinder said. “The reality is there’s something peculiarly disturbing about going to a state-funded Jewish school, and having worked for as long as I have over the years in prisons, it is easier to get into a medium-security prison. That is the same, in terms of the protection and all of the security that is in place, to protect Jewish kids that go to school every day simply to learn.”

He continued: “Now, that doesn’t exist because we are, as a people, especially paranoid. That exists on a rational assessment of the enduring day-to-day threats that our children face by going to school. This idea that putting a menorah in your window in the UK…that sending your kids to a Jewish school, that expressing your Judaism in the street by wearing Jewish clothing, represents a risk – even the fact that it represents a risk to your body, to your life – is the most clear and articulate expression imaginable of the enduring dark presence of antisemitism, anti-Jewish racism.

“And yes, there is security at other primary schools, but it doesn’t come close to this. What do we do about it? The answer is activism, and there’s really good activism everywhere, and above all else, including as many people in that activism. Making it part of their buffet, if you like, of things that they care about. That they cannot be anti-racist – it’s impossible to be anti-racist, it’s impossible to be an activist, and consequently on the right side of history – unless you include anti-Jewish racism, also, at the centre of your activism. Knowing the existential risk, every day, even now, of Jews who are just living their lives in various parts of the country. Going to a synagogue to pray, wherever they are, the levels of security, and so on and so forth.” 

Speaking on how to combat antisemitism, Mr Rinder said that one way included “the type of important thing that Campaign Against Antisemitism is doing, which is to say that ‘There is nowhere for these people to hide, legally. We will come after you.’ The fact that they are held legally to account is enormously important, because we are a nation of laws in this country, and there are really good quality laws that can be used to stop these people. The difficulty is that people don’t necessarily use them, so what CAA is doing is of limitless importance.”

Mr Rinder added: “The other thing I would do is really support Campaign Against Antisemitism. It’s impossible to overstate the value of what they do, of holding people to account. The idea that you cannot be an institutional racist and hide, because you are breaking the law, and that we will use those legal tools to stop you, I think is an enormously powerful weapon and a light in the darkness.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Rinder touched upon a wide variety of topics which included his work in Holocaust education, the emotional requirements of exploring his family history on television, and why he defended members of the far-right National Front in court.

The podcast with Mr Rinder 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, writer Eve Barlow and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Court hears that alleged member of proscribed National Action group helped form “continuity” organisation with a “revolutionary Nationalist Socialist ideology”

A court has heard that an alleged member of a neo-Nazi terror organisation tried to recruit members for an offshoot group.

Alex Davies, 27, from Swansea, was allegedly a member of National Action between 17th December 2016 and 27th September 2017, which he denies.

National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

The court heard that, in January 2017, Mr Davies was allegedly involved in the development of a “continuity” organisation, designed to continue the work of the banned group and initially called the Southern Activist Network, later renamed NS131. That group was also banned nine months after the proscription of National Action.

Mr Davies allegedly contacted prospective members on the secure messaging platform Wire, explaining that the group had a “revolutionary Nationalist Socialist ideology”, but needed to “be able to ‘swim’ among the general population without trouble.”

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson told Winchester Crown Court that National Action was banned after it “terrorised” towns including Liverpool, Newcastle, York, Swansea and Darlington, during which its members could be heard “screaming Nazi-era proclamations through megaphones”, including one occasion in York where Mr Davies allegedly spoke in front of a banner that read “Refugees not welcome: Hitler was right.”

Mr Jameson explained to the court that the National Action’s symbol was “a direct nod” to that of the Nazi paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) wing, and “advocated the same Nazi aims and ideals” including the ethnic cleansing of anyone who did not belong to the Nazi conception of “Aryans”, primarily meaning Jews. It also allegedly had “paramilitary aspirations”.

Mr Jameson said that “For the defendant and his cohorts, the work of Adolf Hitler was, and remains, unfinished. The ‘Final Solution to the Jewish question’, to use Hitler’s words, remains to be answered by complete eradication.”

The trial continues.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

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Gang attacks Jewish homes in Stamford Hill, kicking front doors

A gang has allegedly been targeting the homes of Jewish residents of Stamford Hill by kicking their doors.

Residents of Hillside Road are said to have initially thought that the disturbances were caused by burglars until they realised that the attackers were only targeting Jewish homes.

Hate crime officers at the Metropolitan Police are now investigating the incidents after they 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 6992 20/04/22.

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.

Image credit: Google

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Jewish children attacked in Markfield Park in Stamford Hill

A gang of three teenagers allegedly attacked Jewish children playing in Markfield Park in Stamford Hill.

An eleven-year-old boy had his side-locks pulled in one of several incidents in the park. The alleged assailants were a mix of men and women and the women appeared to be dressed in religious Muslim attire.

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: CAD2810015/22.

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.

