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Six months.

This weekend marked the six-month anniversary of the 7th October atrocity, the bloodiest day in Israel’s history and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

In the wake of the attack, as Israelis and Jewish communities worldwide grappled with the trauma, a distressing contrast emerged: while grief and shock engulfed many, expressions of support for Hamas erupted in various forms of jubilation and celebration across the globe, some within hours of the massacre.

Some chose to turn a blind eye to the atrocities.

Others attempted to rationalise the unjustifiable.

And, shockingly, some even found inspiration in this heinous act.

For the Jewish people, with hostages still in captivity and justification, glorification and celebration of antisemitic terrorism still ongoing around the world, October 7 is 24/7.

Al Quds Day: a tale of two cities

Every year, on the last Friday of Ramadan, the Al Quds Day march takes place in cities around the world, including in London. Since it was established in Iran in 1979, following the Islamic Revolution, Al Quds Day marches are displays of support for the antisemitic Islamist theocracy that rules Iran, kills its opponents and supports Jew-hating terrorist groups across the world, and for its terror proxies.

In the UK, for example, participants in the marches used to fly Hizballah flags and hold placards stating “We are all Hizballah”, until we and others secured the proscription of Hizballah.

In the days prior to this year’s march, which took place on Friday, the organisers had the audacity to complain about occasional arrests at recent anti-Israel marches in London notwithstanding that their own march was in support of a foreign regime that murders protesters.

Our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit was present at the march on Friday. What they saw was predictably despicable, including a woman screaming “Zio-Nazis” at people, flyers emblazoned with Hitler’s face, and more.

As the march proceeded, what became clear was that London on Al Quds Day was a tale of two cities: the hateful marchers in one tale, and, in the other, our digital van displaying the images of hostages and peaceful counter-protesters, some of whom were wearing our “Hamas are terrorists” hoodies.

The Met Police posted on social media that they had identified particular placards that appeared to incite violence in a vehicle that they had proactively stopped near the starting point of the march. “As a result,” they triumphantly declared, “we don’t believe they have been distributed.” Still, they were firm: “Should they be displayed in the crowd, action will be taken.”

But after so many months of policing-by-tweet, it should come as no surprise that our volunteers observed plenty of these placards on display during the march, very often within the sight of police officers. To our knowledge, no action appeared to be taken. This was just the latest example of questionable policing.

The week before, during the anti-Israel demonstration on Easter weekend, a woman reported a placard featuring a swastika to a police officer, who appeared to try to explain that the meaning of a swastika would depend on the context, in echoes of Met Police policy on other antisemitic rhetoric.

Apparently the context of an anti-Israel demonstration rife with analogies of Israel to Nazis and other antisemitic signs, calls for violent intifada, support for Houthi attacks on British vessels and glorification of Hamas terrorism, was not clear enough context of what a swastika might portend.

The Met claimed that it arrested someone in relation to this incident. If so, it raises even more questions about why the police reflexively make excuses instead of taking action in real time.

Extremism in the UK: we want to hear from you

If you could poll the British public on antisemitism or extremism, what questions would you ask?

Click here to let us know.

It is time for Sir Alan Duncan to be expelled

Sir Alan Duncan, the former Conservative MP and Minister, and a particularly unpopular figure in the Jewish community, suggested in an interview on LBC that certain peers in the House of Lords are working for Israel, invoking classic tropes of Jewish power and disloyalty. He later went on to victim-blame Israel for the 7th October Hamas attack.

This is not the first time that he has made accusations of parliamentarians being controlled by Israel. But we believe that it should be the last time that he does so as a member of the Conservative Party.

We called on the Party to investigate, which they have announced that they are now doing. He is not the only Conservative figure that we have been following recently.

We also called for the whip finally to be withdrawn from Baroness Warsi, after she spoke at a Muslim Council of Britain event with Ghada Karmi. The MCB is a controversial group, and Dr Karmi has previously said: “What you saw on October 7th was breaking out from the cage of Gaza by a resistance movement.” Dr Karmi also previously told George Galloway on Al Mayadeen television: “It’s wonderful really and admirable that the Hamas fighters exploded this whole rotten structure.”

We called in addition for the suspension by the Labour Party of another attendee, Afzal Khan MP, of “mass murdering Rothschilds Israeli mafia criminal liars” infamy.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Azmat Husain, the Chairman of the Salford Conservative Federation and the Conservative candidate for Eccles in Salford in the May elections, has withdrawn his candidacy after a Facebook post emerged in which he appears to have written “Jew pigs”. He had claimed that the post was fake.

This is not the first time that there have been serious concerns relating to antisemitism within local Conservative associations in Manchester. The Party has yet to investigate transparently.

We also exposed the social media history of the independent MP, Angus MacNeil, who used to sit with the SNP.

Furthermore, we called out the crossbench peer Lord Bird for saying in a debate in the House of Lords that “The amount of antisemitism you see around the world is because of the fact that Israel is not thinking about the next five or ten years but is only thinking immediately.”

No, Lord Bird, the amount of antisemitism that we are seeing is not because of the Jews or their state. It is because there are antisemites.

The effect of antisemitism on British Jews

Our two-week nationwide billboard campaign spotlighting what it is like to be Jewish in Britain today has concluded. On the billboards, online and on our digital van, we highlighted a number of scenarios to give viewers pause, including:

  • “How would you explain guards outside your child’s nursery?”
  • “Imagine your family feeling unsafe every time they leave their place of worship.”
  • “Do you know how it feels to hide your school blazer so you won’t be attacked?”

Thank you to all of you who have got in touch about the campaign. To quote just one response from Glasgow: “I saw an ad about your campaign in Glasgow today at Finnieston Quay and I wanted to get in touch to say that it really spoke to me. I have been appalled by what I have been reading about antisemitism in the UK. The words on the billboard about guards at nurseries and abuse at a football stadium were really powerful. I hope it helps to make a difference.”

So do we.

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Last December we began discussions with Great Ormond Street Hospital, at the initiative of members of their staff, about providing antisemitism training. This is the same training that we have delivered for years to other NHS trusts, police forces, industry regulators, academic institutions, local authorities and others.

Discussions were proceeding smoothly until approximately six weeks ago, when we were informed that the Hospital’s Muslim Network had expressed concerns about Campaign Against Antisemitism as a provider. We addressed in writing the issues that were raised and offered to meet with the relevant members of staff, with a view to hearing and allaying any concerns.

Unfortunately, the offer was ignored and, apparently without regard for the views of its Jewish staff, the Hospital decided that the Muslim Network should have a veto in relation to antisemitism training, and withdrew from the discussions.

The Hospital assured us that it will still be arranging the provision of antisemitism training, but with a different provider. We replied to the Hospital to say that that is acceptable to us, provided that it uses a reputable trainer that will not compromise on the material to appease anyone at the Hospital who may be ideologically opposed to learning about certain contemporary manifestations of antisemitism.

The Hospital not only failed to provide us with this assurance, but has not responded to us at all for several weeks.

We continued to await contact from the Hospital, but in view of the length of time since our last correspondence, we had no choice but to make this public last week.

If non-Jewish staff at institutions are given a veto over the delivery or content of antisemitism training, such an institution simply cannot be said to be upholding its commitment to equality and diversity. Jewish people and the racism that they suffer cannot be ignored. That is itself antisemitic.

After we revealed the incident, the Hospital released a statement that was wholly unsatisfactory, and we have submitted a Freedom of Information request in order to release more information.

In addition to the victims whom we are assisting and other incidents that we are responding to, here are some of our other high-profile recent cases:

  • We submitted complaints to Ofcom about Matthew Wright for comments on two LBC programmes.
  • We wrote a letter to the Scottish Funding Council regarding the election of Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah as Rector of the University of Glasgow.
  • We called on UK Border Force to suspend officers involved in potential mistreatment of Israeli survivors of 7th October visiting the UK.
  • We publicised appalling footage from the Refectory at Goldsmiths, which is also midway through an inquiry, to which we have contributed, regarding antisemitism on its campus.
  • We reported a man appearing to make serious threats in a TikTok video to Counter-Terrorism Police, and were in touch with the victim.

It has been six months.

Six months of war. Six months of hostages in captivity. Six months of weekly anti-Israel protests and antisemitic rhetoric on our streets. Six months of surging antisemitism — on campuses and online, in workplaces and in our public life. Six months of police failures.

But we are resolute, and we will continue to fight for justice for the Jewish community, no matter how many more months or years it takes.

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What is the real everyday impact of antisemitism on British Jews?

Following 7th October, the Metropolitan Police Service reported a 1,350% increase in hate crimes against Jewish people. This statistic is incredibly alarming, but on its own it does not paint the full picture of what the effect of this surge in antisemitism is on British Jews.

That is why Campaign Against Antisemitism has today launched a nationwide billboard campaign spotlighting what it is like to be Jewish in Britain right now, and showing how the impact of that antisemitism penetrates the daily life of British Jews of all ages.

Kindergartens with guards, Jewish schools discouraging their pupils from wearing blazers with a Jewish school crest, university students afraid to reveal their religion, football stadiums full of people invoking the Nazi gas chambers, and intimidation outside synagogues.

We have chosen a sample of the real-life everyday effects of antisemitism on British Jews.

At a time when 69% of British Jews say that they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism, it is important now, more than ever, that the British public is informed about the extent of the scandal of antisemitism in Britain.

Let everyone know that Hamas are terrorists

On 9th March, Niyak Ghorbani held a sign condemning Hamas as a terror organisation next to an anti-Israel demonstration in London. Footage appears to show that he was abused by protesters and potentially assaulted.

The police did not arrest those who were furious that he was pointing out that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Instead, a phalanx of officers pulled him to the ground and violently arrested him, as he shouted “shame on you!” Police snatched, scrunched up and confiscated his accurate and perfectly legal sign which, from the footage, appears to be exactly what the protesters had sought to do. Mr Ghorbani was injured and required hospital treatment for a wound.

We provided Mr Ghorbani with assistance, including arranging legal representation, and we are pleased to announce that the outrageous charges brought against him have been dropped and the case is now closed.

The police are now, rightly, seeking the man who is on video appearing to assault Mr Ghorbani. If you have any information, please contact us at [email protected].

In the meantime, our lawyers are continuing to examine legal options in relation to the unacceptable police response to Mr Ghorbani’s lawful exercise of his free speech rights.

Policing of these weekly anti-Israel demonstrations is a shambles. Mr Ghorbani’s case – where an innocent man was arrested while potential criminals continued on their way – is a scandal. We will do everything in our power to force the Met Police to change course and finally start punishing criminality and extremism.

Mr Ghorbani was accosted and then arrested, all because he was trying to point out that, under UK law, Hamas is a terrorist organisation. So when the police censored him, we decided to amplify his message.

We created t-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with the same message, which we have made available for sale. Many of you have already bought them, wearing them to protests and posting pictures on social media.

We also enlisted our digital van to help spread the message, driving it to the very location where Mr Ghorbani was wrongly arrested.

It is a sad reflection of the times we live in when it has become controversial to promulgate the simple moral and legal truth that Hamas are terrorists.

Broadcasters must call Hamas terrorists too

This week, the BBC called the terror attack in Moscow, for which ISIS took responsibility, a “terror attack”. Perhaps realising that this might mean that the broadcaster would also have to call the Hamas terror attack, which was the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, a “terror attack”, the description of the Moscow attack was quickly deleted. This is not the first time that the BBC has done this.

The broadcaster’s refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists – and its increasingly comical efforts not to be called out for hypocrisy by calling other terrorist groups by their name – is, at best, a failure to live up to its own principles of accuracy, impartiality and fairness. That is why it is so important to have our voices heard.

Our Parliamentary Petition calling for terrorism legislation to be amended to require all broadcasters regulated by Ofcom to describe all terrorist organisations proscribed in the UK and their operatives as “terrorists” and not by any other descriptor, has been signed by over 10,000 of your so far, from almost every constituency in the UK. That means that the Government must now consider and respond to the proposal.

With 100,000 signatures, the topic will be considered for debate in Parliament. Please help us to right this wrong and urge lawmakers to act to ensure that television and radio audiences get the real facts in the news that they consume.

How many people in Britain sympathise with Hamas?

New polling has found that there are over 2.5 million Hamas sympathisers currently in Britain (4% of the British population). Almost a further 17 million (26%) “don’t know” if they sympathise with Hamas.

The figures are worst amongst the young. For example, one in ten of those aged 18-24 say that they hold a favourable view of Hamas.

The polling also shows that over three million Britons (5%) want all Jewish presence in the Middle East eliminated through mass expulsion, and the same number say that the 7th October atrocity was “justified”.

Terrorists pose a threat not only to British Jews, but to the entirety of British society. The approaches tried so far by our Government and police forces have not worked. The radicalisation of our country, and particularly our youth, poses a grave danger to the whole United Kingdom.

We hope that those celebrating had a joyous Purim

With antisemitism surging in the UK, war in Israel and hostages still trapped in Gaza, the story of Purim and the power to overcome genocidal hatred of Jews is as relevant as ever.

We hope that, circumstances notwithstanding, those who were celebrating this Jewish holiday had a joyous weekend.

Those protesting on our streets and our national broadcasters must be reminded that Hamas are terrorists — and they cannot be allowed to hide away from that fact. Whether by exposing the failures and hypocrisies of our public institutions, making apparel available, or by changing the law, we will continue to find innovative and effective ways to spread that vital message.

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Making antisemitism front page news

This week, Campaign Against Antisemitism brought antisemitism to the forefront of our nation’s mainstream media coverage.

Many of you will have seen the Evening Standard’s front page on Tuesday, titled, “London’s antisemitism shame”.

As our Chief Executive told the newspaper: “It’s the biggest untold story, the impact mass intimidation is having on Jewish families. The cumulative effect is pretty devastating…This is not the tolerant Britain that we cherish — it is a Britain succumbing to a racist mob.”

Now more than ever, antisemitism is at the forefront of our minds in the Jewish community. This is why we are working tirelessly to ensure that victims’ stories are told and that the British public comes to understand how antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue, but a national one. With our streets taken over by a mob every week, our politicians threatened and inept police leadership, our country is in crisis.

Reacting fast to injustice

Yesterday, a man was violently arrested by police in London for carrying a sign stating that under UK law, Hamas is considered to be a terrorist organisation. We are reviewing all of the footage available in relation to this incident.

The police response appears to have been not only outrageous and disproportionate but potentially legally actionable.

For a phalanx of police officers to violently arrest a man who was verbally and physically attacked for observing that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group while taking no action against his assailants is a breathtaking inversion of the law.

Not only are the police failing to enforce the law but they appear to be punishing those who are daring to point out what the law is. We are in touch with the victim and our lawyers are examining options.

What is the law?

Over the last ten days, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated in no uncertain terms that he believes that calling for violent Jihad or the eradication of the Jewish state, or projecting antisemitic tropes like “From the River to the Sea” onto Big Ben are unacceptable criminal offences.

It was a categorical rebuke of how the Metropolitan Police has approached the regular anti-Israel protests, making excuses instead of arrests. Yesterday was yet another example.

That is why only 16% of British Jews believe that the police treat antisemitic hate crime like other forms of hate crime.

In response, Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, rejected the Prime Minister’s assertions, doubling down on the excuses that he has made for police inaction for almost half a year now. The result is a lack of clarity on the law of the land. The Government says one thing, and the police say another.

Accordingly, we have written to Sir Mark, observing that “You have the distinction of presiding over the worst surge in antisemitic criminality in our capital city since records began,” and calling for clarity: “It is vital that the conflicting publicly stated positions of the British Government and the Metropolitan Police are reconciled.”

Jewish journalists resign from National Union of Journalists

On Tuesday, we broke the news that in recent months six Jewish journalists have resigned from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the largest trade unions for journalists in Britain, owing to its alleged bias against the Jewish state and the impact that that is having on its Jewish members.

Those who spoke to us have told us that there is a culture in the NUJ that leaves its Jewish members feeling ostracised.

Jewish former NUJ members have told us of rhetoric in official e-mails from the union to its members, the sorts of events being held by the union and comments from other members.

One of the journalists who left told us that they don’t “feel safe being in a union which takes no interest in the concerns of Jewish journalists.”

Another journalist said: “They’ve created a divide. It’s like them versus us.”

When one of the largest trade unions for journalists is endorsing people who have engaged in antisemitism-denial and made comparisons between the Nazis and Israel, what message is this sending its Jewish members?

The NUJ has clearly failed its Jewish members and must urgently explain how it will regain their trust.

We are offering free legal representation to any NUJ members affected by anti-Jewish racism. Anyone affected can contact us at [email protected].

The need for our work is more urgent than ever before

The 7th October massacre changed everything, and it’s clear that the fight against antisemitism is more urgent than ever before.

We have been working tirelessly to combat antisemitism in all its forms, but we can’t do it without you.

If you are one of our supporters who already have a direct debit with us or donate regularly to support our work, thank you.

Here is just a small, varied selection of some of the work that your support has already enabled us to do in recent months:

  • After Jewish audience members were allegedly hounded out of Soho Theatre by comedian Paul Currie, we have been supporting the victims and secured a pledge by the theatre to ban him from returning to the venue. This is just one example of the cases that we are working on and the victims whom we are assisting.
  • The rallies and marches that we have organised or co-sponsored have cast a spotlight on the Met Police and BBC, empowered Jews and allies to march through London, and raised awareness of the hostages being held by Hamas – a goal to which our billboards and digital vans have also contributed.
  • Our expert opinion helped ensure that a solicitor accused of antisemitic conduct has been struck off; our efforts brought about the rapper Wiley’s forfeiture of his MBE; our calls led to a judge being scrutinised over potential bias in a case relating to anti-Israel protesters; we helped bring about a humiliation for Ken Livingstone in court; and more. We continue to process scores of criminal, regulatory and other cases.
  • Our in-depth polling has revealed that nearly 70% of British Jews say that they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism right now, and that almost one fifth of the British public believes that Israel can get away with anything because its supporters “control the media”.
  • Following our ground-breaking exposé of rockstar Roger Waters, Germany-based music rights company BMG reportedly ended its relationship with the former Pink Floyd member.

We can only continue to do this vital work with your support.

By signing up for a direct debit today, you can ensure that we have the reliable funding needed to bring antisemitism to the forefront of British media. Direct debits offer a stable and efficient way for donors to support our cause, allowing more of your donation to directly fund our programmes and initiatives.

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“It’s like them versus us”: Six Jewish members resign from National Union of Journalists citing intimidation and anti-Israel bias

Campaign Against Antisemitism has spoken to Jewish members who have resigned from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the largest trade unions for journalists in Britain, in recent months owing to its alleged anti-Israel bias.

We are aware of at least six Jewish members who have handed in their NUJ cards since 7th October. Those who spoke to us have told us that there is an anti-Israel bias in the Union, leading to a culture that leaves its Jewish members feeling ostracised. 

Jewish former NUJ members have told us that the environment at the Union is influenced by rhetoric in official e-mails from the Union to its members, the nature of events held by the Union, and comments from other members.

In an e-mail sent to members on 20th November, the Union urged members to donate to a campaign to help journalists in Gaza, fronted by Nasser Abu Bakr, President of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. This came to the dismay of Rebecca (the names of those who spoke to us have been changed to protect their anonymity), a Jewish former NUJ member, owing to the fact that Mr Abu Bakr was fired by the French press agency Agence France-Presse due to a conflict of interest arising from his work as an activist for the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah Party. The Party has reportedly bragged about taking part in the 7th October terrorist atrocities, but there is no indication that Mr Abu Bakr backed the atrocities.  

Mr Abu Bakr is also reported to have made comparisons between the Nazis to the State of Israel. In an interview, he said: “We asked Arab media people to intensify their effort to expose the Nazi and racist crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and to bring back the Palestinian cause to the center [sic] of the Arab media’s attention.”

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

Rebecca told us that when she replied to the e-mail enquiring as to what help was being offered to journalists in Israel, the Union replied in a way that she felt was one-sided. 

“I don’t think they care enough to look at the whole picture,” she told us.

Rebecca, who had been a Union member for three decades before resigning in January, said that she felt the NUJ had become “overly political”. She had tried to speak with the NUJ about how concerns were making her feel about her membership, but told us that the Union had not responded to her for two months.

“At best, they don’t respect or consider their Jewish members, whether that’s deliberate antisemitism or ingrained, I don’t know. What I do think is they wouldn’t dare do that if I was perceived to be a minority due to my gender or colour or sex…maybe it’s an unconscious bias,” she said.

Rebecca added that she doesn’t “feel safe being in a Union which takes no interest in the concerns of Jewish journalists.”

A near-unanimous 97% of British Jews feel personally connected to events happening in Israel, according to our polling.

Another Jewish former member, Lucy’s testimony, seemed to echo those of Rebecca’s. 

Lucy told us that the “whole Union became too politicised,” which has made Jewish journalists feel “unwelcome”.

“They’ve created a divide. It’s like them versus us,” she said. Asked who she meant by “us”, she clarified: “The Jewish journalists.”

“There was not one concern for any journalist inside Israel under constant rocket attack with terrorists on the loose,” she said. “They’ve clearly taken a side…they ostracised Jewish journalists.”

Numerous posts from the private NUJ Facebook group, in which only Union members are allowed to post, accuse Israel of committing genocide. The group is supposedly moderated by admins. However, one comment by journalist Tony Gosling which, at the time of writing has been allowed to remain, referred to “the coming WWIII being cooked up between China and the Anglo-Zionist Empire”.  

In 2019, Mr Gosling’s radio programme was reported to Ofcom for antisemitic conspiracy theories, although the complaint was not upheld. Mr Gosling has also appeared as a guest on PressTV, an Iranian state-owned news network whose British broadcasting licence was revoked by Ofcom in 2012.

Concerningly, Mr Gosling reportedly “spent a year on the National Executive of the NUJ and eight years as Secretary, then Vice-Chair of the Bristol branch of the [NUJ] until the 2009 AGM when he resigned from the Bristol executive”. Between 2021 and 2023, he was elected to sit on NUJ’s Appeals Tribunal and Professional Training Committee.

Susanna, another Jewish former member, told us how she had raised concerns to senior officials at the Union about the social media activity of Donnacha DeLong, a former NUJ President. Mr DeLong has made numerous tweets referring to “Zionist scumbags” and “Zionist racists”. 

Upon reporting one of Mr Delong’s posts to the senior official, in which Mr DeLong wrote “F*** Zionism,” the official responded that the Union is unable to take responsibility for the “inevitably conflicting positions taken by our members on a wide range of issues” and that they cannot be expected to monitor the social media activity of its members.

Recent polling revealed that only six percent of British Jews do not consider themselves to be Zionists.

Susanna informed the Union that she felt as though it had taken an unbalanced approach to the war between Israel and Hamas, leading to the Union to allow “a very vocal pro-Palestinian — and often veering into antisemitic — element to dominate”.

Susanna had also raised the fact that in November, the NUJ London Freelance branch branch hosted a webinar arranged by the group Jewish Network for Palestine which comprised three speakers; journalist Tim Llewellyn, outspoken activist Ghada Karmi and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, one of the founders of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.

Mr Llewellyn, who for ten years served as the BBC’s Middle East correspondent, said in 2012 that “pro-Israel Zionists” are “scattered at strategic points throughout the British establishment, throughout British business and among the people whose voices are respected”.

In 2020, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the University of Exeter calling for Dr Karmi to be removed from her position, and to the General Medical Council which regulates doctors, after she published an article in which she suggested that the Israeli embassy played an outsized role in British politics and that the Jewish groups calling out the Labour Party’s anti-Jewish racism at the time were doing Israel’s bidding. 

In 2021, Dr Karmi accused Sir Keir Starmer of using the “label of antisemitism as a weapon”. She further described allegations of antisemitism as a “smear accusation” which was being used as a “weapon” to suspend and expel members of the Labour Party.

Ms Wimborne-Idrissi was expelled from the Labour Party, apparently in relation to her involvement with the far-left “Resist Movement”, “Labour in Exile Network” and antisemitism-denial group “Labour Against the Witchhunt”.

However, in the response she received from the senior NUJ official, Susanna was told that as the event was hosted at the NUJ’s London Freelance branch, no action from senior members could be taken due to the branches’ “high degree of autonomy” under the NUJ rule book, and that any complaints should be directed to the branch itself.

A spokesperson for the NUJ said: “The NUJ has been consistent and robust in its denunciation of the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7th, and in our call for the release of all hostages. We have also condemned the targeting of women and appalling sexual violence that it is clear took place during those attacks, and the rise in antisemitic attacks that has happened in its aftermath.

“The NUJ strives to be inclusive and opposes all forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and racism. We take any member’s resignation seriously, and in the cases referenced the most senior officers of the union intervened to address the concerns being raised. In a democratic union, with an established branch and workplace structure, events and activities take place that are outwith [sic] of the union’s central operations. However, all members have a duty to uphold the union’s Code of Conduct and abide by our rulebook, and all members have rights in relation to formalising complaints under those rules.

“We have been vocal during this conflict in our appeals for the Israeli government to allow access to international journalists, and for the rights of journalists to be upheld. For now, it is only via the efforts of journalists in Gaza that reporting and coverage is taking place, and this is work that is being carried out under unimaginable privations. Many journalists have been killed or injured during this conflict. Peer to peer solidarity and support, from journalists to journalists, has always been a cornerstone of the NUJ’s international work. Campaigning for all journalists to be able to work freely, without interference, and in safety will always remain an NUJ priority. That is why the NUJ encourages its members throughout the UK and Ireland to support the Safety Fund established by the International Federation of Journalists, which offers a lifeline to journalists in need around the world. In recent months and years that has included support for journalists in Afghanistan and Ukraine, as it has more recently in Palestine.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “When one of the largest trade unions for journalists is endorsing people who have engaged in antisemitism denial and made comparisons between the Nazis and Israel, what message is this sending its Jewish members? The NUJ is in dereliction of its duty to its Jewish members and must urgently explain how it will regain their trust.

