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Manchester cleric reportedly praised Iranian terror chief at event where audience chanted “Death to Israel”

It has been reported that a cleric in Manchester gave a speech in which he praised an Iranian terror chief at an event where the audience chanted “Death to Israel”.

According to the JC, cleric Farrokh Sekaleshfar is listed as a trustee and director at the Islamic Cultural Centre, a Manchester-based charity, and as a speaker at the Islamic Centre of England, the latter of which is said to have been described as the “London office” of the antisemitic Islamist terrorist group known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission.

Mr Sekaleshfar is alleged to have appeared as a keynote speaker at a memorial event for IRGC terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the United States in 2020. 

During the event in Qom, Iran, the audience is reported to have chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to England”. 

Mr Sekaleshfar is also reported to have described Soleimani as a “martyr” in a separate speech in 2021.

Earlier this year, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to all MPs calling on them to back the Government’s reported proposal to proscribe IRGC under the Terrorism Act 2000.

We have provided the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and the Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, and all MPs with a dossier on the IRGC, detailing its horrendous record of antisemitism and violence against Jewish people.

In light of the mounting pressure to proscribe the IRGC, there have been calls made to close London’s Islamic Centre. The Islamic Centre is believed to serve as an office for Iran’s Supreme Leader, and its Director, Seyed Hashem Moosavi, is understood to have been appointed by the regime as a mid-ranking cleric.

The institution also aired an Iranian propaganda film, posted on IRGC websites, featuring children singing a song that referenced an apocalyptic myth about murdering Jews, according to the JC. The Islamic Centre denied that its “local version of the song” carried the same meaning. It also has a history of publishing inflammatory rhetoric about Zionists and extolled Iranian support for the antisemitic terror groups Hamas and Hizballah.

The Islamic Centre is located just minutes from several synagogues in the area.

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Middlesex University reportedly to cut ties with Islamic College over links to Iran and inflammatory staff

Middlesex University is reportedly cutting ties with the Islamic College.

The University is terminating its partnership with the Brondesbury Park-based institution, whose degrees are validated by Middlesex University and which has received hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxpayer funds, according to the JC.

The Islamic College is alleged to be the British affiliate of Al-Mustafa International University, which is controlled by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and which was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 because it is allegedly “a recruiting platform for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.”

Earlier this year, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to all MPs supporting the Government’s mooted ban on the IRGC terror group.

There is no evidence that the Islamic College itself is involved in terrorism. A staff member, however, reportedly claimed that mass-murderer Anders Breivik was an “ultra-Zionist, freemason, Islamophobic who claims to belong to the Templar order of the Rose-Cross.”

In addition, a former Principal of the College, Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour, has reportedly been captured on video apparently urging the crowd at a rally in 2013 to chant their support for the antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation Hizballah, which has since been proscribed by the British Government.

Another lecturer was reportedly captured on video comparing Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis. The JC has reported that, after it began investigating, this video is no longer available. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

The founder of the College, Saied Reza Ameli, who until 2006 was a trustee of the Irshad Trust, the charity that runs the College, is reportedly now a secretary to Iran’s Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution.

The Islamic College runs courses on Arabic, Islamic studies and Islamic law at undergraduate and graduate levels. Its degrees are “validated” by Middlesex University, and, in addition to significant taxpayer funds received under the Covid furlough scheme, it is owned by a charity, enjoying the benefit of tax-incentivised donations.

The Islamic College is closely associated with the controversial Islamic Centre of England.

A spokesperson for Middlesex university reportedly said: “Following a review of our partnership with the Islamic College in London we have mutually agreed to terminate. Middlesex University has a statutory duty of care to students currently studying at the college and we are in close contact with the regulatory body, the Office of Students, to ensure a smooth transition. The end date of our partnership will be December 31, 2023.” 

In a further statement, spokesperson for the University said: “Middlesex University validates academic provision offered by the Islamic College and provides services related to oversight of academic quality and standards, in line with standard sector practice. All of our partnerships are regularly reviewed and we undertake thorough due diligence before formalising any collaborative relationship. We are grateful to the JC for bringing these serious allegations to our attention and we will be raising them with the Islamic College as a matter of urgency.”

The Islamic College denies affiliation to Al-Mustafa University. A spokesperson said that the College’s aim is to “offer programmes of the highest standards in Islamic studies, promulgate a rational and critical study of religion, enhance community cohesion and promote interfaith dialogue. It is not engaged in the dissemination of any ideology.”

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

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

Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Archbishop of Canterbury says he would never have forgiven himself if he hadn’t backed Chief Rabbi’s warning against Jeremy Corbyn in 2019

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he would never have forgiven himself if he had not backed the Chief Rabbi’s warning about Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.

Justin Welby made the remark at an event at a Jewish community centre last week in a public conversation with the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.

Shortly before the 2019 General Election, Rabbi Mirvis asked in The Times how far Mr Corbyn would have to go to be considered “unfit for office”, rhetorically asking readers: “What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country? When December 12 arrives, I ask every person to vote with their conscience. Be in no doubt, the very soul of our nation is at stake.”

Archbishop Welby subsequently issued a statement warning that there is a “deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.”

In the conversation last week, Archbishop Welby recalled the the Chief Rabbi had forewarned him that he was going to speak out, and the Archbishop recounted: “I said immediately I will support you,” the Archbishop said. He further observed that his staff supported his decision “without hesitation”.

The Chief Rabbi said during the conversation: “The Archbishop of Canterbury volunteered to issue his voice… There was an enormous amount of courage and we appreciated it enormously”. The Archbishop responded: “I think it would have been cowardice not to say something. It was so obviously right I knew I would never forgive myself if we didn’t speak clearly…I know my history…You have to cut off these things off straight away because if you don’t, they become overwhelming.”

The event was held by the Yoni Jesner Foundation to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the murder of Yoni Jesner in a terror attack on a bus while he was studying at a yeshiva in Israel.

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Newly-elected Deputy Secretary General of Muslim Council of Britain reportedly praised founder of Hamas

The new Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) reportedly praised the founder of the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hamas.

In 2015, Mohammed Kozbar allegedly visited the grave of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and described him as “the master of the martyrs of resistance, the mujahid [holy warrior] sheikh, the teacher,” according to the JC.

Mr Kozbar also reportedly met senior Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud al-Zahar.

In 2021, the UK banned Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist group following calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

A spokesperson for the MCB reportedly described suggestions that Mr Kozbar, who is also the General Secretary of the Finsbury Park Mosque, supported violence or antisemitism as “smears”. According to last week’s major review into the Government’s Prevent strategy, Mr Kozbar was also “praised” by the London branch of the National Association of Muslim Police.

Mr Kozbar also hosted Egyptian cleric Omar Abdelkafi. Despite Mr Abdelkafi’s record of quoting from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and a Facebook post that included a prayer to “liberate the al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews,” Mr Kozbar reportedly described him as “our beloved preacher”.

In 2011, Mr Kozbar was reportedly caught on video speaking at an anti-Israel rally, where he allegedly said that he looked forward “to the end of Israel, inshallah.”

He has also reportedly given public support to the disgraced Bristol University academic David Miller and to Shaima Dallali, who was removed from her position as President of the National Union of Students amidst allegations of antisemitism.

Last week, Mr Kozbar reportedly told the JC: “I look forward to bringing my experience to help Muslim communities be part and parcel of British society. I have demonstrated interfaith action at a local level, and it is much needed at a national level. I look forward to particularly building this with our Jewish friends. I have worked with many Jewish colleagues who have looked past the Islamophobic smears levelled at me in the past.”

Image credit: JC

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Founder of organisation linked to purchase of Wembley synagogue reportedly called on Muslims to avoid behaving as “imitations of the Jews”

The allegations come shortly after Dawat-e-Islami UK, the charity behind the purchase, was forced to issue an apology after it referred to the congregants of the synagogue as “non believers”.

The founder of a Pakistani organisation whose UK charity affiliate recently purchased Wembley United Synagogue has previously made inflammatory remarks about Jewish people, according to the JC.

A fundraising flyer which announced the purchase of the synagogue said: “A mega project in Wembley, London (a former place of worship of non believers).”

A spokesperson for Dawat-e-Islami UK said that he wished to “apologise for the hurt caused by our leaflet this week” and that the text would be amended.

However, it has now been reported by the JC that the charity has been discovered to have a troubling record.

In 2021, the charity reportedly hosted the cleric Sheikh Asrar Rashid, who has previously described Jews as “a cowardly nation” and is alleged to have said that Hitler did Jews “a favour”.

In addition, the JC also stated that the founder of Dawat-e-Islami in Pakistan, Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadri, published a book in which he called on Muslims to boycott Jewish goods and to avoid behaving as “imitations of the Jews”.

A spokesperson for Dawat-e-Islami UK’s legal department said: “We would like to point out that most mainstream religions including Judaism refer to others as ‘non-believers’ if they do not follow that religion’s beliefs. In relation to the other matters you have mentioned, we would like to remind you that the core texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as documented in the Torah, the Bible and Quran, all have identical positions of punishments for blasphemy. If we search for short, cherry-picked clips, we are sure we could find lots of example [sic] of reference to Leviticus 24:16 for the Seven Law of Noah.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While it is right that Dawat-e-Islami has apologised for referring to a former synagogue as a ‘place of worship of non-believers’, it is hugely concerning that this multi-million-pound-a-year charity ever approved a leaflet where that was the secondary headline. It is no wonder that so many members of the Jewish community contacted us to raise concerns about the language used, and the relevance to Dawat-e-Islami in its fundraising campaign of replacing a synagogue with a mosque. We will be asking the Charity Commission to investigate this matter, as well as the disturbing allegation that the charity’s Midlands branch hosted Sheikh Asrar Rashid, a preacher accused of claiming that Hitler did Jews ‘a favour’.

“Additionally, we will be asking the Commission to investigate claims that the founder of Dawat-e-Islami in Pakistan called on Muslims to boycott Jewish goods and to avoid behaving as ‘imitations of the Jews’. The Commission should find out whether the alleged statements were made true and, if so, whether Dawat-e-Islami UK rejects them.”

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Disgraced Reverend Stephen Sizer given twelve-year ban after being found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity”

The disgraced Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer has been handed a twelve-year ban by the Church of England after having been found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity” by a tribunal of the Church of England.

Rev. Dr Sizer, 69, who was ordained in 1984 and served as a vicar at Christ Church in Virginia Water, Surrey, faced eleven allegations of conduct that “provoked and offended” the Jewish community between 2005 and 2018. The Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese Rev, Sizer’s church is located, suspended him in 2018 pending the outcome of the hearing late last year.

The tribunal found that “the Respondent’s conduct was unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders, in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community, and, in the case of allegation (H), his conduct was unbecoming, in that he engaged in antisemitic activity, all within section 8(1)(d) of the Clergy Discipline Measure.” It upheld the complaint in four instances and found a number of other allegations not to be proved. Allegation (H) related to Rev. Dr Sizer’s “Promoting the idea that Israel was behind the terrorist attacks on 11th September 2001 by posting a link in January 2015 to the article entitled “9-11/Israel did it” that blamed Israel for the attacks.”

Following this finding, it has today been announced that Rev. Dr Sizer, who retired in 2017 after twenty years at his Surrey pulpit, will be banned for twelve years. This period includes the time that he has already served since the complaint was brought in 2018, and will therefore last until December 2030. The ban means that Rev. Dr Sizer cannot fulfil any priestly roles, such as taking communion or marriage services, until he has served his sentence.