Image credit: Google

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Football fan fined and facing possible ban after performing Nazi salute towards Tottenham Hotspur supporters

A football fan has been fined and faces a ban after he was seen allegedly performing a Nazi salute, a court has heard.

Newcastle United fan Shay Asher, 24, admitted the racially aggravated offence of causing harassment during the team’s match against Tottenham Hotspur at Newcastle’s home ground, St James’s 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 fined £200, with £85 costs and a £34 surcharge and has been told to stay away from sporting venues in England and Wales as part of his bail conditions. Northumbria Police will reportedly apply for a football banning order.

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

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Local council candidate dropped by Conservatives allegedly still represents Party at hustings

A local council candidate who had his endorsement by the Conservatives revoked has allegedly gone on to represent the Party at a hustings.

Sham Raja, who was the Conservatives’ candidate in the Sedgley ward in Bury, was dropped by the Party on 12th April, after numerous historic and inflammatory social media posts were uncovered, including one allegedly comparing Israeli footballers to “assassins”.

However, it has been claimed that he appeared at a local hustings representing the Party on 23rd April, despite supposedly no longer being its candidate. He was reportedly filling in for Jason McLeod, who is a candidate for the Party in Levenshulme ward, which is not in Bury.

The claim comes as Conservatives in Bury face mounting scrutiny over the series of allegations of antisemitism and revelations of inflammatory past social media posts by some of its candidates.

Last year, a Conservative councillor in Bury who had the Party whip removed after he allegedly made antisemitic comments in a job interview was reinstated by the Party. Cllr Robert (Bob) Caserta was found to have breached the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Other Voting Representatives four times when he appeared before the Standards Sub-Committee over comments apparently made during an interview to recruit a senior officer at the Council in July 2019, when Cllr Caserta is alleged to have referred to “grot spots” in Sedgley and said that it would be difficult to communicate with residents “unless you are able to speak Hebrew”.

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.

Image credit: Google

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World’s largest cryptocurrency exchange removes custom promotional emoji after observers point out it looks like a swastika

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance was forced to retract and redesign a custom emoji after users on Twitter pointed out that it looked like a swastika.

Twitter is known to occasionally let brands make their own emojis to use in hashtags to promote their products and services. On this occasion, Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, created the emoji to promote their hashtags #Binance, #BNB, and #BitcoinButton.

The controversial Binance emoji was a block with the company’s logo surrounded by four pixelated arms bent at right angles. According to Twitter users, the result looked like a swastika.

Some users were also quick to point out that Binance chose to launch the emoji on 20th April, which is Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

Binance wrote on Twitter: “Well that was obviously really embarrassing. We’re not sure how that emoji got through several layers of review without anyone noticing, but we immediately flagged the issue, pulled it down, and the new emoji design is being rolled out as we speak.”

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Liverpool anti-racism festival omits antisemitism, prompting accusations of double standards

A Liverpool-based anti-racism festival has come under fire after it failed to plan any events or discussions about antisemitism.

Liverpool Against Racism consists of a series of cross-city events. There will be performances by musicians Rebecca Ferguson, The Christians and The Farm. A conference tackling racism is also set to take place with keynote speakers including historian David Olusoga, the BBC’s interim Head of Creative Diversity, Joanna Abeyie, and journalist Kevin Powell. In addition, teenagers will be asked to discuss issues to do with racism, stars will share their stories and give advice about how to tackle racial inequality, and there will be workshop events, including one that aims to deal with Liverpool’s role in the Atlantic slave trade.

However, the festival makes no mention of anti-Jewish racism in its promotional material or itinerary.

The Jewish former MP in the city, Dame Louise Ellman, has spoken out over the omission, saying: “I hope it is not the case that, as David Baddiel would say, ‘Jews don’t count.’”

A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “The aim of the Liverpool Against Racism event was to focus on anti-black racism, created as it was in the aftermath of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. However, involvement from all of our diverse communities was actively encouraged. Last December we proactively called out for organisations and groups to contact us and get involved. We had an amazing response…which has seen organisations across the city stage events to complement the Liverpool Against Racism programme.

“Following the call-out, we were contacted by representatives from the Jewish community and they were asked if they would like to be part of a panel event at the main conference. This offer was unfortunately not taken up. Mayor Joanne is incredibly proud of the Liverpool Against Racism programme and the fact that the city isn’t shying away from shining a spotlight on discrimination. We hope this inaugural event will pave the way for similar initiatives in the future and that more organisations, including Jewish groups, will join with us.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It appears to be increasingly axiomatic among so-called ‘anti-racists’ that prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people is not worthy of concern. Antisemitism is too often omitted from the agendas of diversity departments, the terms of reference of investigations into hate, and the itineraries of anti-racism events, to be a coincidence. The Jewish community sees this trend clearly, and we will continue to challenge it wherever it arises.”

David Baddiel appeared on a previous episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism.