“We are offering free legal representation to all NUJ members affected by anti-Jewish racism. Anyone affected can contact [email protected].”

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It Is Time For Our Voice To Be Heard. Please Join Us.

It is time for our voice to be heard. Please join us.

Week after week, London has become a no-go zone for Jews. But not only London. Rallies featuring antisemitic rhetoric have been held throughout the country over the past weeks, and this weekend the demonstrators doubled down on that strategy, launching micro rallies across the UK.

As you know, the police have refused to heed our calls to impose conditions on these weekly marches or ban them altogether, notwithstanding their obvious inability to police demonstrations that feature criminality on such a scale.

Our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit has helped to document and expose, week after the week, the hatred and glorification of terrorism at these rallies, including among the rank and file protesters.

Still, we believe that much of our country is with us, and next weekend it is time for us — the Jewish community and its allies — to finally have our voice heard.

That is why we are marching together in solidarity against antisemitism on Sunday 26th November, at 13:30 in central London.

Thousands of you have signed up already for updates about the route. If you have not yet done so, please register.

Among those friends backing the march are the stalwart allies of the Jewish community behind the October Declaration. We are proud to have friends like these, who are not afraid to call out antisemitism, speak up for the truth and love our country. You can read more about them, and sign the October Declaration on their website.

Meanwhile, this week has seen protests in London that target the MPs who make our laws. On Wednesday, Parliament was surrounded. Yesterday, they took the fight to MPs’ offices. Rule of law or mob rule? Watch and decide.

The hostages

Antisemitism in the UK is of course bound up with Hamas’ war on Israel, and we have been at the forefront of raising awareness in the UK about the plight of the Hamas’ hostages since the start of the war. You may recall that, last month, while failing to take action against demonstrators, the police nonetheless insisted on shutting down our van displaying the images of child hostages. Since then, we struggled to find other billboard van companies willing to work with us, for fear of police action.

So we bought our own van.

Thanks to generous donors, the images of the children are now back on our streets.

Although the police, along with demonstrators who hate to be reminded of the antisemitic evil of Hamas, have again attempted to shut the van down, this time we refused to acquiesce in the trampling of our rights, and we continued on our way. We will remember the hostages, and we will not be silenced. #BringThemHome

Broadcasters must call Hamas terrorists

We have all been appalled by the BBC’s refusal to call Hamas “terrorists”. And the BBC is not alone among broadcasters in, deliberately or otherwise, sanitising the terror group by having described Hamas’ murderous members by other descriptors, such as “militants”.

This weekend we are, therefore, launching a Parliamentary Petition calling for terrorism legislation to be amended to require all broadcasters regulated by Ofcom to describe all terrorist organisations proscribed in the UK and their operatives as “terrorists” and not by any other descriptor, which does not make their terrorist nature clear.

Unlike other petitions, if 10,000 people sign a Parliamentary Petition, the Government will issue a response, and if 100,000 people sign it, the topic will be considered for debate in Parliament. Please help us to right this wrong and urge lawmakers to act to ensure that television and radio audiences get the real facts in the news that they consume.

After suffering through weeks of hateful demonstrations that have taken over our capital and other cites across the country, it is time for our voice to be heard. Next weekend, please join us.



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Islamist extremists, the far-left and the far-right all at once: What a day to be a Jew in London

This weekend, some people in London honoured those who fought murderous antisemites in the past to protect our freedoms. Others paraded to glorify murderous antisemites in the present who want to kill all Jews and destroy the Jewish state.

Once again, the marches featured genocidal chants, Hamas headbands, antisemitic signs comparing Israel to Nazis and others caricaturing prominent minority politicians as coconuts, and the marchers who may not have engaged in these activities knowingly and readily marched alongside those who did. They are just as complicit.

We are also aware of Jewish families being targeted on their way out of synagogue and have received multiple reports of police having to escort congregants away in groups for their own safety.

Islamist extremists, the far-left, and the far-right were out on the streets, all on one day. What a day to be a Jew in London.

While we welcome the more significant number of arrests this week, the overall policing policy in relation to these demonstrations is woeful. This march should never have been allowed to go ahead, and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Mark Rowley, yet again, has serious questions to answer.

The refusal of the Met to ban this march was not only a failing of its duty to law-abiding Londoners, including the Jewish community, but it was a disgrace to the heroes that we paused to remember.

The Met’s refusal was in spite of our calls, including on Newsnight and ITV, on the Met Commissioner and the Mayor of London, to ban the march under section 13 of the Public Order Act, and our urging of the Home Secretary to direct the Mayor of London to remedy the Met’s failures under section 40 of the Police Act. It also came despite evidence that we collected from last week’s march of open support for Hamas.

We need to hear from you

This weekend’s march – and the failure of the authorities to stand by the Jewish community – opens a new chapter in our campaign to defend British Jews. But now we need to hear from you.

We are running two surveys – one for Jewish people living in Britain, and another for all of our other supporters – which will help us in our dealings with Government, the police and media and will enable us to craft the right policies moving forward.

You can also tell us how these marches have impacted your life or routine by completing an Impact Statement.

We may contact you about the information that you give us and use it to make legal representations to the police in support of limiting or banning further demonstrations of this nature.

First-of-its-kind event with the BBC

Last Wednesday, courtesy of Campaign Against Antisemitism, two senior BBC executives addressed the Jewish community for the first time.

We are grateful to Rhodri Talfan Davies and David Jordan from the BBC’s executive team for joining us for this unprecedented event. It was the first time that BBC executives have spoken directly to the Jewish community.

The participation of over 300 of you ensured that the strong feelings of British Jewry regarding the BBC’s coverage were expressed, and that the BBC’s representatives were left in no doubt about the strength of that feeling.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been at the forefront of holding the BBC to account, not only over recent weeks but for the past several years since our inception, including rallies, projections and an ongoing legal complaint.

We believe that criticism and pressure are vital, and that they are complemented by a collaborative relationship. This event, in which senior BBC figures spoke with and heard directly from the community for the first time, was one of the fruits of that relationship.

This is a long process and faces many challenges, but it is essential if we are to pivot our national broadcaster to a fairer and more accurate representative of the issues that our community cares about.

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Enough is enough: The police must act

Yesterday, for the third week in a row, central London was turned into a no-go zone. 100,000 people coursed through the centre of our capital. Last week they called for jihad, this week they called for a violent intifada, shouting “From London to Gaza we’ll have an intifada.”

Past intifadas were campaigns of violence, including suicide bombings. We do not want one in London. The law cannot be enforced in crowds as huge as the ones we are seeing. There is mass criminality on the streets of London.

That is why we are demanding that Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, uses his powers under section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 to bring this situation under control.

Section 12 powers allow the police to limit the size and duration of marches if they pose a serious risk. So far, Sir Mark has only opted to limit the route and the wearing of masks, but even that has not been enforced.

Londoners, including British Jews, are afraid to enter central London during these marches because there are people on the marches openly engaging in support for terrorism, extremist chanting, and incitement to religious hatred.

Police officers are outnumbered 100 to 1, and have even been hospitalised.

Sir Mark must use his section 12 powers to limit these marches to instead be static protests of no more than 20,000 people in a location such as Trafalgar Square, with sufficient police numbers to enforce the conditions without putting brave officers and Londoners in danger.

Enough is enough. Together we are calling on Sir Mark to make this the last week that masked extremists control our streets. Sign the petition now.

The situation is particularly severe because over the past three weeks, the Met has documented an unprecedented 1,350% surge in antisemitic hate crimes, and greeted it with lax policing, too few arrests, and excuses on social media — all to the incredulity of the Jewish community, the mainstream media and the Government.

As Jews, we are enormously grateful to the police for protecting our Jewish community and for keeping our cities safe. But over this recent period, our cities have felt less and less safe for Jews – and for many of our fellow citizens.

It adds insult to injury when the police take so little action against offenders spewing racist hate but still find the time to stop our digital vans from displaying the faces of children taken captive by Hamas, to raise awareness of their plight, from driving around London.

We therefore gathered on Wednesday outside New Scotland Yard to show the depth of feeling and call for the police to take action. Along with speakers including Lord Ian Austin, an Honorary Patron of CAA, the leader of Christian Action Against Antisemitism, and the Israeli author and activist Hen Mazzig, so many of you joined us and had your voice heard. We came as friends of the police, to ask the police to uphold the law. We need to see arrests, not excuses.

The next day, the Home Secretary chaired a meeting with us and other representatives of the Jewish community. Whilst we cannot reveal what was discussed, we can confirm that our focus remained on ensuring that arrests and prosecutions materialise, and that the Met use their section 12 powers.

Londoners cannot and will not tolerate a situation in which every weekend the streets become an exhibition of such extremism. The Met is creating the conditions in which not only London’s Jews but all Londoners could be placed in serious danger. Extremists rarely limit themselves to extreme language. We need action by the authorities responsible for keeping Britain safe.

The media

We continue to call out media outlets for their incorrect and inflammatory coverage, and we are among those at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the BBC to report accurately and impartially, including by calling Hamas what they are: terrorists. If you wish to join the tens of thousands who have signed the petition, please add your name.

It is time for the BBC to hear the strength of feeling directly from the Jewish community and to justify its appalling coverage. Courtesy of CAA, for the first time, a member of the BBC’s Executive Committee will be speaking at an open event for the Jewish community, and you are invited. To reserve tickets, please visit antisemitism.org/bbc.

Enough is enough: The police must act to defend the Jewish community against those who want to harm us, before it is too late.

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The police must uphold the law, but they need to hear it from you

Since last weekend, we have been leading a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages held by Hamas, including through billboards and digital vans that travel around London displaying the images of some of the child captives. We have also taken action against those who tear down or deface the leaflets and posters that have been put up around the city.

We expected that there may be pockets of opposition to the vans from terrorist-sympathisers and their fellow travellers in London. What we did not anticipate was opposition from the Metropolitan Police Service.

For the full story of this outrageous incident, join the millions who have watched our Chief Executive recount the episode, which was also covered across the national media.

Since the incident, we have engaged with the Metropolitan Police — in addition to our work with the Government — but the outcomes with the police have been unsatisfactory. This adds to our disappointment with current policing policy. It is time to take action.

The volunteers of our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit continue to gather evidence from the demonstrations around the country, bearing witness to the Metropolitan Police’s own findings that antisemitic hate crime in London is up by a scandalous 1,350%.

Instead of arrests, however, the Met has been making excuses for hate. The force permitted a rally by Hizb ut-Tahrir to go ahead; it announced, contrary to the view of the Home Secretary, that the chant “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free” is not hate speech unless it expressly targets a Jewish institution; and it ignores calls for “Jihad” and “Intifada” by demonstrators; among other shortcomings.

While failing to take action against those expressing sympathy for terrorists or calling for violence, as shown here, the Met did find the time to order that our vans shut down their display of the faces of children taken hostage by a proscribed terrorist group. The protesters hurling abuse at our volunteers, just feet from watching police officers, were not apprehended.

In 2014, Campaign Against Antisemitism was founded when the community witnessed that the authorities barely lifted a finger to combat antisemitism on our streets. We made our voices heard then outside the Royal Courts of Justice, but only towards the end of that surge in antisemitic incidents. This time, we must make our voices heard earlier, to shape how the Met polices our streets over the coming weeks.

We will be rallying outside New Scotland Yard this Wednesday at 18:30. The rally will be held at New Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2JL, and the nearest Underground stations are Westminster and Embankment.

The BBC

We have been among those at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the BBC to report accurately and impartially, including by calling Hamas what they are: terrorists.

The BBC must be made to understand that not only is it doing a disservice to viewers, listeners and readers by not reporting in accordance with its guidelines, but its coverage has a real-life, adverse impact on British Jews.

We co-sponsored a rally outside Broadcasting House, which was covered by all the major broadcasters and press, backed a petition signed by tens of thousands (please do sign if you haven’t already), physically projected a powerful message onto Broadcasting House itself to shame the BBC, and recorded a special episode of our podcast with Noah Abrahams, a courageous and principled young sports journalist who has quit the BBC in protest at its failure to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation (listen now).

We also called out the BBC for referring to the recent Brussels attack as terrorism while refusing to do the same for Hamas. After its hypocrisy was exposed, rather than accept that it must finally describe Hamas as a terror group, the Corporation quietly and disgracefully changed its Brussels coverage instead.

The BBC is not the only media outlet that we have held to account in recent days. Among the most egregious was the satirical magazine Private Eye. Perhaps appropriately, our response to its appalling front cover involved satirising their unfunny attempt at satire.

We have also reviewed material and submitted complaints relating to other broadcasters and newspapers, and continue to do so.

It is time for the BBC to hear the strength of feeling directly from the Jewish community and to justify its appalling coverage. Courtesy of Campaign Against Antisemitism, for the first time, a member of the BBC’s Executive Committee will be speaking at an open event for the Jewish community, and you are invited. To book tickets, visit antisemitism.org/bbc.

We are fighting back. Now it is the turn of the police to rise to the occasion in these challenging times and uphold the law against those who want to harm the Jewish community.

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CAA is mobilising, and the fightback has begun

As we continue to process the news in Israel and pray for the swift rescue of the hostages, antisemitism is surging in the UK.

On our streets, on campuses and online, in our workplaces, schools and even in the playground, we are seeing the glorification of terrorism and antisemitic hate, and on our television screens our national broadcaster cannot bring itself to call terror by its name.

At Campaign Against Antisemitism, we have been mobilising. The fightback has begun.

The volunteers of our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit have gathered evidence from the demonstrations this weekend and over the past week. We have also heard from you in unprecedented numbers, receiving a constant flow of messages and tips. Our staff and volunteers have worked around the clock to monitor, document and process evidence, and we have referred a multitude of individuals and organisations to the police and regulatory authorities, and we continue to do so at a rapid pace. If they fail to act, we will hold them to account.

If you have information that you would like to share with us, please e-mail [email protected].

We have written to the BBC about its refusal to describe Hamas as “terrorists”, called for Ofcom to intervene, and led the national media campaign to pressure the broadcaster to call terror by its name. We have also requested that the Culture, Media and Sport Committee hold an urgent hearing, are promoting a petition and are co-sponsoring a rally on Monday evening outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London. To join the tens of thousands who have already signed the petition, please sign here.

We have also written to the FA and Premier League to express our disgust at the decision not to illuminate Wembley Stadium and to prohibit the waving of Israeli flags at matches this weekend.

We have launched a billboard campaign around London featuring the faces of infants and children taken hostage by Hamas, as part of a campaign to ensure that the public does not so quickly forget not only those murdered by the terrorists but also those still in their clutches.

It is a frightening prospect, but the same ideology that brought about the horrors in the south of Israel is present in the UK. Our fight here is part of the same war that our brethren are fighting in Israel: it is simply another front. We need the resources to fight back.

On top of it all, our regular work continues. In the past few days, for example, we secured the extradition of a fugitive French Holocaust-denier back to France, where he will now face the justice that he has evaded for too long.

As a volunteer-led organisation, our priority is manpower. This week, we have mobilised a huge number of new volunteers, to ensure that everybody who can play a part has the opportunity to do so. Thank you to the many of you who have stepped forward. To join them, please visit antisemitism.org/mobilise.

Still, we are a charity, and the surge in demand for our services means that we must raise funds to meet it. We must also prepare for what may come next: while the support from the Government and the authorities and the support that we are seeing for Israel and the Jewish community is welcome, history shows that it may be transient. We must have the resources in place now to ensure that their words translate into action over the weeks and months ahead.

To that end, we are launching an urgent crowdfunding appeal this week. We recognise that we are not the only worthy cause asking for your help at this time, and any support that you can contribute will go directly to the fight against those who mean harm to our people. To make a donation now, please visit antisemitism.org/donate.

This is the worst situation faced by Jews worldwide since 2014, when we were founded. As an organisation and as a community, we are incomparably better placed to wage it. But we need your help to do so.

Those who glorify terrorism and delight in the massacre of Jews, and those who use the events still unfolding as cover for antisemitic acts should be under no misapprehension: we will pursue justice against you.

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BBC Arabic article links “fanatical Jews” of ancient Israel to 9/11 terrorists while playing down Islamism

A BBC Arabic article has linked “fanatical Jews” to the 9/11 terrorists while appearing to play down Islamism.

The Arabic-language article on the Corporation’s website purports to recount the “story of suicide attackers throughout history”, claiming that the tactic originated with a Jewish group fighting the Roman occupation of ancient Israel, and tracing the history through the Middle Ages, Japanese Kamikaze pilots and into the current era of Islamist terrorism and 9/11.

The article reads: “It is believed that the first suicide attacks…were by a group of Jewish fanatics who spread fear…during the Roman occupation.”

It goes on to suggest that, since the end of WWII, suicide attacks were “almost” non-existent until Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon in 1982, for which no context is provided.

While ancient Jews are described as “fanatics”, the word “terrorist” appears nowhere in relation to modern Islamist and Arab terror organisations. Indeed, other than the ancient Jews who targeted the Roman military, no other faction is censured in the article at all, even though some limited their attacks to combatants while others specifically target civilians.

The history is also dubious, with the mass Jewish suicide at Masada somehow presented as an example of the use of suicide attacks.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Of all the suicide attackers over the past two millennia, the only ones described by BBC Arabic as ‘fanatics’ are the Jewish assassins of ancient Judea who attacked the occupying Roman military. All others appear to escape any form of censure, including the modern Islamist terror groups. Moreover, this latest incarnation of Middle Eastern suicide attack is still blamed on the Jews, with the article alleging that the suicide strategy was only adopted because of Israel’s incursion into Lebanon.”

According to the JC, BBC Arabic has issued more than 130 corrections following complaints of bias and inaccuracy in reports about Israel and Jewish affairs since the beginning of 2021 — an average of more than one every week.

A spokesperson for BBC Arabic said that it “offers independent and impartial news and information. As with all content produced by the BBC, their output is subject to the BBC’s rigorous Editorial Guidelines. We reject any notion that there are wider issues with the service’s 24-hour, multi-platform output.”

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

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BBC admits presenter’s accusation that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children” was not impartial

The BBC Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has admitted that its presenter’s baseless accusation that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children” was not impartial. 

The outrageous and unfounded claim came during an interview on BBC News in July with the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, about Israel’s military operation in Jenin, which has now concluded.

When speaking on the topic of the targets of the operation, Anjana Gadgil, the presenter who conducted the interview, stated: “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children.” 

Mr Bennett robustly rejected the baseless assertion, including by noting that the seventeen-year-olds in question were armed combatants.

The notion that the military of the state of Israel – the Jewish state – is “happy” to kill minors draws on the symbolism of the blood libel.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is an example of antisemitism.

The original antisemitic blood libel dates to 1144, when Jews in England were falsely accused of the murder of a boy known as William of Norwich.

Incidents of blood libel grew in the Middle Ages, with Jews accused of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in Passover rituals. In 1290, it was a pretext for the confiscation of all Jewish property and the complete expulsion of Jews from England. They were not permitted to return until centuries later. The blood libel has been a case of much persecution and murder of Jews ever since, including up to the present day.

In the modern era, updated versions of the blood libel continue to pervade antisemitic discourse.  Contemporary manifestations include the accusation that Jews or the Jewish state steal human organs, drink or utilise the blood of non-Jews, or willfully and readily murder non-Jewish – particularly Arab – children.

After Campaign Against Antisemitism and many others complained to the BBC about the comments, the broadcaster apologised. Now the ECU has also published the results of its investigation.

A spokesperson for the ECU said: “The ECU accepted that, as phrased, the statement might have given viewers the impression that they were hearing the presenter’s personal view on a controversial matter, and that it therefore fell below the BBC’s standards of impartiality.”

The spokesperson also said that BBC News had “already acknowledged a problem with the interview” on its corrections webpage and that it, therefore, considered the complaint resolved. 

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

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Blake Flayton: “They connect Jews with hot-button issues to whip up outrage”

Blake Flayton, a columnist for the Jewish Journal and a social media commentator on American-Jewish and Israeli political issues, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about anti-Zionist antisemitism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about Zionism, whether they come from within the Jewish community or outside the Jewish community,” he said. “The Jews have a right to live in the land in which they’ve always been associated with. We have been known as Jews, and in different languages, it’s just a variation on the word ‘Jew’. We have been named after this piece of land for the last 2,000 years, if not more so.”

Mr Flayton explained how, during the first 30 years of Israel’s existence, neighbouring Arab countries would denigrate the country, even going as far as to assert that they would “push the Jews into the sea” and that “Jews are cockroaches.” 

The activist said how that in the shadow of the just-passed Nazi era, these statements were ones that “nobody in the West who could ever call themselves ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ could support”.

“Standing up for the Jews was a good, progressive cause overseas. And then, the Soviet Union enters stage-left somewhere in the mid-to-late ‘70s and basically flips the language of anti-Zionism in order to make it more palatable to people in the West, to journalists and academics and activists,” Mr Flayton said.

The Soviet Union would then “make the language of anti-Zionism sound as though it was a progressive fight for justice, a call for righteousness, and it’s been going ever since because it’s believable,” he said.

“They use the lingo, they use the words, that connect with people who style themselves as activists. In reality, it’s the same Nazi-like war against the Jewish right to self-determination that’s been going on since 1948. The goal is the same, and that’s from the river to the sea, there will not be a Jewish state.”

When asked why university campuses have seen an increase in anti-Zionist rhetoric, he said: “This is actually in-line with how antisemitism has worked forever, because the antisemites take advantage of the hot-button issues of the day, and they connect Jews with those hot-button issues in order to whip up outrage among their supporters and get closer to their goals on campus.”

Elaborating on the goals in question, Mr Flayton said that some examples might be the “passing of BDS resolutions or isolating Jewish organisations, or simply just making individual Jews feel uncomfortable.” 

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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French journalist fired for antisemitic tweets

A French journalist has been fired from a news outlet following alleged antisemitic social media posts.

Geneva-based reporter Dina Abi-Saab was reportedly fired from France 24, a French state-owned network that broadcasts in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, after her history of antisemitic tweets and messages was revealed.

The posts were first found by the media watchdog, CAMERA.

It is reported that she also refused to sign the company’s ethics charter, which apparently contributed to the termination of her employment.

Ms. Abi-Saab tweeted that “The influx of Western Jews” is the cause of conflict in the Middle East, and referred to the State of Israel as “occupied Palestine”, which is tantamount to refusing to recognise, and therefore endorse the existence of, a Jewish state.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” is an example of antisemitism.

Ms. Abi-Saab’s inflammatory tweets also included celebrations at rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza and declaring Omar Abu Laila, a terrorist who fatally stabbed IDF Sgt. Gal Keidan and wounded two others, a martyr.

She also allegedly drew comparisons between Israeli bombing of terrorist targets in Gaza and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.

This is the second instance in four months of France 24 firing reporters due in connection with alleged antisemitism views.

Joelle Maroun, the channel’s Beirut correspondent, was dismissed in March after a collection of her tweets was exposed. Ms Maroun is claimed to have tweeted: “They asked Hitler, ‘What did you do with the Jews?’ He said, ‘Nothing extraordinary, [just having] barbecue with the guys.” On another occasion, she allegedly tweeted, “Rise, sir Hitler, rise, there are a few people that need to be burned.”

Two other journalists at France 24, Laila Odeh and Sharif Bibi, were also investigated, however they reportedly remain at the news station. Both Ms Odeh and Mr Bibi signed the ethics charter which Ms Abi-Saab declined to sign. 

According to a report published by the French Jewish Community Security Service, antisemitic incidents in France have skyrocketed. 

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism in France and throughout Europe.

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“Jewland” comment sees LBC host face Ofcom complaint

A comment made by an LBC host has resulted in a complaint being made to the media watchdog Ofcom.

According to the JC, during a conversation in April about whether Jews count as a race, Richard Spurr asked a listener: “Are Jews a race, would you say?”

The listener replied: “I believe so because…” 

However, Mr Spurr interrupted, stating: “They come from many different countries, don’t they? There’s no such place as ‘Jewland’”. 

The listener replied: “Well, it’s called Israel.”

Mr Spurr continued: “But Jews historically have lived in many countries and have been almost to an extent nomadic.”

Last week, during a conversation with a different listener, Mr Spurr said: “You’re right in saying that in parts of North London – St. John’s Wood, Golders Green, up that way – you do see large groups of Orthodox Jews walking around in their traditional dress and you could describe it maybe as a ‘ghetto’ but certainly as an area concentrated with Jews.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “To describe areas of London that have larger populations of Jewish residents as ‘ghettos’ is tactless, at best. Richard Spurr should apologise and be sure to avoid such crass comparisons in the future.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.”

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

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Vegan activist compares eating meat to the Holocaust in TV interview

A vegan activist compared the slaughter of animals to the Holocaust in an interview on TalkTV on Friday.

Tash Peterson, an Australian activist, appeared in an interview with Piers Morgan wearing a t-shirt that showed a caged pig below text that read: “End this Holocaust.” 

In response to a question about her history of controversial protests, Ms Peterson said: “I think it brings more attention to the animal Holocaust.”

Mr Morgan then asked: “Why use the word Holocaust? Holocaust is the mass extermination of more than six million Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.”

Ms Peterson responded: “Well, that is one Holocaust in history.”

When challenged further and asked, “Why would you use that very emotive language, knowing that it would offend a lot of people?”, the activist doubled down and said: “Well it’s just a factual statement…non-human animals can be subjected to the same atrocities as humans can. In fact, it’s the largest Holocaust in history.” 