In a statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: “I note the findings of the Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal for the Diocese of Winchester regarding the Revd Dr Stephen Sizer and his subsequent prohibition from licensed ministry in the Church of England. It is clear that the behaviour of Stephen Sizer has undermined Christian-Jewish relations, giving encouragement to conspiracy theories and tropes that have no place in public Christian ministry and the church. I renew my call for the highest possible standards among ordained ministers of the Church of England in combatting antisemitism of all kinds.”

The acting Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Reverend Debbie Sellin, said: “It is the Church of England’s task to lead in the work of enabling mutual understanding and strong, peaceable interfaith relationships for the common good of society, and its ministers must take very seriously their role in initiating positive relationships between communities, locally, at diocesan and regional level, as well as nationally and internationally.” She added: “Antisemitism has no place in our society and those in positions of power and influence must listen to concerns about it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last year, the Church of England apologised for centuries of antisemitism.

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

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Calls to close so-called “outreach centre” of Iranian Government and terrorist IRGC in north London

There have been calls to close what has been described as an “outreach centre” for the Iranian regime and the Iranian terror group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the JC.

The Islamic Centre of England, based in Maida Vale in north London, was described as such by Alicia Kearns MP as calls grow for the British Government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Campaign Against Antisemitism has been among those calling for the ban, and disseminated a dossier to all MPs demonstrating the IRGC’s record of antisemitism.

The Islamic Centre of England, a registered charity, held a vigil for the IRGC terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the United States in 2020, at its West London premises, prompting an investigation by the Charity Commission, which found that the event risked associating the charity with a speaker who may have committed an offence under the Terrorism Acts, as the speaker was filmed during the event appearing to praise and call for support for Mr Soleimani. The trustees failed to intervene or provide a sufficient explanation. The following day, the trustees organised a further event and published statements on its website offering condolence and praise for Soleimani, prompting the Charity Commission to issue an Official Warning.

The Islamic Centre is believed to serve as an office for Iran’s Supreme Leader, and its Director, Seyed Hashem Moosavi, is understood to have been appointed by the regime as a mid-ranking cleric. Mr Moosavi has now stepped down from board of the limited company that runs ICE and as a trustee of its charity. His replacement, Jafar Ali Najm, is the General Secretary and a trustee of Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Shia Europe, a grouping of Islamic scholars that also reportedly praised Soleimani as a martyr. 

The institution also aired an Iranian propaganda film, posted on IRGC websites, featuring children singing a song that referenced an apocalyptic myth about murdering Jews, according to the JC. The Islamic Centre denied that its “local version of the song” carried the same meaning. It also has a history of publishing inflammatory rhetoric about Zionists and extolled Iranian support for the antisemitic terror groups Hamas and Hizballah.

The Islamic Centre is located just minutes from several synagogues in the area.

In response to the calls for its closure, a spokesman for the Islamic Centre of England reportedly told the JC: “I am not here to comment on any statement passed by said personalities. As we are the Charity regulated by the British law. We are nothing to do with what these speakers have said in their past.”

Image credit: Google

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CAA launches Britain’s first-ever national billboard campaign as latest Home Office figures show Jews are 500% more likely to suffer hate crime

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched Britain’s first-ever national billboard campaign seeking the public’s support against antisemitism after the most recent Home Office figures showed that Jews are 500% more likely to suffer hate crime than any other faith group per capita.

The striking digital billboards can be seen right across the country, including in prominent locations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and other major cities.

We are calling on people to stand with the Jewish community by using the #StandWithJews hashtag on social media. Members of the Jewish community can highlight their own experiences of antisemitism using the #BecauseImJewish hashtag. We may share any posts that tag us using @antisemitism.

The billboards also challenge preconceptions and prejudices about what it means to ‘look Jewish’ with the models reflecting the diverse backgrounds of Britain’s Jewish community.

All of the Jewish models who appear on the billboards might be targeted for any of the protected characteristics that they possess — or may appear to possess — but what all the models share is that they, like all British Jews, are on average 500% more likely to be the target of a hate crime because they are Jewish, compared to any other faith group.

The models include a Holocaust survivor who has been left sickened by the targeting of Jews in modern-day Britain, recent immigrants to the UK and, it is believed for the first time ever on a British billboard, a member of the Charedi Jewish community, which bears so much of the brunt of violent antisemitic crime.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “People are utterly appalled when we tell them quite how much Jews are targeted by hate crime. The UK is a fundamentally decent and tolerant place, and one of the best countries in the world to live as a Jew, but we still suffer racism and attacks every day simply because we are Jewish. Jews make up barely 0.5% of the national population and the solidarity of good people who are willing to stand up to hatred and #StandWithJews means a great deal to our community and shows the racists that they cannot win.”

We would like to express our thanks to Ocean Outdoor for providing the space on these billboards for such an important cause, particularly as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, and we are profoundly grateful to those who have contributed their time to the making of this campaign, including designers, photographers, makeup and wardrobe. Finally, we would like to thank the models who are all members of the Jewish community who believe in the importance of standing up to antisemitic hate crime.

Image credit: Nathan Lilienfeld

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Anonymous letter in Church Times movingly recounts experience of Jewish exclusion

An anonymous letter in the Church Times has provided a moving account of a personal experience of Jewish exclusion.

In a letter published on 6th January, the writer, who identifies as “a vicar of Jewish heritage”, recalled: “At a recent diocesan conference, I sat a table with others from minority-ethnic backgrounds. They told me with excitement that, following the report From Lament to Action, they had set up a group to support those clergy from minority-ethnic backgrounds.

“‘This sounds really good!’ I exclaimed. ‘As someone from Jewish heritage, can I join the group?’ The answer, I was told, was ‘No!’

“They told me that they had discussed this issue, but the group decided that, as Jews were rich, well educated, and involved in the persecution of the Palestinian peoples, they should be excluded from the group.

The writer concluded by suggesting that David Baddiel’s assertion that “Jews don’t count” is “sadly correct”.

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

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CAA announces new event: “An evening with Ben M. Freeman”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has announced an event scheduled for the new year, titled: “CAA presents…An evening with Ben M. Freeman”

Tickets can be purchased here.

Ben M. Freeman is a Scottish, gay, Jewish author, activist and educator whose latest book, Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride, is the second instalment of his seminal manifesto of the modern Jewish Pride movement that has taken the Jewish world by storm.

There will be a conversation followed by a Q&A and book signing.

The event will be held at a Shoreditch location (to be revealed on the day) on 19th January, running from 19:30 to 21:30.

Earlier this year, Mr Freeman appeared on an episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism, where he spoke about the importance of having a basic understanding of history and why it is vital in tackling antisemitism. 

Speaking on his passion for studying history, Mr Freeman told our host that “I was always able to view history from a bird’s-eye perspective, and I don’t know why that is…it’s just the way my mind works. So, for me, that means I’m able to spot patterns.

“That’s why I can look at Paul [the Apostle], and then Marx, and then things that were said later on, things that are said today, and then draw a connection.”

Mr Freeman said that looking at common themes between historical events can better explain the events behind antisemitic incidents and “tell us why”. 

“So much of the commentary on Jew-hatred is just commentary, it’s just people describing what happened. ‘This person said this, that person said this,’ and for me, we have to get to the ‘why’, and the ‘why’ is not going to be answered in 2022, it’s going to be answered looking back in history to thousands of years ago.”

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

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Stephen Sizer “engaged in antisemitic activity”, Church of England tribunal finds

The disgraced Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer has been found to have “engaged in antisemitic activity” by a tribunal of the Church of England.

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

The tribunal concluded that “the Respondent’s conduct was unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders, in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community, and, in the case of allegation (H), his conduct was unbecoming, in that he engaged in antisemitic activity, all within section 8(1)(d) of the Clergy Discipline Measure.” It upheld the complaint in four instances and found a number of other allegations not to be proved.  Allegation (H) related to Rev. Dr Sizer’s “Promoting the idea that Israel was behind the terrorist attacks on 11th September 2001 by posting a link in January 2015 to the article entitled “9-11/Israel did it” that blamed Israel for the attacks.”

Following this finding by St Andrew’s Court finds, Rev. Dr Sizer could face sanctions ranging from a rebuke to expulsion from the priesthood. The tribunal is due to decide on a penalty early next year.

In a statement, the Acting Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Debbie Sellin, noted that “the Revd Dr Stephen Sizer has committed misconduct under the Clergy Discipline Measure,” adding that “the legal process continues and the Tribunal will now determine a Penalty.” It concluded: “The Church of England, together with our partners in ecumenical and interfaith working, is committed to building cohesive communities and fostering strong interfaith relations built on trust and respect. As Archbishop Justin Welby said in 2018, in a joint letter with other Christian and Jewish leaders, antisemitism has no place in our society and those in positions of power and influence must listen to concerns about it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The hearing followed the Church of England’s apology earlier this year for centuries of antisemitism.

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

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Amnesty International reportedly refuses to sack official who allegedly compared Israel to Nazis in apparent breach of International Definition of Antisemitism

Amnesty International has reportedly refused to sack an official who allegedly compared Israel to the Nazis.

Garry Ettle, who represents the controversial activist group as “country coordinator for Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories”, allegedly retweeted a message asking about video footage appearing to show Israeli youth “harassing” a woman: “How is this any different from Nazi Germany?”

In a Facebook post in 2020, he also allegedly described Israel’s policies toward Gaza as a “slow holocaust”, among other inflammatory social media posts.

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

Amnesty International and its network of activist groups have come under fire recently over a string of scandals over its activities, personnel and protocols, including claims of systemic racism.

Amnesty International defended Mr Ettle, saying in a statement: “Garry Ettle is a committed and highly principled human rights activist who has opposed the Israeli authorities’ system of apartheid for years. This is just the latest attempt to intimidate and silence us for our important work in documenting serious and systematic human rights violations under successive Israeli governments.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Only at Amnesty and like-minded organisations could someone who allegedly compares Israel to Nazis describe himself as a ‘human-rights activist’. Such comparisons are a breach of the universally-accepted International Definition of Antisemitism. We would call on Amnesty to investigate and dissociate itself from this individual, but the organisation’s record on antisemitism gives little reason to think that it holds the views of the Jewish community in anything but contempt.”

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Muslim Association of Britain praises Islamist antisemite Yusuf al-Qaradawi for his “profoundly positive impact” and “principled stances”

A group that describes itself as a “leading Muslim grassroots contribution for a fair and prosperous British society since 1997” has mourned the death of the antisemitic Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), said in a statement that “Sheikh Yusuf was a renowned and greatly respected figure worldwide, referring to him as “a leading contemporary Islamic thinker,” adding that “In the UK Sheikh Yusuf has had a profoundly positive impact on the Muslim community and MAB had the pleasure of hosting him in 2004 when he visited the country.” It observed that, while visiting Britain, al-Qaradawi “met many high-profile British personalities”.

The statement further claimed that al-Qaradawi “was also known for his principled stances against oppression and dictatorial regimes around the world,” and that he “leaves behind an outstanding legacy of work that will continue to inspire Islamic scholars for generations to come.”

The Egyptian-born, Qatari-based cleric died in Doha this week, aged 96. He was well-known in the UK for his inflammatory statements about Jews and other minorities.

In 2008 the Home Office banned him from entering the UK for medical treatment amid fears that his preaching “could foster inter-community violence.”