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Prosecutors admit Islamist chant is antisemitic even as police reportedly fail to act against protestors who sing it

It has been reported that prosecutors have acknowledged that a popular Islamist chant that incites murder against Jews is indeed antisemitic, even as those who sing it go unpunished by the police.

“Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud” translated in English as “Jews, remember the battle of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning”. The “Khaybar” chant 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.

According to a report in the JC, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agrees that the chant, which apparently has the “official endorsement” of al-Qaeda Central (the Islamist terrorist organisation’s global hub) and was heard frequently during anti-Israel protests last May and often on university campuses, is antisemitic and violates section 18 of the Public Order Act (1986), which outlaws words and actions that intend to “stir up racial hatred”.

However, police have repeatedly failed to take action against those who sing the chant.

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 latest Antisemitism Barometer 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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Antisemitism still on display at quieter “Al Quds Day” parade in London this year

A smaller crowd than in the past attended this year’s “Al Quds Day” parade in central London on Sunday. Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit were present at the protest to gather evidence.

Although Hizballah flags were not being flown at the Iranian-backed event this year – after the genocidal terrorist organisation was banned in its entirety by the British Government in 2019 following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies – there were other causes for concern.

Chants included “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” The chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state — and its replacement with a State of Palestine — and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Another chant – “Judaism, yes, Zionism no, the State of Israel must go!” – made this objective plain.

Numerous signs declared that “Zionism is racism”, and an Israeli flag was burned by members of the fringe and controversial Neturei Karta group.

One participant also wore a shirt comparing Israel to Nazism, also in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Among the speakers was Mick Napier, the Secretary of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPCC) who regularly addresses the demonstration. In 2017, Mr Napier was found guilty of aggravated trespass at a protest outside a cosmetics store in Glasgow during the 2014 Gaza war. The SPCC has previously been exposed over many of its supporters’ extremely antisemitic views.

The “Al Quds Day” rallies are an Iranian-backed global event, but they have faced controversy over expressions of antisemitism and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Last year, for example, Berlin banned the parade from taking place, while footage of the protests this year in numerous German cities appeared to show participants shouting phrases like “Scheiße Jude!” (“S**tty Jew!”), “Drecksjude” (“dirty Jew”), and “Strike, oh Qassam, don’t let the Zionists sleep.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2020 showed that over eight in ten British Jews consider the threat from Islamists to be very serious.

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Following action by CAA, Solicitor General confirms he is referring Nicholas Nelson’s unduly lenient sentence for antisemitic harassment to Court of Appeal

Following action taken by Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Solicitor General has confirmed that he will refer Nicholas Nelson’s absurdly lenient sentence for antisemitic harassment to the Court of Appeal.

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 and came after he had committed several similar offences, we considered this sentence to be inexplicably lenient.

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.

We have now received confirmation from the Solicitor General that he is referring the case to the Court of Appeal.

Alex Chalk QC MP agreed that “the behaviour of Mr Nelson was truly appalling.”

Offering two reasons for his referral, Mr Chalk wrote: “First, it is arguable that the judge failed sufficiently to have regard to the fact this was multiple offending against three separate victims over a sustained period of time. Given there were three separate victims, the judge arguably ought to have imposed consecutive sentences.”

Providing his second reason, Mr Chalk said that “There were two features in this case that required an immediate custodial sentence,” the first being that “These were serious offences committed against multiple victims over a significant period of time. Given the nature of the offending, and Mr Nelson’s previous convictions, a significant deterrent element was required, together with appropriate punishment.” He also pointed out that “abuse, harassment and antisemitism online and on social media is a significant public issue and of real concern to the wider public.”

Mr Chalk added: “Secondly, Mr Nelson had a poor compliance history with court orders. The offending was committed in breach of two earlier suspended sentences. Such a disregard for the earlier orders of the court required punishment by way of immediate custody, notwithstanding any mitigation or progress made since those earlier sentences.”

The Solicitor General expressed his gratitude that Campaign Against Antisemitism brought this case to his attention. He has a record of referring unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal, including, recently, that of the neo-Nazi teenager Ben John, a review of whose sentence we also called for.

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 Oscar-nominated Jewish writer Lee Kern and hateful messages to communications strategist Joanne 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, the defendant, Nicholas Nelson, 32, was instead ordered 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.

Handing down the suspended sentence and referring to Mr Nelson’s “horrible tirades”, Judge Charles Gratwicke said that “Nobody sitting here in this courtroom who has read the newspaper can feel anything but revulsion, sickness and downright anger at the type of hate that you engaged in.” Nevertheless, he insisted that the defendant was “not the person you were two or three years ago.”