Comparisons between the animal-slaughter industry and the Holocaust are often seen to minimise the deliberate and industrial genocide of six million innocent Jewish men, women and children.

In an interview on Podcast Against Antisemitism, Ben Rebuck, a Jewish vegan chef and activist, criticised fellow activists who make such comparisons. He commented that “people being killed in gas chambers and firing squads” is “far worse than animals being killed,” adding that the comparisons are “absurd.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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Prominent German critic of Israel who claimed to be Jewish reveals he is not in fact Jewish

A German journalist who believed he was Jewish has revealed that he has discovered that he is not in fact Jewish. 

Fabian Wolff, who has previously written for the German-Jewish publication, the Jüdische Allgemeine, and Die Zeit, made the revelation in an essay published in the Zeit Online, entitled, “My Life as a Son”.

Mr Wolff is a well-known critic of the State of Israel and has publicly rejected the use of the International Definition of Antisemitism. 

In the essay, Mr Wolff wrote that he had believed he was Jewish after his mother, who passed away in 2017, had implied that his maternal great-grandmother was Orthodox Jewish. After being told this, he embraced his supposed Jewish identity, attended a synagogue and went as far as having a circumcision. 

According to Mr Wolff, he only realised that he was not Jewish recently after he spent a substantial time completing archival research. 

In his essay, he writes: “I will not speak from the position of a Jew in Germany because I cannot and because I am not.”

Articles that were written by Mr Wolff and have been published in Die Zeit now end with a note that says: “The author researched his family history in 2023 after this article was published. His research shows that he does not come from a Jewish family.”

Philipp Peyman Engel, a journalist who writes for the Jüdische Allgemeine, said: “In journalistic circles, the question was not when Fabian Wolff’s costume Judaism would be exposed, but only who would make it public first.”

He added, “Because in September 2021, some journalists in Berlin received detailed research into the extent to which [Mr] Wolff’s Jewish biography was made up from start to finish.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism in Germany, which have increased considerably. 

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CAA produces video about Just Stop Oil: “Just stop trivialising the Holocaust”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has produced a video about Just Stop Oil in which we say: “Just stop trivialising the Holocaust.”

The controversial environmental activist organisation, which gained notoriety for its public stunts intended to cause inconvenience to the general public as a means of bringing attention towards oil usage which has included throwing soup on rare artworks and hanging banners over motorway gantries, has a history of using Holocaust comparisons in their messaging.

Yesterday, the group compared the bosses of oil and gas companies to the architects of the Holocaust. Activists took to Parliament Square where they invoked the name of Adolf Eichmann, an SS officer in the Third Reich and an architect of the Final Solution — the industrial slaughter of six million Jews. 

Chloe Naldrett, a member of the group, said: “Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi, at his trial sought to defend himself by saying that he didn’t kill Jews because he was only in charge of transporting them to the death camps. The judges threw out this obscene defence and he was hanged.

“When those in charge today go to court in the coming years, they will claim that they only facilitated the continued use of oil and gas and coal. They will argue that they never directly killed the millions who are already dying and will continue to die of starvation, floods, drought, wildfires and deadly heat.”

When Zoe Cohen, a different member of Just Stop Oil, was asked by LBC about the comparison, she refused to apologise and instead doubled down, stating: “Forgive me for saying this, and I say this very sincerely, but it’s like we’re all trapped in a giant gas chamber. And we know that every single tonne of carbon dioxide makes this worse. And yet these people go on expanding oil and gas. Is that not genocide? Of course, it is.”

This evening, James Harvey, one of Just Stop Oil’s spokespeople, appeared on TalkTV where he was asked by Vanessa Feltz whether or not he defended those comments. He attempted to justify the comparison before stating: “At the time, in Germany, in the 1930s and 40s, we know that the government there facilitated the deaths of thousands and thousands of people.”

Ms Feltz responded to this comment by saying “That wasn’t facilitating”, to which Mr Harvey replied: “Or, they caused the deaths of thousands and thousands.”

Towards the end of the interview, after repeatedly being asked whether he apologised for the group’s Holocaust comparisons, he stated: “On a personal level, I am sorry if we have caused any offence to people.”

In June, the group took to Twitter to compare themselves to those who hid Jews during the Holocaust, writing: “We don’t deny we take action outside of current laws…It was illegal to free slaves. Illegal to hide Jews. Illegal for women to vote. Legality is not a guide for morality.” 

Last year, Just Stop Oil compared themselves to people who hid Anne Frank, drawing condemnation from several users. 

The comment was made on Twitter in reply to the former UKIP leader Henry Bolton. Mr Bolton, replying to a tweet posted by the activist group which stated that one of its members responsible for causing disruption to traffic on the M25 motorway would be imprisoned until her trial, wrote: “If you commit a crime, don’t complain if you’re arrested, prosecuted and and [sic] jailed.”

In response, the activist group wrote that “The people who hid Anne Frank during WW2 were criminals, Henry. So were the French Resistance.”

It added: “Obeying the law does not give you the moral highground [sic] — not when it’s still legal for our Government to greenlight enough oil and gas to kill millions. Good people break bad laws.”

The tweet drew the ire of several Twitter users with many denouncing the comparison.

It is reported that the group is led by Roger Hallam, the co-founder of the activist group Extinction Rebellion, who was disowned by his colleagues after he described the Holocaust as “just another f***ery in human history.” He later apologised for his “crass words”. 

Last week, Mr Hallam published a Twitter thread comparing Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer to Eichmann.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Just Stop Oil has a disturbing history of minimising the Holocaust in its messaging. In the latest example, a spokesperson for the group said on TalkTV that the Nazis merely ‘facilitated the deaths of thousands and thousands of people.’ This is historically ignorant, and that ignorance is dangerously combined with the group’s insatiable pursuit of attention at any cost. The result is the strange and inflammatory ubiquity of the genocide of the Jews in the group’s activism. Why can’t Just Stop Oil just stop trivialising the Holocaust?”

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Stop Funding Hate staff member accused of sharing inflammatory content online

A staff member of Stop Funding Hate, a group that encourages advertisers to boycott media that the organisation considers to be hateful, has been accused of sharing inflammatory content online. 

Amanda Morris, a community organiser for Stop Funding Hate, shared posts with the hashtag “FromTheRiverToTheSea”. 

The full line from which that phrase is taken, “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.

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

It has been reported that Ms Morris also previously described Israel as “genocidal”. 

In a report, published by the Centre for Media Monitoring in 2021, Ms Morris allegedly disputed the description of the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hamas, as an “Islamist group”. 

In the same report Ms Morris suggested that journalists should “differentiate between Hamas the political party, and their military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigade” and argued that spokespeople for Hamas should be “given a platform to respond to allegations”. 

In 2021, the UK Government proscribed Hamas as a terrorist organisation in full following several months of advocacy from Campaign Against Antisemitism. 

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is hard to square Amanda Morris’ history of comments, posts and associations with Stop Funding Hate’s philosophy of ‘open, inclusive and participatory campaigning’.

“Promoting antisemitic phrases like ‘From the River to the Sea’, which calls for the destruction of Israel; urging the media to give a platform to spokespeople from Hamas, an antisemitic genocidal terrorist group banned by the UK; and defending inflammatory politicians whose views have been rejected by their own political parties, are all red flags.

“How could Jewish people possibly feel included in any of SFH’s campaigning led by such an individual? And how on earth SFH could work with her?”

Stop Funding Hate has previously been accused of having “militant prejudice” after it was revealed that one of its strategic advisors had defended inflammatory tweets made by others.

Amanda Morris said: “I do not consider that the retweets in question are antisemitic. I have been critical of some of the actions of the state of Israel, but that does not mean that I am antisemitic – on the contrary, I am an opponent of all forms of racism including anti-Jewish racism.” 

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BBC apologises after CAA and many others complain over presenter’s accusation that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children”

The BBC has apologised in response to a multitude of complaints – including from Campaign Against Antisemitism – after a presenter made the baseless accusation that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children.”

The outrageous and unfounded claim came during an interview on BBC News yesterday with the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, about Israel’s military operation in Jenin, which has now concluded.

When speaking on the topic of the targets of the operation, Anjana Gadgil, the presenter who conducted the interview, stated: “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children.” 

Mr Bennett robustly rejected the baseless assertion, including by noting that the seventeen-year-olds were armed combatants.

The notion that the military of the state of Israel – the Jewish state – is “happy” to kill minors draws on the symbolism of the blood libel.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is an example of antisemitism.

The original antisemitic blood libel dates to 1144, when Jews in England were falsely accused of the murder of a boy known as William of Norwich.

Incidents of blood libel grew in the Middle Ages, with Jews accused of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in Passover rituals. In 1290, it was a pretext for the confiscation of all Jewish property and the complete expulsion of Jews from England. They were not permitted to return until centuries later. The blood libel has been a case of much persecution and murder of Jews ever since, including up to the present day.

In the modern era, updated versions of the blood libel continue to pervade antisemitic discourse.  Contemporary manifestations include the accusation that Jews or the Jewish state steal human organs, drink or utilise the blood of non-Jews, or willfully and readily murder non-Jewish – particularly Arab – children.

In response to a multitude of complaints, the BBC summarised the position: “We received comments and complaints concerning an interview with the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about recent events in the West Bank and Israel. The complaints raised relate to specific interview questions about the deaths of young people in the Jenin refugee camp.”

In its response, the BBC said: “Across the BBC’s platforms – including the BBC News channel – these events have been covered in an impartial and robust way. The United Nations raised the issue of the impact of the operation in Jenin on children and young people. While this was a legitimate subject to examine in the interview, we apologise that the language used in this line of questioning was not phrased well and was inappropriate.”

Ms Gadgil has also deleted her Twitter account.

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

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CAA writes to BBC following presenter’s claim that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the BBC after one of its presenters stated that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children.”

The suggestion came during an interview on BBC News with the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, about Israel’s current military operation in Jenin. 

When speaking on the topic of the targets of the operation, Anjana Gadgil, the presenter who conducted the interview, stated: “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children.”

Mr Bennett robustly rejected the baseless assertion (including by noting that the seventeen-year-olds were armed combatants).

The notion that the military of the state of Israel – the Jewish state – is “happy” to kill minors draws on the symbolism of the blood libel.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is an example of antisemitism.

The original antisemitic blood libel dates to 1144, when Jews in England were falsely accused of the murder of a boy known as William of Norwich.

Incidents of blood libel grew in the Middle Ages, with Jews accused of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in Passover rituals. In 1290, it was a pretext for the confiscation of all Jewish property and the complete expulsion of Jews from England. They were not permitted to return until centuries later. The blood libel has been a case of much persecution and murder of Jews ever since, including up to the present day.

In the modern era, updated versions of the blood libel continue to pervade antisemitic discourse.  Contemporary manifestations include the accusation that Jews or the Jewish state steal human organs, drink or utilise the blood of non-Jews, or willfully and readily murder non-Jewish – particularly Arab – children.

The news comes one day after Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to The Guardian following its description of the Jenin camp as a “ghetto-like area”. 

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

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CAA writes to Guardian over description of Jenin camp as “ghetto-like area”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to The Guardian over its description of the Jenin camp as a “ghetto-like area”.

Today’s article in the newspaper, titled “Thousands of Palestinians flee Jenin refugee camp after major Israeli raid” and written by Bethan McKernan, comes as the Israel Defence Forces conducts a military operation targeting terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin camp, a neighbourhood of the Palestinian Authority city.

The full paragraph in which the phrase appears reads: “Jenin camp was set up in the 1950s to house refugees fleeing their homes in 1948 after the creation of the state of Israeli. The ghetto-like area, plagued by poverty, has long been a hotbed of what Palestinians consider armed resistance and Israelis call terrorism.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “ghetto” is “an area of a city where many people of the same race or background live, separately from the rest of the population. Ghettos are often crowded, with bad living conditions”; or “the area of a town where Jews were forced to live in the past.”

It is not obvious to us that either of these descriptions applies. Accordingly, we have written to The Guardian requesting an explanation or otherwise an immediate correction, given the inflammatory implication of the description.

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

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

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Report reveals disturbing antisemitic rhetoric espoused in Palestinian Authority media 

A report by a non-profit has revealed numerous disturbing antisemitic comments being espoused in the Palestinian Authority media.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, researcher Muhammad Al-Yahya is said to have stated on Talk of the Hour, an official Palestinian Authority television channel, that “Jews are arrogant by nature” and “Jewish thinking is based on racist ideology.”

Jordan Muhammad Al-Burin, a journalist repeatedly invited to speak on the channel, reportedly opined that the Holocaust was “truly fabricated” and that “the Zionists cooperated with Hitler to advance their state.”

Palestinian Media Watch has previously exposed abundant expressions of antisemitic tropes in official PA media outlets, such as the claim that “Jews control American institutions” and that Israel is “reenacting the Nazi Holocaust.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.

Image credit: Palestinian Media Watch

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Jewish educator Tyler Samuels on how the Spanish Inquisition led to Jewish life in the Caribbean

Tyler Samuels, a Canadian-based Sephardic Jamaican Jew whose educational Jewish history content focuses on the Jews of the Caribbean and Canada, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about how Jewish life in the Caribbean was the result of Jews fleeing persecution during the Spanish Inquisition.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

Mr Samuels said that when Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled to Caribbean islands, the islands were under the occupation of Spain, although the laws of religious observance were not fully enforced. Regardless, Jewish life was not allowed to flourish, and texts from that time reportedly referred to Jews in the area as “not real Christians”, the educator said. This led to Jews in the Caribbean remaining fearful.

Following the English invasion of Jamaica, Jews were able to practice openly and a wave of Sephardic Jewish immigration began. By 1720, a reported eighteen percent of Jamaica’s population was Jewish.

However, according to Mr Samuels, antisemitism was still prevalent. Jews living in Barbados, for example, “went through a lot of oppression and persecution under the British colonial government.”

He added: “Apparently, there was even a ghetto established for them at one point.”

While Jews living in Jamaica had a far different experience, they were still subject to economic discrimination, he said. 

He said of Jewish families in the Caribbean: “Yes, they had some rights, but whether they were living under Dutch, or British, or even French colonial rule, they always had to fight for the little bit of human rights, when they had gone through so much of the Inquisition.”

According to Mr Samuels, there is today a “thriving Jewish community in Jamaica,” with the synagogue in Kingston, built over one hundred years ago, welcoming Jews of many backgrounds. 

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 BBC after it disgracefully hosts TikTok prankster who harassed Jewish people 

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to the BBC after it made the disgraceful decision to host a TikTok prankster with a history of harassing Jewish people on its Newsnight programme.

While the prankster known as Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was confronted at times over his videos, the question of why so many of his victims were identifiable Jews was not raised. 

A spokesperson for the BBC told the JC: “Kirsty Wark interjected and challenged [Mr O’Garro] on a number of points, including his criminal activity and we are confident that he was robustly challenged throughout the conversation.”

Mr O’Garro elicited widespread outrage over his recent videos, which led to his arrest last month. However, the furore came only after he started targeting people other than Jews, despite the fact that earlier this year, the prankster uploaded a near-identical video in which he entered a different family’s home.

However, despite the similarities between the two videos of Mr O’Garro entering family homes, the principal difference being that the older video featured the home of religious Jews, it appears only now that news outlets and even Members of Parliament have covered the story and spoken up, with one describing the videos as “abhorrent”.

We reported that the TikTok user had been arrested earlier this year for “assaulting a member of the Jewish community.” 

Mr O’Garro was reportedly held for 36 hours by police for the video involving an identifiably Jewish boy last year, and following action from Campaign Against Antisemitism, TikTok removed many of Mr O’Garro’s accounts.

According to the police statement at the time, the arrest was “a result of the Shomrim notifying police and sharing footage of the assault which has been circulated on social media.” Stamford Hill Shomrim is a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, with which Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely and with which we have an information sharing agreement.

Mr O’Garro has repeatedly denied that he specifically targeted Jewish people, writing on Twitter today: “The ‘jumping on a Jewish man’ video was a TikTok trend called ‘free OO’ where you leap frog over someone when the beat drops and I’ve done that to a number of different people (whites, blacks, Asians etc) as I don’t discriminate so why aren’t people talking about that? I’m not saying it is good thing to do but don’t listen to everything social media says and especially what the news say as they know what they are doing.”

However, in addition to not addressing the video of him entering the home of a visibly Jewish family, he has also yet to comment on a video that appeared to show him wearing a traditional Orthodox Jewish hat whilst performing a crass imitation, while yet another video featured him mocking visibly Jewish people as he walked past them.

Last week, we reported that Mr O’Garro was fined £365, but not for his persistent harassment of Jews.

The prankster known as Mizzy appeared at Thames Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a Community Protection Notice following the video in which he entered a family’s home.

In addition to the fine, it is also understood that a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order has been placed upon him by Judge Charlotte Crangle, during which time he must comply with restrictions on his social media output, he must not trespass onto private property, and he must not visit the Westfields Stratford City shopping centre.  

It was reported that two days after receiving his sentence, he had breached the Order, for which he was arrested.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The prankster known as Mizzy is a criminal who built a modest following by harassing Jews and other locals. The BBC would have done better to have interviewed the police or CPS and questioned why it took so long to charge him, waiting until he expanded his campaign beyond the Jewish community. By giving him a megaphone, the BBC is legitimating his unlawful antics and encouraging other wannabe celebrities to do the same.”

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

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‘Jewish Matchmaking’ star Aleeza Ben Shalom urges people to take action against antisemitism

Aleeza Ben Shalom, the host of the new Netflix Series Jewish Matchmaking – a programme where Jewish singles employ the help of Aleeza to help them find a partner – appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke about the role that antisemitism played in the show, and urged people to take action against Jew-hatred.

Cindy, one of the women on the show, revealed that one of the motivating factors behind why she wants to marry someone Jewish is because of the antisemitism that her family has had to endure. She went on to say that her grandfather had survived the Holocaust and that her great-grandmother fled Libya with gold in her bra in order to preserve her Judaism.

Ms Ben Shalom said on the podcast that it was “tremendous” that Cindy was willing to speak candidly about her family’s experiences with antisemitism. However, Ms Ben Shalom noted that she was not surprised that these were motivating factors for Cindy, as she has come across similar sentiments throughout her career.

The matchmaker said: “I work with people from all over the world, so I will often hear things like ‘Of course I need a Jewish partner. Around here, who else is going to marry you? I’m not in a place where it’s safe to even marry outside of being Jewish. I have to.’”

Speaking on how the rise in antisemitism has impacted Jewish singles’ dating preferences, Ms Ben Shalom noted: “I think now people have an awareness of ‘I may not be accepted by somebody else’s family because I’m Jewish, and so it’s probably going to be easier for me, instead of walking into another culture or another background, and trying to explain myself and why it’s okay and why it’s okay that our kids are going to also be Jewish…’ People have all of these thoughts.”

Recent statistics have shown that, in the United States, antisemitism is at the highest that it has been in over 40 years.

Ms Ben Shalom said: “40 years ago, it was at a high point. Now, again, it’s at a high point. I think there was a middle lull where, ‘Eh, we’re not super concerned, it doesn’t matter.’ Now, we’re in the ‘Oh my gosh, I either have to hide my Judaism again or I have to make sure to marry within the faith, or else this relationship isn’t going to sustain the larger family I’m marrying into.’”

Jewish Matchmaking also challenged viewers on their perceptions of Jews by introducing them to Nakysha, a Jewish woman with Black ancestry who raised questions of what a Jew is “supposed to look like”.

“We have people that are born Jewish that are Black, or of any origin or background. As you know, Jews are in almost every country in the world, we’re all over the place,” Ms Ben Shalom said. “I think there’s a stereotypical ‘Jewish picture’ of what a Jew looks like and I think, if anything, this show said ‘No, actually you’re wrong. There is no stereotypical Jew. We look different, we sound different, sometimes we speak many different languages. If you’re Jewish, you’re Jewish, and none of those other things matter.” 

“We haven’t seen that enough in the media to realise how diverse we are in the people,” she said, before imploring Jews to “Stand proud and stand tall.” 

Ms Ben Shalom went on to encourage people to stand up against antisemitism.

She stated: “Get educated. What is the battle that we’re fighting? Why are we fighting it? And how can we overcome the challenges that are in front of us? When we activate our curiosity about something, we learn something, and then we do something. My advice is to get curious and learn. 

“Activate your knowledge and then activate your body, your hands, your feet, and make an impact in the world, by doing something, by saying something. Support those who are fighting antisemitism, but do something with the wisdom you have once you have it. Listen and do. Listen, learn, find out what you need to know, do something, make an act in the world. In this world, we need action, immediately, as fast as possible.” 

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

Image credit: Netflix

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Why do Jews not matter? Outrage over TikTok prankster emerges only after he starts targeting people other than Jews

A TikTok prankster has elicited widespread outrage over his recent videos, but only since he started targeting people other than Jews.

Earlier this year, we reported that the TikTok user, known online as Mizzy, was arrested for “assaulting a member of the Jewish community.”

Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari Ogarro, appeared to confirm on his Instagram account that he had been arrested by posting an image of the police statement, adding that he had been held for 36 hours by police for a video involving an identifiably Jewish boy last year.

Another video appeared to show him wearing a traditional Orthodox Jewish hat whilst performing a crass imitation, while yet another video featured him entering the home of visibly Jewish people without their knowledge.

According to the police statement at the time, the arrest was “a result of the Shomrim notifying police and sharing footage of the assault which has been circulated on social media.”

Stamford Hill Shomrim is a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, with which Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely and with which we have an information sharing agreement.

According to new reports, Mr Ogarro has once again been arrested, this time after another video in which he enters a different family’s home went viral.

However, despite the similarities between the two videos of Mr Ograrro entering family homes, the principal difference being that the older video featured the home of religious Jews, it appears that only now have news outlets and even Members of Parliament covered the story and spoken up, with one describing the videos as “abhorrent”.

Bafflingly, The Independent has released an exclusive interview with the prankster, in which it provided him with a platform to defend himself against the criticism. Mr Ogarro said: “I’m a Black male doing these things and that’s why there’s such an uproar on the internet.” Otherwise, he seemed satisfied that his inane and awful videos were receiving attention. The article does not include any statement from Jewish community groups.

Late last night, the Metropolitan Police released a statement in which it said: “An eighteen-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and is currently in police custody.”

Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway of the Central East Command Unit, responsible for policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: “I do not underestimate the widespread upset, distress and concern that these videos caused. Some people have referred to these as ‘prank’ videos, but I hope that this significant development demonstrates just how seriously we have been taking this investigation since this footage began circulating online. 

“A number of these videos were produced, impacting on many different people and our investigation remains ongoing as we seek to build a strong picture of both the activity featured in the footage and impact on the public.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “There may be no better use of the phrase ‘Jews Don’t Count’ than a TikTok prankster being publicly chastised for carrying out dangerous stunts only a few months after testing them out on Jews first. The prankster known as Mizzy cut his teeth on putting Jews in harm’s way, when he knew no one would care, and while we welcome his re-arrest after his reckless and threatening videos, where was the outrage when his targets were just Jews?”

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

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

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CAA marks Mental Health Awareness Week with podcast about impact of antisemitism on Jewish mental health

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, CAA has released a new episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism which looks at the impact of antisemitism on Jewish mental health.

We spoke with Asher M. Seruya and Laur Plawker, the hosts of Kvetching on the Couch, a podcast that looks at Jewish mental health.

Ms Seruya is a social worker and psychotherapist specialising in trauma-informed care, weight stigma, and eating disorder recovery, while Ms Plawker is a Suicide Prevention Specialist who works at the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for teenagers and young adults in the United States.

The pair discussed the ways in which antisemitism can contribute towards anxiety in Jews, during which time topics such as intergenerational trauma, news reports of violent antisemitism, and hate on social media were raised.

Ms Seruya said: “When you see people like you being attacked, you’re going to feel anxious about it. You’re gonna be scared and nervous, because how could you not be?”

Ms Plawker noted that “we experience so much [antisemitism] now via social media and the internet, and that means that whether or not you are experiencing antisemitism when you walk down the street, you are constantly exposed to antisemitism.”

“With that being true,” they added, “it’s important to give yourself some grace in experiencing feelings of anxiety as it pertains to antisemitism. It’s everywhere, it’s pervasive, it’s in the palms of our hands, in our phones, it’s a part of online rhetoric and discourse, it’s in the news.”

Ms Seruya spoke of the anxiety associated with antisemitism occurring in unexpected spaces.

Directing the conversation to spaces that promote progressive and inclusive values, in which the pair both spend time, Ms Seruya said: “You think Jews would be included in that, and yet, a lot of times they’re not, and in fact, we are the villains in the story. And that’s really complicated when maybe the one space that you thought could be welcoming to you, isn’t, so where can you go? That’s extremely anxiety-inducing.”

When asked about what effects someone may experience when they come across a piece of antisemitic social media content, Ms Seruya spoke of the physiological symptoms of anxiety.

“Mine are getting very warm, flushed cheeks, that really intense panic in your chest,” she said. 

“I also experience anxiety somatically,” Ms Plawker said, “I feel a heaviness. It often feels like a fatigue overcomes me and it quite literally feels like a physical weight in my bones that seeps over me, and often, it leads to the feeling of paralysis, not necessarily in a literal sense but that I don’t know what to do next, I don’t know the move…I find myself very still in a way I find very uncomfortable…frozen in fear, in anxiety.”

Ms Plawker, speaking on her own experience, added: “I’ve posted a picture of a challah that I made, and it’s just a picture of a challah…and in the comments, I’ll get something hateful from people who know it’s a Jewish bread. It really doesn’t need to be an antisemitic post with antisemitic content. So often, it just catches you fully by surprise, and how anxiety-inducing is that? 