In January 2009, al-Qaradawi said on Al Jazeera that he would “shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews.” In a sermon that took place in that same month, he again spoke of Jewish people and called upon God to “kill them, down to the very last one,” saying that Jews deserved “annihilation”.

In a 2013 sermon, he said that he would not be attending the following year’s interfaith dialogue in Qatar if Jews were attending, as “their hands are soiled with blood”, and he also complained of a “Jewish plot” to control the Middle East.

He reportedly argued in a book that the Jewish state should not exist, Muslims should not be friends with Jews, and all Jews worldwide are enemies.

He also asserted that the Holocaust was “divine punishment”.

Al-Qaradawi had previously justified violence against Israeli Jews, and had close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Egypt, and the Governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also accused him of terrorism in 2017.

Al-Qaradawi rose to prominence in the UK over the past two decades following high-profile support from two-term Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who condemned the ban on Al Qaradawi’s entering Britain.

Campaign Against Antisemitism shall be writing to the Charity Commission regarding MAB’s statement.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Yusuf al-Qaradawi said that the Holocaust was ‘divine punishment’, that Jews worldwide were enemies of Muslims and that the Jewish state should not exist. He condoned violence and was banned from entering the UK, notwithstanding protest from inflammatory figures like Ken Livingstone. This is not a man whom a UK charity should be mourning or praising. We are writing to the Charity Commission to launch an urgent investigation.”

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Quakers in Britain cancels David Miller booking at Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House

Quakers in Britain has cancelled a booking of the disgraced academic David Miller at Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House.

Mr Miller was due to speak yesterday at a Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign event called “Solidarity with academics under attack: free speech on Palestine,” but in a statement on Twitter, Quakers in Britain said: “After further consideration this booking at Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House has been cancelled. Quakers in Britain believe that all forms of racism, including antisemitism, are barriers to building a just and peaceful world.”

David Miller was fired by the University of Bristol over comments he had made about Jewish students, a month after Campaign Against Antisemitism commenced a lawsuit on behalf of current students against the institution and amidst a Jewish communal outcry.

He is a conspiracy theorist with a history of controversy relating to Jewish students. In one outburst, he asserted that “Zionism is racism”, declared his objective “to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world” and accused the Bristol University Jewish Society of being part of a worldwide Zionist conspiracy, adding that it is “fundamental to Zionism to encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism”. At the same online event, Prof. Miller also observed that the Jewish Society and the Union of Jewish Students are Zionist, thereby implying that Jewish students (and the wider Jewish community) inherently “encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism”.

He also portrayed the International Definition of Antisemitism as an attack on free speech and accused the Israeli Government of engaging in an “all-out attack” on the global Left as part of an “attempt by the Israelis to impose their will all over the world”. In comments reminiscent of the darkest years of the United Nations, Prof. Miller insisted that “Zionism is racism” and asked how “we defeat the ideology of Zionism in practice”, “how is Zionism ended” and about the way “to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that Mr Miller was behind disgraced MP Chris Williamson’s Resistance Movement. The group aimed to give a home to the “politically homeless” politicians who had been expelled from the Labour Party for antisemitism, such as Jackie Walker, Tony Greenstein and Mark Wadsworth.

He has also previously accused the current leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, of taking “Zionist money”, and he has talked about what he referred to as the “witch hunt” against Labour members accused of antisemitism.

It is revealing that Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign would consider Mr Miller to be an appropriate speaker.

We applaud Quakers in Britain for cancelling this event and dissociating themselves from Mr Miller.

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New poll shows one in three Germans say Israel acts like Nazis, in breach of International Definition of Antisemitism

A new poll has revealed that one in three Germans believe that Israel acts like the Nazis.

Bertelsmann Stiftung, an independent German foundation, surveyed thousands of Israelis and Germans to explore relations between the countries, but also examined antisemitic views among the German public.

To the statement, “What the State of Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is in principle no different than what the Nazis in the Third Reich did to the Jews,” 36 percent of respondents said that they agreed or strongly agreed. A further quarter of those polled said that they did not know, leaving only 40 percent who disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.

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

Responding to another question, 24 percent of Germans polled said that Jews have too much influence in the world, whereas 62 percent disagreed, with the balance saying that they did not know.

The survey also, however, found that a large majority of 82 percent agreed with the statement that “Jews naturally belong in Germany”, while 13 percent disagreed and 5 percent said that they did not know.

With regard to the statement that Germany “has a special responsibility for the Jewish people,” 58 percent of Israelis agreed or strongly agreed compared to only 35 percent of Germans, while 25 percent of Israelis and 33 percent of Germans said that they “partly agree”. 31 percent of Germans and 11 percent of Israelis disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Asked about the statement, “Almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War, we should no longer talk so much about the persecution of the Jews under the Nazis, but finally put the past behind us,” 49 percent of Germans agreed while only fourteen percent of Israelis did. 33 percent of Germans and 60 percent of Israelis disagreed. The rest were undecided.

The study reportedly found a correlation between lower levels of formal education levels and prejudices against Jews.

The research was conducted in 2021 but only released last week.

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

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Canadian anti-racist organisation loses federal funds after researcher’s “Jewish White Supremacists” tweets surface

The Canadian Minister for Housing and Diversity, Ahmed Hussen, has said that no more federal funds will be allocated to an anti-racist organisation after one of its researchers was reported to have posted a series of antisemitic tweets.

In 2021, the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) received C$133,800 from the Department of Canadian Heritage (known as Canadian Heritage), whose stated aim is to promote and support “Canadian identity and values, cultural development, and heritage”.

However, that grant has come under scrutiny after the twitter activity of one senior consultant to CMAC, Laith Marouf, has come to light.

Mr Marouf is alleged to have written: “You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low voiced bitches of thier [sic] Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters”.

The phrase “Jewish White Supremacists” has featured in some of Mr Marouf’s other tweets as well, such as one that read: “Life is too short for shoes with laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head.” He also seems to have called Israel the “Zionist Colony of Human Feces”.

Another time, when commenting on alleged Israeli military action in Syria, Mr Marouf allegedly said, “May death visit the home of every Zionist on this earth,” and he appears to have described Israelis as “filthy Zionist scum”. 

Mr Marouf is also alleged to have said that “Nothing is more harmful to any decolonisation movements in the world, especially Palestine, than Jewish White Boys/Girls.”

In May 2022, Mr Marouf took to Twitter to say that “The little castrated b***** who are rampaging through old Jerusalem and alAqsa Mosque today, will be packing their bags & going back to where once they were treated as bitches and never dared to fight back”, apparently referring how how the Jewish diaspora in Europe was treated historically.

In March of this year, Mr Marouf apparently described the Ukrainian President, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, who has a Jewish background, as “pretend-Jewish” and claimed that there was a “Zionist-Nazi alliance” at work in Ukraine that aims to move Ukrainian Jews to Israel following the Russian invasion of the country.

It is alleged that Canadian Heritage has been paying Mr Marouf C$470 per day for his contributions to CMAC.

The group Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), whose Director was found to have posted a virulently antisemitic meme and antisemitic text on Facebook and Twitter, defended Mr Marouf on Twitter, writing: “#zionists in #OccupiedPalestine kill the opposition with gun fire or missiles & in #Canada they kill the opposition by defamation or making them lose contracts/funding. These are ugly & evil sophisticated methods to bully & assassinate all opposition. #LaithMarouf is a victim.”

Mr Marouf’s lawyer, Stephen Ellis, wrote an e-mail saying that his client’s tweets should be quoted “verbatim” and made a distinction between what he called Mr Marouf’s “clear reference to ‘Jewish white supremacists’” and Jewish people in general. Mr Ellis also said that Mr Marouf does not have “any animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group.”

In a statement, Mr Hussen said: “We condemn this unacceptable behaviour by an individual working in an organisation dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination. Our position is clear – antisemitism and any form of hate have no place in Canada.”

The former Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler, who was also appointed as Canada’s Special Envoy on Antisemitism, said that Mr Marouf’s tweets were “beyond the pale”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism throughout Canada, which have dramatically increased according to a recent audit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: Jewish News

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

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

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

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

Mr Halfon made particular reference in his letter to the recent scandal involving the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey, who was due to headline NUS’s centenary conference last month. After initially dismissing the concerns of Jewish students, who pointed out the rapper’s inflammatory record, the union came under media scrutiny and eventually Mr Dennis withdrew from the event.

As the scandal erupted, Mr Halfon excoriated NUS for failing to send a representative to attend a hearing held by his committee.

This scandal was immediately followed by the election of Shaima Dallali as NUS’s new President, despite her history of antisemitic tweets and other inflammatory social media posts. Prior to the election, she apologised for one such tweet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: JC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Poll data shows nearly half of Israelis fear another Holocaust, as another study shows global antisemitism at record high

A survey has shown that nearly half the Israeli public is concerned about another Holocaust taking place.

The poll, organised by the Pnima group, aimed to probe particularly sensitive questions about public memory of the Holocaust, as well as fears about Iran’s nuclear project and repeated threats to destroy the Jewish state.

The results showed that 47 percent of Israelis feared another Holocaust, though the results varied across different demographics: women came out as more fearful than men, the young more than older citizens, and the religious community more than secular Jews.

The data also showed that most Israelis think the way that Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is commemorated will undergo significant changes as the generation that survived the Holocaust eventually disappears.

The poll came as another study, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, showed that global antisemitism had reached record highs. The UK, United States, Canada, France and Germany were among the countries highlighted in the report.

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 community is “top target for hate crimes” says security organisation after surge in bomb threats

An “alarming number” of recent bomb threats directed at Jewish community centres and synagogues in one month across the United States was a sharp reminder that “the Jewish community remains a top target for hate crimes in the United States.”

The warning came from the Secure Community Network (SCN), a Jewish communal security organisation, which noted in a press release issued in late March that since the beginning of the month there had been eighteen reported bomb threats directed at Jewish community centres (JCCs) and synagogues in nine states.

SCN said that it was “actively working with community leaders and law enforcement agencies” over the “recent wave of bomb threats against Jewish facilities nationwide.”

FBI officials have stated that investigations into the threats were active and remained a high priority.

The SCN comments came as the New York Jewish Week reported that the Staten Island JCC had briefly evacuated its premises following a bomb threat, while the JCC of Indianapolis also revealed that it had recently received a bomb threat.

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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New Zealand survey reveals majority of public believe at least one antisemitic statement and widespread ignorance about the Holocaust

A new survey has revealed a “concerning” level of antisemitism among New Zealanders.

The Antisemitism Survey of New Zealand, conducted online by Curia Research and published by the New Zealand Jewish Council, asked more than 1,000 citizens whether or not they agreed with eighteen statements deemed to be antisemitic. 63 percent of those asked agreed with at least one statement while six percent agreed with nine or more statements.

The survey charted four broad trends: the New Zealand public’s knowledge about the Holocaust; reception of “classical” antisemitic statements relating to Jewish power, money, and loyalty; “anti-Israel” antisemitism, such as comparisons between the policies of the Israeli Government and those of the Nazis; and what the report characterised as miscellaneous antisemitism, comprising statements about how societies should treat “Zionists”, the relationship between Jews and “white privilege” and Jewish indigeneity to Israel.

The survey found that 21 percent of people believed two or more “classical” antisemitic statements, such as “Jews have too much power in international financial markets”, while six percent held a staggering nine or more antisemitic views.