On the day of the sentencing, Mr Kern said: “I have noted the immediacy with which custodial sentences have been handed out for first time offenders who have engaged in other forms of racism. Yet here we have a repeat offender who has embarked upon an unparalleled campaign of hatred against Jews and has been spared prison again and again. Why are antisemitic hate crimes not deemed as criminal as those of other forms of racism? What exactly does it take for a person found guilty of repeated racially motivated crimes against Jews to actually go to prison? This is a disgrace and an embarrassment and sends a clear signal to Britain’s Jews that when it comes to receiving justice, they don’t count.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We are grateful that the Solicitor General has readily acceded to our request for a review of Nicholas Nelson’s absurdly lenient sentence. To all but let off a defendant who committed racist offences over a sustained period against multiple victims, apparently whilst serving suspended sentences for similar offences, is a staggering miscarriage of justice and mocks not only the direct victims of this campaign of harassment but the whole Jewish community and all those who suffer at the hands of online trolls. We hope that the Court of Appeal will impose a more fitting punishment on someone who has brought such harm to the targets of his racist bile.”

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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Jail for mosque leader who called for violent Jihad

A mosque leader who called for “Jihad by sword” while making a stabbing gesture and wearing a black top emblazoned with the words “Free Palestine, resistance is existence” has been jailed after being found guilty of intending to encourage terrorism.

Abu Bakr Deghayes’ twenty-minute sermon a congregation of around 50 at Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre in November 2021 was caught on CCTV. The audience reportedly included teenagers and young men in their twenties, as well as older members, and it is understood that several in the audience began to fidget as the speech went on, with some walking out.

The Old Bailey heard that Mr Deghayes, 53, from Saltdean, Sussex and originally from Libya, spoke in English and Arabic, urging the congregation to ignore the British Government and its Prevent programme. He is claimed to have said: “Allah is more powerful than you. You, idiots. You non-believers, idiots. Allah is more powerful than you. The non-believer…is an idiot; he’s stupid. Jihad is compulsory upon you, you, you and you until the Day of Resurrection, whatever the British Government thinks, whatever Prevent thinks, whatever Israel thinks.

“Send to the sea. They can go and drink from the sea, Allah curse their fathers, OK? Jihad, jihad, jihad! Jihad is compulsory. Jihad by fighting by sword that means this jihad is compulsory upon you, not jihad is the word of mouth but jihad will remain compulsory until the Day of Resurrection. And my livelihood is under the shadow of my spear.”

He added that anyone who did not like what he said was an enemy of Allah, declaring: “Go fight Allah! Go Fight Allah!”

Mr Deghayes, who denied wrongdoing, has been handed a sentence of four years’ imprisonment, plus a further year on licence.

Two of Mr Deghayes’ sons were killed fighting in Syria (a third died in a stabbing incident in Sussex). Abdul, who was reportedly involved with drugs and was murdered by a dealer in 2019 aged 22, was the twin brother of Abdullah, who was killed in 2016 fighting in Syria. Their brother Jaffar was killed in 2014 aged seventeen while fighting to overthrow the Syrian dictator, Bashas Al-Assad. Both were apparently fighting for the al Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front. Yet another son, Amer, is believed still to be fighting in Syria.

In 2017, a serious case review reportedly identified missed opportunities to prevent the sons from being radicalised, as well as noting failures to understand the role of religion in their lives. The report also alleged that Mr Deghayes would wake the boys up at 04:30 in the morning to study the Koran and would whip them with electrical wire.

The boys’ uncle, Omar Deghayes, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and spent five years in Guantanamo Bay.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2020 showed that over eight in ten British Jews consider the threat from Islamists to be very serious.

Image credit: Google and Sussex Police

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Following mental health assessment, man who allegedly punched Jewish men to the ground deemed unfit to give plea

During a court hearing that was held today for a man who was arrested after visibly Jewish men were punched to the ground in January, the defendant was deemed unfit to give his plea due to his mental ill health.

Police in Haringey arrested a man after two visibly Jewish men were viciously punched to the ground in Stamford Hill in January in an assault that was widely publicised. CCTV footage showed a man striking blows to the two Jewish men’s faces and bodies.

The victims, Israel Grossman and Erwin Ginsberg, were promptly treated by Hatzola, a volunteer-run emergency medical service, and were hospitalised. It is understood that one victim sustained severe bruising, a broken nose and a fractured wrist, while the other also suffered bruising and injuries to his wrist and eye.

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

Malaki Thorpe, 18, of Fairview Road N15, appeared in Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court shortly after the incident and was charged with two counts of racially aggravated ABH and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.

He was remanded in custody, and did not attend a hearing at Wood Green Crown Court in March, when the court determined that he was to undergo a mental health assessment to determine his fitness to stand trial.

Today, at the hearing in the same court, Mr Thorpe’s lawyer, David Lyons, stated that the defendant was unfit to plead as he was “suffering from psychotic illness”.

Mr Thorpe is currently remanded in custody and is awaiting transfer to Chase Farm Hospital to receive medical treatment. The court will reconvene in June for a case management hearing where, depending on a doctor’s assessment, Mr Thorpe may have an opportunity to state his plea. 