“You might have been looking at a challah-braiding video, like ‘I’m so excited to try this out, that looks like something I can do,’ and then in the comments, you might see ‘I wish you were dead.’ And that’s a horrible experience.”

Speaking on the issue of intergenerational trauma, Ms Seruya described it as trauma that is “passed down physiologically and psychologically from each generation, and for Jewish people, this can look a lot of different ways, just like with many other people who are parts of communities that have also been systematically and historically marginalised and traumatised, including mental health issues like anxiety, which also extends to OCD, nightmares about things you’ve never personally experienced. That’s actually one there’s a lot of evidence for.” 

The psychotherapist added: “I should note, a lot of the intergenerational trauma research is actually focused on Holocaust survivors, and on the children of Holocaust survivors. We are in no way, shape or form the only community that experiences it but a lot of the research comes from that, so we do actually have a lot of research that suggests that children of Holocaust survivors, and also not of Holocaust survivors, have a lot of nightmares about fires. It’s just a very common trope within nightmares for Jewish people, statistically.” 

They described how another manifestation of intergenerational trauma among Jews is the perception of food scarcity due to such historical experiences within the Jewish community. 

“Even when we may not have literal food scarcity in our present, we can still feel perceived food scarcity because of the genetic aspects of trauma, and how that can live within you, even if its not your personal lived experience,” they explained.

Ms Plawker, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust, revealed how through conversations with her sister about their childhood, they realised that they had both been experiencing intergenerational trauma.

“Something we both came to the, frankly horrific, realisation of is that we had both identified hiding spaces in our childhood home in case the Nazis came,” she said. “No one told us to do that. Our parents certainly hadn’t told us to do that. Our grandmother had never had that conversation with us. We just, independently of one another, had identified those spaces. I can tell you now where every single exit of the synagogue I grew up in is. Again, no one told me to do that. There weren’t safety trainings for that. It’s just something I carry with me and when I go into spaces, where I am gathering with other Jewish people, I make sure I know where the exits are, and it’s instinctual. It’s immediate. And that’s both an anxiety response and a trauma response. 

“I’m sharing a piece of me, and a piece of my experience, but I don’t think that’s isolated to being my own experience. I think a lot of Jewish people have similar experiences.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Jewish Netflix star Dr Sheila Nazarian opens up about antisemitism, Jewish students, and escaping Iran as a child

Dr Sheila Nazarian, an award-winning Jewish Iranian-American plastic surgeon and the star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix Series, ‘Skin Decision: Before and After’, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she expressed her concerns about the way antisemitism is affecting Jewish students on university campuses in the United States.  

The Beverly Hills doctor said that one of her primary concerns right now lies with those “in a position of power to change the curriculum to take out Holocaust education…that’s where the real threat to me is coming from, is the antisemitism cloaked in progressivism, because I’ve smelled that before in Iran.” 

Dr Nazarian, now rising in Los Angeles, revealed on the podcast how she and her family fled Iran, in no small part due to fears for their safety as Jews. 

“We left towards the tail-end of the Iran–Iraq War. There were bombs flying everywhere. My parents could see that there was really no future as Jews and as women in Iran for their two daughters,” she said, “so my father actually said he was going on a medical conference in the US, went to Vienna, and stayed there with a friend, a colleague, and worked on getting visas for my mother, my sister and I.

“Meanwhile, about a week later, my mum, my sister, and I went to the bazaar. We got into the back of a truck in the foetal position with strangers, just fitting in however we can. They put burlap on top of us, and corn, and took us close to the border. I remember there was a pole at the bottom of the truck that they used to tie crops to that was sticking into my ribs. I kept telling my mum ‘That hurts’, and she’s like ‘Shh, just be quiet.’ 

“So, we got close to the Pakistani border, and that’s when she told me in a makeshift hut of a bathroom that was basically made of clay, just a big hole in the ground, that we were going to America…we slept one night in the desert and the next day we were seen by border police. They started shooting at us and we were, thank God, able to get away, and we made it into Pakistan. We were in Pakistan for a few months with other people who escaped, and eventually, we were able to make it to America.”

Dr Nazarian has since become an award-winning plastic surgeon and has guest-starred on numerous television series, including ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’, ‘Basketball Wives’, and ‘Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian’, but still ensures that she has time to speak out against antisemitism, both online and in-person.

The plastic surgeon said that she feels that “antisemitism is always there,” describing it as “underlying everything” and noting “the comfort with which it bubbles to the surface”. 

She told Podcast Against Antisemitism: “I speak on a lot of college campuses to encourage the Jewish students to not hide, to speak up, to educate, to go to administration, and so I think the messaging there is ‘Don’t hide, don’t change who you are, or suppress parts of who you are in order to feel accepted’. What we have to do is empower people to fight for the right thing, to fight for justice, and to speak up.”

Dr Nazarian, who in 2016 was named the “Iranian Jewish Women’s Organization Woman of the Year”, said that her activism began when she realised that her daughter, who was then four years away from enrolling in a university, might not feel able to safely speak on certain aspects of her identity, particularly in relation to Zionism.

“I was like, ‘Wait, if I don’t start speaking up about Judaism and being a proud Jew, how is my daughter going to go bring that message to people in college who maybe have never met a Jewish person before?’”

The award-winning doctor called on people to take action against antisemitism, encouraging everyone to do what they can.

“You can always start in your own capacity and I think speaking up when you witness it is very powerful…supporting activists, or people on social media, even if it’s just a message,” she said. “Being an ally, speaking up for the Jewish people, sharing posts…everyone has the capacity to do something.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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“People should know they can do incredible things”: ‘A Small Light’ Executive Producer and Director Susanna Fogel on creating the series

Susanna Fogel, an award-winning director, screenwriter, and one of the creators behind the biographical drama A Small Light, a National Geographic miniseries streaming on Disney+, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke on her experiences of creating the series.

A Small Light takes a look at the remarkable real-life heroism of Miep Gies, the woman responsible for hiding Anne Frank’s family, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer in the Secret Annex during the Holocaust.

Ms Fogel, the series’ Executive Producer and multi-episode Director, said that “a big point of the series is just to keep telling that story so that we can’t forget it.”

Expressing concerns over how many people remain unaware of the diarist’s story, Ms Fogel said: “I think if you’re Jewish, you can’t forget it anyway because it’s constantly part of your upbringing and your historical knowledge of yourself…The Diary of Anne Frank was something that we all read in school when I was growing up, but now I know that that’s not the case, and a lot of people don’t know. Or, a lot of people come to the Anne Frank House and don’t know who she was now. We were told by the people at the Anne Frank House that there are a lot of people who walk in and don’t know the story.

“We have this responsibility, and if the responsibility is an entertaining, immersive miniseries, that’s fine. It’s still just telling that story and making sure that people know that it happened so that they can’t deny that it happened.”

When asked what she hoped people would take away from the series, the director said she hopes that “people just become aware of what happened, whatever that means to them,” going on to say that anyone can make a difference in dire situations.

“I think people should know that they can do incredible things. Anyone can,” she said, echoing the sentiments of Ms Gies, the series’ protagonist.

Ms Fogel would also speak in detail on the personal process that the cast and crew of the series underwent.

She said: “The process of understanding what these people went through, the stakes of what they did, reading books about them, visiting the Terezin concentration camp – which was near where we were filming in Prague – all of these things that people did, retracing Miep’s steps, the things that Bel [Powley] did and the rest of the actors did…I think the actors really undertook those types of preparation in a solitary way. It’s a very personal, solitary thing that everybody kind of did in their independent study way.”

Ms Fogel added that preparation was also conducted as a group.

“When we were together, we really focussed on building those relationships. What is the human bond between these people? Developing the humanity and the warmth and the light and the humour, that’s the thing that we worked on as a group, because that’s the thing that we really wanted to make sure was coming through in the show.”

Speaking further on the relationship between those involved, she said: “The truth is that we all kind of became a family on the set. Everybody got along really well…there was a certain amount of just, living in this world is so dark, that we had to find the moments of levity in the day.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Mint Press journalist Randi Nord arrested in connection with Oak Park synagogue vandalism

A former Mint Press News journalist has been arrested in connection with the spray-painting of a swastika onto a synagogue in Oak Park, Illinois.

Randi Nord was reportedly charged with ethnic intimidation, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of two years in prison, and malicious destruction of a building, a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 93 days in prison and a fine three times the value of the destruction.

Mint Press News responded by stating: “Mint Press News condemns the displays of hate drawn on the Royal Oak Synagogue by Randi Nord, a former writer that contributed to MintPress in 2018 on a freelance basis.”

The far-left news outlet has repeatedly attacked Zionism and labelled the creation of a Jewish state a racist endeavour.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination”is an example of antisemitism. 

Mint Press News has since reportedly erased Ms Nord’s name from her articles on their website, rather than deleting the content.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism throughout the United States.

Image credit: Royal Oak Police

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The Guardian editor Katherine Viner must resign following the newspaper’s publication of an antisemitic cartoon

Campaign Against Antisemitism is calling upon Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief at The Guardian, to resign after the newspaper published an antisemitic cartoon on Friday night.

The now-deleted cartoon, drawn by Martin Rowson, depicted Richard Sharp, who last week resigned as Chairman of the BBC, and evoked several antisemitic tropes.

Mr Sharp, who is Jewish, is portrayed with a large nose and swarthy, gruesome features, like those commonly seen in Nazi propaganda about Jews. 

Mr Sharp is seen to be carrying a box containing, among other items, a puppet of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Nazi, Soviet and other antisemitic propaganda has consistently portrayed Jews as puppet masters, secretly pulling the strings and manipulating politics.

The box Mr Sharp is holding in the cartoon appears to read “Goldman Sachs” and contains a squid. He formerly worked at Goldman Sachs, which was once described in a Rolling Stone article as a “vampire squid”. 

However, one must ask, why is that foregrounded in a cartoon about his resignation from the BBC? Nazi and Soviet propaganda portrayed Jews as tentacled monsters, controlling and sucking the life from society, and since medieval times, Jews have been cast as miserly moneymen exploiting workers to enrich themselves.

Also featured in the grotesque cartoon is a pig vomiting blood. In antisemitic images, pigs often refer to the ‘otherness’ of Jews for not eating pork, whilst blood can be a reference to the medieval ‘blood libel’ which accused Jews of drinking the blood of non-Jewish children, leading to massacres of Jews.

Mr Rowson has since apologised for the cartoon, stating: “Satirists, even though largely licenced to speak the unspeakable in liberal democracies, are no more immune to f***ing things up than anyone else, which is what I did here…I know Richard Sharp is Jewish; actually, while we’re collecting networks of cronyism, I was at school with him, though I doubt he remembers me. His Jewishness never crossed my mind as I drew him as it’s wholly irrelevant to the story or his actions, and it played no conscious role in how I twisted his features according to the standard cartooning playbook.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Guardian said: “We understand the concerns that have been raised. This cartoon does not meet our editorial standards, and we have decided to remove it from our website. The Guardian apologises to Mr Sharp, to the Jewish community and to anyone offended.”

This is not the first instance of The Guardian publishing an inflammatory cartoon. In 2020, the newspaper published a cartoon that featured Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer presenting the head of former Leader Jeremy Corbyn on a platter in a pose deliberately reminiscent of the Caravaggio painting “Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist”, a depiction of the New Testament event of King Herod having Jesus’ mentor, John the Baptist, beheaded at the request of his Jewish stepdaughter Salome.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Today, whilst Jews observed the Sabbath and were unable to respond, The Guardian saw fit to publish a depiction of a Jew that would not have looked out of place on the pages of Der Stürmer.

“Though the cartoon has now been deleted, and the cartoonist has apologetically declared that the catalogue of anti-Jewish imagery — from bags of gold and a reference to banking, to a tentacled animal, to an outsized nose, and a pig apparently vomiting blood — were all a mistake, it was waved through by editors.

“This is surely a resignation offence for editor Katherine Viner whose newspaper has become known in the Jewish community for its platforming of antisemitism deniers, incitement during the Corbyn years, and occasional relapses into raw medieval anti-Jewish imagery of the kind published today. Under her editorship, The Guardian has given a veneer of genteel legitimacy to antisemitism and helped to fuel hatred against Jews.”

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Executive Director and CEO of YIVO Jonathan Brent exposes the lie that Jews went “like sheep to the slaughter” during the Holocaust

Jonathan Brent, an academic and historian who serves as the Executive Director and CEO of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he explained what YIVO’s archive can teach about Eastern European Jewry’s response to the rise in antisemitism.

YIVO is a cultural organisation and place of higher learning with a world-renowned library and archive of 24 million documents whose mission is to preserve, study, share, and perpetuate knowledge of the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry worldwide.

Mr Brent stated how YIVO’s archive served as evidence of the various means of resistance from Jewish communities during the Holocaust, refuting the lie that Jews went to their deaths “like sheep to the slaughter”.

Mr Brent said of Jewish people persecuted in the Holocaust: “You have to remember, they had no army. They had no police. They had no means, they didn’t have guns. What did they have? They had the resilience.”

The YIVO CEO spoke passionately of the “inner resilience” and “cultural resistance” that can be seen throughout the archives. 

He said: “The Jewish people of Eastern Europe responded largely through trying to organise their societies, to cope with these outbreaks of antisemitism…we have photographs of these Jewish defence committees throughout the Pale of Settlement. But what could they do when there were thousands, tens of thousands, of angry Ukrainians or Lithuanians or Romanians, let alone the Nazis, that came?

“So what did they do? Many became partisans and one of the fantastic things that has come out of the materials that we have is the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski, a young boy – again, thirteen years old – who wrote his diary in the Vilna Ghetto, and he talks about how what they are doing in the Vilna Ghetto in retaining their traditions, in singing songs, in having literary events, in putting on music, in reading poetry, in writing poetry, how this is defying the Nazis. This is their act of defiance.”

Mr Brent noted that “yes, it is a tragic story but within this tragic story, there is so much to be proud of. So much to think about in terms of how, as a small people, one deals with these forces that are growing in the 1920s.”

Outlining the multitude of threats that the Jewish world faced, he added: “There was Bolshevism to the East, and Nazism to the West, and America would not let Jews in. And what could you do? You were stuck. The world would not let Jews in.

“They resisted, in the ways that they could, and thank God that they did, because that resistance gave them dignity, and that is the thread that connects us to them. That dignity. That pride, that they had in being who they are.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Guardian ignores complaints over article that appears to endorse antisemitic blood libel

The Guardian, at the time of writing, has yet to respond to complaints submitted early last week in connection with an article that appeared to endorse an antisemitic blood libel.

In an article titled “Adelaide Writers’ Week: rare moments of empathy and nuance found amid a storm of controversy”, written by journalist Sian Cain and dated 11th March 2023, the write quotes a line from a poem by a young Arab activist with a history of inflammatory remarks on social media.

In the poem, Mohammed El-Kurd, a correspondent for The Nation, writes of Israel: “They harvest organs of the martyred, feed their warriors our own.”

The claim that Israel is harvesting of organs is reminiscent of the medieval blood libel, in which Jews were alleged to murder Christian children in order to use their blood in religious rituals.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is an example of antisemitism.

The article went on to say “El-Kurd, speaking to the crowd via video link from New York, addressed the line about organs that some had labelled antisemitic: it was based on easily found and widespread news reports from 2009 in which the Israeli military admitted pathologists had harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families for years.”

These are not Mr El-Kurd’s words but the journalist’s, and are grossly misleading in two ways.

First, the words are lifted almost verbatim from a Guardian article of almost fifteen years ago, an article that itself was subject to correction because it was misleading. The truth, as the correction recognised, was that Israeli pathologists had extracted organs from a range of categories of deceased persons, including Israelis. By emphasising “Palestinians” and marginalising “and others”, the article gives a misleading impression of the practice, implying that it was targeted specifically at one group.

Second, Mr El-Kurd had claimed in his poem: “They harvest organs of the martyred, feed their warriors our own.” The justification provided by the journalist of Mr El-Kurd’s line makes no reference to the consumptionof organs. The notion that Jewish people consume the blood and organs of others is a textbook antisemitic blood libel, and this was not only not addressed but, by ignoring it while appearing to justify the rest of the line, appeared indirectly to defend it.

Worse still, the journalist implies that it is unreasonable to label the harvesting allegation as antisemitic because it is, in fact, “easily found” to be true. While she may be paraphrasing Mr El-Kurd, that is not clear from the article. If they are Mr El-Kurd’s words, then they should have been quoted or presented as such and challenged, for, pace Mr El-Kurd, there is no basis for the antisemitic allegation that Jews eat the organs of others. If, alternatively, they are not Mr El-Kurd’s words but the journalist’s – which, given that they paraphrase the earlier Guardian article, seems likely – then the journalist has essentially defended his poem, including the allegation about consumption of organs. This adds The Guardian’s insult to the injury inflicted by Mr El-Kurd.

Not only is this atrocious journalism, looking to defend a controversial figure instead of putting his views in full context and pointing out their inaccuracies, but it promotes a horrific antisemitic trope and implies that those who take issue with it are buffoons for not uncovering the “easily found” evidence.

We and CAMERA, which brought the article to our attention, submitted complaints to The Guardian. We called on the newspaper to urgently correct the article and apologise for giving such a prominent platform to racist myth.

To date, neither we nor CAMERA have heard back from The Guardian.

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“Extreme, insufferable, close-minded”: Allison Josephs criticises media outlets’ depiction of Orthodox Jews

Allison Josephs, the Founder and Executive Director of Jew In The City, a non-profit organisation that seeks to change negative perceptions of religious Jews, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke of the often-used tropes used against Orthodox Jews in the media.

“I think the general way that we see Orthodox Jews depicted is extreme, insufferable, xenophobic, close-minded,” Ms Josephs said. She added that “that’s not to say that those types of people don’t exist,” but lamented how the “normative religious Jew” was portrayed as “dysfunctional and abusive”. 

Speaking on the hotly debated Netflix drama series Unorthodox, which revolves around the life of a former Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, Ms Josephs described the premise as “troubling”.

“Put that dynamic on any other minority community, where you put ‘un’ in front of it,” she said. “Unblack? Unhispanic? It’s a really gross dynamic that you become celebrated when you become less of what you are.”

Also discussed during the conversation was the Netflix film ‘You People’ and the myriad of tropes it used in depicting Jewish people. Campaign Against Antisemitism produced a short review of the film earlier this year.

When asked why she felt that much of the media depicts Orthodox Jews in a negative light, she said: “There are not a small number of Jews in media. Hollywood was founded by Jews because of antisemitism, and so they started their own thing out west, and a lot of them were running from their own persecution. And when you’re persecuted for being a Jew, that leaves you with a lot of complicated feelings about your relationship to your identity.”

Ms Josephs criticised media outlets for disproportionately telling negative Jewish stories over positive ones.

“What doesn’t happen is the happy people, who are happy and healthy and living meaningful lives as religious Jews, they are not contacting The New York Times, they are not contacting Netflix, they are going about their business living their best life, so their stories don’t get told,” she said. “There’s also something salacious about all of the drama.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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France 24 suspends four journalists over allegations of antisemitism

France 24 has suspended four journalists in connection with allegations of antisemitism.

The announcement by the French state-owned network, which broadcasts in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, came following a report by the media watchdog CAMERA into the social media output of Joelle Maroun, France 24’s correspondent in Beirut, its Jerusalem reporter Laila Odeh, Geneva correspondent Dina Abi-Saab and reporter Sharif Bibi.

Ms Maroun is claimed to have tweeted: “They asked Hitler, ‘What did you do with the Jews?’ He said, ‘Nothing extraordinary, [just having] barbecue with the guys.” On another occasion, she allegedly tweeted, “Rise, sir Hitler, rise, there are a few people that need to be burned.”

Ms Odeh, the sister of a Fatah terrorist killed in fighting with the IDF, allegedly tweeted: “Because I am a Palestinian refugee, I demand of the Arab League to arm me so that I retrieve my land which Israel has unlawfully occupied. And because I am a sister of a martyr, I demand of the Arab League to arm me so that I retrieve the body of my martyr brother.” She also allegedly described Moshe Agadi, a 58-year-old father of four who was killed during a Hamas rocket strike, as an “Israeli settler in Ashkelon,” implying that the Jewish presence in the coastal Israeli city is not legitimate.

The journalists have been suspended pending an investigation, which, according to Le Figaro, will be conducted by France Médias Monde, a state-owned company that supervises French public broadcasters.

In a statement, France 24 said that the decision “taken in the context of this situation aims to protect the integrity of the work of all the Arabic-speaking editorial staff of France 24,  whose editorial content, both on the air and in digital environments, makes it a balanced channel, non-partisan, verifying the facts and cultivating constructive debate thanks to the professionalism of its journalists.”

The broadcaster added: “As in all the languages ​​of France 24, the Arabic-speaking channel is illustrated every day by its commitment to the fight against antisemitism, racism and discrimination.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism in France and throughout Europe.

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“Black Hebrew Israelites are not Jewish”: Tova the Poet unpacks the dangers of the extremist fringe group posing harm to Jews

The poet Tova Ricardo, better known as Tova the Poet, whose poems speak from her perspective as a Black Jewish woman, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke at length on Black Hebrew Israelites.

The Black Israelite Hebrews are an extremist Black supremacist group that asserts that they are the “true” Jews. The group has harassed and intimidated Jews on the streets of the United Kingdom and the London Underground, and is thought to have been connected to the New Jersey kosher grocery store shooting in 2019.

“Black Hebrew Israelites are not Jewish,” Ms Ricardo said. “That is something that the Black community, the Jewish community, mainstream society, need to understand. There are Black Jewish people like myself. There are many Black Jewish people around the world, in America, and we have absolutely no affiliation with Black Hebrew Israelites.”

Explaining why the ideology of the Black Hebrew Israelites is so dangerous, she said: “It attempts to appropriate Jewish traditions and history in order to allow these people to deal with their sense of inferiority. These people have historically read themselves, seen themselves, in the Israelite story in the Bible. They’ve seen themselves as the downtrodden. Because of the history of slavery in this country and the ways in which Christianity and the Christian Bible was pushed on Black Americans. Some Black Americans have seen themselves in that story, and there are a lot of Black Americans who can sympathise with that story, but there are some who take it too far.” 

In recent months, high-profile celebrities such as Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have both repeated rhetoric similar to that of the Black Hebrew Israelite teaching.

“Kanye West, people like him, are not Jewish,” the poet stated. “That is a figment of their imagination, and its an insult to actual Black Jewish people, particularly when the Black community is speaking about Black Jews and ‘why isn’t someone like Kyrie or Kanye allowed to call themselves Jewish?’ Kyrie, Kanye, they are not Jewish, and you are not working to build coalitions with actual Black Jewish people.”

Ms Ricardo would go on to describe the difficulties that Black Hebrew Israelites pose to Black Jews, like herself, specifically, and admitted that the group has, regrettably, had a negative impact on her own relationship with Judaism. 

“Black Jewish people are trying to tell folks that Black Hebrew Israelite ideology is dangerous, and I will say this, and I haven’t really said this before, because Black Hebrew Israelites have attempted to appropriate Jewish traditions and language, and when people see a Black person who says the word ‘Hebrew’ or ‘Israelite’, they associate them with Black Hebrew Israelites, I, as an actual Black Jewish person, I don’t actually feel comfortable even calling myself, referring to myself, as a ‘Hebrew’ or as an ‘Israelite’. 

“Within the Jewish community, non-Black Jewish people will use those terms whether they were talking about stories in the Torah, whether we’re speaking about our holidays, Jewish people will use that language is part of our tradition. But I don’t use that language, because I don’t want someone to associate me with Black Hebrew Israelites. I don’t want them to look at me and think ‘Oh, a Black person using these words. That must mean she’s like them.’ So, it’s causing distress in my life, also because Black Hebrew Israelites do not like actual Black Jews. We are a threat to their identity.” 

Outlining the fact that Black Hebrew Israelites are considered an extremist group fringe group, Ms Ricardo continued: “Most Black people do not believe in this. I’m sure there are a lot of people who will go on social media and will see certain Black celebrities push this ideology or they will see a video of someone on the street pushing this ideology, and those people need to be condemned. 

“But the majority of Black people…I’m Black, I’ve grown up around Black people. Most Black people do not believe this. And I would recommend that folks who don’t actually know Black people, or the Black community, not make generalisations, because that would make Black people mad, because most Black people have asserted that these are fringe groups. [Black Hebrew Israelites] are parts of fringe groups. They are not the norm in the Black community. They are actually very harmful to the Black community, specifically, Black [LGBTQ+] people and Black women have been speaking about the dangers of Black Hebrew Israelites…I just want to reiterate that. Most Black people don’t believe this.”  

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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JLE’s Rabbi Aubrey Hersh explains what the festival of Purim teaches us about antisemitism

Rabbi Aubrey Hersh, the Senior Lecturer and Projects Director at the Jewish Learning Exchange (JLE) in the North London area of Golders Green, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about the Jewish festival of Purim and what it can teach people about antisemitism.

Purim, which takes place next week, celebrates the salvation of the Jews of ancient Persia from an antisemitic genocide masterminded by the king’s second in command. The Jews’ salvation is secured with the blessing of the king, but it is delivered by the Jews themselves, who are simply given permission to fight to prevent the planned bloodbath.

Rabbi Hersh said to the podcast host: “Politically, we need to be aware that there are always those looking to take advantage and will prey on soft targets, and throughout the last 2,000 years, Jews were often presented as being just that; a soft target whilst they were in exile.” 