Seven percent agreed with the assertion that Israel does not have the right to exist as a majority Jewish state. Questions regarding the Holocaust revealed that only 42 percent correctly identified that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, but that seventeen percent confessed to knowing “virtually nothing” about it, while six percent thought that the Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves. 

Deborah Hart, Board Chair of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, said: “Misinformation about the Holocaust – or Holocaust distortion – is a form of antisemitism. It minimises the suffering of a great number of Jewish families and the murder of their loved ones.”

Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.

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.

Image credit: Sussex Friends of Israel

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Glasgow museum displays works looted from Jews by the Nazis but refuses to identify which works

It has been reported that items displayed in the collection of a Glasgow museum may have been looted from their Jewish former owners by the Nazis.

The Burrell Collection, which dates back to acquisitions made by the wealthy shipowner Sir William Burrell in 1944, already knew that two works on display were stolen from their Jewish owners by the Nazis in the 1930s. Glasgow City Council even paid out a large amount of money in compensation to the works’ would-be heirs. 

However, Glasgow Museums curator Martin Bellamy has recently published a book, A Collector’s Life: William Burrell, which maintains that even more works than previously acknowledged can be proven to have belonged to Jewish owners who relinquished their treasures as part of the practice known as “forced sale”. 

This was part of the wider policy of “Aryanisation”, in which Jews in Germany and Austria were forced to register property or assets – including life insurance, stocks, furniture and works of art – valued above a certain amount. They also lost favourable financial incentives available to non-Jews, and were forced to be part of the highest tax bracket irrespective of their actual income. If they chose to leave the country, they were forced to hand over half of their assets and exchange what remained at the least favourable rate of exchange of their destination.

Glasgow Life, a charity that administers the 9,000-piece collection, has admitted that works acquired under these circumstances are on display. They do not, however, identify precisely which works were acquired in this manner.

Scottish historian Sir Tom Devine said: “As long as the provenance of these items is established by experts and curators, it should always be made public. The question the public will ask is, ‘What do they have to hide?’ I find the refusal rather curious. Curators of museums always want the truth to be out, and unvarnished at that.”

Speaking on behalf of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, Ephraim Borowksi said: “I suggest that the point to be made is that this isn’t a question of law, but morals. Given the scale of the Holocaust, there may be no surviving family members to make a formal legal claim. It’s up to public galleries to acknowledge the dubious history of items in their collection.”

The Burrell Collection, which has recently undergone a £70 million renovation, will open to the public on 5th April.

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Executive Director of Amnesty USA says Israel “shouldn’t exist as Jewish state” before retracting his statement

The Executive Director of the human rights activist organisation Amnesty USA has come under fire for reportedly claiming that Israel “shouldn’t exist as Jewish state”, before trying to clarify his remarks.

The Jewish Insider reported that Paul O’Brien made the comments in a speech given to the Washington DC-based Woman’s National Democratic Club.

His speech was reported to have included claims about what most American Jews think of Israel and what kind of country they want the Jewish state to be, citing and querying existing polling data.

Mr O’Brien reportedly asserted that the majority of American Jews would prefer Israel to be a “safe Jewish space” organised around “core Jewish values” rather than a Jewish state.

Although Mr O’Brien said that Amnesty International, which has recently and controversially characterised Israel as an “apartheid state”, acknowledges that Israel exists and holds no official opinion about the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, he is reported to have said: “I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there’s a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home…I think they can be convinced over time that the key to sustainability is to adhere to what I see as core Jewish values, which are to be principled and fair and just in creating that space.”

The Executive Director of pro-Israel group Zioness said to Jewish Insider that “It is disturbing that Amnesty, which ostensibly exists to advance global human rights, could so casually deny the inalienable rights of safety and sovereignty to a nation as persecuted as the Jewish people.”

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

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, tweeted that: “It is clear that [Amnesty International’s] true vision is a Middle East without Israel as a Jewish state.”

Mr O’Brien then took to Twitter to “clarify” his remarks. He argued that the Jewish Insider had taken his comments “out of context”, claiming that he was not referring to the existence of the Jewish state, but specifically to Israel’s 2018 Nation State law, which defined Israel as “the nation-state of the Jewish people.” 

Jewish Insider later published the full audio recording and transcript of Mr O’Brien’s speech, defending its reportage of his comments.

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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Antisemitic tropes from 13th century England still exist today, says The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal trustee

Two trustees from The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal, Danny Habel and Tony Stoller, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where they spoke on the life of Licoricia of Winchester and the recent statue unveiling.

Licoricia was a Jewish businesswoman who has been described as “the most important Jewish woman in medieval England” and a leader in her community. She lived in the 13th century and was murdered in 1277, just thirteen years before King Edward I expelled the Jews from England. 

“At a time when women really were very nondescript and not in the histories much, ​​she stood out,” Mr Habel told our host. “She was a businesswoman. She made the most of it on her own as a single mother with five children in a very hostile society.

“As time went on, she was obviously a bold woman. She was close to Henry III…she would go into the royal court and address the king and the courtiers in French, in their language. She would be dealing with people in the local community in English. As part of her very confrontational business of finance, she would be in court quite often acting on her own behalf in Latin. So, she was able to face up to people, but at the time same, she was a community leader.”

Mr Stoller agreed that Licoricia was “highly significant,” though added that this did not necessarily protect her completely. “She was imprisoned for eight months in order to get money out of her at one stage…You lose Henry III, you get Edward I, you get extremely antisemitic demands by Simon De Montfort and the barons…Licoricia is murdered, we don’t think we know why. The guess is this might have been a way of somebody avoiding paying back money that was owed to her.”

When asked about the lessons that could be learned from Licoricia’s story, Mr Habel noted that “In Licoricia’s time, there were certain tropes and concepts about the way people thought about Jews and strangely enough, they’re exactly the same as today.” Mr Habel said that some of the tropes levelled against Jews included the belief that they were all rich, that they were responsible for the death of Christ, and that they were evil. 

When asked if the trustees had any message for Podcast Against Antisemitism’s listeners, Mr Stoller said: “Come and look at the statue of Licoricia of Winchester, and then think about it. And if you can’t look at the statue, then go onto our website and take a virtual tour, and see what it is and see if you are as inspired as we are.” 

The podcast with The Licoricia of Winchester Appeal 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, The Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel and actor Eddie Marsan.

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Charity Commission allows organisation to pursue charitable registration even after it publishes antisemitic “enemies of Allah” post

The Charity Commission has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it will permit an organisation to continue to pursue charitable registration even after we alerted the regulator to an antisemitic social media post published by the group.

Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust appeared in a December social media post to describe Jews and Christians as “enemies of Allah” and warn its followers to stay away from them.

The organisation, which functions as a bookshop and was promoted by Brent Council, shared a post reading: “Keep away from the enemies of Allaah [sic] the Jews & Christians on their day of gathering during their festivities, for verily the anger (of Allaah) descends upon them  and I fear that you will (also) be afflicted with it.”

The quotation is attributed to Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second Rashidun Caliph, and is featured in Al-Bayhaqi Fi Shu’ab Al-Emaan, a collection of Hadiths compiled by Imam Al-Bayhaqi.

The image in the tweet was captioned: “Be warned of having any sort of involvement in the celebrations of the unbelievers, let alone Christmas whereby it is claimed that Allaah has begotten a son! Lest you may be afflicted with the anger of Allaah along with them!”

Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust describes itself as “a charitable trust based in North West London who work for the benefit and enlightenment of the local community.”

We wrote to Brent Council, which observed in its reply that the organisation was no longer listed on its website since we published our article, and to the Charity Commission.

The Commission replied to say that it had engaged with Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust “to seek a direct response to the concerns” and that it “also requested further information regarding the Organisation’s charitable status.” However, the regulator went on to say that it “recently received a response from the Organisation, in which the Organisation has provided various assurances, including to confirm that the social media post has been removed. The Organisation is also currently in the process of seeking charitable registration.”

The Commission concluded that, “Having considered the information and assurances provided by the Organisation, I can confirm that the Commission’s assessment of this matter will now be closed,” merely highlighting to the Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust its responsibilities under charitable law and guidance, should it become a charity.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is considering further legal options.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While most of the country was enjoying the season of goodwill, the Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust was using its Twitter account to implore the Muslim community to stay away from Jews and Christians and regard them as an enemy. It is extraordinary that the Charity Commission should consider such an organisation to be fit to apply for charitable status even after being alerted to this post. We are considering further legal options.”

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Amnesty UK takes no action after its Racial Justice Lead apologises for calling Jews “shady” in historic social media post

The controversial activist group, Amnesty UK, has reportedly taken no action after its Racial Justice Lead apologised for a historic social media post in which he appeared to describe Jewish people as “shady”.

According to the Jewish News, Ilyas Nagdee was asked by a friend on Facebook for his thoughts on Orthodox Jews in Bury, in Greater Manchester. The friend said that they were “laughin at Jews [sic]” and joked that “the Jew might hit me with a walking stick.” Mr Nagdee replied: “True. There shady people [sic].”

In another comment, apparently in reference to Hasidic garb, Mr Nagdee reportedly wrote: “Hahahahaha bummmmmmmmm hats.”

When alerted to the comments, Amnesty UK said: “We immediately looked into this matter as soon as we were made aware of it. As an anti-racist organisation, we oppose discrimination, racism and hate crime in all their forms, including against Jewish people or people perceived as Jewish. Ilyas has explained the circumstances of these comments made when he was sixteen years old – he has clearly and unreservedly apologised and we now consider the matter closed.”

Mr Nagdee said: “This conversation happened in 2010 when I was sixteen. I was completely wrong to have talked this way and I totally regret doing so. Like many people, I’ve been on a journey since my early years and have long opposed all discrimination, racism and hate crime – including all forms of antisemitism. I want to make clear: I unreservedly apologise for these comments from twelve years ago.”

Earlier this week it was reported that the Charity Commission has opened an investigation of Amnesty International in relation to a recent inflammatory report on Israel. Mr Nagdee, who is a former presentative of the National Union of Students, has claimed that Amnesty is the victim of a “smear campaign” led by the Jewish state. He has also reportedly called for the release of prisoners convicted of terrorism from Israeli jails, and has posted comments on social media appearing to deny the Jewish state’s legitimacy.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Britain’s Jews have enough experience with so-called ‘anti-racists’ not to be shocked to learn that Amnesty quickly closed its investigation against Ilyas Nagdee, who remains the Racial Justice Lead. The Jewish community knows very well where it stands in relation to the web of Amnesty organisations.”

Image credit: Jewish News

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Extinction Rebellion co-founder who called Holocaust “just another f***ery in human history” to launch new controversial environmental group

The co-founder of the controversial activist group Extinction Rebellion, who was disowned by his colleagues after he described the Holocaust as “just another f***ery in human history,” is reportedly planning to launch a new environmental campaigning group.

Roger Hallam has apparently spoken to meetings across the country to recruit a “direct action” force for a new campaign called “Just Stop Oil”, to be launched in March with a series of blockades of petrol stations, oil depots and refineries.

Although Extinction Rebellion disavowed Mr Hallam, it is understood that at least 23 of the 71 recruitment meetings held by Just Stop Oil were jointly organised by Extinction Rebellion, a spokesperson for which insisted: “We’re all part of the climate movement and so Roger is free to talk to us. But we are separate organisations.”