Mr Lyons also disclosed that there is no dispute that Mr Thorpe hit these men, but he requested that the court reconsider whether the racially motivated element is applicable, to which Judge Aaronberg responded that the comment had been noted.

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“Imagine my surprise, I found out the founder’s Jewish”: Florence Schechter speaks on the crossover between antisemitism and LGBTQ+ phobia

Florence Schechter, a comedian and presenter who is also the founding Director of the Vagina Museum, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where, speaking from first-hand experience, she provided an insight into the crossover between antisemitism and LGBTQ+ phobia.

“The Museum shared a post which was about International Women’s Day, and we were talking about some trans women from history,” Ms Schechter said, “and somebody replied to that post saying ‘Imagine my surprise, I found out the founder’s Jewish’, and there was this weird, like, ‘Look at the Jews, trying to destroy society.’”

Agreeing with an assertion made by Pink News’ CEO Benjamin Cohen, who appeared on Podcast Against Antisemitism in February, that antisemites also tend to be homophobic, racist, misogynistic and transphobic, Ms Schechter explained: “What’s really interesting is there’s a current narrative at the moment that in particular, trans people, but the LGBT community in general, are trying to control society and influence it, and I saw a tweet recently where somebody was like, ‘Isn’t it weird that this tiny minority of trans people have infiltrated all our big organisations and are changing the rules in their favour, isn’t that weird?’ And I was like, oh, that’s just an antisemitic argument wrapped up against trans people instead. 

“And because there’s this exact style of argument happening, I think there’s a lot of people who have the overlap of ‘Whose the person with the strings? It’s the Jews and it’s the queers.’”

Ms Schechter also revealed that she has also received large amounts of online antisemitism outside of Twitter. “On my YouTube videos, for a few of them, I had to shut off comments because people were making rape threats and death threats towards me because I was Jewish. I found myself listed on an antisemitic website once…I won’t name the website but it was a website that listed people who are a threat to white supremacy. 

“They had all these pages of all these famous people, Jews and non-Jews, who were a threat to white supremacy…it had links to my website, links to my Twitter so that people could find me really easily…it was really scary.”

The podcast with Ms Schechter 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, writer Eve Barlow and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Emptiness of Leeds University’s adoption of International Definition of Antisemitism laid bare as it fails to act over professor’s tweets

The emptiness of the University of Leeds’ adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism has been laid bare, after the institution failed to take any meaningful action against a professor with a record of tweets that breach the Definition.

Last year, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the University regarding Ray Bush, who was then a Professor of African Studies and Development Politics. Prof. Bush appeared to have tweeted from the Twitter handle “@raymondobush” a large number of tweets that breach the Definition. Prof. Bush’s profile page on the University’s website links to the offending Twitter handle.

There were three types of breaches.

First, the tweets stated that Israel’s existence itself is unacceptable, using the exact language of the Definition in referring to Jewish self-determination as “a racist endeavour”. The Definition states that “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic. This claim was repeated on numerous occasions:

  • “#DefyIHRA the state of #Israel is a #racist endeavour” 
  • “#defyIHRA the state of Israel is a racist endeavour. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is a threat to free expression | Ash Sarkar https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/”
  • “#racistendeavour #warcrimes #Israel join the dots and understand why Israel is a zionist entity and settler colonial regime that exists solely because of US money and European guilt. #endtheoccupation”
  • “#Labourparty #NEC big mistake with #IHRA #Israel is a racist endeavour and what about other discrimination? Is NEC recognising defined discrimination and racism of #BAME ? #Corbyn got outflanked by #Zionists time to recalibrate and take offensive against occupation of #Palestine”
  • “So, @Keir_Starmer prefers a #LabourParty without @RLong_Bailey. Shane [sic] on him and all the other #labourparty members failing to recognise #zionism as a pernicious #racist ideology promoted by zealots to dehumanise #Palestinians” 
  • “So it continues, use an anti Semite smear, stop progressive politics #Zionism is #racism amongst other things ….”
  • “Of course @MarkSerwotka is right #Israel #hasbara #zionism #racism”

Second, the tweets breached the Definition by comparing Israelis and Zionists to Nazis. According to the Definition: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. For example, the following was tweeted:

  • “Does it take a nazi to recognise a #nazi #Israel #racism ?”
  • “#nazi-zionistalliance #zionism #settlercolonialism hold onto power whoever you align with”

Third, the tweets contravened the Definition by claiming that concerns about institutional antisemitism in the Labour Party, which were vindicated by the report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, were due to a campaign run by the “Israeli embassy.” The tweets thus supported one of the oldest tropes used to justify acts of antisemitism: the discredited myth of a Jewish conspiracy in which Jews are disloyal and act as a fifth column against the interests of their home countries. The Definition states that: “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic. This was done in tweets including:

  • “The reason they hate Corbyn of course is because he is anti #Zionist and the antisemitic campaign is ran by the #Israeli embassy among others
  • “Always rely on @guardian to get it right on #antisemitism thanks for all your help demonising #Corbyn and #Labour the #Israeli embassy will be delighted. Who is next in your mediocre target?”