Speaking on how the manner in which antisemitism manifested itself in the Purim story has repeated over time, he explained: “[The Jews] were a minority in a majority host culture. They did not have a country of their own. There was exploitation, and this is true of any country in which the Jews have lived in. They have never been free of the accusations that have accompanied antisemitism, irrespective of the century, irrespective of the location.

“In fact, it is summed up in three words in the story that we read publicly on Purim, the Megillat Esther (Book of Esther), where we say ‘V’ha’ir Shushan navocha’, which really means that the city of Shushan, the capital city, was confused, and the confusion arose from the fact: ‘Why pick on the Jews?’” 

He continued: “They looked like their neighbours, they dressed like their neighbours, they appear like their neighbours, they’ve had a similar education to their neighbours. Why are they being singled out? And this is a question that will occur over and over again to any objective reader of history over the past 1,900 years.”

“The Purim story,” he said, “is essentially the first attempted genocide.” 

Speaking on antisemitism more broadly, he would go on to say: “At a time, there was religious antisemitism, and then there was political antisemitism, there has been economic antisemitism, racial antisemitism. Nowadays, we experience antisemitism through anti-Israel, often, and therefore, it morphs with the times. As the older one becomes unfashionable, a new one pops up. It cannot be neatly defined, but it is there, and ultimately, its visceral.”   

In addition to his work at the JLE, Rabbi Hersh has, over the last two decades, run more than 250 heritage tours in Europe to destinations such as Krakow and Auschwitz, Prague, Paris, Amsterdam and Budapest, and since 2003 has specialised in Holocaust education, working with the Imperial War Museum and Yad Vashem. He is also one of the regular voices on the “History for the Curious” podcast, which looks at historical events, people and movements, with several episodes covering the Nazis and the Holocaust.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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“We cannot be defined by what is done to us”: Author Ben M. Freeman on how antisemitism can impact how Jews view themselves

Ben M. Freeman, a Scottish, gay, Jewish author, activist, and educator, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about how external antisemitism can result in internalised anti-Jewishness, leading to Jews altering their beliefs, and even appearances, in the pursuit of acceptance from antisemites.

The podcast was recorded in front of a live audience last month at Campaign Against Antisemitism’s first-of-its-kind sold-out event, “CAA presents…An evening with Ben M. Freeman”, which attracted a room full of Jewish young professionals to an east London venue to watch a live interview with Mr Freeman, followed by a question and answers session.

Drawing from his newest book, Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride, Mr Freeman said: “We cannot be defined by what is done to us. We have to define ourselves via our experiences, our identity, our history, our story.”

Addressing how antisemitic stereotypes and tropes have led to some Jews viewing their bodies in a negative light, Mr Freeman said: “Antisemitism is a racism…there are many groups that are racialised, and we are one of them…we have to understand that the way that we are treated, that way that we are perceived, the stories that are told about us, they impact us.

“People are told, ‘Oh, you don’t look Jewish,’ and we’re meant to take that as a compliment…the fact that we perceive it as a compliment is deeply, deeply worrying, and is a tragedy for our community.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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True-crime author Michael Benson speaks to CAA about Jewish mobsters and American Nazis

Michael Benson, the true-crime author of the book Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America, in which he tells the incredible, real-life story of how Jewish gangsters disrupted Nazi gatherings in the United States during the late 1930s, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about his latest book.

Speaking on his decision to portray the Jewish gangsters in his book as heroes, Mr Benson said: “I feel no qualms whatsoever about the morality of my book. The gangsters are the good guys. The Nazis are the bad guys. There are very few shades of grey…I believe even really, really bad men can do great things.”

The author added that he learned throughout the course of writing his book that in 1930s America, “all racism, all bigotry was mainstream,” and that as long as a member from a particular minority group was not in the room at the time, discussing that group in racist fashion was widely accepted.

With the rise of Nazism and pro-Hitler groups, like the German American Bund and the Silver Legion of America, Jewish Americans began to worry. Antisemitic flyers had begun to pop-up, and antisemites started to feel emboldened, with violent attacks on Jews increasing. 

“The story takes place at a time when hate speech laws were not even thought of,” Mr Benson said. “What the Bundists were doing was they were committing cultural slander, and in their pamphlets cultural libel, but there were no laws against that.”

After one particular incident in which members of the Bund marched down the streets of New York carrying antisemitic banners, the Jewish judge, Nathan D. Perlman, decided to take matters into his own hands.

“[Judge Perlman] doesn’t call Mayor La Guardia, he doesn’t call his congressman, he doesn’t call the commissioner or police. He calls the number one Jewish gangster in the world, probably of all time, Meyer Lansky,” the author explained.

Lansky, along with his childhood friend and fellow gangster Bugsy Siegel, embarked on a mission to disrupt Nazi gatherings.

Similar events would transpire across the country in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.

“In America, in 1938, the Jewish men win every single time,” said Mr Benson.  

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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“I don’t want to talk about it, I want to scream about it”: Holocaust survivor and CAA national billboard campaign model Ruth Posner recounts escape from Warsaw Ghetto and views on antisemitism today

Ruth Posner BEM, a Polish-born British Holocaust survivor who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto as a child, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she recounted her harrowing ordeal during the Shoah, and shared her thoughts and feelings on modern antisemitism and Holocaust denial. 

Ms Posner described how she grew up proud of her Polish identity, with many Catholic friends, and whose non-religious Jewish father viewed himself as a “humanist”. These factors, she explained, contributed to the shock that she felt when she was forced into the Ghetto alongside religiously observant Jews, with whom she felt that she had little in common.

However, Ms Posner noted that many of her Catholic friends spread the antisemitic myth of deicide and that she began to feel a change when one day at school, a girl hit her and said: “You killed our Lord, and you should be punished for it.” 

Shortly after that incident, she noted, war broke out. Nazis would knock at the door of Ms Posner’s family, telling them that they had fifteen minutes to gather their belongings and leave. 

“I couldn’t understand what was happening,” she said. “And my mother said to one of the guys, ‘You’re wearing a black uniform, but your heart can’t be black?’ And she was hit. He just smacked her…it was the first sign of violence that I had ever witnessed.”

She revealed how her family was then forced into the Ghetto. “We were marched with other people, I can’t remember how many, to a house where I met people I didn’t normally associate with, not because I didn’t want to but just because my life was different. [I was] with very religious Jews with peyot (sidelocks) who spoke Yiddish, and I felt estranged from them, strangely enough.”

Ms Posner recalled the “filthy old house packed with people” where her and her family were given one room in the basement to live in alongside others, noting that her father slept on the floor.

“We heard trucks, now and then, and people shouting ‘heraus, heraus’ (‘out, out’), and the trucks were being loaded with people living in that house,” she said, unaware that what she was hearing were the first instances of deportations to concentration and extermination camps.

“People were taken out, we didn’t know what the hell was happening.”

Ms Posner revealed that her father created a plan for her to escape the Ghetto, which began with creating a fake passport and acquiring her work as a slave labourer in a nearby leather goods factory. She recalled being physically assaulted in the factory. 

One day, Ms Posner’s aunt decided that they would both escape the Ghetto during their journey to the factory, by walking across the road to the “Christian” side. 

“She explained to me, ‘Today, we are going to do this. Now, it is dangerous, but don’t be afraid because there is a possibility we will survive…I will watch, and tell you when the time comes to cross the road’. She was watching the two Nazi soldiers and they were obviously very, very careful in watching what was happening.

“They stopped for a cigarette, and so they were talking to one another with their backs turned to the road. When I say this, I still can’t believe that this is not a story, but it actually happened, and she said to me ‘Now, now, just walk down, cross the road. Don’t run, just go and walk. When you feel the time has come, take your band off.”

The band was, in fact, the yellow Star of David armband that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.

“All these years ago, I still can’t believe how lucky we were. We managed to get across to the other side.” 

While Ruth and her aunt managed to escape the Ghetto, she later discovered that her remaining family were murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp. 

Ms Posner and her aunt then lived in hiding using fake names and backstories and posing as Catholics for years, until they participated in an abortive but bloody Polish uprising against the Germans, whereupon they were captured and taken to Germany as Polish prisoners of war, their Jewish identity still a secret.

The Germans, after keeping Ms Posner and her aunt as prisoners for some time, forced them both onto a train. “All of a sudden, we hear strange noises, and they’re airplanes dropping bombs.”

Ms Posner stated that “the Germans were just as frightened as we were, because those were American bombers.”

Amidst the chaos and violence around her, Ms Posner and her aunt made an escape, and they once again found themselves fleeing. They would live with, and work for, German farmers, until the end of the war and the arrival of British and American soldiers. In a remarkable scenario during this period, Ms Posner recounted, she and her aunt found themselves hiding Germans from Allied soldiers.

Speaking on her thoughts and feelings on modern antisemitism, Ms Posner said: “For many years, I didn’t particularly want to talk about my past, and my story. But, this kind of thing, Holocaust denial, I don’t want to talk about it, I want to scream about it.

“When I hear Holocaust denial…it makes me sick. That’s all I can say. There are no words that are going to express the feeling, because words come from thought, and this comes from my innards. I could scream. I wish I could speak to the person who said it. I wish I could actually exchange ideas.”

Ms Posner is also a model in Campaign Against Antisemitism’s current national billboard campaign to raise awareness of antisemitism, a first-of-its-kind for Britain.

The podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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CAA to complain to BBC over Amol Rajan’s apparent minimising of Kanye West antisemitism

On the Today programme, host Amol Rajan appeared to minimise Kanye West’s recent antisemitism scandal.

In an interview with Chuck D from Public Enemy on the BBC’s flagship radio programme on 19th January about hip hop music, which included considered reflections about anti-Black racism, Mr Rajan turned finally to Mr West. When discussing Kanye West, Mr Rajan described him as an “extraordinary musical power” but failed to fully address Mr West’s antisemitism, minimising Mr West’s comments to “promoting some conspiracy theories”, which Mr Rajan then appeared to caveat by pointing out that Mr West has “bi-polar disorder”.

Last year, Mr West denied the Holocaust, described Hitler as a “cool guy”, and said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people”, among other inflammatory outbursts over an extended period on multiple platforms and channels. Mr West himself described his own comments as “antisemitic”, which Mr Rajan failed to do.

Chuck D then appeared to brush Mr West’s racism aside as mere “showbiz”.

Mr Rajan abjectly failed to address the severity of West’s antisemitic rhetoric, which caused the artist to be dropped by Adidas and other sponsors and partners. This omission was particularly objectionable given how much of the interview lamented other forms of racism.

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

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

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Candidate on TV show The Apprentice apologises following discovery that his online auction site facilitated sale of Nazi memorabilia

A candidate on the television programme The Apprentice has apologised following the discovery that his online auction site facilitated the sale of a piece of Nazi memorabilia.

Raven Yard Antiques, which is owned by Gregory Ebbs and serves as a marketplace for third parties to auction items, was found to have facilitated the sale of a Nazi German officer’s dress dagger for £725.

Mr Ebbs is a candidate on The Apprentice, the popular BBC reality show hosted by the Jewish businessman and celebrity Sir Alan Sugar.

Following the discovery and prior to the apology, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Raven Yard Antiques’ worthy mission is ‘to promote sustainable living’, but it cannot do that while facilitating the sale of artefacts that are synonymous with death. Nazi militaria are reminders of the slaughter of six million Jewish men, women and children. These items belong in a museum, not in the hands of sick collectors acquiring them from an auction house that stands to make a profit from these sales. Sir Alan Sugar, who was recently the victim of criminal antisemitic harassment, would likely take exception to this sort of entrepreneurship. The sale on Gregory Ebbs’ website of a swastika-emblazoned dagger for hundreds of pounds on the day that the first episode of The Apprentice leaves us with many questions for Mr Ebbs.”

Mr Ebbs said: “I in no way condone or wish to be looking to be celebrating this abhorrent and shameful part of history and I apologise for any offence caused. My online business is an antiques marketplace where independent sellers have a platform to sell a wide range of antiques, memorabilia & militaria from many different periods of history. The item in question was sold by a third party vendor. This type of memorabilia is not something I would personally sell or stock. The website is relatively new and I will be looking to implement stricter vetting procedures for third party vendors.”

Image credit: Raven Yard Antiques

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BBC Arabic contributor called for “death to Israel” and described Jewish state as “occupied Palestine” live on air

A regular contributor to BBC Arabic reportedly called for “death to Israel” and described Jewish state as “occupied Palestine” live on air.

Mayssaa Abdul Khalek, a Lebanon-based reporter, also reportedly called for Arab states to attack Israel. These calls appeared on social media alongside links to her broadcasts for the BBC.

Ms Khalek, who identifies herself as a “BBC Arabic co-host”, also described a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel as an attack on “occupied Palestine” in a live report in May 2021. Describing how a Lebanese man had died, she said: “he and a group of youths were hit by RPGs that Israeli military shot at them during their attempt to cross the border fence in front of the imperialist colony of Metula [a town in northern Israel]. These events also come after three rockets were launched yesterday from South Lebanon towards occupied Palestine.”

It is understood that she also used the phrase “occupied Palestinian territories” to describe Israel in a tweet linked to the same broadcast, in apparent contravention of BBC guidelines, but removed the post after being contacted by the JC.

In 2016, she wrote a post online beginning, “Death to Israel,” and continuing: “Is it your business to resist the Arab countries or Israel? Oh, sorry, Israel is an ally of your friend Russia, and they coordinate in the Syrian war.”

Other concerning social media activity includes her “liking” of a tweet commemorating Diaa Hamarsheh, a terrorist who killed after murdering a rabbi, a policemen and three civilians in the Isreli city of Bnei Brak. She has also reportedly spoken of “the enemy, Israel”, 

Ms Khalek’s remarks were translated by CAMERA Arabic and reported by the JC.

A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Mayassa Abdel Khalek is not a BBC News Arabic co-host or presenter. She is a contributor invited on occasion to talk about Lebanon. In a live and brief interview held May 14th 2021, when Ms Abdel Khalek delivered her analysis on rockets fired from Lebanon on May 13th 2021, she should have been challenged when she described Metulla as a ‘colony’. 

“Further, when Ms Abdel Khalek commented on the intended target of the rockets, the presenter should have disputed her remark that they were headed to ‘occupied Palestine’. They were presumably launched towards northern Israel, which the BBC wouldn’t describe as ‘occupied Palestine’.

“We do not ban guests from appearing on the BBC. Careful judgements are made and will continue to be made about the guests we invite on and the context in which we hear from them.”

In December, a Parliamentary inquiry into the BBC’s bias against Jews was announced, following a campaign by the JC. Campaign Against Antisemitism supported those calls.

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

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

Image credit: JC

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“They doubled down, unfortunately”: Comedian Josh Howie opens up about friendships ending over antisemitism

Josh Howie, a Jewish comedian and writer who has starred in BBC Radio 4 and Netflix sitcoms, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed how antisemitism has affected his friendships with fellow performers.

“Amongst comics, more [are aware of antisemitism] now, but it was much worse. There are big name comics, and there are people who wrote some outrageous stuff [online]…never acknowledged it, never apologised for it.”

Mr Howie lamented at what he felt was a hypocrisy among certain comedians who advocate allyship toward other marginalised groups, but then spew “outright racism against Jews”. 

Mr Howie noted instances of fellow comedians making antisemitic statements without consequence, including one which resulted in a comic’s antisemitic rhetoric being challenged. 

“There’s about ten Jewish comics at the circuit level, [they] all confronted him, very public thing. The guy didn’t lose any work, no promoters were like ‘This needs to be challenged.’ He said it, didn’t apologise, no one cares. That’s the reality of it,” he said.   

The comedian revealed that some of his friendships with fellow performers have ended due to their unapologetic antisemitic statements. 

“I’m a little bit sore about the whole thing. I’m sore to comedians who I thought would take a stand and didn’t.”

He added: “I really thought when the [Equality and Human Rights Commission] dropped it’s findings, I really thought there were some people, good friends of mine who had stopped being part of my life, would go ‘I’m sorry’, but at that point, they doubled down, unforunately.

“And that’s very sad, but that’s the way it is. I’ve lost friends, but I’ve made new friends.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Howie also discussed a variety of other topics, including what it was like speaking out about antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Award-winning French Jewish filmmaker Amanda Sthers reveals she left France due to antisemitism

Amanda Sthers, the award-winning French author, playwright, and filmmaker whose critically acclaimed work has earned her the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she has revealed that she left her home country due to antisemitism.

Ms Sthers, herself a Jewish person in the public eye, is no stranger to experiences of antisemitism.

“I always feel that every time there is a very strong increase [in] antisemitic incidents, democracy’s in danger,” she said.

According to France’s Jewish Community Security Service, antisemitic incidents in France skyrocketed by 75% in 2021. 

Additionally, last year saw three reported murders of French Jews. Eyal Haddad, 34, from the town of Longperrier, north-east of Paris, was said to have been brutally murdered with an axe before the alleged perpetrator reportedly attempted to burn his face and bury the body, while Rene Hadjaj, 90, was allegedly defenestrated from an apartment block in Lyon.

Jeremy Cohen, 31, was fatally wounded after being hit by a tram. At first, Mr Cohen’s death was treated as a traffic accident, until video footage released by the family appeared to show a group of men attacking Mr Cohen, who is believed to have been wearing his kippah, or skullcap, prompting him to flee for safety without noticing the tram. He was then taken to the hospital but did not survive his injuries.

Our host asked Ms Sthers: “How concerned are you about antisemitism in France right now? Is it something you think about?”

“Yeah. I think about it so much that I left,” the filmmaker responded. “I left seven years ago. I live in LA now, and I have a hard time feeling at home in France anymore. And it’s very heartbreaking…it’s really hard for me because I can feel in the air that there’s something really hateful.”

While Ms Sthers acknowledges the ongoing threat of far-right groups, she believes that the recent spike in antisemitism is partly due to emerging conspiracy theories about Jews and Islamist ideology.

She continued: “France is not a safe place for Jewish people anymore, and I don’t understand how the government doesn’t want to say more about it…they are putting the entire nation in danger by not trying to keep Jews safe in their country. And I’m saying in ‘their country’, I still have a passport but I just don’t feel that it’s my country anymore.”

Commenting on how life is different for her in the United States, she noted how she felt as though her Judaism was not “a question that you had to avoid.”

“I remember the first time they [said] ‘Oh, you’re Jewish!’, it was not the same tone that was used in France.”

However, Ms Sthers was mindful to point out that, for Jewish people, “it’s not heaven in the States, either.”

“Lately, it’s changing. I think the pandemic increased [the amount of] antisemitic incidents, increased a lot of paranoia. Every time there’s a crisis, antisemitism is increasing,” she said.

Ms Sthers also pointed to the antisemitic statements made by rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. 

Despite the increase in antisemitic incidents in the United States, Ms Sthers’ experiences in France have led her to feel safer in her new home.

“I remember in Paris, I was always telling my sons, ‘Don’t mention your bar mitzvah when we’re in the taxi, just be careful, just stay low-profile,’ because I was afraid for them,” she disclosed.

Throughout the interview, Ms Sthers also discussed a variety of other topics, including her award-winning film Holy Lands, how to tackle antisemitism through art, and her experience of working with the late Jewish film icon, James Caan.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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NHS diversity chief reported to have made comments about Jewish “control” in TV interview

An NHS diversity chief’s alleged inflammatory comments about Jews have now come to light, a reported seven years after they were allegedly made on television.

GB News said that in the uncovered footage, Mahroof Hussain can be heard making the remarks on Noor TV, an Urdu-language television network, in 2016. The man in the video can be heard saying: “If people complain Jews control this and that, well, you know, why not?”

He added: “They have the ability, the financial resource, and the capability, and the brains, and the strategy.”

Mr Hussain is the national Diversity, Inclusion and Participation Manager at NHS Health Education England (NHS HEE).

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “In view of his controversial past political positions, there is a certain irony in Mahroof Hussain’s willingness to make sweeping generalisations about other faith groups. His conspiratorial views about Jews, which rest on antisemitic stereotypes about Jewish control and wealth, can have no place in our public discourse. He must apologise for these remarks, and his MBE must surely be called into question.

“NHS HEE must immediately suspend Mr Hussain and transparently investigate the allegations. For a taxpayer-funded body to do anything less would severely damage the public’s confidence. The case is made considerably more severe given Mr Hussain’s role as Diversity, Inclusion and Participation Manager. If the allegations are made out, it goes without saying that it is not tenable for him to continue in that position.”

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Breslov rabbi Eli Goldsmith speaks to the CAA podcast about antisemitism, activism, and professional wrestling

Eli Goldsmith, the podcaster, musician, and rabbi behind Unity Bookings, a global entertainment promotion, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about tackling antisemitism through art and entertainment, and revealed his own experiences of antisemitism.

Commenting on previous podcast guests, musicians Westside Gravy and Moshe Reuven, and comedian Elon Gold, three talents whom Mr Goldsmith has worked with and who use their respective art forms to combat antisemitism, the promoter said that such acts were “saving lives”.

“We have to create a youth movement in the Jewish world and empower musicians,” he said. 

Additionally, he encouraged social media users to share content that they find empowering to help in tackling anti-Jewish hate. 

He said: “For us to just be passive is a massive mistake. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that you have to be an active participant in life.

“That means each of us individually, every day, practically need to like and share, a few times a day, something of meaning and purpose that can bring some light to the internet experience.”

Mr Goldsmith is, however, no stranger to antisemitism himself. Speaking candidly, he revealed that as a teenager growing up in North London, he was on the receiving end of antisemitic abuse. 

“It was rough and tough. I got beaten up a few times, for sure…[one] kid threw a coin at me and said ‘Dirty Jew, stingy Jew, pick up the coin’. It was in the toilet area, and I wasn’t going to pick it up.”

Mr Goldsmith added that, at times, he has even been “threatened with bricks and knives”. 

Asked whether he ever felt like he was able to report those attacking him, he said: “I was a teenager by that point, a young teenager, and I just didn’t look to authority.”

The multifaceted rabbi comes from a family of promoters, notably Harvey and Martin Goldsmith, who were heavily involved in staging large professional wrestling for the then-WWF, now known as WWE, and music live events. 

Speaking on his time rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest wrestling stars of the day, he joked that “It definitely gained me some popularity.”

“Hacksaw Jim Duggan came to my bar mitzvah, which is very cool. He picked up my grandma, a little Jewish lady, screaming ‘USA!’ I went on a tour to the US with them. In Pittsburgh, I was [at] a big WWF event, so I got to meet them all,” he revealed.

Such names included, but were not limited to, WWF Champions Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan. “My dad was actually quite close with Hulk Hogan. He calls him his ‘Holy Brother’!”

Throughout the interview, Mr Goldsmith also discussed a variety of other topics, including how he became involved in Breslov Judaism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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“No Jew has all of the answers”: Activist Amy Albertson on individual Jews being tasked as representatives

Amy Albertson, a Chinese-American Jewish activist and Associate at the Tel Aviv Institute, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke about her experiences of being singled out as an Asian Jew.

“It’s really interesting, because I used to thrive on being the token,” she said. “I enjoyed being unique and different, so I didn’t mind it. And then eventually, it kind of weighs on you, because you become this representative.”

Ms Albertson lamented how, often when she has found herself in environments in which she was surrounded by people who may not know a lot about Jewish people or Jewish culture, it felt to her as though “everyone looks to you for all of the answers.”

She continued: “No Jew has all of the answers, right? I think a lot of minorities experience this, where you end up feeling like you’re a representative of your entire people, which is very stressful, and also, ridiculous.”

She revealed that she has had similar experiences when she has been the only Asian person in a room. 

“My Asian family is very American…we’re very Asian-American. People will ask me questions about China, or they want to tell me that they’ve gone to China, and I’m like, ‘That’s really great for you. I’ve never been to China.’ That’s one thing that was so incredible about finding the Asian-Jewish space.”

Earlier this year, Ms Albertson attended an Asian-Jewish Passover Seder hosted by The LUNAR Collective, a group that “cultivates connection, belonging and visibility for Asian American Jews through intersectional community programming and authentic digital storytelling”. Ms Albertson spoke highly of the communal experience of the Seder, praising it as being “really beautiful”.

“This is something that we’ve all experienced; being token,” she said. “Especially being a Jewish Asian…it’s not that common, and you know what it feels like to be in these spaces where people expect you to represent people.”

The activist told our host how, upon telling people that she is Jewish, many begin to enquire about whether she fits the stereotypes placed upon her.

“You’re Asian and you’re Jewish, I feel like people are just wondering, ‘How do you fit the different stereotypes?’ And it’s like, well, I’m just a human. So, maybe I do and maybe I don’t, but does it matter?” she asked.

Speaking on the similarities between the tropes alleged against both Jews and Asians, Ms Albertson said: “The thing about antisemitism is that there’s a lot of punching up, and actually, with anti-Asian racism, there is also the stereotype that we are the model the minority.

“The model minority myth affects both Jews and Asians, because we are successful minorities in America. There are these stereotypes that Asians are doctors, or lawyers, or they’re really rich, they’re good at math, these kinds of things…it’s very interesting, the crossover with antisemitism, [because] it seems on one hand that it could be positive, where someone’s saying ‘You’re so successful’, but really it becomes a negative.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Inflammatory columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes of Israel’s “influence” in Britain and that Labour Party members were expelled for “being pro-Palestinian”

The controversial columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has written of Israel’s “influence” in Britain and how Labour Party members were expelled for “being pro-Palestinian”.

Ms Alibhai-Brown made the claim in a column this week for the i newspaper.

“I fear Israel is above international law and, in Britain, more influential than it has ever been,” she wrote, implicitly claiming in the very next sentence that as a result of that influence, “Several Jewish Labour Party members have reportedly been expelled from the party because they are pro-Palestinian.”