Mr Hallam made the comment about the Holocaust in an interview to the German newspaper, Die Zeit, in 2019. He told the newspaper, “the extremity of a trauma can create a paralysis in actually learning the lessons from it. The fact of the matter is, millions of people have been killed in vicious circumstances on a regular basis throughout history, ” adding: “They went to the Congo in the late 19th century and decimated it,” before adding that contextually, the Holocaust was “almost a normal event…just another f***ery in human history.”

Mr Hallam claimed that his comments, which appeared to minimise and downplay the Nazis’ systematic murder of six million Jews, were taken out of context: “I want to fully acknowledge the unimaginable suffering caused by the Nazi Holocaust that led to all of Europe saying ‘never again’. But it is happening again, on a far greater scale and in plain sight. The ‘global north’ is pumping lethal levels of CO2 into the atmosphere and simultaneously erecting ever greater barriers to immigration, turning whole regions of the world into death zones. That is the grim reality. We are allowing our governments to willingly, and in full knowledge of the science, engage in genocide of our young people and those in the ‘global south’ by refusing to take emergency action to reduce carbon emissions.”

In a post on Twitter, the German branch of Extinction Rebellion wrote: “We explicitly distant ourselves from Roger Hallam’s belittling and relativising statements about the Holocaust. In so doing he contravenes the principles of XR, which does not tolerate antisemitism, and he is no longer welcome in XR Germany.”

Recently, Mr Hallam was disinvited from the University of Warwick after his past inflammatory comments were brought to the attention of organisers.

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Statue of medieval Jewish businesswoman unveiled

A statue of Licoricia of Winchester and her son Asher was unveiled in Winchester earlier today.

Licoricia was a Jewish businesswoman who has been described as “the most important Jewish woman in medieval England” and a leader in her community. She lived in the 13th century and was murdered in 1277, just 13 years before King Edward 1 expelled the Jews from England. 

In a press release, the Licoricia of Winchester Appeal, the charity behind the creation of the statue, said that “The project to install a statue of Licoricia aims to inform people about England’s little-known but important medieval Jewish community,” and added that it hoped it would offer a “fresh gateway to the study of Winchester’s royal medieval past.”

HRH Prince Charles was due to unveil the statue but was unable to attend after testing positive for COVID-19.

Last month, Winchester city council’s planning report said: “It is hoped that the statue will provide an opportunity to educate Winchester’s population and visitors about its medieval past and Jewish community and that it will be a lasting enhancement to the city.”

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Nearly half of US Jews say they have experienced antisemitism in the last five years or know someone who has

A new poll shows that nearly half of all American Jews say that they have experienced antisemitism in the last five years or know someone who has.

The survey, funded by the Ruderman Family Foundation, showed that 93% of American Jews are concerned about the current levels of antisemitism in the United States, and 42% had directly experienced it in the past five years or knew a family member or friend who had.

75% of American Jews also believe that there is more antisemitism today in the United States than there was five years ago, with one in three younger Jews (aged 18-39) saying that they have personally experienced antisemitism. Older Jews (over 60 years old) are even more likely to have seen “a lot” of antisemitism, with 62% reporting that they have.

Jay Ruderman, the President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, said: “Our survey reinforces the urgent need for American leadership to formulate new strategies to confront the surge of antisemitism and increasing hate crimes against the Jewish community. Accordingly, we hope that these findings spur local and national leaders into action on this critical issue. Antisemitism is a threat to American society as a whole and only in tackling this issue as one unified nation will it ever be truly addressed.”

The poll was carried out by the Mellman Group and examined 2,500 Jewish adults in December 2019 and a further 1,000 in October-November 2021. The surveys were undertaken, therefore, prior to the recent antisemitic attack on a synagogue in Texas.

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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Charity Commission reportedly launches inquiry into mosque whose manager is said to have compared Israel to the Nazis and praised the Taliban

The Charity Commission has reportedly launched an inquiry into a mosque whose manager is said to have compared Israel to the Nazis and praised the Taliban.

Saddique Hussain, the general manager of Birmingham’s Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif mosque, reportedly shared a clip of Taliban fighters showing off assault rifles whilst reciting quotes from the Quran and wrote: “How beautiful and civilised and no ‘I’. May Allah SWT guide us on to His beautiful religion.” 

It was said that Mr Hussain also shared a post which said that Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian children “for fun”. He allegedly shared a video clip from the news outlet TruNews, which has been described as a “far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website”, and according to the ADL has “increasingly featured antisemitic and anti-Zionist content, and also has a long record of disseminating radical Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ messages”. The clip in question was from Rick Wiles, a pastor who has previously labelled Jews as “deceivers” who “plot” and “lie”, in which Mr Wiles compared Israel to the Nazis.

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

Mr Hussain allegedly shared another clip which stated that “Zionist lobbying” could have a Sky News video that reported on Israeli military actions removed if they wanted, while another shared video reportedly contained text that said: “I am Israel – I have the power to control American policy. My American Israel Public Affairs committee can make or break any politician of its choosing.”

According to the Definition, “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. 

The group Muslims Against Antisemitism denounced Mr Hussain’s posts, stating: “Promoting views and associations between ‘media control’ and depicting ‘Zionists’ as having ‘control’ shows the conspiratorial mindset of the person in question. Focussing on Israel and blaming Israel for actions that it is not even associated with, shows the frothing and foaming nature of the antipathy that some hold.”

After a police warning, Mr Hussain claimed that he “does not and never has supported the Taliban”.

The Charity Commission, which apparently carried out a compliance visit to the charity last November following concerns over social media activity, has reportedly now announced that a full investigation will take place into Dar ul Uloom Islamia Rizwia (Bralawai), the group that runs Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif, relating to the conduct on social media of staff and trustees, who have apparently also shared inflammatory material online.

The Commission said: “These posts resulted in the charity receiving negative media attention and complaints being raised directly with the Commission.”

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

Image credit: Facebook screenshot via the JC

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Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust appears to describe Jews and Christians as “enemies of Allah” and warns followers to stay away from them

Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust has appeared in a social media post to describe Jews and Christians as “enemies of Allah” and warn its followers to stay away from them.

The organisation, which functions as a bookshop and is promoted by Brent Council, shared a post reading: “Keep away from the enemies of Allaah [sic] the Jews & Christians on their day of gathering during their festivities, for verily the anger (of Allaah) descends upon them  and I fear that you will (also) be afflicted with it.”

The quotation is attributed to Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second Rashidun Caliph, and is featured in Al-Bayhaqi Fi Shu’ab Al-Emaan, a collection of Hadiths compiled by Imam Al-Bayhaqi.

The image in the tweet was captioned: “Be warned of having any sort of involvement in the celebrations of the unbelievers, let alone Christmas whereby it is claimed that Allaah has begotten a son! Lest you may be afflicted with the anger of Allaah along with them!”

Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust describes itself as “a charitable trust based in North West London who work for the benefit and enlightenment of the local community.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism shall be writing to Brent Council and the Charity Commission.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While most of the country was enjoying the season of goodwill, the Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust was using its Twitter account to implore the Muslim community to stay away from Jews and Christians and regard them as an enemy. The tweet warrants an investigation by the Charity Commission, and Brent Council must also review its association with the group. We are writing to both bodies.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched a new weekly podcast. New episodes of Podcast Against Antisemitism are available every Thursday and can be streamed here or downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.

https://twitter.com/Cmyt_Bookshop/status/1474004574402859010?s=20
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Charity Commission removes Tony Greenstein as a trustee of The Brighton Trust after being declared legally bankrupt following humiliating loss of defamation claim against CAA

Tony Greenstein has been removed as a trustee of The Brighton Trust, formerly known as the “Trust 4 Unpopular Causes”, by the Charity Commission after being declared legally bankrupt in July following his failed defamation claim against Campaign Against Antisemitism earlier this year.

Mr Greenstein had been ordered by judges to pay Campaign Against Antisemitism £81,854 over a libel claim brought by Mr Greenstein after we called him a “notorious antisemite”. In an example of litigation humiliatingly backfiring, the High Court struck out Mr Greenstein’s libel claim against us, ruling that it was permissible for us to call the co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and expelled Labour Party member a “notorious antisemite” in articles on our website. Mr Greenstein then brought an appeal against aspects of the High Court ruling, which he also lost earlier this month.

Following an Insolvency and Companies Court hearing on 14th July that lasted only a quarter of an hour, Judge Catherine Burton, noting that Mr Greenstein has been properly served and failed to attend or make representations, concluded proceedings by saying: “I make a bankruptcy order this day against Tony Greenstein at 10:46am.”

Consequently, Mr Greenstein met the criteria for automatic disqualification as a charity trustee. We wrote to the Charity Commission to notify them of the bankruptcy order and that he must therefore cease to be a trustee of The Brighton Trust.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Today, the Charity Commission removed Tony Greenstein as a trustee of a charity that purports to challenge racist discrimination but has given grants to causes associated with antisemitism denial during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, including the Chris Williamson Left Legal Fund, The Electronic Intifada and Labour Against the Witchhunt, amongst others. Mr Greenstein’s removal as a trustee will hopefully prove beneficial to the charity.”

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Islamic charity under investigation by Charity Commission after Jihadist and antisemitic material found on its website

An Islamic charity is under investigation by the Charity Commission after Jihadist and antisemitic material was found on its website.

The Miftahul Jannah Academy, based in Waltham Forest, was reported by the National Secular Society to the Commission over lectures delivered by Islamic scholar Muhammad Patel that allegedly praised the Taliban, encouraged Muslims to fund Jihad and contained antisemitic references, including to the “dirty qualities” of the Jews.

One lecture is titled “A quality of the Yahood — to kill those who want to guide them towards the commands of Allah”. Yahood is the Arabic word for Jew. Mr Patel reportedly says in the lecture that the killing of Islamic scholars is among the “wretched” and “dirty” qualities of the Jews.

The Miftahul Jannah Academy says that its aims and objectives include “to further the true image of Islam”.

The Masjid-e-Umer Trust, which runs Walthamstow Central Mosque where Mr Patel has apparently given sermons and run youth activities, has also been referred to the Commission.

The Charity Commission said: “We contacted the Miftahul Jannah Academy on 24th September about audio recordings alleged to be from the charity’s website. We await the trustees’ response. We are now in receipt of additional information which we are carefully assessing.”

Image credit: Google

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Charity Director suspended and reported to watchdog after allegations of antisemitism surface

The Director of a charity has been suspended and reported to the Charity Commission after allegations of antisemitism have surfaced.

Bus Users UK, a charity that works to ensure transport is more inclusive and accessible, lists Hugh Jaeger as a Trustee, Director, and “Chair of Bus Users Oxford and an active campaigner for bus services” on its website. However, yesterday they took the decision to suspend him after a history of inflammatory tweets were revealed.

In a 2019 post, Mr Jaeger reportedly wrote that “In 1948 Zionists copied the Nazis to liquidate several villages” and also shared an inflammatory cartoon along with the caption: “Pic of an Israeli Magav border police thug sums up why Zionism is evil & why Palestinians must resist.”

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

In another post, Mr Jaeger allegedly condemned “racist Israel”, while in different one, he said that it was founded by “State terrorists who massacre, steal land, apply apartheid, murder children and commit war crimes have ruled Israel ever since.” He also defended the controversial Labour candidate Lisa Forbes, despite her deeply problematic social media activity.