The University acknowledged receipt of our letter and pledged to revert to us, but not only did the institution fail to do so, but there is no evidence that any investigation into Prof. Bush and the Twitter account bearing his name ever took place. In the meantime, Prof. Bush has retired, and now holds the prestigious position of Emeritus Professor of African Studies and Development Politics, which means that he is still connected to the University. Indeed, his profile page on the University’s website links to his offending Twitter account.

Neither the University of Leeds nor Prof. Bush responded to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We have always been clear that adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism is only a first step. What is vital is that universities actually apply the Definition when allegations of antisemitism arise. In this case, not only has the University of Leeds apparently failed to do so, but there is no indication that it launched any investigation at all. Instead, it has allowed Ray Bush to retire quietly and assume the prestigious position of emeritus professor, while continuing to advertise the offending Twitter account on its website.

“These tweets are clearly in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. Anyone airing and disseminating dangerous antisemitic views is not fit to be entrusted with the responsibility of teaching young people. For this reason, it was important for the matter to be properly investigated and for consequences to follow. Leeds missed this opportunity to demonstrate that it takes the safety of its Jewish students seriously. Now, the University must explain why it failed to take action.”

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 campus@antisemitism.org.

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Incoming NUS President insists it’s “absolutely not true” that “I don’t like Jewish people,” but says “as a black Muslim woman, it is something that I expected”

The incoming President of the National Union of Students (NUS) has again stirred controversy, claiming in an interview published today that, although 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.”

Shaima Dallali’s comments were reported in The Guardian, which interviewed the union’s already embattled President-elect.

Last week, NUS announced that it was launching an independent investigation into antisemitism, including allegations facing Ms Dallali. Ms Dallali, 27, told the newspaper that “The investigation is the right thing to do,” adding: “I know quite a few Jewish students feel alienated. This is the first step to start bridging the gap and reaching out to Jewish students and ensuring that Jewish students feel like they have a place in NUS, so I do welcome it.”

Ms Dallali, who has a history of inflammatory tweets, including one for which she apologised, reportedly compared herself to a notorious former NUS President, Malia Bouattia. According to the newspaper, Ms Dallali said that “the backlash against her election was part of pattern, seen with previous student leaders including Malia Bouattia, who in 2016 became the first black Muslim woman to become NUS president.”

“Unfortunately, as a black Muslim woman, it is something that I expected because I’ve seen it happen to other black Muslim women when they take up positions in the student union or the NUS, where they are attacked based on their political beliefs or their pro-Palestinian stance,” Ms Dallali said.

She also claimed that she had received a lot of racist and anti-Muslim abuse online: “I’ve had private messages of people calling me a raghead, people telling me to go and kill myself, calling me a Jew hater and an antisemite. That has been difficult to read. And so many threats as well – if I continue to do this then things will happen to me. I just try to delete, to block, I try not to let it get to my head. It’s something I receive every day and I’m continuing to receive. It’s affected me mentally and physically. Sometimes I don’t feel safe.”

Ms Bouattia was also investigated by NUS during her tenure and found to have made antisemitic statements, but no action was taken against her in what was one of many instances of the union appearing to brush racism against Jews under the carpet.

During her election campaign, Ms Dallali, who will assume her position as President in July, 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. She also had a history of other inflammatory tweets, and last week, it also emerged that Ms Dallali had been in a group shouting aggressively at Jewish students attending an Israel Society event at King’s College London in 2018, at which it was reported that the “Khaybar” chant was heard.

Ms Dallali reportedly told The Guardian that, as the newspaper put it, “Muslims were not allowed room for growth.” She said: “It genuinely is really difficult to have to see these horrible things being said about me. They are not true. This idea that I don’t like Jewish people, or I’m hateful towards the Jewish community is absolutely not true. During my time as a sabbatical officer, I’ve worked with the Jewish community to support them, for example to commemorate Holocaust memorial day. My door has always been open to all students regardless of who they are. I want to reiterate my willingness to work with Jewish students to combat antisemitism, to address their concerns. I want to represent all students and their concerns are important. I may at times disagree with people politically. Everyone has the right to have their own political ideas, but I don’t hate anyone. I definitely don’t hate the Jewish community. I do believe I can bridge the gap and build bridges.”

NUS’s announcement of an investigation into antisemitism 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 Universities Minister also called for an investigation into NUS by the Charity Commission, and it has been further suggested that the Government’s grant to NUS should be withdrawn, and that the Government should cease to recognise NUS as the voice of British students, if concerns over antisemitism are not addressed.