Referencing the International Definition of Antisemitism, she erroneously added that “the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which the Government has instructed universities to adopt, has already been used to inhibit legitimate criticism of Israel.”

Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism and Lord Pickles worked hard over many meetings with officials at Downing Street. 

The media watchdog CAMERA UK has documented a pattern of concerning statements from Ms Alibhai-Brown in her articles and social media pronouncements over the years, including a tweet from 2014 in which she wrote: “Jews were massacred by Nazis & good Germans did nothing. Now Israel massacres Gaza infants & good Israelis do nothing. Wrong lessons learnt.”

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

Moreover, earlier this year, Ms Alibhai-Brown deployed the Livingstone Formulation in an article, in which she asserted that “These days, any criticism of Israel is deemed ‘antisemitic’.”

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.

Late last year, Ms Alibhai-Brown made a similar claim, arguing in an article that “any criticism of the state [of Israel] is deemed antisemitic by apologists and diehard allies”, and suggesting that this is motivating a “purge” of Labour Party members. In the article titled “The UN is warning of spiralling violence, yet the West has forgotten the Palestinians” for the i newspaper, Ms Alibhai-Brown also wrote that “a report from Jewish Voice for Labour accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of purging Jewish members who call Israel to account.” Jewish Voice for Labour is an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.

The year before that, she replied to journalist Stephen Bush’s reaction to being appointed to lead a Jewish charity’s review of racial inclusivity in the Jewish community by tweeting: “maybe ask them about the Palestinians.” The review was concerned with British Jews and was unrelated to Israel, a distinction that Ms Alibhai-Brown is apparently incapable of apprehending.

Previously Ms Alibhai-Brown also expressed her opposition to the Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, describing the fringe minority of Jewish individuals who agreed with her as “good Jews”.

Newspapers and television broadcasters who host Ms Alibhai-Brown must think again before giving a platform to someone who takes such positions.

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

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Comedian Modi Rosenfeld on why taking antisemites to Holocaust museums is a “ridiculous idea”

Modi Rosenfeld, a New York-based comedian, writer and actor who uses his comedy to poke fun at Jewish culture and to speak out against antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke on the state of antisemitism, and antisemites, today.

“I talk about how it’s a hidden antisemitism. I have jokes about how it’s not just punching a guy with a yarmulke (skullcap) and walking away. That’s old-school antisemitism. Now it’s hidden. It’s in places you don’t realise you’re seeing it,” Mr Rosenfeld said. 

The popular comedian, who boasts hundreds of thousands of followers across his social media platforms, uploaded a clip a few weeks ago on antisemites. 

“The thing I had that went viral recently,” he said, “was how whenever somebody does say something antisemitic, they always invite him to visit a Holocaust museum.”

Mr Rosenfeld then turned his attention to Ye, the rapper-turned-fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West, who has made headlines in recent weeks following a series of antisemitic comments, which resulted in Adidas cutting ties with the rapper after Campaign Against Antisemitism launched a petition garnering nearly 200,000 signatures in a matter of days. 

During an interview, Ye claimed that he responded to being invited to a Holocaust museum by saying: “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood. That’s our Holocaust museum.” 

The comedian continued: “Usually, they go [to the museum]. This time, they don’t care. They’re like ‘No, we’re sticking with us being antisemitic and we’re not going to go to the Holocaust museum.’ 

“I think it’s a ridiculous idea to bring someone who hates Jews to a Holocaust museum, because it just gives them ideas.”

When asked whether he had ever received pushback for any of his jokes, Mr Rosenfeld said: “When I did do the bit about the Holocaust museum, people were saying ‘I don’t think Holocaust museums should be used in a joke.’ 

“But it absolutely should be, because there are people who have never heard of a Holocaust museum. So, for them, they can Google ‘what is a Holocaust museum?’ and see what it is and maybe even click on something else from that, and they’re already in a hole on the Holocaust, and now they realise that there was a Holocaust.”

The comedian continued: “You and I know that about the atrocities of World War Two, but there are people who really have no idea. They just don’t know that that happened. To us, we can’t imagine not knowing that.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Rosenfeld also discussed whether he worries about non-Jewish audiences taking Jewish jokes the wrong way, his aspirations before comedy, and the difference between, as he sees it, Jewish comedians and comedians who happen to be Jewish.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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BBC admits antisemitic comments left on social media channels “should have been removed sooner”

The BBC has said that antisemitic comments left on its social media channels “should have been removed sooner”.

The statement arrives after the comments were brought to its attention by the JC. The comments in question include calling Jews “monkeys and pigs” who deserve to be murdered and asking God to “not leave a single Jew around”.

The comments, which were translated by media watchdog CAMERA Arabic, were made in response to a BBC Arabic report on an anti-Israel protest, during which Israeli broadcaster Tal Shorrer was present.

While BBC Arabic’s report featured the protest, it failed to document the protesters alleged abuse toward Mr Shorrer, which included shoving him and claiming that his microphone was “red with blood” and that as a Jew, he was “killing babies”.

Mr Shorrer told the JC: “I have no problem with people supporting Palestine, but being pushed while I was broadcasting live and told I was a murderer for representing what they called a Jewish channel was a very unpleasant experience.”

In a statement, a BBC spokesperson said: “The comments you’ve highlighted are offensive and totally unacceptable and should have been removed sooner.

“We always look to remove any offensive comment or material as soon as possible. We, in common with many other media companies, face some real issues with comment moderation on social media sites. Although we deploy filtering software, this doesn’t always identify problems, so much of our moderation is manual – and with millions of followers and tens of thousands of comments, we have not always been able to remove comments as quickly as we want to.

“These comments are abhorrent and we strive to delete them as quickly as possible. We welcome people pointing them out so we can take action.”

However, according to the JC, the comments had been removed from the Corporation’s YouTube channel but not its Facebook page.

Last week, a Parliamentary inquiry into the BBC’s bias against Jews was announced.

It came following calls for such an inquiry by the JC and a petition, prompted by growing communal concerns regarding the Corporation. Campaign Against Antisemitism backed the JC’s calls.

The inquiry’s secretary will be former Labour MP Lord Austin, who bravely stood up against antisemitism in the Labour Party and is also an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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

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“One of the biggest mistakes of my life”: Duke of Sussex addresses Nazi uniform in Netflix documentary

Harry, Duke of Sussex has said that wearing a Nazi uniform was “one of the biggest mistakes of my life”.

The much-publicised 2005 stunt in which Harry wore a Nazi uniform to a party when he was twenty has been a talking point that has dogged him throughout the years.

However, in the newly released Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, he has spoken openly about the incident.

Harry said: “It was probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I felt so ashamed afterwards. All I wanted to do was make it right.”

He added: “I could’ve just ignored it and probably made the same mistakes over and over again in my life. But I learned from that.”

It was also revealed that he met with then-Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks to discuss the incident.

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“Unlike anything I’ve experienced”: Jewish artist describes relentless online harassment

Roots Metals, a jeweller, artist, and writer who uses her considerable online platform to educate her followers on antisemitism and Jewish history, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she disclosed some of the online harassment that she has faced.

Roots Metals said: “Someone made a tweet implying that I use a ‘Nazi font’ and I am sending secret, white-supremacist dog whistles through the word count of my posts. And it went viral, and with that just came so much abuse. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced until this point.”

The jeweller further admitted that the harassment grew to such an extent that she was forced to call a Jewish organisation for help. 

“It got really, really bad. It’s still bad. Hopefully, it dies down soon, but it’s just been awful,” she said. 

Asked whether she had advice for other Jewish activists who also tackle antisemitism online, she said: “I would say if you want to start [fighting antisemitism online], I don’t recommend putting your face out there, but it’s too late for me. I would definitely feel safer if I were anonymous.

“I would definitely take precautions. I would not tell people where I live. I would keep my name out of there and as far as other things you can do, I would definitely exercise very strong boundaries. If someone is being antisemitic, just block. Some people you can’t reason with.”

Roots Metals further added that initially, she found the allegations of her appropriating Nazi iconography ridiculous to the point of being amusing.

“When I first saw it, I laughed, because I was like, ‘This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.’ And then it went viral. Then it wasn’t so funny anymore.”

Throughout the interview, Roots Metals also discussed why the spread of anti-Zionism on university campuses concerns her, antisemitism in her native country of Costa Rica, and how she infuses Jewish themes into her art and writing.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Amid growing communal concerns over BBC, inflammatory contributor Abdel Bari Atwan reportedly dropped by Corporation

Amid growing communal concerns regarding the BBC, the JC has revealed that the Corporation has introduced mass reforms to its Arabic station, which includes the cessation of platforming the inflammatory broadcaster and regular BBC contributor, Abdel Bari Atwan.

One BBC source reportedly said: “Team leaders in BBC Arabic have told editors to stop using him [Atwan] because he said some problematic things on BBC English…We used to have him on a lot, but we have been told not to.”

In September, Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that Mr Atwan believes that “massive Jewish institutions” try to silence him and others because they “believe they own the entire universe and control all the media.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Parliamentary inquiry into BBC bias against Jews announced followed calls by JC, backed by CAA

A Parliamentary inquiry into the BBC’s bias against Jews has been announced.

It comes following calls for such an inquiry by the JC and a petition, prompted by growing communal concerns regarding the Corporation. Campaign Against Antisemitism backed the JC’s calls.

The inquiry’s secretary will be former Labour MP Lord Austin, who bravely stood up against antisemitism in the Labour Party and is also an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

He wrote: “Members of both houses [of Parliament] have told me they are concerned about the BBC’s reporting on issues around antisemitism and Israel, especially after the Ofcom report. That is why we have established this inquiry.

“Our inquiry will be wholly impartial and rigorous and will simply aim to produce a report that offers expert guidance and recommendations for the corporation to address when it comes to antisemitism and Israel, the handling of complaints and the ‘culture of defensiveness’ identified by Ofcom.”

He was referring to Ofcom’s recent decision censuring the BBC for its “serious editorial misjudgement” over its abominable coverage of the antisemitic incident on Oxford Street last Chanukah, attacking the BBC’s failures over the course of “eight weeks” which were “causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack, and to the wider Jewish community”.

In response to that coverage, Campaign Against Antisemitism held a “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside the BBC’s headquarters at Broadcasting House, which was endorsed by Lord Grade and Dame Maureen Lipman.

Other members of the inquiry’s panel include Labour peer Lord Turnberg, former Labour minister Lord Triesman, Conservative peer Baroness Eaton, former BBC Governor Baroness Deech and Baroness Fox.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The launch of this inquiry, after a campaign led by the JC, is a critical step in bringing much-needed accountability to the BBC. The broadcaster’s biases were put under scrutiny by Ofcom, but they have been present for many years, manifested in partial and prejudiced coverage, advancement of controversial narratives, platforming of inflammatory pundits, and repeated dismissal of antisemitism complaints. That is why we have been at the forefront of efforts to hold the BBC to account, and why we supported the JC’s call for this inquiry.”

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

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

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Kanye’s adoration for Adolf Hitler, Nazis and Holocaust-denial has made one thing clear: all platforms must remove him now

As the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, continues to peddle his malevolent and mendacious antisemitic rhetoric, one thing has become abundantly clear: He must be removed from all social media platforms. 

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Kanye West’s putrid endorsement of Adolf Hitler and Nazis, and his denial of the genocide of six million Jewish men, women and children on conspiracist Alex Jones’ show, followed by his grotesque image of a swastika over a Jewish Star of David, show that he has no shame. His disdain for Jews and his unhinged conspiracy theories about Jewish control echo those of the Nazi leader whom he so admires and show that he has no place on social media platforms.

“In his quest for attention, Mr West is in a rush to the bottom. His depraved rants against Jews and adoration for Hitler should be enough for social platforms to understand the damage that he does. All platforms must not merely suspend him or restrict him: they must remove him, and now he must be shunned like the pariah he has become.”

Yesterday, the rapper made an appearance on Infowars, the online alternative news programme fronted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, where he spewed a slew of antisemitic comments which included praise for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, as well as denial of the Holocaust.

At one point during the programme, Mr Jones, who has his own difficulties with the truth, pathetically said to Mr West: “You’re not Hitler, you’re not a Nazi, you don’t deserve to be called that and demonised.”

The disgraced rapper, who wore a black hood over his face throughout the interview, responded: “Well, I see good things about Hitler also. The Jews…I love everyone, and the Jewish people are not going to tell me ‘You can love us and you can love what we are doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we are pushing with the pornography’, but this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone that I use as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good and I am done with that. 

“I am done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”

In another section of the interview, Mr West stated: “I don’t like the word ‘evil’ next to ‘Nazis’. I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”

He went on to say that Hitler was “a cool guy” who “didn’t kill six million Jews. That’s just factually incorrect.”

If any further clarification were needed on Mr West’s abhorrent views, he doubled down, saying: “I like Hitler…I’m not trying to be shocking, I like Hitler. The Holocaust is not what happened, let’s look at the facts of that and Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities.”

During the interview, he was accompanied by the white supremacist and Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, who has previously argued that Jews should not be allowed in politics.

Recently, Mr West and Mr Feuntes were outrageously hosted by former President Donald Trump for a dinner that has been roundly condemned, including by the embattled former President’s erstwhile allies.

Shortly after the interview with Mr Jones, the rapper tweeted an image of a swastika overlayed with a Jewish Star of David. He was then promptly suspended for twelve hours by Twitter. The platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, commented on the ban: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”

Mr West’s latest outburst arrives following a series of antisemitic comments in recent weeks, which resulted in Adidas cutting ties with the rapper after Campaign Against Antisemitism launched a petition garnering nearly 200,000 signatures in a matter of days. 

  • On 7th October 2022, he posted on Instagram: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
  • Two days later he tweeted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con [sic] 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

On an episode of the Drink Champs podcast, aired on 16th October 2022, Mr West:

  • Said: “The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s*** and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
  • Demanded: “I want all the Jewish children to look at they daddy and say ‘Why is Ye mad at us?’”
  • Stated that was “Me Too-ing the Jewish culture. I’m saying y’all gotta stand up and admit to what y’all been doing, and y’all just got away with it for so long, that y’all ain’t even realise what y’all doing.”
  • Referred throughout the interview to “Jewish business secrets”, “Jewish Zionists”, and stated how Jewish people in the entertainment industry “will take one of us, the brightest of us, that can really feed a whole village, and they’ll take us and milk us until we die.”
  • Claimed that he had been “blocked out” by “the Jewish media”.
  • Said: “Jewish people have owned the Black voice, whether it’s through us wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”
  • Doubled down on his tweet about “going death con [sic] 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, claiming that he “is Jewish also”, adding: “We’re not just Black. We are Jew [sic], just like the Jewish people…I can’t be an antisemite.”
  • Claimed that he responded to being invited to a Holocaust museum by saying: “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood. That’s our Holocaust museum.” 
  • Complained about being photographed in public, saying: “You get used to being screwed by the Jewish media.” 
  • Said: “A thing that a Jewish person will always say is they’ll say ‘This is mine’. Something that a Black person built, or any company built, they’ll be like ‘This is mine now’.”
  • Referencing fellow rapper Ice Cube, who was criticised for sharing an antisemitic image, said: “You really influenced me to get on this antisemite vibe, and I’m here to finish the job.” (Ice Cube has refuted this claim and distanced himself from Ye.)

In an interview on CUOMO on the NewsNation network, aired on 18th October 2022, Mr West:

  • Said: “I don’t like the term ‘antisemitic’. It’s been a term that’s allowed people, specifically in my industry, to get away with murder.”
  • Made comments referring to the “Jewish underground media mafia”. 
  • Claimed “Jewish people own the Black voice.”
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The “Queen of Jewish positivity” on how to safely tackle antisemitism

Karen Cinnamon, a businesswoman and influencer who has been dubbed “the world’s number one Jewish wedding expert” and the “Queen of Jewish positivity”, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she gave her advice on safely tackling antisemitism.

Ms Cinnamon is the founder of both Smashing The Glass, the world’s biggest Jewish wedding media platform, and Smashing Life, a private club for Jewish women, who has been featured in numerous publications such as the New York Times, BBC and Mail Online.

On being asked how to challenge antisemitism in a safe manner, Ms Cinnamon said: “I wouldn’t say ‘That’s crazy! That’s an antisemitic thing to say!’ I would elegantly unpack it and explain why its harmful to Jews. That’s the way to talk about things.”

However, the businesswoman admitted that this approach does not apply to everyone.

“I want to caveat by saying I wouldn’t open that conversation up with a manic Jew-hater. It’s more about the masses in the middle that maybe don’t realise their actions could be harmful to Jews.

“I wouldn’t say its a blanket thing,” she clarified, adding that her conversational approach applies more to family and friends who might be more willing to listen.

“Gently unpack it and point it out, always in a less aggressive, more compassionate tone coming from a point of ‘Did you know that what you just said is actually really harmful to Jews?’”

Ms Cinnamon added, however, that in order to challenge antisemitism, it is vital that one is sufficiently educated on the matter: “It’s really hard to pull apart things without doing the research and understanding why what they’ve said is harmful to Jews.

“Me, personally, I’ve had to deal with it online, and I don’t really go there online, because [there are] lots of keyboard warriors. You’ve got to choose, especially when you have a public platform like me, where you want to put your energy.”

Ms Cinnamon also spoke on the importance of looking after one’s mental health when challenging antisemitism. 

“Protect your mental health first. Don’t feel that you are a spokesperson for the Jewish people and you have to always point out and educate. Mental health first,” she said.

Throughout the interview, Ms Cinnamon also discussed the challenges faced by Jewish women, why she won’t judge other Jews and her secret to happiness.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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John Ware wins £90,000 in libel case against Press Gang’s Paddy French

John Ware, the maker of the BBC Panorama documentary “Is Labour Antisemitic”, has won a total of £90,000 in his libel lawsuit against the Editor of the Press Gang blog.

The lawsuit against Paddy French centred on claims made by Mr French that the Panorama documentary “bent the truth to breaking point” and was a “rogue piece of journalism”. Mr French reportedly disseminated the comment to over 100 senior figures at the BBC, Channel 4 News, Sky News, LBC, The Guardian, The Times and other newspapers.

Mr Ware had originally sued Mr French for £50,000, but received more following Mr French’s decision not to appear in court.

Mr Ware commented: “I wanted my day in court…But not just this unsatisfactory one-sided affair…I wanted my day in court but Mr French has slithered away.”

The judge, Mr Justice Julian Knowles, decided to proceed with the one-hour hearing without Mr French present, noting that “he had no defence” and that his withdrawal of the truth defence had “seriously exacerbated the damage caused” to Mr Ware.

The court concluded that Mr French’s statements caused serious harm to Mr Ware’s reputation as a journalist and awarded him a total of £90,000 in damages. The judge also issued a permanent injunction stopping Mr French from repeating the allegations.

Mr Ware previously received an apology in open court from Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi following libel claims brought against her.

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.

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“Are you a f***ing Jew?”: Journalist Nicole Lampert on the disturbing phone calls made to her son

Nicole Lampert, the freelance journalist, best-selling ghostwriter and former Showbusiness Editor of the Daily Mail, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she disclosed that her teenage son was the victim of aggressive, threatening phone calls based on his Jewish identity.

Discussing last year’s incident, Ms Lampert said: “We were on holiday in Norfolk and my son gets a phone call, and it was from an anonymous number. ‘Are you a f***ing Jew?’ And he said, ‘What?’.

“[The Caller] said ‘Don’t say “what”, just answer the question. Are you a f***ing Jew?’. And [her son] said ‘Yes’, and [the Caller] said ‘Watch your back.”

Ms Lampert continued: “That frightened my son, and we weren’t at home. He was frightened enough to say ‘Can you get a neighbour to go round and just check the house?’ He didn’t know who it was. He had an idea who it was. It wasn’t someone from his school.”

Ms Lampert added that her son continued to receive anonymous phone calls throughout the week.

“That, he found hard. But generally, he’s okay, I would say. It’s quite a young lesson to learn…antisemitism has risen,” the journalist said, adding that her son was also witnessing antisemitism on social media. 

In addition, a fellow student at her son’s student called her son “Jew”, in what Ms Lampert described as “in a nasty way, to his face”, which she felt was as a result of the conflict between Israel and the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hamas.

Ms Lampert added that she was contacted by a fellow Jewish parent at the school who asked her: “How are your boys? Because my daughter is afraid to go to school because her friends have been posting stuff on social media.”

The content in question allegedly referred to conspiracy theories pertaining to Jewish people and Israel. 

Last year, in response to similar concerns, Campaign Against Antisemitism published a short resource on “What to do about antisemitism at school” for children and parents, which helps identify antisemitism using the International Definition of Antisemitism and provides pointers on how to act when antisemitic incidents arise. 

Throughout the interview, Ms Lampert discussed her extensive primer on antisemitism within the Labour Party, her own experiences of online antisemitism and stories from her life as a showbiz writer.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Success for CAA after YouTube channels iFL TV and iD Boxing remove interviews featuring the unrepentant antisemite Wiley 

Two popular YouTube channels have removed interviews featuring the unrepentant antisemite Wiley following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Last week, the YouTube channels iFL TV and iD Boxing, whose collective subscriber base totals nearly one million, both posted interviews with the rapper in which they spoke about the current state of boxing. During the course of both interviews, neither host questioned the rapper on his antisemitic remarks.

Campaign Against Antisemitism then wrote to both channels calling for the removal of both videos.

The rapper Richard Kylea Cowie, who is known as Wiley, went on an antisemitic tirade on social media in July 2020. In his tirade, Wiley likened Jews to the Ku Klux Klan and claimed that Jews had cheated him and were “snakes”, tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn” – a slang expression meaning that they should be shot – and added: “Jewish community you deserve it”. He also called on “black people” to go to “war” with Jews and repeatedly evoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for the slave trade and were imposters who usurped black people — a conspiracy theory that has incited acts of terrorism against Jews in the United States.

In the days that followed, Wiley continued to rail against Jews on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, a major 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram in which we participated, and our projection of antisemitic tweets onto Twitter’s London headquarters, which then went viral, Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok agreed to remove Wiley from their platforms, depriving him of access to his nearly one million social media followers.

At the time of Wiley’s original antisemitic tirade, Campaign Against Antisemitism immediately reported Wiley to the Metropolitan Police Service, but the police eventually confirmed to us that Wiley was not in the UK at the time of his tirade. Under Home Office rules, that means that the Metropolitan Police must give primacy to police in the jurisdiction where Wiley was at the time. Lawyers acting for Campaign Against Antisemitism have filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands, which is where he was located when he launched his tirade against Jews.

We also called for Wiley to be stripped of his MBE and have his Ivors Award rescinded.

However, barely a year later Wiley was again active on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, notwithstanding their pledges to ban him. Wiley tweeted at the time: “In all my years on earth I realised everyone wants you to care about their stuff like Holocaust etc but not one of them give a f*** about the enslavement and f***ery of black people so it’s hard for me to care for them knowing they don’t care for us #YaGetIt #JusSayin.”

Wiley, despite promises of permanent suspensions from Twitter to Campaign Against Antisemitism, has repeatedly been able to create new accounts and spout racist hate towards Jews, even directly attacking Campaign Against Antisemitism. 

One such incident occurred in December when Wiley targeted a senior figure in Campaign Against Antisemitism directly, changing his profile picture to an image of this member of our team and tweeting a further picture of him. He then proceeded to taunt him in a series of tweets, including calling him a “coward” and then posting a video on Instagram taunting him.

The rapper, who recently released an album unsubtly titled “Anti-Systemic”, told our member on Instagram: “Don’t hide” and “come outside”. We are in touch with the police over the taunts and are examining legal options.

In the days that followed, Campaign Against Antisemitism unearthed footage from the rapper’s Instagram Live in which he rants about Jewish people and shouts to his audience: “Why did Hitler hate you? For nothing?”

Wiley continues to demonstrate a lack of remorse for his antisemitism by propagating the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish influence and power.

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Jewish vegan activist Ben Rebuck denounces “absurd comparisons” between industrialised farming and the Holocaust 

Ben Rebuck, a Jewish vegan chef and activist who runs the popular Instagram page Ben’s Vegan Kitchen, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed his dislike for comparisons made between industrialised farming and the Holocaust, which often occur in the vegan community.

Mr Rebuck said: “It’s one of those things where I’ve seen people say it, and then I’ve sent them a message straight away and not holding back, being like ‘How dare you talk about [the Holocaust] in this way?’”

He further said that “people being killed in gas chambers and firing squads” is “far worse than animals being killed,” adding that the comparisons are “absurd.”

Mr Rebuck dismissed the comparisons as “shock tactics” and revealed that more than one confrontation has arisen from him standing up for his beliefs, so strong is his aversion to such references to the Holocaust. 

One fellow vegan activist even referred to the Ben’s Vegan Kitchen founder as “not a real vegan” after he voiced his concerns over Holocaust minimalisation.

“Using shock tactics is one thing but when it relates to one of the greatest genocides in the history of the human race…it’s not something I appreciate people doing. I’ve had quite a few arguments with people that I’ve seen do it,” he said. 

“It’s the shock factor. It doesn’t actually work for me, especially when it comes to the Holocaust. It’s stupid.”

Speaking on how antisemitism fits into wider activism, Mr Rebuck lamented how anti-Jewish racism is often overlooked, which he believes is partially due to Jews not being recognised as a minority in the same way as other groups.

“One of my favourite games to play,” he said, “is I ask people ‘How many Jews do you think there are in the United Kingdom, and what percentage of the population do you think it is?’ I think the biggest answer I got was about 15 million.”

“There are not 15 million Jews in the world,” our host pointed out.