In a blog post from December 2019, Mr Jaeger reportedly wrote that “No one has proved that antisemitism is any more common in Labour than it is in UK society as a whole.”

Taking action on Mr Jaeger’s surfaced tweets, Bus Users UK wrote from their Twitter account: “Hugh Jaeger has been asked to step back from his duties as a trustee of Bus Users while the Board considers his position. Bus Users is not a political organisation and is not aligned to any political viewpoint. We are a charity campaigning for accessible transport for everyone.”

Mr Jaeger was also reported to the Charity Commission by the GnasherJew Twitter account.

Larry Sanders, the former Green Party Spokesperson on Health and Social Care and brother to former Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, drew criticism for tweeting: “Hugh Jaeger is not antisemitic.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms. We also continue to make representations to the Government on this matter.

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Barnardo’s investigates teacher for sharing inflammatory social media posts, including image that got Naz Shah suspended by Labour

The children’s charity Barnardo’s is investigating one of its staffers for reportedly sharing inflammatory social media posts, including an image that resulted in Naz Shah MP’s suspenion from the Labour Party in 2016.

Rubina Halim, a Barnardo’s teacher, shared an image on Facebook that situates Israel in the middle of the United States and calls for the relocation of Israel to America. She added the comment: “The perfect solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

This was the same image for which Naz Shah MP apologised and was suspended from the Labour Party in 2016 under then Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Labour’s Deputy Chair of Newham Council, Cllr Nazir Ahmed, was also suspended for sharing the same image earlier this year.

Ms Halim made the inflammatory post on Facebook. In a separate post, she stated that Israel has “governments around the world in their pockets” and alluded to how Israel “controlled and manipulated” the media.

“Think about their spyware – can they not hack anyone anywhere? Think about how [Israel] have governments around the world in their pockets,” the Facebook post read. It continued: “Think about how the media is controlled and manipulated.”

Ms Halim’s posts were not limited to Facebook, however, as it appeared that she had shared several more on LinkedIn, including one that depicted an American dollar bill, folded into the shape of a Star of David. On a separate post, another comment written by Ms Halim read: “Are you surprised that the UK government have been bought by Israel.”

Ms Halim also appeared to endorse a controversial post that was shared by a user who went by the name of Mohammed Sadat Ali, in which he shared an article titled “Jewish Faith, Talmud, and Zionist in Islamic Review”. Mr Ali wrote that the article explained “why the Jewish state of Israel is referred to as a racist, chauvinistic, theocratic, conservative and highly dogmatic state,” a post that Ms Halim shared and added: “Need to read this!”

In response to the criticism surrounding her post, Ms Halim said: “I am not antisemitic and truly do not recognise how my post could be described as antisemitic. My sincerest apologies if my post has offended you in any way.”

In a statement, Barnardo’s said: “We would like to assure the public that these are strictly the personal views of the staff member and do not represent the views of Barnardo’s. Barnardo’s does not tolerate any kind of racism, including antisemitism and all our staff and volunteers are required to adhere to strict codes of conduct and policies on equality and diversity. The individual has been instructed to remove the offending content immediately and firm action has been taken pending a full and thorough investigation.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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

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Antisemitic graffiti discovered in Ohio on YWCA building and bridge prompts police investigation

Antisemitic graffiti has been discovered on the side of a Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) building in Ohio, as well as on the side of a bridge.

The graffiti on the side of the YCWA in the city of Alliance depicts a white Star of David inside a red circle with a line going through it. 

The organisation posted a photograph of the graffiti on Facebook, accompanied by a statement which read: “We, at the YWCA of Alliance are saddened and outraged that someone or a group of individuals used our building at 239 E. Market Street to propel hate and an antisemitic message. This message was in form of vandalism spray painting on our historical building which has stood as a beacon of hope, love, and inclusion in the Alliance Community for 95 years. We were not the only place in the community targeted, many locations through out the downtown area were.

“We would like to join forces with those who wish to see this form of hate gone, and our community washed clean of these symbols of racism to come together and be able to unite against hate. Please contact the Alliance YWCA if you would like to help at 330-823-1840. Please contact the Alliance Police Department if you have any information on the vandalism that has occurred.”

Other Facebook users posted photographs of similar graffiti found nearby on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Viaduct, which included the phrase “Down with ZOG.” 

“ZOG” is an acronym often used by white supremacists that means “Zionist Occupied Government.” This idea holds that the official government of a country is just a puppet, while the real control is exercised behind the scenes by a cabal of Jews.

Alliance Police have confirmed that an investigation is underway. 

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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Instagram page of leading Jewish charity for children with learning disabilities hacked and plastered with “Free Palestine” messaging

The Instagram page belonging to the Jewish charity Norwood has been hacked by anti-Israel trolls today.

Norwood’s display photo was changed to that of a Palestinian Authority flag with the words “Free Palestine, end apartheid” circling it.

The hackers also uploaded a photo of a man holding a Palestinian Authority flag with the caption “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Another photo uploaded of the Palestinian Authority flag bore the caption: “Repeat after us: Palestine will be free. Free free Palestine.”

According to Norwood’s description on Instagram, it is “the UK’s largest Jewish charity supporting children, families and people with learning disabilities and autism.”

The charity has no affiliation with Israel and has likely been targeted purely because of its association with the British Jewish community.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” is an example of antisemitism.

A spokesperson for Norwood said: “We became aware that Norwood’s Instagram account was breached on Thursday afternoon with content posted from the Free Palestine movement. As a British charity, our duty is to support vulnerable members of the British Jewish community and, as such, we condemn as abhorrent all hate crimes. Norwood stands for inclusivity regardless of our differences and we endorse Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent statement that there is no place for antisemitism in British society.”

Norwood has now regained control of its Instagram account.

Campaign Against Antisemitism urges all Jewish institutions to be vigilant with their digital assets and operations.

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CAA publishes live resource detailing antisemitism at universities and adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism

Campaign Against Antisemitism has published a new resource showing antisemitic incidents at universities and whether each institution has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism, with detailed information for each campus.

The resource for the first time makes public years of monitoring by Campaign Against Antisemitism through our volunteers and hundreds of requests we have filed under freedom of information laws.

We have long campaigned for the widespread adoption of the Definition, which was adopted by the Government in 2016 following efforts by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Lord Pickles and others. Since then, we have asked universities to adopt it too, and apply it in any disciplinary proceedings. As antisemitism rises on campuses around the country, successive Secretaries of State for Education have demanded that universities waste no more time in adopting the Definition.

This public resource shows the state of play following the expiry of the Education Secretary’s ultimatum to universities to adopt the Definition, naming those that have heeded the call to protect Jewish students and shaming those that have not.

So far, 76 institutions of higher education have adopted the Definition, based on their replies to our requests under freedom of information laws, with 101 yet to do so. This information is kept updated by our researchers in real time.

Those that have adopted the Definition include the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College, Leeds, Liverpool, LSE, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Nottingham, Oxford and UCL.

SOAS — the School of Oriental and African Studies — whose long history of controversy in its relations with the Jewish community, earning its nickname as the School of Antisemitism, has declined to adopt the Definition, as can be seen from the details we have put together on its dedicated web page.

In addition, each page provides a summary of recent antisemitic incidents that have been reported to us. This information is indicative only, as it is widely believed that many (possibly most) antisemitic incidents are not reported at all, and we invite students, faculty or other victims or witnesses of antisemitism on campus or in academic trade unions to contact us with the details of any incidents that are not listed. We also offer assistance and free legal representation to victims who wish to pursue the matter.

The project can be viewed at antisemitism.org/universities/.

Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are delighted to offer a resource to students, faculty, politicians and the general public providing a dynamic and accessible record of antisemitism at British universities.

“The resource includes real-time coverage of adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, and the results so far are promising, with almost half of British universities having adopted the Definition. However, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson urged institutions of higher education to adopt the Definition by the end of 2020 or face consequences. This resource names those universities that have heeded the call to protect their Jewish students and shames those that have failed so far to do so. We are making real progress, but there is much more to do.

“Years in the making, this project complements the vital work being done by Jewish Societies and campus activists across the country as well as the Union of Jewish Students, CST and other communal groups in our shared campaign for widespread adoption of the Definition.

“The other, critical component of the resource is a summary of recently reported incidents on each campus, which we hope will encourage more students and faculty to come forward and disclose antisemitic incidents, which are chronically underreported. Our monitoring helps to protect Jews on campus, and we offer free legal representation to any victims of antisemitism at university or in an academic trade union. University should be the time of Jewish students’ lives. Through our monitoring, we will remain vigilant against antisemitism on campus and when Jewish students need protection we will do whatever it takes to defend their rights.

“We invite victims to contact us confidentially via our website at antisemitism.org/contact. ”

The campaign for universities to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism is one that has been championed by a large number of student activists determined that their universities should defend their Jewish students and academics, politicians who are disgusted by antisemitism in higher education, and organisations including the Union of Jewish Students, the Office of the Government’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism, CST, the Jewish Leadership Council, and others, in addition to Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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

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Five German companies unite against antisemitism and racism in a strong signal ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

During an online commemoration event for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, five German companies issued a joint declaration against antisemitism and racism in the country.

Borussia Dortmund, Daimler, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank and Volkswagon, together with Freundeskreis Yad Vashem, shared their decision to take ownership of their historical responsibility for such hatred in the hopes of advocating for freedom, democracy, diversity and peaceful coexistence. According to the collective, the declaration reflects a commitment to the culture of remembrance and the limitation of far-right and other extremist ideologies.

The five companies expressed great concern at the increasing rates of hatred, and condemned the “fatal development” of rising antisemitic violence.

The declaration has emerged following a decision by all five companies to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. The participating companies expressed a united front in combating antisemitism, in the hope that other organisations and corporations will follow suit.

The commemoration took place as a digital event, with speakers including the current Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Nearly two hundred guests from across civil society, the Government and employees of all the participating companies were invited to attend.

A representative for Freundeskreis Yad Vashem e.V. praised the companies for their joint stance against antisemitism and discrimination, and stated that it is an “important and clear sign both for Germany and the whole world”.

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.

Image credit: Deutsche Bahn

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One of world’s largest Holocaust centres to be built at site of historic massacre at Babyn Yar

One of the largest Holocaust memorial centres in the world is set to be built in Ukraine at Babyn Yar (also known as Babi Yar), near the capital, Kyiv.

Plans for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre (BYHMC) were unveiled on 20th January. The site will have a dozen buildings including, a Holocaust exhibition space and a memorial to those slaughtered at Babyn Yar. The BYHMC will also include an educational centre, a multi-media centre and a spiritual centre containing a synagogue, church and mosque.

Babyn Yar was chosen because it was the site of the the first major massacre of European Jews in World War II. In September 1941, over 33,000 Jews were taken from Kyiv to the Babyn Yar Ravine and shot. Afterwards, the site became a Nazi killing ground for Jews and non-Jews with an estimated death toll of 100,000.

The synagogue and exhibition space are scheduled to be completed this year in time for the 80th anniversary of the massacre.

Natan Sharansky, the Ukrainian-born former head of the Jewish Agency and one-time Soviet refusenik, is the chair of the BYHMC’s Supervisory Board. Describing the concept as “amazing”, he said that the museum and educational centre would be “different from many other Holocaust centres”, so helping to “fill a vacuum in the field of Holocaust studies.”

Poland’s former President, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who is also a member of the Supervisory Board, said that the new centre “will allow us to find a common language with the younger generation.”