It has also been reported that the Department for Education is looking at its relationship with NUS and at its charitable status, after Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi reportedly accused the union of “systemic antisemitism”.

The calls came following revelations about Ms Dallali and the recent Lowkey scandal, where Jewish concerns were reportedly brushed aside as the controversial rapper and activist was invited to headline the union’s centenary conference. He eventually withdrew as NUS came under media pressure.

After the circulation of the letter by former NUS Presidents, another letter has reportedly been published in support of Ms Dallali and calling for a simultaneous NUS investigation into Islamophobia and racist, as well as antisemitism.

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

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Over two hundred signatories endorse letter to Nicola Sturgeon calling for clarity on whether Scottish Green ministers back International Definition of Antisemitism

Over 200 Scots have signed a letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in connection with the lack of clarity over whether the two Scottish Green ministers in her Government endorse the International Definition of Antisemitism or not.

Ms Sturgeon, who is the leader of the SNP, has repeatedly stated that all members of the Scottish Government must endorse the Definition as a prerequisite for being part of her devolved administration. However, it remains to be clarified whether or not Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater of the Scottish Greens, which has yet to adopt the Definition but on whose support Ms Sturgeon’s Government depends, support the Definition of not.

In response to these revelations, Sammy Stein, a founder member of the Scottish National Party’s Friends for Peace in the Middle East and Chair of Glasgow Friends of Israel, wrote a letter to Ms Sturgeon which has so far received 213 signatures.

The letter reads: “I was disappointed that you did not provide a clear answer to the matter of the two Scottish Green ministers as, to the best of my knowledge, neither of them has signed up to the IHRA [international] Definition of Antisemitism. I would thank you on behalf of the Scottish Jewish community for continuing to support the IHRA Definition and your strong stance against antisemitism. You have also made your position abundantly clear by stating that ‘I do speak for and am accountable for all the members of my Government, which is a signatory to the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, and every minister before being appointed to my Government has to be clear that they sign up to and accept it. That includes the two Green Party members. It is my understanding however that with regards to your statement above, neither of the Green Party ministers has as yet signed up to the IHRA Definition despite the fact that they were invited by you to join the Government in August 2021. It would be helpful to know if this is correct and if it is, how is it possible that the two Green Party ministers were appointed to your Government BEFORE they signed up to the IHRA Definition.

“I would be grateful if you can advise the steps you plan to take in order to ensure that these two ministers comply with your guidance and how long it may be before you consider the appropriate steps to exclude them from your Government. I would suggest that this is a matter by which your commitment to continuing to actively support your stance against racism in general and antisemitism, in particular, will be judged and I do hope and expect that you will stay true to your publicly stated position.”

Mr Stein said: “There appears to be a clear discrepancy between what Nicola Sturgeon says about combating antisemitism and waht she decides to do about it. I believe she is very sincere in her support for adopting the IHRA definition, but she is clearly concerned about upsetting the Greens and losing control of her majority in Parliament. The fact that so many people felt compelled to sign this letter shows the strength of feeling within the community and I hope she takes notice of this and resolves this matter.”

Ms Sturgeon recently addressed a gathering of Scottish Jews, reiterating her Government’s commitment to the Definition but coming under pressure over the position of the Scottish Greens.

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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Cloned children’s game, Club Penguin Rewritten, becomes hotbed of antisemitic abuse

Three people have been arrested over their alleged involvement in an unofficial version of the Disney game Club Penguin, after users were said to be exchanging messages full of antisemitic abuse.

City of London police say that they detained the trio for alleged copyright offences in connection with their role in running ‘Club Penguin Rewritten’. The suspects have been released on bail.

The arrests come two years after the BBC launched an investigation into another unauthorised clone of the popular children’s game, where users also exchanged antisemitic material.

The original, authorised Club Penguin was launched in 2005 as one of the first social networks aimed at children. During the peak of its popularity, the Disney platform had over 200 million users. Anybody was free to join, but content filters and human moderators prevented any inappropriate material from being shared.

Disney closed the website in 2017, after which unofficial fan-operated clones were launched using stolen or copied source code. Such clones became increasingly popular during pandemic lockdowns.

In a BBC video explaining the earlier scandal, users were shown writing things like “due to all my fans and support I will be ***** the jews [sic]”.

Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police, confirmed the seizure of the site and arrests. He said: “Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site. Three people were arrested on 12th April on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright, and searches were carried out.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms.

Image credit: YouTube screenshot

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Jewish children reportedly assaulted and stolen from by teenage gang in Stamford Hill

Jewish children have been abused and stolen from by teenagers in Stamford Hill according to two reported incidents.

In one such incident, teenagers reportedly broke into a block of flats where they found children between the ages of four and six playing amongst themselves before pouring water on them and proceeding to steal their toys. It has been alleged that the teenagers also stole other residents’ belongings from the communal area of the building. 