“Well exactly,” Mr Rebuck replied. “I have friends who live in Hackney, friends who live in North London, so they know Golders Green, they know Stamford Hill. They see Jews, and they know Jews, and they’re friends with Jews, so they presume we’re a big part of this society, but we’re not and as a minority, we’re overlooked.”

“Antisemitism is a huge problem,” he added, “and it’s something that seems to be growing year on year and not going away, and we need more people to talk about it.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Rebuck touched upon a variety of other issues which included his online activism, how antisemitism has historically influenced Jewish foods and the similarities between keeping kosher and veganism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Success for CAA as our complaint to BBC over presenter insisting there is “absolutely no evidence” that Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic is upheld

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s complaint to the BBC over a presenter who claimed on BBC 5 Live Breakfast earlier this year that there is “absolutely no evidence” that Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic has been upheld by the Corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU).

The Unit has also stated that there was a “breach of the BBC’s standards of accuracy”. 

Rachel Burden said towards the end of the programme, referring to her interview earlier with the businessman John Caudwell, who described the former Labour Party leader as “a Marxist and antisemite”, that she redirected him back to the topic under discussion but “I should have challenged him on the particular allegation of antisemite [sic] because there is absolutely no evidence that the leader of the Labour Party at that time, Jeremy Corbyn, was or is antisemitic. He had to deal with allegations of that within his party but there is nothing to suggest that he himself as an individual was. So I apologise for not challenging more directly, I should have done, and I want to emphasise there is no evidence for that at all.”

It would have been understandable for Ms Burden to say that Mr Corbyn would dispute the characterisation, but it was unacceptable for her to editorialise and dismiss publicly-available evidence that has been reported in the national media for years.

Over two years ago, for example, Campaign Against Antisemitism published data, using a peer-reviewed research method, showing that Mr Corbyn was personally responsible for 24 incidents relating to antisemitism, which was equal to fifteen percent of all recorded incidents involving parliamentary candidates and party leaders in the lead-up to the 2019 General Election. That meant that, if Jeremy Corbyn were a political party, the ‘Jeremy Corbyn party’ would be responsible for almost four times more incidents than all the other major parties combined.

Moreover, it was remarkable that Ms Burden would refer to the antisemitism in the Labour Party as mere “allegation” even though the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported that the allegations of racism against Jews in the Party were not only made out but were so bad as to have broken the law. Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant in the EHRC’s investigation.

Our Antisemitism Barometer last year revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints.

Earlier this week, Ofcom warned the BBC for its “serious editorial misjudgement” over its abominable Oxford Street coverage, attacking the BBC’s failures over the course of “eight weeks” which were “causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack, and to the wider Jewish community”.

The result vindicates formal complaints by CAA and others, which also led to CAA holding a demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting House and calls for a Parliamentary inquiry into the way that the BBC handles complaints relating to antisemitism by the JC and others.

Fraser Steel, Head of the ECU, said: “Although I am reluctant to find fault with an attempted correction which was clearly well-intentioned, unscripted and made under some pressure of time, I cannot discount the fact that there remains controversy around the question of Mr Corbyn and antisemitism, and the statement that there is ‘absolutely no evidence that…Jeremy Corbyn was or is antisemitic’ did not take account of instances which many people consider to be evidence to that effect. I think I must therefore acknowledge that there was an inadvertent breach of the BBC’s standards of accuracy here, and I am upholding your complaint to that extent.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “For Rachel Burden to have baselessly belittled the evidence of Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism was misleading and fell below the BBC’s standards. We are pleased that the Executive Complaints Unit has now acknowledged that the broadcaster was in breach of its standards, a concession that comes within days of Ofcom’s brutal findings of the BBC’s coverage of the antisemitic Oxford Street attack. The BBC must now pay greater attention and show more sensitivity when discussing racism towards Jews.”

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

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Environmental activists compare themselves to people who hid Anne Frank

The environmental activist organisation Just Stop Oil compared themselves to people who hid Anne Frank on Twitter earlier today, drawing condemnation from several users.

The group, which recently gained notoriety for its public stunts intended to cause inconvenience to the general public as a means of bringing attention towards oil usage which has included throwing soup on rare artworks and hanging banners over motorway gantries, made the comment on Twitter in reply to the former UKIP leader Henry Bolton.

Mr Bolton, replying to a tweet posted by the activist group which stated that one of its members responsible for causing disruption to traffic on the M25 motorway would be imprisoned until her trial, wrote: “If you commit a crime, don’t complain if you’re arrested, prosecuted and and [sic] jailed.”

In response, the activist group wrote that “The people who hid Anne Frank during WW2 were criminals, Henry. So were the French Resistance.”

It added: “Obeying the law does not give you the moral highground [sic] — not when it’s still legal for our Government to greenlight enough oil and gas to kill millions.

“Good people break bad laws.”

The tweet drew the ire of several Twitter users with many denouncing the comparison. It is reported that the group is led by Roger Hallam, the co-founder of the activist group Extinction Rebellion, who was disowned by his colleagues after he described the Holocaust as “just another f***ery in human history.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Such comparisons to victims of the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jewish men, women and children, are totally inappropriate and insulting. This is not the first time radical environmentalists have been caught up in Holocaust controversy. By resorting to degrading the memory of a Jewish girl murdered as part of the worst atrocity in human history, Just Stop Oil only weakens its case and whatever remains of its credibility.”

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“It is important to engage with every situation”: Rudy Rochman on why he will debate anyone, even neo-Nazis

Rudy Rochman, a Jewish-rights activist who rose to prominence after videos of his on-the-street debates around issues of antisemitism and Jewish identity went viral, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he explained why he chooses to debate antisemites.

“I would say my work revolves around correcting the problems that I see,” he said. “For me, it’s about empowering the next generation of Jewish people…to be able to stand up for ourselves.”

He stated that one of the problems that he sees is “antisemitism…from the right to the left to every extreme.”

Mr Rochman believes in using social media as a tool to combat misinformation and to empower Jews. “I always think it is important to engage with every situation,” the activist said. 

This attitude has seen the activist take on all comers, including neo-Nazis. In one video, a tense interaction sees a man becoming increasingly angry and invading Mr Rochman’s personal space. “I’m warning you not to touch me,” the activist says.

In another debate, one man, referring to the Holocaust, tells Mr Rochman: “You want me to cry for some fake six million.”

After the man alleged that millions of deaths were caused by “Jewish lies”, Mr Rochman says “So everything bad in the world, you blame on the Jews,” to which the man says: “Absolutely.”

The activist’s philosophy requires him to engage his opponent’s ideas while maintaining boundaries. “Maybe its the first time that person meets a Jew, maybe its the last time that person meets a Jew,” he said. “So, there’s always a balance of respect, but also there’s a certain line I don’t let them cross where they have to respect as well, and I will definitely expose the individual if they cross a certain line…it doesn’t mean we just accept what they say but we do have to engage those ideas and correct them.”

Mr Rochman says that he has always been blessed with a calm demeanour, allowing him to not get flustered during his debates. However, as he says, “Some of these people are looking to trample over Jews and I’m holding a certain level of ‘I’m not going to let you cross this line’ which also prevents them from going too far.”

The key, Mr Rochman believes, “is finding the balance between demanding respect in a conversation with your confidence and with the way you communicate but also not trying to trigger the other person and aggravate the other person, and to the contrary, trying to calm them down.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Rochman touched upon a variety of other issues which included his upcoming documentary series, getting kidnapped in Nigeria and why he believes there is no such thing as a lost cause in regard to antisemites.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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CAA to write to iFL TV and iD Boxing over platforming of unrepentant antisemite Wiley

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to two popular YouTube channels after they both posted videos featuring the unrepentant antisemite Wiley. 

Earlier this week, the YouTube channels iFL TV and iD Boxing, whose collective subscriber base totals nearly one million, both posted interviews with the rapper in which they spoke about the current state of boxing. During the course of both interviews, neither host questioned the rapper on his antisemitic remarks.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to call for the removal of both videos.

The rapper Richard Kylea Cowie, who is known as Wiley, went on an antisemitic tirade on social media in July 2020. In his tirade, Wiley likened Jews to the Ku Klux Klan and claimed that Jews had cheated him and were “snakes”, tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn” – a slang expression meaning that they should be shot – and added: “Jewish community you deserve it”. He also called on “black people” to go to “war” with Jews and repeatedly evoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for the slave trade and were imposters who usurped black people — a conspiracy theory that has incited acts of terrorism against Jews in the United States.

In the days that followed, Wiley continued to rail against Jews on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, a major 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram in which we participated, and our projection of antisemitic tweets onto Twitter’s London headquarters, which then went viral, Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok agreed to remove Wiley from their platforms, depriving him of access to his nearly one million social media followers.

At the time of Wiley’s original antisemitic tirade, Campaign Against Antisemitism immediately reported Wiley to the Metropolitan Police Service, but the police eventually confirmed to us that Wiley was not in the UK at the time of his tirade. Under Home Office rules, that means that the Metropolitan Police must give primacy to police in the jurisdiction where Wiley was at the time. Lawyers acting for Campaign Against Antisemitism have filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands, which is where he was located when he launched his tirade against Jews.

We also called for Wiley to be stripped of his MBE and have his Ivors Award rescinded.

However, barely a year later Wiley was again active on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, notwithstanding their pledges to ban him. Wiley tweeted at the time: “In all my years on earth I realised everyone wants you to care about their stuff like Holocaust etc but not one of them give a f*** about the enslavement and f***ery of black people so it’s hard for me to care for them knowing they don’t care for us #YaGetIt #JusSayin.”

Wiley, despite promises of permanent suspensions from Twitter to Campaign Against Antisemitism, has repeatedly been able to create new accounts and spout racist hate towards Jews, even directly attacking Campaign Against Antisemitism. 

One such incident occurred in December when Wiley targeted a senior figure in Campaign Against Antisemitism directly, changing his profile picture to an image of this member of our team and tweeting a further picture of him. He then proceeded to taunt him in a series of tweets, including calling him a “coward” and then posting a video on Instagram taunting him.

The rapper, who recently released an album unsubtly titled “Anti-Systemic”, told our member on Instagram: “Don’t hide” and “come outside”. We are in touch with the police over the taunts and are examining legal options.

In the days that followed, Campaign Against Antisemitism unearthed footage from the rapper’s Instagram Live in which he rants about Jewish people and shouts to his audience: “Why did Hitler hate you? For nothing?”

Wiley continues to demonstrate a lack of remorse for his antisemitism by propagating the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish influence and power.

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Vindicated: Ofcom warns BBC for “serious editorial misjudgement” over abominable Oxford Street coverage, bolstering calls for Parliamentary inquiry

Ofcom has warned the BBC for its “serious editorial misjudgement” over its abominable Oxford Street coverage, attacking the BBC’s failures over the course of “eight weeks” which were “causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack, and to the wider Jewish community”.

The result vindicates formal complaints by CAA and others, which also led to CAA holding a demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting House and calls for a Parliamentary inquiry into the way that the BBC handles complaints relating to antisemitism by the JC and others.

Whilst finding that the BBC did not technically breach the Broadcasting Code, Ofcom warned the BBC: “in our view, the BBC made a serious editorial misjudgment by not reporting on air at any point that the claim it had made in the news broadcast was disputed, once the new evidence emerged. This was particularly the case given that the BBC was aware that its news broadcast and online article were causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack, and to the wider Jewish community.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Almost a year after the BBC’s abominable coverage of an antisemitic incident on Oxford Street, Ofcom has seen what every viewer and reader of the BBC’s coverage could but which the BBC itself refused to accept: its reportage added insult to the injury already inflicted on the victims and the Jewish community and abysmally failed to meet the most basic editorial standards. Ofcom’s decision today begins to undo that insult.

“Sadly, the BBC’s stonewalling is exactly what British Jews have come to expect from our public broadcaster. Now that Ofcom has warned the BBC after the BBC disgracefully failed to uphold our complaints against it, it has become clear as day that a Parliamentary inquiry into the BBC focusing on its coverage of issues relating to Jews is warranted, and we have joined the Jewish Chronicle and others calling for one.”

Earlier this year, the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) largely dismissed complaints by Campaign Against Antisemitism and other Jewish community charities over its coverage of the antisemitic Oxford Street incident late last year. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom then announced that it would investigate.

On the first night of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, Jewish teenagers who were celebrating on Oxford Street were attacked by a group of men who hurled antisemitic abuse at them, forcing them to retreat to their bus. The men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern heritage, proceeded to hit the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Hitler salutes. The victims filmed part of the attack.

In its coverage of the incident, the BBC reported that the explicit expressions of antisemitism evident in the footage were merely “allegations”, and simultaneously claimed — alone among all media outlets — that “some racial slurs about Muslims can also be heard from inside the bus,” an assertion made with no evidence to support it and which was even contradicted in the BBC’s own article by a witness from the bus who said that she heard no such slurs. It was also subsequently contradicted by independent audio analysis.

On its BBC London Evening News, the BBC even suggested that “it’s not clear what role [the supposed slurs] may have had in the incident.” After public fury, the BBC amended the article to refer to an “anti-Muslim slur” in the singular, but failed to show any evidence why a supposed slur that nobody could hear with certainty was described as “clearly heard” and reported as fact — and even implied to have been a cause of the antisemitic harassment — while the harassment itself remained mere “allegation”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others submitted complaints to the BBC, and we held a rally outside Broadcasting House in London, attended by hundreds of protestors, to deliver the message: “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” Lord Grade, a former Chairman of the BBC and now the Chairman of Ofcom, told Podcast Against Antisemitism that the BBC’s reportage was “shoddy journalism” and called for answers in a video supporting the rally, which was endorsed also by Dame Maureen Lipman.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has joined the JC in calling for a Parliamentary inquiry following growing communal concerns regarding the Corporation.

Polling that we conducted last year for our Antisemitism Barometer revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. These figures reflect years of eroding confidence in the BBC on the part of the Jewish community.

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

Image credit: Nathan Lilienfeld

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BBC admits “unacceptable delay” in handling of watchdog’s complaints relating to Jewish concern

The BBC has admitted that it is responsible for an “unacceptable delay” in its handling of complaints relating to Jewish concern from the news watchdog CAMERA.

The watchdog revealed that out of its 26 submitted complaints, “only seven received a proper, timely response and resolution.” It added: “The BBC’s complaint system is unable to meet its own standards when it comes to content in Arabic about Israel and Jews.” 

In response, a BBC spokesperson said: “Our complaints team are in regular and direct contact with Camera Arabic who submit a comparatively large number of complaints to us each year. 

“Whilst there has been dialogue on the complaints, we acknowledge that some of them have not yet been actioned or responded to with a formal outcome letter. We apologise for the unacceptable delay and will ensure formal responses are issued as soon as possible.”

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

Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism joined the JC in calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the BBC. The public petition was prompted by growing communal concerns regarding the Corporation.

The petition highlights the BBC’s appalling coverage of an antisemitic incident on Oxford Street over Chanukah last year, when a group of Jewish teenagers celebrating the festival were accosted by racist thugs who forced them back onto their bus and began hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing, as one such example. 

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “As calls mount for a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism at the BBC, this feels like a forced apology. For years, the BBC has shown a disdainful attitude towards Jewish concerns and failed to engage with the community’s complaints.

“The rot has been festering for years and now needs to be drawn into the light of parliamentary scrutiny. The BBC is seen as an authoritative voice around the world, and it is disturbing to consider the extent to which the views expressed on BBC Arabic may have fanned the flames of hatred over the years.”

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

Image credit: Nathan Lilienfeld

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Activist reveals how Jewish pride “saved her life” following threats and attempts to leak her address

Ysabella Hazan, a Canadian activist and the founder of Decolonized Judean, a movement based on Jewish pride and empowerment which seeks to educate people about Judaism through the perspective of a Jewish lens, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she explained how Jewish pride saved her life after being on the receiving end of threats.

Ms Hazan said that certain community leaders advised her to stop posting her online content, which focuses predominantly on antisemitism and Jewish empowerment, due to fears regarding her safety. Concerns grew once people attempted to post her phone number and address online.

“I had security cameras installed in my house,” the activist revealed. “They said ‘stop posting’. But I’m not saying anything that’s inflammatory. I shouldn’t be discouraged to wear my Magen David (Star of David).”

However, Ms Hazan refused to remain silent. Two of Montreal’s most prominent news outlets reached out to her, and she then provided them with screenshots of the threats that she had received. 

“It made it to the front page of their newspaper. I said ‘My family didn’t leave Morocco to be persecuted by the same brand of antisemitism that they experienced there’.”

A Canadian minister would then go on to retweet her, raising awareness of her situation, and people would begin to take notice.

Ms Hazan said: “So when this happened, the threats stopped. The person who was threatening me, who was leading a movement against me…he stopped because he saw that this girl is not going to stop.”

The activist said that the response to the incident invoked “a sense of pride within the community”. 

She added: “No one wanted to mess with me anymore. They said ‘This girl…the more we bother her, the more she gets stronger, we’re going to leave her alone’. So, the Jewish pride is what saved me. Had I stopped, had I cowered, they would have sensed that fear and they would have acted.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Hazan touched upon a variety of other issues which included how she tackles antisemitism through a framework of ‘decolonisation’, why she believes it is so important to remain visibly Jewish and how her family escaped persecution.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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Hitler painting shredded by Jimmy Carr for Channel 4 television programme reportedly a fake

A painting by Adolf Hitler that was reportedly purchased by Channel 4 with a view to letting comedian Jimmy Carr destroy it in a new television programme has been deemed a fake. 

The concept of the programme, titled Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, is to let an audience decide on whether artwork from “problematic” artists should be destroyed following a debate surrounding the ethics of separating the art from the artist.  

The other artists include Pablo Picasso, Rolf Harris and sexual abuser Eric Gill.

In a statement, Channel 4 said: “Jimmy Carr Destroys Art is a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of the limits of free expression in art, and whether work by morally despicable artists still deserves to be seen. It speaks directly to the current debate around cancel culture and is in a long tradition of Channel 4 programming that seeks to engage a broad audience with the biggest and thorniest ethical and cultural questions.

“In relation to the Hitler painting; the artwork, should the audience decide, will be shredded. Not torched.” 

However, Bart Droog, who has written extensively in fake paintings attributed to Hitler, has reportedly said that the piece of art in question is not a genuine painting by Hitler. 

“This is a clear fake. It doesn’t even resemble any known authentic Hitler watercolour.

“By seeking cheap publicity with sensational, bogus Hitler news, Channel 4 not only insults and hurts the Jewish community but does the same to all relatives of his victims.”

When asked if Channel 4 should have known the painting was fake, Mr Droog stated: “Yes, they would have known if they had employed a true expert. By buying a fake Hitler work and presenting it as authentic, Channel 4 not only sponsored criminals and inspired forgers to make more phony Hitlers, but also cooperated with the forgers in faking history itself.”

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: “The painting was bought from a reputable auction house which had authenticated it as genuine. It was made clear in the programme the painting may not be a genuine Hitler.”

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

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BBC editor reportedly blames ‘a particular lobby’ for cancellation of programme hosted by inflammatory Abdel Bari Atwan

An editor at the BBC has reportedly blamed ‘a particular lobby’ for the cancellation of a programme hosted by the inflammatory broadcaster Abdel Bari Atwan.

Nick Guthrie was said to have made a speech in which he criticised the BBC for cancelling the long-running programme Dateline London, in which he reportedly stated: “Just because a particular group, government, lobby groups, whatever, object to views expressed by others does not mean the BBC has to kow-tow.”

Last month, Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that Mr Atwan believes that “massive Jewish institutions” try to silence him and others because they “believe they own the entire universe and control all the media.”

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

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

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

It was also reported that Mr Atwan defended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remark that Israel has committed “50 Holocausts” and his refusal to condemn the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack on Israeli athletes. 

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

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “One wonders who Nick Guthrie is referring to when he says that the BBC ‘has to kow-tow’ to ‘a particular lobby’, which sounds rather like a classic dog whistle. Surely he does not mean the Jewish community, as not only would that amount to a dangerous trope, but the BBC has rebuffed every attempt made by Jewish groups to remove Abdel Bari Atwan from its airwaves due to his antisemitic outbursts and alleged glorification of terrorism.

“No Jewish group, to our knowledge, has asked for any programmes to be cancelled, despite the BBC beaming this Mr Atwan into our living rooms on a regular basis. Perhaps Mr Guthrie would care to enlighten us as to who it is who exercises such power over the BBC. British Jews could then direct our concerns, which the BBC seems routinely to dismiss, to them.”

Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism joined the JC in calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the BBC.

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

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BBC Bargain Hunt’s Charles Hanson reported to be auctioning Nazi memorabilia

Charles Hanson, who regularly appears as an expert on the BBC programme Bargain Hunt, has been reported to be selling Nazi memorabilia at his auction house. 

The reported items include a yellow star worn by a Dutch Jew, an SS dagger and scabbard and a swastika patch.

Images seen by Campaign Against Antisemitism also include a crash helmet, a hat, and several Nazi medals and pins.  

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These items belong in a museum, not in the hands of sick collectors acquiring them from an auction house that stands to make a profit from these sales. Charles Hanson must apologise and remove the items, as well as explain how on earth his website has come to be offering memorabilia and mementos from a genocide.”

Last year, fellow BBC Bargain Hunt expert Tim Weeks apologised after it was revealed that Nazi memorabilia was due to be sold at his auction house.

Some of the items that were listed in Mr Weeks’ Wessex Auction Rooms auction included a £2,000 Third Reich banner, a £300 swastika and a collection of badges.

Mr Weeks apologised for the incident, stating: “Upon learning that a number of Third Reich items are listed for auction I have contacted the head of our militaria department to withdraw them immediately from sale as we would never wish to cause any offence. We apologise if any has unintentionally been caused.”

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Success: After over 180,000 sign our petition, Adidas finally cuts ties with Kanye West

After over 180,000 people signed our petition over the past several days, global retailer Adidas has finally dropped its partnership with Ye (also known as Kanye West) following his repeated antisemitic outbursts.

The petition went viral and was endorsed by numerous celebrities and influencers around the world.

Adidas’ belated decision comes after other brands like Balenciaga and Vogue, and agencies like Creative Artists Agency cut ties with the artist. His label Universal also denounced his comments, if rather weakly, and his own lawyer has dropped him as a client. Leading film studio MRC has also shelved a documentary about him.

On his partnership with Adidas, Ye has said: “The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s*** and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”

Ye now knows.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Adidas has finally joined other brands and agencies and cut ties with Ye (Kanye West). This would not have happened without the over 180,000 who signed our petition and the celebrities and influencers on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world who helped promote it and amplified the message. A company with a Nazi past must be at the forefront, not the rearguard, of fighting antisemitism. But better late than never. No company should profit from antisemitism.

“As for Ye, who has spent the last two weeks threatening Jews and empowering neo-Nazis, he said that he could say antisemitic things yet Adidas could not drop him and asked ‘now what?’ Now he knows.”

A spokesperson for Adidas said in a statement: “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness. After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.”

Ye has posted brazen antisemitic statements in the past month on social media.

  • On 7th October 2022, he posted on Instagram: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
  • Two days later he tweeted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con [sic] 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” 

On an episode of the Drink Champs podcast, aired on 16th October 2022, Ye:

  • Said: “The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s*** and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?”
  • Demanded: “I want all the Jewish children to look at they daddy and say ‘Why is Ye mad at us?’”
  • Stated that was “Me Too-ing the Jewish culture. I’m saying y’all gotta stand up and admit to what y’all been doing, and y’all just got away with it for so long, that y’all ain’t even realise what y’all doing.”
  • Referred throughout the interview to “Jewish business secrets”, “Jewish Zionists”, and stated how Jewish people in the entertainment industry “will take one of us, the brightest of us, that can really feed a whole village, and they’ll take us and milk us until we die.”
  • Claimed that he had been “blocked out” by “the Jewish media”.
  • Said: “Jewish people have owned the Black voice, whether it’s through us wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”
  • Doubled down on his tweet about “going death con [sic] 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, claiming that he “is Jewish also”, adding: “We’re not just Black. We are Jew [sic], just like the Jewish people…I can’t be an antisemite.”
  • Claimed that he responded to being invited to a Holocaust museum by saying: “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood. That’s our Holocaust museum.” 
  • Complained about being photographed in public, saying: “You get used to being screwed by the Jewish media.” 
  • Said: “A thing that a Jewish person will always say is they’ll say ‘This is mine’. Something that a Black person built, or any company built, they’ll be like ‘This is mine now’.”
  • Referencing fellow rapper Ice Cube, who was criticised for sharing an antisemitic image, said: “You really influenced me to get on this antisemite vibe, and I’m here to finish the job.” (Ice Cube has refuted this claim and distanced himself from Ye.)

In an interview on CUOMO on the NewsNation network, aired on 18th October 2022, Ye:

  • Said: “I don’t like the term ‘antisemitic’. It’s been a term that’s allowed people, specifically in my industry, to get away with murder.”
  • Made comments referring to the “Jewish underground media mafia”. 
  • Claimed “Jewish people own the Black voice.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, examples of antisemitism include “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions,” and “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.”

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Palestinian journalist who praised Hitler and advocated for the extermination of Jews stripped of award

The Thomson Reuters Foundation has stripped a journalist of an award following disturbing new information regarding her social media output.

The Foundation announced on Friday that Palestinian journalist Shatha Hammad was awarded a Kurt Schork Award, specifically the 2022 Local Reporter Award, which included a $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity for her work to be “spotlighted through a multi-media campaign on the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s social media channels.”