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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CAA teachers’ guide on antisemitism launched as resource by BBC Teach

Campaign Against Antisemitism is proud that our teachers’ guide on antisemitism for Years 5-13 is now also available through BBC Teach.

The guide is available in two versions: Love Thy Neighbour, designed specifically for Church of England schools, and Love Your Neighbour, for Catholic schools. Both versions are also suitable for all other schools, and versions for other faiths and non-denominational schools are also in production.

The guides are intended for use with an accompanying student-friendly PowerPoint presentation, which is also available on our website and through BBC Teach.

These guides, which were prepared by a former teacher who refined this material whilst speaking to 25,000 children in over 100 schools, provide information for teachers on topics such as prejudice, stereotyping, bullying and the importance of being an upstander and not a bystander. They also complement numerous bases.

You can download the guides here or visit BBC Teach here.

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CAA’s latest Antisemitism Barometer study shows Jewish community regaining confidence after the Corbyn era but scars remain, with Labour, CPS and BBC coming in for opprobrium

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism publishes its latest Antisemitism Barometer, comprising a survey of the British public’s views toward Jews and a poll of the Jewish community.

The Barometer’s poll of the British public’s views towards Jews is the first survey to use the Generalised Antisemitism Scale, devised by Dr Daniel Allington of King’s College, Louise Katz of the University of Derby, and Dr David Hirsh of Goldsmiths, for the purpose of this study. The survey was designed and analysed by Dr Allington, with fieldwork carried out by YouGov.

  • Using the new twelve-question Generalised Antisemitism Scale, the survey shows that 55% of British adults do not harbour any antisemitic views; they did not affirm a single one of the twelve statements.
  • The other side of the coin, however, is that there is deeply troubling normalisation of antisemitism, as 45% of British adults did affirm at least one antisemitic statement, although over half of them only agreed with one or two antisemitic statements.
  • 12% of British adults have entrenched antisemitic views, affirming four or more antisemitic statements. 
  • The most popular antisemitic statement was that “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews”, with which 23% of British adults agreed. That view is antisemitic under the International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the Government.

The Barometer also includes a separate survey of British Jews designed and analysed in consultation with Dr Allington and carried out by Campaign Against Antisemitism and Jewish community partners. The survey reveals that:

  • British Jews are showing early signs of recovery from the Corbyn era but have been left scarred. Far more British Jews are optimistic about their future in the UK this year, but the proportion who decline to display visible signs of their Jewish identity due to antisemitism is at a record high.
  • British Jews’ confidence in the criminal justice system is low: a majority believes that the Crown Prosecution Service does not do enough to protect British Jews and the courts were also strongly criticised. Only the police receive more praise than criticism.
  • British Jews reserve the greatest opprobrium for politicians. They believe that almost every political party is more tolerant of antisemitism than it was last year; the Labour Party is viewed as more than twice as tolerant of antisemitism than any other party showing that it still has a great deal of work to do to win the confidence of British Jews.
  • In the first ever poll on the subject, an overwhelming majority of British Jews — 91% — want the Government to proscribe Hamas in its entirety.
  • 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, Channel 4 also performs poorly with British Jews. Both broadcasters are state-funded.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Britain’s Jews are back from the brink. This study starkly shows that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn dealt a crushing blow to Jews’ confidence in their very future in this country, and that our community is now beginning to recover.

“But scars remain. Notwithstanding the relief felt by so many, our data shows that nearly half of those who normally wear outwards symbols of their Judaism now feel they have to hide it, and despite nine months of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour, British Jews remain just as sure that the Party harbours antisemites.

“Though Britain remains one of the best countries in the world in which to live as a Jew, almost a fifth still feel unwelcome in this country. The departure of Mr Corbyn is no substitute for the sustained action and leadership to protect the Jews of this country — in politics, universities and social media — for which we have been calling for years.”

The full Barometer is available at antisemitism.org/barometer.

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CAA reiterates call for intervention by Charity Commission after another senior figure at Islamic Relief Worldwide has resigned over alleged antisemitism

Yet another figure at Islamic Relief Worldwide has resigned over alleged antisemitism in the third such incident in just six months.

It has now emerged that Tayeb Abdoun, a former interim-CEO at the charity who has worked there for 25 years, resigned on 14th October after being confronted over a picture he reportedly posted on Facebook of a knife with a thumbs up and wrote: “Lay the bodies of the Jews on the top of the mountains, so that no dog in Palestine must suffer hunger.” Other controversial posts were also uncovered, and Mr Abdoun resigned after the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger confronted him.

In a statement, Islamic Relief Worldwide reportedly said: “We continue to work as an organisation to root out anyone that does not meet our core values as a respectful, faith-sensitive, non-discriminatory and principled charity.”

Back in August, the entire board of Islamic Relief Worldwide resigned after a new trustee-director was discovered to have a history of antisemitic posts on social media. He had been appointed to replace another trustee who had previously resigned after his history of antisemitic social media posts was uncovered.

This is therefore the third such incident to rock Britain’s largest Muslim charity in just six months, making our representations to the Charity Commission all the more urgent.

Following the second incident, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the Charity Commission. In our letter to the Charity Commission, we wrote: “The episode has shown that IRW’s processes are defective. Given the size of the charity and the severity of the breach, we are writing to invite you to open a statutory investigation into how IRW has been operating and whether the racist views and negligence of some of its trustees have impacted its activities. We believe that the Commission must intervene to chart a new course for IRW, rebuild the public’s trust in its work. This matter has caused considerable concern amongst members of the Jewish community who have sought our support and it is important that the Commission is seen by them to be investigating this matter thoroughly and taking action where it is needed.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This third incident of alleged antisemitism at Islamic World Relief in just six months, which follows the resignation of the entire trustee board, reinforces the impression that Islamic Relief Worldwide’s processes are defective and makes all the more urgent our call for a statutory investigation by the Charity Commission into how the charity has been operating and whether the racist views and negligence of several of its trustees have impacted its activities. The Commission must chart a new course for the organisation in order to rebuild the public’s trust in the charity’s work.”

It is understood that an independent commission will review the charity’s processes for vetting trustees and directors and its code of conduct, while the organisation’s leadership will receive antisemitism training. The commission will be chaired by the former Attorney-General, Dominic Grieve.

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High Court orders Tony Greenstein to pay CAA £67,886 after suing CAA for calling him a “notorious antisemite” humiliatingly backfires

Tony Greenstein has been ordered by the High Court to pay £67,886 to Campaign Against Antisemitism after his attempt to sue us for calling him a “notorious antisemite” humiliatingly backfired.

Several days ago the High Court struck out Mr Greenstein’s libel claims against us, ruling that it was permissible for us to call him a “notorious antisemite” in articles on our website.

Mrs Justice Tipples denied Mr Greenstein leave to appeal, although Mr Greenstein is still able to petition the Court of Appeal directly.

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

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Police investigating “targeted” cyber-attack on annual gala dinner of major Jewish communal organisation, leading to speculation of an antisemitic motivation

The police are understood to be investigating a cyber-attack on the annual dinner of a major Jewish communal organisation in the UK.

The Centenary celebration of the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), a major Jewish charity, was marked with a gala online dinner last night, but the event was marred by a severe technical disruption.

It is understood that the event company operating the platform believes that the cyber-attack was “targeted”, which has led to speculation that there may have been an antisemitic motivation.

In a statement, UJIA explained that the evening “was disrupted by a targeted cyber-attack”. The effect of the disruption was that hundreds of registered attendees were unable to access the event, but it was then streamed on YouTube, where they were able to watch it.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has urged communal institutions to take precautions to safeguard against antisemitic disruption of online events. We now urge the police to undertake a full investigation and bring the culprits to justice, with charges to take account of any antisemitic motivation.

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CAA excited to announce launch of international coverage

Campaign Against Antisemitism is excited to announce the international expansion of our unrivalled coverage of antisemitism in the UK.

This significant initiative follows requests from both our British supporters wishing to learn more about antisemitism in other parts of the world and also our growing international audience interested in reading more about antisemitism in their own countries and elsewhere.

Like many of our projects, this international coverage will be volunteer-led, and we are grateful to our new volunteers — men and women of all ages, nationalities and creeds — who have joined Campaign Against Antisemitism to help make this happen. We are also keen to recruit additional volunteers with knowledge of other jurisdictions, fluent readers of foreign languages, and those with writing experience who may be interested to join our growing team.

We are also interested in hearing from you, our supporters, over the coming weeks about how you think this coverage is developing. We hope you find our international coverage of antisemitism informative and useful, and that it motivates you and others to raise awareness and help combat these latest manifestations of the world’s oldest hatred.

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As CAA turns six and Rosh Hashanah approaches, whatever next year brings, together we will do whatever it takes to defend against antisemitism

With the Jewish New Year upon us, Campaign Against Antisemitism marks the sixth anniversary of our launch and reflects on some key moments and achievements of the past year.

It seems like an age ago that almost half of Anglo-Jewry was considering leaving the country, with considerable fear that the antisemite, Jeremy Corbyn, could become Prime Minister of Britain.

Our campaign to raise awareness of antisemitism in politics included exposing how Mr Corbyn’s allies were placing a cast of Jew-baiters in dozens of constituencies and culminated with the publication of our Antisemitism Barometer 2019, which showed that voters who held antisemitic views were particularly drawn to Mr Corbyn and that far-left antisemitism had overtaken the antisemitism of the far-right. We also began publishing our case files exposing antisemitism in political parties, which showed that Mr Corbyn was personally responsible for 24 incidents of involvement in antisemitic discourse and that Labour Party candidates for Parliament accounted for a frightening 82% of incidents across all parties.

We gave voice to the concerns of the Jewish community at our star-studded #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism rally in Parliament Square in December 2019, featuring Robert Rinder, Tracy Ann Oberman, Tom Holland, the President of the Hindu Forum of Britain and the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism. It was the largest Anglo-Jewish demonstration against antisemitism since our rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice six years ago.

We carefully monitored the Labour Party primary, documenting the records of all the candidates so that Party members could make informed choices. Once Sir Keir Starmer was elected, we have held him to his election pledges on antisemitism, praising him for his successes, such as sacking Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, and criticising his failures, such as refraining from taking action against Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy after they shared a platform with expelled Labour members. We also published a first-of-its-kind analysis of the records of every member of the Shadow Cabinet on antisemitism – what they said and did over the past five years and, more revealingly, what they did not.

As the complainant in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s full statutory investigation into the Labour Party, which was launched following a formal referral by Campaign Against Antisemitism, we continued to make detailed legal submissions to the Commission and defended the integrity of its investigation in the face of repeated attempts to undermine it by Mr Corbyn and his allies, including through a contrived and dangerous leaked internal Labour Party report.

We have also been at the forefront of fighting antisemitism across all political parties, including the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the Brexit Party, and in local politics.

We have exposed antisemitic memes relating to COVID-19, and over the summer we shone a spotlight on antisemitism in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and changed the conversation overnight, even in the face of threats to our safety, and highlighted how real Civil Rights heroes like Martin Luther King Jr knew that we must unite to beat hate and declared that we would not let the voices of division within BLM trample their legacy. Meanwhile, we have continued to confront antisemitism on the far-right, with new charges against notorious antisemites.