The assailants were believed to have been a mixture of young men and women and video footage appears to show two people running out of the building.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 1809 13/04/22

In a separate incident, the same gang of teenagers is believed to have assaulted an eleven-year-old and one-year-old baby in a play area. The perpetrators, who were said to have been young-looking women of Black ethnicity, reportedly poured yoghurt over the infant and buggy and threw ice lollies at them whilst hurling verbal abuse.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 2621 13/04/22

Additional CCTV appears to show, in a third incident, a Jewish-owned shop where the premises have been vandalised, reportedly by the same assailants behind the previous incidents.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 3374 13/04/22

All three incidents took place last week in Stamford Hill and 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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Labour Party candidate in Vale of Glamorgan suspended after referring to Ukrainian President as a “Zionist” and “fascist”

The Labour Party has suspended a candidate in the upcoming local elections after he reportedly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, as a “Zionist”, questioning why he had so much support.

Ziad Alsayed, a candidate for the Baruc ward in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, allegedly wrote the tweet in Arabic on 26th February, saying “How could we side with a country that has a Zionist president?” He has since deleted the tweet.

Alun Cairns, Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, expressed his concern about another tweet written by Mr Alsayed, in which the Labour candidate calls Mr Zelenskyy a “fascist”. Mr Alsayed is understood to have responded to an expression of solidarity for Ukraine written by London Mayor Sadiq Khan with the words: “If you mean the Ukrainian people that’s OK, but not the fascist president.”

Although the Labour Party has suspended Mr Alsayed pending an investigation, he will remain on the ballot for the election, nominally as the Party’s candidate, because nominations have already closed.

A spokesperson for Labour 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 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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Scrutiny mounts over alleged antisemitism and other concerning claims among Bury Conservatives

Scrutiny is mounting over numerous allegations of antisemitism and other concerning claims among Conservatives in Bury.

Shaf Mahmood, who was due to stand as a Conservative candidate in the Redvales ward, saw his endorsement from the Party reportedly revoked last week after it emerged that he has tweeted, in 2017, that “Jews r at it again”. According to a report in the Jewish News, Mr Mahmood, who had backed George Galloway’s Workers’ Party in the Batley and Spen by-election last year, had allegedly also shared a social media post which labelled Sir Keir Starmer a “Zionist”.

That revocation came a day after another Conservative candidate, Sham Raja, who was the Conservatives’ candidate in the Sedgley ward, was also dropped after numerous historic and inflammatory social media posts were uncovered, including one allegedly comparing Israeli footballers to “assassins”. The tweets were reported in the Jewish Telegraph.

Another Conservative, Shahbaz Mahmood Arif, the candidate for Bury West, reportedly shared an inflammatory article from the controversial far-left website, The Canary. He had been selected by the local party after a young Jewish councillor had been – apparently inexplicably – deselected a few weeks ago. Another prospective Conservative candidate who was unsuccessful in his bid for selection feared that he was blocked due to his sympathies for the Jewish community and pro-Israel views, which Bury Conservatives denied.

Concerns have also been raised about Mazhar Aslam, another Conservative candidate in Sedgley, over his social media activity.

In a statement, Bury Conservatives said: “Following certain social media posts being brought to our attention yesterday made by two of the candidates for Sedgley Ward the Association has investigated the matter and spoken to both candidates. Mr. Sham Raja no longer has the endorsement of Bury Conservative Party in this election. Mr Mazhar Aslam continues to be a Conservative Candidate. His explanation was that the single post complained of was not antisemitic in nature although he understood some would not agree with the contents of his post.  He apologised and undertook to be more careful with the use of his language in this sensitive area in the future. His explanation and apology were accepted. We also wish to make clear that Dr Shadman Zaman was not confirmed as a Besses Ward candidate because of his failure to comply with instructions regarding electoral law and Party guidance and not because of any of his expressed views.”

Nick Jones, the leader of Bury Conservatives, said: “I am appalled at such ignorance regarding the State of Israel and I have asked the Conservative Association to investigate these matters immediately. As a Party we accept different views but it’s how these views expressed when the line is crossed is our challenge and investigation must be robust. As these statements have come to the attention of the association, I welcome that they have been dealt with robustly and on the day of them arising. The Conservative Council Group on Bury Council are friends of Israel and we fully support the IHRA [International] Definition of Antisemitism.”

Last year, a Conservative councillor in Bury who had the Party whip removed after he allegedly made antisemitic comments in a job interview was reinstated by the Party. Cllr Robert (Bob) Caserta was found to have breached the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Other Voting Representatives four times when he appeared before the Standards Sub-Committee over comments apparently made during an interview to recruit a senior officer at the Council in July 2019, when Cllr Caserta is alleged to have referred to “grot spots” in Sedgley and said that it would be difficult to communicate with residents “unless you are able to speak Hebrew”.

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.

Image credit: Google

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.

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