However, shortly afterward, the award was rescinded after historic social media posts, uncovered by media watchdog HonestReporting, revealed that Ms Hammad seemingly praised Adolf Hitler and advocated for the extermination of the Jews.

One social media post, which was translated from Arabic into English by HonestReporting, stated: “Me and Hitler are friends. We have influence over each other and share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews.”

In other posts, Ms Hammad allegedly signed off using the alias of ‘Hitler’. 

Following the decision to withdraw the award, the Foundation released a statement in which it said: “The decision has been made following the discovery of a social media post on Hammad’s Facebook feed that appears to quote Hitler – which, in doing so, suggests an endorsement of his ideology. The comment appeared in 2014. 

“The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund stand opposed to hate speech of any description. We have therefore taken this unusual step in order to protect the integrity of the Kurt Schork Awards, established to recognise and celebrate the courageous and brilliant reporting of conflict, corruption and injustice from journalists around the world, who risk their lives daily to speak truth to power. 

“We are aware of a second Facebook post using extreme antisemitic language that purports to be drafted by Hammad, also dated 2014. However, Hammad strongly denies that this post is hers.”

Image credit: HonestReporting

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Antisemite Kanye West doubles down on “death con 3” comments in new rant about “the Jewish media” and “Jewish Zionists”

Kanye West has doubled down on his recent, inflammatory comments by ranting about “the Jewish media” and “Jewish Zionists” in a new interview on the Drink Champs podcast.

 Earlier this month, the rapper said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people” before writing about their “agenda”.

The rapper made the disturbing statement in a tweet last night. He wrote: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

Mr West added: “The funny thing is I actually can’t be antisemitic because black people are actually Jew also [sic] You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

The now-deleted tweet came hours after his Instagram account was restricted for posting a text message in which he said: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”

In the accompanying caption, he wrote: “Jesus is Jew.”

His social media accounts have since been restricted. 

In an interview released today, the rapper doubled down on his comments, claiming that he has been “blocked out” by “the Jewish media”.

Additionally, Mr West claimed that “Jewish people have owned the Black voice, whether it’s through us wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”

Going on to reiterate his tweet, the rapper claimed that he “is Jewish also”, adding: “We’re not just Black. We are Jew [sic], just like the Jewish people…I can’t be an antisemite.”

After being invited to attend a Holocaust museum, Mr West claimed that he responded by saying: “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood. That’s our Holocaust museum.” 

Complaining about being photographed in public, Mr West said: “You get used to being screwed by the Jewish media.” 

At one point, he stated that was “Me Too-ing the Jewish culture. I’m saying y’all gotta stand up and admit to what y’all been doing, and y’all just got away with it for so long, that y’all ain’t even realise what y’all doing.”

“A thing that a Jewish person will always say,” the rapper stated, “is they’ll say ‘This is mine’. Something that a Black person built, or any company built, they’ll be like ‘This is mine now’.”

“I want all the Jewish children to look at they daddy and say ‘Why is Ye mad at us?’,” he continued.

Referencing fellow rapper Ice Cube, who was criticised for sharing an antisemitic image, Mr West said: “You really influenced me to get on this antisemite vibe, and I’m here to finish the job.”

Throughout the interview, the rapper also referred to “Jewish business secrets”, “Jewish Zionists”, and stated how Jewish people in the entertainment industry “will take one of us, the brightest of us, that can really feed a whole village, and they’ll take us and milk us until we die.”

This is not the first instance of the rapper making incendiary remarks about Jewish people.

In an interview last year, Mr West said: “You know, you never hear about Jewish on Jewish crime. You know, they kill each other in business in a different kind of way, but not actually physically taking a life.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is an example of antisemitism.

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Channel 4 purchases Hitler painting for Jimmy Carr to potentially destroy in television programme

Channel 4 has reportedly purchased a painting by Adolf Hitler, with a view to letting comedian Jimmy Carr potentially destroy it in a new television programme. 

The programme, titled Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, will see an audience decide on whether artwork from “problematic” artists should be destroyed following a debate surrounding the ethics of separating the art from the artist.  

The other artists include Pablo Picasso, Rolf Harris and sexual abuser Eric Gill.

Ian Katz, Channel 4’s Director of Programming, said: “There are advocates for each piece of art. So you’ve got an advocate for Hitler. There’ll be someone arguing not for Hitler, but for the fact that his moral character should not decide whether or not a piece of art exists or not.”

Mr Katz said that if the audience were to decide that the painting by Hitler should not be destroyed, it would not be placed in the Channel 4 boardroom and would be “appropriately” disposed of.

In a statement, Channel 4 said: “Jimmy Carr Destroys Art is a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of the limits of free expression in art, and whether work by morally despicable artists still deserves to be seen. It speaks directly to the current debate around cancel culture and is in a long tradition of Channel 4 programming that seeks to engage a broad audience with the biggest and thorniest ethical and cultural questions.

“In relation to the Hitler painting; the artwork, should the audience decide, will be shredded. Not torched.” 

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The Holocaust is still within living memory and must be treated with the utmost respect. Using artwork from Adolf Hitler, the murderous dictator responsible for the deaths of six millions Jewish men, women and children, as a prop for an entertainment show risks disrespecting the memories of the victims, which is something that Channel 4 would do well to bear in mind. While we welcome debate surrounding the moral and ethical issues surrounding the art of Adolf Hitler, it must be done soberly and tastefully.”

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

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Kanye West tweets about going “death con 3 on Jewish people” and their “agenda” hours after making inflammatory Instagram post

Kanye West has said he will go “death con 3 on Jewish people” before writing about their “agenda”.

The rapper made the disturbing statement in a tweet last night. He wrote: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

Mr West added: “The funny thing is I actually can’t be antisemitic because black people are actually Jew also [sic] You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

The now-deleted tweet came hours after his Instagram account was restricted for posting a text message in which he said: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”

In the accompanying caption, he wrote: “Jesus is Jew.”

This is not the first instance of the rapper making incendiary remarks about Jewish people.

In an interview last year, Mr West said: “You know, you never hear about Jewish on Jewish crime. You know, they kill each other in business in a different kind of way, but not actually physically taking a life.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions is an example of antisemitism.

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Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters insists he is not antisemitic whilst defending Nazi comparisons and emblazoning Star of David on a pig on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd musician, has repeatedly denied being an antisemite whilst also breaching the International Definition of Antisemitism on yesterday’s episode of the podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Throughout the podcast, Mr Waters, who has a long record of baiting Jews, claimed he has repeatedly been accused of being an antisemite due to his anti-Israel position. 

Joe Rogan, the podcast’s host, seemingly agreed with Mr Waters, saying: “By calling you an antisemite, they just stop the conversation dead in its tracks cause that’s an indefensible position.”

“Exactly. And you’re not allowed to say ‘I’m not’,” Mr Waters replied. 

Going on to address a past concert in which he unveiled a balloon pig with a Star of David emblazoned on its side, he said: “‘Oh, you once put the Star of David on the side of a pig in a show.’ Yeah but I also put the hammer and sickle, and the crescent, and whatever, and a dollar sign. 

“‘Yeah, but you put the…,’ well, it’s a symbol of an oppressive state. I am lumping you in but it’s not just you.” 

In an apparent conflation between the Jewish people and the State of Israel, Mr Waters then stated: “But that is just me criticising the policies of your government and I’m afraid the Star of David does represent the nation that is committing the crime of apartheid every day, and murdering Palestinians every day. Men women and children, every single day.

“So yeah, I did [put the Star of David on the side of a pig], and I’m unapologetic about it.”

Mr Waters complained that “It’s not just me…they smear anyone, anyone, who dares to suggest there’s something bad about their policies. So that’s why the [Definition] is so bad, and so dangerous.”

Taking issue with one of the examples in the Definition, the musician went on to say that the Definition “can’t mean” that the State of Israel should not be criticised for behaving “like people in the past…towards Jews in Northern Europe.” 

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

Throughout the interview, Mr Waters also stated how he was “close friends” with Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, and claimed that the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was smeared as an antisemite due to his anti-Israel views.

This is not the first time Mr Waters has made inflammatory comments surrounding antisemitism or Jewish people.

In 2020, he said that Zionism needs to be “removed” and that American leaders are puppets of a Jewish billionaire and that Israel teaches America how to “murder the blacks”. He later apologised for the latter remark.

Last year, he claimed that antisemitism is “smear sword wielded at behest of the Israeli Government”, stating: “The antisemitism smear sword that was wielded at the behest of the Israeli government, specifically aimed at Jeremy Corbyn because he was left wing and he might turn into a political leader on the left in the United Kingdom who would actually stand up for human rights in general but specifically the rights of working people to represent themselves and have unions.”

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Al Jazeera’s boring propaganda trilogy, ‘Labour Files’ is not real journalism

Following the airing over the past week of the ‘Labour Files’ programme on Al Jazeera, Campaign Against Antisemitism has released a statement assessing the so-called documentary.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Those who managed to watch all the way through Al Jazeera’s rather boring propaganda trilogy, ‘Labour Files’, were presented with a parallel universe of the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis.

“With the astonishing and insulting premise that ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party was condemned for antisemitism [but] the Labour Files reveal they were the victims of distortions and misrepresentation’, the so-called documentary purports to show that antisemitism in Labour was a sham without speaking to any of the victims or leaders of the Jewish community or antisemitism experts. A viewer would barely know from the programme that the EHRC, an independent body established by a Labour Government, found that Labour was so racist that it broke the law, following an investigation in which we were the complainant.

“Relying on testimony from members of an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, as well as figures with records of inflammatory views, the programme ludicrously tries to argue that there were significant fissures within the Jewish community on Mr Corbyn or the International Definition of Antisemitism. The programme also repeatedly insists that the facts plainly support claims that Labour antisemitism allegations were fraudulent, yet this is not borne out by the outcomes of any of the legal cases relating to the matter so far.

“Just as the Corbyn era ended with claims of a ‘hierarchy of racism’, so does Al Jazeera, with a repellent last-ditch assertion that there is a hierarchy of racism in Labour that privileges Jews, which is itself a form of antisemitism.

“The Labour Files has added next to nothing to the collective understanding of Labour’s antisemitism crisis. It is not real journalism, but rather the sort of propaganda that we have come to expect from a Qatari-owned media outlet with its own agenda and priorities.”

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.

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

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“The more proud one is, the taller one stands”: Rabbi Joseph Dweck on antisemitism and Jewish pride 

Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi community, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about his concerns surrounding antisemitism both here and abroad, and the importance of education on Jewish history. 

Rabbi Dweck has been a longstanding friend of CAA, having delivered speeches at many of our rallies and events.

During the podcast interview, he said that antisemitism “in the modern setting is almost always tied to Israel” which is “an easy target” when it comes to young people on social media.

“One does not condemn an entire people because of the [the Israeli government’s] behaviours,” he stated.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” is an example of antisemitism.

Speaking on the importance of having Jewish pride as a means of tackling antisemitism, the Senior Rabbi said: “The more proud one is, of who one is, the taller one stands, the more confident one is to be who one is in the world. That makes a huge difference.”

He continued: “If you’re strong and proud of who you are, you speak up, and you represent. That is something we have certainly seen.

“I’m very concerned about university students experiencing that…it is important for young people to not feel that every time they go outside they need to hide this aspect of their identity…[Jewish pride] will further encourage young people and generations coming to be able to represent the Jewish people and to speak in favour and strength and to be able to have absolutely zero tolerance for any kind of antisemitism.”

When asked about the differences between antisemitism in the United States and the United Kingdom, he noted that he “feels it more here” in London, noting that “the antisemitism here has a very anti-Zionistic colour.”

However, he stated there is a “tremendous rise in antisemitism” in the United States, which has given antisemites “license to be more vocal and present, and violent”. 

Some such antisemitic incidents in recent years included white supremacist shooting in synagogues, a Black Israelite shooting, the Islamist hostage incident in Colleyville, Texas, and persistent attacks on Hasidic Jews. 

Rabbi Dweck lamented that “it’s concerning to me in general” in areas that used to be “tranquil for Jewish people”. 

“Violence, hate speech against Jews is becoming more acceptable. There is a stronger feeling of allowance for people to do this and not have repercussions, and this really worries me,” he said.  

Rabbi Dweck additionally spoke about his own podcast, ‘Humans Being’ where he interviews, in his words, “thinkers, innovators, and creators from across society on the meaning and value of what they do”. 

He commented how he “wanted to speak to people in every area from a background of Jewish thought” and reaffirmed his believe that “Jewish thought, and Torah, is a framework of thought”. 

Leaving a message to the Jewish community for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Rabbi Dweck said that “although we may all feel a bit unstable, our people have survived for thousands of years, we will thrive and continue to do so.”

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Numerous alleged tweets have propagated conspiracies about Jewish power:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Campaign Against Antisemitism shall be writing to The Daily Telegraph.

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United Nations investigator claims “Jewish lobby” controls social media in podcast interview

A United Nations investigator, who is tasked with a much-criticised probe into Israel’s conflict with the antisemitic genocidal Hamas terrorist group, is facing calls to end his investigation after he accused the “Jewish lobby” of controlling social media during his appearance on a podcast.

In an interview with David Kattenberg, a contributor to the controversial publication Mondoweiss, Miloon Kothari, who forms part of the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that “We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs.”

Jewish groups have described Mr Kothari’s comments as “appalling” and “outrageous and absurd”.

The US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, also described the comments as “outrageous”.

The Israeli Government has cited Mr Kothari’s reference to a trope about excess Jewish power as indicative of his unfitness to lead the investigation, and as evidence of UN bias.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chilean newspaper reproduces antisemitic meme in alcohol advertisement

The Jewish community in Chile has expressed its disgust after the appearance of an advertisement for cheap alcohol that uses a well-known antisemitic meme.

The advert, published by the alcohol company, Arbol Verde, in an edition of one of Chile’s national newspapers, Las Últimas Noticias, features the “Smirking Merchant” meme. This depicts a hook-nosed man with a nefarious grin wearing a head covering and holding banknotes. The meme is thought by many to be a classically antisemitic representation of a Jewish person.

The meme was created in 2001 and accompanied a racist representation of a Black man with a caption that read: “A world without Jews and Blacks would be like a world without Rats and Cockroaches.”

The Jewish Community of Chile responded on Twitter and said that it was “unacceptable advertising alluding to the classic stereotype of a Jew that Nazi propaganda turned into the germ of antisemitism that led to the genocide of six million Jews. Unpresentable way of promoting a product and a serious lack of editing in the media.”

Approximately 18,000 Jews live in Chile, which makes up approximately 0.1 percent of a population of over nineteen million.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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“In a generation and a half, it went from tens of thousands of Jews to zero”: Lyn Julius on antisemitism in the Arab world

Lyn Julius, journalist, author and co-founder of the charity Harif, which aims to educate people about Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she explained how the persecution of Jews in the Arab world resulted in a destroyed civilisation almost overnight, and the lasting impact this had on modern Jewry.

Ms Julius said: “The decline was extremely dramatic. In a generation and a half, it went from tens of thousands of Jews to maybe zero or less than ten for most of these countries.”

“So how do we explain this dramatic decline?” she continued. “Arab nationalism played its part. Also, the rise of Islamism, which actually goes back to the 1930s, to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt, and they incited riots against the Jews of Egypt as early as the 1930s. Then, of course, there was the influence of Nazim on Arab nationalists. There was the import of Christian and Nazi antisemitism into this region, Nazi ideas of Jewish conspiracy and control.”

The author added that another contributing factor was the “backlash against Israel’s victory in the first Arab-Israeli war and subsequent wars. The Arab governments really took their frustrations out on what remained of their Jewish communities. It was all these factors, really, that contributed towards the ethnic cleansing of these Jewish communities.”

Elaborating on the role of countries’ governments, Ms Julius said that “there was a lot of state-sanctioned persecution. The Arab League actually drafted anti-Jewish laws stripping them of their citizenship, dispossessing them of their property, freezing their bank accounts. 

“But the main thing they did was to criminalise Zionism and that meant that Jews could be arrested, they could be jailed and they could even be executed for being Zionists. But how do you define Zionism? Is having a Magen David on your tallit, on your prayer shawl, is that Zionist? Is that Zionism? And so all sorts of spurious excuses were produced in order to criminlise Jews, and this of course put Jews in a very precarious and dangerous position. 

“Coupled with outbreaks of violence, and then there were riots in several of these countries in the 1940s, Jews were physically under threat. They could not rely on the forces of law and order to protect them.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Julius touched upon a wide variety of topics which included the challenges faced by Mizrachi Jews and why we still hear the antisemitic “Khaybar” chant at rallies around the world today.

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

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

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

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“It’s the same slogans and you know where they borrowed them”: Izabella Tabarovsky on the parallels between Soviet and present-day far-left antisemitism

Izabella Tabarovsky, an expert on Soviet and contemporary left antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she discussed the parallels between the two, and how much of the modern-day far-left antisemitism draws from Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda.

Ms Tabarovsky said that much of the antisemitic rhetoric emanating from the far-left is something that “I used to hear,” adding: “I grew up in the Soviet Union. It’s something that I read about in Soviet propaganda materials which I have been researching over the last several years. They make for a pretty depressing read because it’s the same slogans and you also know where they borrowed them. Essentially, it’s a reprocessed antisemitic conspiracy theory. 

“Take ‘Zionism is racism,’ ‘Zionists are fascists,’ ‘Zionists act like Nazis’…the whole idea that Zionism is the greatest evil on Earth and always suspect, and Zionists are always up to no good, that is the conspiracist aspect to it.”

Describing the conflation between the term “Zionist” and “Jew”, Ms Tabarovsky noted that “It’s just a direct parallel and it’s truly incredible for me to be hearing it today in America and in the Western press. I truly thought I left all of it behind when I came to America.”

When asked about recent remarks in which the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Hitler had “Jewish origins” in his latest insulting attempt to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Ms Tabarovsky: “When I saw that, it was as if they’re acting on these old Soviet propaganda memos. But there’s also something new. With antisemitism, we know that it adjusts itself to the current conditions. A new angle is applied to old antisemitic conspiracy theories and rhetoric.

Speaking on Vladimir Putin and Mr Lavrov, Ms Tabarovsky said that “They know really, really well how to manipulate the Jewish topic, the Jewish question, and they know the power of that manipulation. They know it can unify their supporters. Hatred against Jews can unify people across the spectrum, as we know.”

Throughout the interview, Ms Tabarovsky touched upon a wide variety of topics which included her escape from the Soviet Union and why she feels that antisemitism from the far-left manages to go relatively unchecked compared to antisemitism from the far-right.

The podcast with Ms Tabarovsky can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

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

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

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“The head of the KKK outed me as a Jew”: Comedian Simon Brodkin talks Twitter pile-ons, Jeremy Corbyn and family members escaping Nazi Germany in new interview

Ahead of his upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the award-winning comedian Simon Brodkin, who in 2018 performed at Campaign Against Antisemitism’s comedy fundraiser, appeared as the first guest of Podcast Against Antisemitism’s second season where he explained his newfound liberation in speaking about antisemitism and his Jewish identity on stage, among other topics.

The comedian previously performed on stage as a variety of characters, the most notable of which being the “happy-go-lucky, south London self-proclaimed legend” Lee Nelson. Through his character of Lee Nelson, Mr Brodkin found great success which included his own television show and numerous live tours.

However, he said that at some point after, he thought: “Hang on, I would like to start doing stuff out of character and as myself.”

“And that was the big change of realising, ‘I can talk about things that have only a connection with myself,’ and that was amazing and liberating and interesting for me,” he said. “And suddenly the whole name of the game with straight stand-up is to connect and talk about things that can only be true to yourself so it’s the complete antithesis of the character comedy. 

“I was sort of hiding behind those characters because I was never quite comfortable in my own skin and that’s been a really cool journey for me talking about things that are close to my heart…my Jewish identity is something that I’ve been open about and talking about and of course, with every bit of Jewish identity, you only have to go one, two, three generations back until you get some antisemitism, and sadly that’s ingrained very much in our culture. 

“My grandma escaped from Nazi Germany and I will not be alone with that. And I started bringing that to the table, bringing that to the stage, and it’s been joyous for me.”

However, Mr Brodkin’s career has not always been smooth sailing. After performing jokes about the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a few years ago, Mr Brodkin unwittingly found himself on the receiving end of a Twitter pile-on.

“The comic needs to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and go ‘That can stand up to scrutiny. I can justify saying that because the punchline to the joke is funny enough but also the target of the joke is a justifiable target.’

“The Jeremy Corbyn thing was really interesting for me because actually, I was slow to the party there. At first, when some of my wiser friends were telling me, ‘This Jeremy Corbyn guy…he’s an antisemite,’ I was like ‘Ah, what? Really? C’mon.’ I was in that camp, and then it clicked for me. I got it, I realised it, I read enough and saw enough and learned enough I was like ‘Oh my God.’ 

“I wanted, then, to make sure that I was doing what I could. If I’m gonna talk about antisemitism on stage, there [was] nothing more relevant at the moment then in the UK than Jeremy Corbyn and so I couldn’t talk about antisemitism, and being a Jew today, without mentioning him and what I thought of him.”

However, the comedian went on to reveal that following a gig at which he performed jokes about Mr Corbyn, he was bombarded with angry tweets. 

“[The audience member] heckled me, after that she had a word with me but then after that, when she got home, she went on Twitter…it was a pile-on.”

My Brodkin said that he wasn’t surprised, however. “I’m used to some other antisemitic pile-ons…the head of the KKK, Mr David Duke, he outed me as a Jew on social media and the pile-on I got after that was insane. It was absolutely mad. 

“It was before I was out of character so I felt much more detached from it. I hadn’t made that move into talking about myself so it was sort of one step removed. Since I’ve done stuff on stage as myself, everything feels more personal which is great because you feel like you’re really pouring your heart out in that emotional connection you get, but then if you get some abuse afterward it feels more about you.” 

Throughout the interview, Mr Brodkin touched upon a wide variety of topics which included the antisemitic rapper Wiley, when to draw the line in comedy and his upcoming tour.

The podcast with Mr Brodkin can be listened to here, or watched in its entirety here.

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

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

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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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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 [email protected].

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Iran’s “Jewish Studies Centre” publishes over 1,000 inflammatory articles about “bloodthirsty” and “deviant” Jews since 2016

Reports have surfaced that a “Jewish Studies Centre” backed by the Iranian regime has published over 1,000 inflammatory articles about Jews since its establishment in 2016.

The Centre has apparently published articles, reports, comment pieces, books, and videos. Much of the output is arranged into ten categories with names like “Jews and the Media”, “Jewish Methods”, and “Jewish Corruption”.

One such category bears the name “Jewish Plots”. Containing about 50 articles, this section of the website exists to accuse Jews of taking part in a conspiracy to undermine Iran and the rest of the Islamic world.

Other examples of the output include claims that Jews are “bloodthirsty” and a “deviant” people who are guilty of “infanticide”, and that Jews are “promoters of corruption, drug trafficking, superstition, racism and homosexuality around the world”. This includes the claim that Jewish fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is part of a wider Jewish conspiracy to promote sexual permissiveness.

Some of the material includes Holocaust denial, which is described as a “myth” and “a new religion in the West” promoted by Jews in order to extract money from the United States and establish the State of Israel. 

The Jewish Studies Centre, which some critics have said is a deliberately misleading name, is supported by the Revolutionary Guards, the Foreign Ministry, the Religious Endowments Organisation, and a number of other bodies directly associated with the Iranian state.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

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Jewish Report expelled from Press Council of South Africa after reporting on “racist undertones” of BDS cartoon

The South Africa-based newspaper, Jewish Report, has been expelled from the Press Council of South Africa.

The move comes after a November 2020 article in the Jewish Report, which reported the opinion of two experts on antisemitism who argued that there was antisemitic imagery used in a cartoon advocating for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

The cartoon, which was posted to the Facebook page of the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (SA BDS) Coalition, showed a grotesque, overweight banker in a pin-striped suit, with the logo of Israeli-owned dairy company Clover Industries on one shoulder, shovelling money into his mouth while a much smaller worker is left with much less. The words in the image read, “Don’t buy clover products!!” and “Don’t feed Clover’s greedy bosses!” 

The caption on the post says: “Greedy bosses connected to apartheid Israel. Blood curdling milk [and cheese, yoghurt, etc.]. Every reason to boycott Clover! Change your brand. Viva GIWUSA [General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa] and the struggle for a living wage! Clover was recently permitted by the Competition Commission and the department of trade and industry to be owned by Central Bottling Company (CBC), in turn owned by Milco, an Israeli concern operating in the Occupied Territories. The unions and Palestine solidarity organisations jointly submitted objections to the Competition Tribunal. Our objections were ignored.”

Milton Shain, an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cape Town, said that, although the cartoon is not an obvious representation of a Jewish capitalist, “it has enough resonance with age-old antisemitic images and tropes.”

David Saks, from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, agreed, saying that the image “helps confirm suspicions that stereotypes of greedy, exploitative Jews are being used to fuel the anti-Israel positions held by the various trade unions.”

Following the publication of the Jewish Report article, and a complaint by a member of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance on behalf of the SA BDS Coalition and the General Industrial Workers Union of SA (Giwusa), the Press Council of South Africa, which offers its members a code of ethics to guide South African journalists, expelled the Jewish Report. This is the first time in twenty years that the Council has expelled a member.

In response, the Chairperson of the Jewish Report, Howard Sackstein, issued a statement saying: “Through its failure to recognise the racist undertones of the cartoon, the Press Council became party to the perpetuation of racism, hatred and bigotry in South Africa. By calling on the South Africa Jewish Report to apologise to racists, the Press Council discredited itself and failed the people of South Africa.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

We are seeking to recruit a Video and Content Creator 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.