Our efforts to tackle anti-Jewish racism on social media were perhaps best showcased in our response to grime artist Wiley’s multi-day antisemitic tirade. We immediately called for Wiley to prosecuted, for his MBE to be revoked – and the Cabinet Office has confirmed to us that it has opened a case – and for his 2019 Ivors Inspiration Award to be rescinded. We also joined the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate 48-hour walkout from social media in protest at inaction by technology companies, whom we continued to call out and with whom we were in constant contact until Wiley was removed from each platform in turn. We even literally shone a light on racism at Twitter’s London headquarters to successfully pressure the company to act. We also launched two Parliamentary petitions: one calling for racists like Wiley to be stripped of their MBEs, which can be signed here, and the other calling for the Government to bring forward Online Harms Bill this year, which can be signed here.

This Rosh Hashanah, we wish all of our supporters, Jewish and non-Jewish, a happy, healthy, safe and successful year ahead, and ask for your help to continue our vital work.

Whatever next year brings, together we will do whatever it takes to defend against antisemitism. Shana tova!

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CAA writes to the Charity Commission calling for statutory investigation into Islamic World Relief after its entire trustee board resigns in antisemitism scandal

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the Charity Commission following the resignation of the entire trustee board of Islamic World Relief.

The board of Britain’s largest Muslim charity resigned earlier this week after a new trustee-director was discovered to have a history of antisemitic posts on social media. He had been appointed to replace another trustee who had resigned recently after his history of antisemitic social media posts was uncovered.

Heshmat Khalifa was replaced by Almoutaz Tayara, who also serves as the chairman of Islamic Relief Germany. But even though the charity pledged to review its processes for screening trustees after the previous scandal “to ensure that this will not happen again”, Mr Tayara was discovered to have praised the genocidal antisemitic terrorist group Hamas as “great men” who responded to the “divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood”, and also posted an image of former President Barack Obama wearing a tie branded with the Star of David.

It is understood that in 2017 Islamic Relief Germany learned of the posts after they were uncovered by a blogger, which dated from 2014 and 2015, but Mr Tayara was permitted to remain in his post on condition that Mr Tayara apologised, deleted the posts and closed his Facebook account.

Although Islamic World Relief did not apparently know of the posts until it was approached by The Times, the charity announced that the social media comments were “inappropriate and unacceptable” and that its board would resign and not seek re-election to a new board.

In our letter to the Charity Commission, we wrote: “The episode has shown that IRW’s processes are defective. Given the size of the charity and the severity of the breach, we are writing to invite you to open a statutory investigation into how IRW has been operating and whether the racist views and negligence of some of its trustees have impacted its activities. We believe that the Commission must intervene to chart a new course for IRW, rebuild the public’s trust in its work. This matter has caused considerable concern amongst members of the Jewish community who have sought our support and it is important that the Commission is seen by them to be investigating this matter thoroughly and taking action where it is needed.”

The full letter can be read below.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The replacement of a trustee with a history of antisemitic comments with a new trustee who also has a history of antisemitic comments and the subsequent resignation of the entire board has shown that Islamic Relief Worldwide’s processes are defective. Given the size of the charity and the severity of the breach, we have written to the Charity Commission calling for a statutory investigation into how the charity has been operating and whether the racist views and negligence of several of its trustees have impacted its activities. The Commission must chart a new course for the organisation in order to rebuild the public’s trust in the charity’s work.

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CAA calls for former director and trustee of Islamic Relief Worldwide to be banned from serving as a charity trustee in future after antisemitic social media posts uncovered

Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for the former director and trustee of Islamic Relief Worldwide to be banned from serving as a charity trustee in future after numerous antisemitic comments that he made on social media were uncovered.

The Times has reported that Heshmat Khalifa, who ran Islamic Relief Worldwide, Britain’s largest Muslim charity that received some £570 million in income over the past five years from the United Nations, the European Commission and British taxpayers, posted derogatory comments about Jews on Facebook.

In more than a dozen posts in 2014 and 2015, Mr Khalifa called Jews “the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs” and threw antisemitic insults against Egypt’s President, calling him a “pimp son of the Jews”, a “Zionist pig”, a “Zionist traitor” and a “Zionist criminal”. President el-Sisi deposed his predecessor, Mohammed Morsi, who was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr Khalifa, who was born and educated in Egypt and became a British citizen in 2005, wrote the comments in Arabic. He also used his page to promote the charity and was friends on the platform with other charity trustees.

Mr Khalifa, who has been with the charity since 1999, resigned after The Times confronted the organisation with his comments.

The charity reportedly said that it “sincerely regrets any offence caused” by the comments, which “contravene the values and principles of Islamic Relief Worldwide”, which is a “purely humanitarian organisation with no political affiliations” and worked to help people “of all faiths and none, without discrimination by race, religion, gender or sexual orientation”.

It continued: “Heshmat Khalifa has resigned from the board of trustees of Islamic Relief Worldwide with immediate effect. He will also play no further part in any other Islamic Relief boards. We reject and condemn terrorism and believe all forms of discrimination – including antisemitism – are unacceptable.”

Mr Khalifa regretted the “language and sentiments expressed”, saying that his comments were “my expressions of frustration with the political regime, rather than beliefs that I hold,” and added: “I did not intend to insult the Jewish community and neither do I hold views which are antisemitic. I have dedicated much of my life’s work to promoting tolerance and freedom of religion and beliefs.”

It is understood that the Charity Commision has opened an investigation.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is appalling that Mr Khalifa was able to lead for so long one of Britain’s largest charities whilst expressing brazenly antisemitic views. Islamic Relief has questions to answer about how this went unnoticed. We hope that the Charity Commission will now act to ban him from acting as a charity trustee ever again.”

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New poll shows 13% of Britons believe Jews have unhealthy control of banking system, and 38% “couldn’t say” for sure

A new survey has shown that 13 percent of Britons believe that Jews have “undue control of banks”, with a remarkable 38% who said in response to the same statement that they “couldn’t say” for sure or “don’t know”.

The anti-racism charity, Hope Not Hate, published its Trust No One report following three surveys conducted between February and April 2020 designed to “assess the British population’s relationship with conspiracy theories, their trust in the media and public institutions and their attitudes to political participation.”

With regard to antisemitism, the report noted that “while conspiracy theories do not inherently have to be antisemitic, it is remarkable how often Jewish people are explicitly or implicitly identified as the conspirators” and that “it is antisemitic ideas, more so than any other form of racism, that form the basis of modern conspiracy theories.”

The report said that respondents were asked whether the ‘official’ narrative of the Holocaust was exagerrated and whether Jews have an “unhealthy control of the banking system”, but noted that other statements tested can also be have antisemitic connotations, for example, the statement “Even though we live in what’s called a democracy, a few people will always run things in this country anyway”, which can be related to the claims surrounding the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or the ‘Zionist Occupation Government’ conspiracy, both of which claim that Jews strive for world domination and control most governments.

In 2019, our Antisemitism Barometer also found that 20% of British people believed that “British Jewish people chase money more than other British people.”

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Show Racism the Red Card gets its own red card as trustee bravely quits the charity in protest against its support for Ken Loach despite concerns of Jewish community

A trustee of Show Racism the Red Card has bravely quit from the charity over its support for Ken Loach despite the concerns of the Jewish community about the filmmaker’s record, according to the JC.

Azeem Ahmad resigned from the group’s Management Committee because he was “troubled and uncomfortable” by the charity’s refusal to reverse its decision to enlist the controversial director to be a judge in an anti-racism competition that it was running for hundreds of schools across the country.

Despite concerns being raised by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others regarding the appointment, Show Racism the Red Card stood by its decision before eventually reversing itself under pressure. Even then, however, the organisation partly blamed the “abuse” that Mr Loach was apparently receiving online. As we pointed out at the time, abuse is never acceptable, and Campaign Against Antisemitism hopes that Show Racism the Red Card was not suggesting that highlighting Mr Loach’s history of inflammatory comments on the subject of antisemitism and his consequent unfitness to serve as a judge in an anti-racism competition constitutes abuse.

Mr Ahmad quit before the group dropped Mr Loach from the panel, and his resignation was in reaction towards the insistence of the group’s CEO, Ged Grebby, that Mr Loach remain as a judge, as well as wider concerns over the charity’s stance on antisemitism in the Labour Party and the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Mr Ahmad told the JC that he had resigned after six years as a trustee in February, and that his resignation was accepted in March. He said: “What makes the whole antisemitism issue and the whole Ken Loach issue so uncomfortable for me is that Ged is very clear on what is and what isn’t racism. He knows what he is doing, and it is not like he doesn’t understand what racism is and how it can manifest itself. That is where I have been left deeply uncomfortable with the way the Jewish community has been treated. Not just with the Ken Loach issue, but also with Jeremy Corbyn’s appearance at (the charity’s annual) Arsenal stadium event. That last event the Labour leader attended after the EHRC investigation had been announced. That to me is deeply troubling.

Mr Ahmad was referring to the full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 28th May 2019 following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

Campaign Against Antisemitism also criticised the inclusion of Mr Corbyn at the Arsenal stadium event.

Mr Ahmad went on to say that this episode reflected deeper administrative failings at Show Racism the Red Card and problems over dealing with antisemitism. Noting that the criticism of Mr Loach’s appointment was due to be discussed at a trustee meeting on 21st February, Mr Ahmad recalled: “I knew the recruitment of Ken Loach was going to be a problem. There were public accusations of antisemitism being made (on social media) towards the chief executive of the organisation. They one way or another had to be addressed. It was the failure to do that, combined with an email forwarded to the trustees in which Ged sent an email from Ken Loach and all the other letters of support for him. At that point, I knew the decision to appoint him would have been upheld, it was a forgone conclusion. I just felt I couldn’t have anything to do with it, so my resignation got submitted via my solicitor on the morning of the meeting of 21st February where it was discussed.”

It also emerged that concerns from the Jewish community that had been relayed to Mr Grebby about the appointment were not discussed at the meeting.

Mr Ahmad continued: “I don’t want to turn this into a political debate but left-wing politics overrides the organisation, in my view. Through association, through the funders, it’s very much about doing what they want us to do. I’m not sure where the autonomy has been.”

Regarding Mr Grebby, Mr Ahmad said: “He has his vision. Things stem from that. He leads by statement, rather than through discussion. There has not been a great deal of consultative leadership.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously written in depth about Mr Grebby’s own problematic record.

Mr Ahmad also lamented Mr Grebby’s failure to “understand the value” of the International Definition of Antisemitism. “Where has the organisation been on this issue over the past two and a half years? To me it seems like a lost opportunity. A lot of the work the charity does is quite good.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has in the past also noted that Show Racism the Red Card describes itself as an anti-racism educational charity and appears to focus on discrimination and hate towards Black and Asian communities in the UK. It does not appear to offer resources on antisemitism.

Mr Ahmad spoke to this point as well, responding to Mr Grebby’s apparent insistence that the charity’s educational materials do include resources on antisemitism by saying: “That is just not true. I have never known any specific antisemitism activities that the organisation has run in the past. As far as I’m aware there has never been anything specific on it.”

“Ultimately racists are racists,” Mr Ahmad said. “They don’t care whether we are Jewish or Muslim, we are other.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds Mr Ahmad for courageously protesting Show Racism the Red Card’s failures to take the concerns of the Jewish community into account. It is probable that Mr Ahmad’s resignation helped to bring about about the reversal of the appointment of Mr Loach, and Mr Ahmad is to be commended for his principled stance. We hope that this will be a wake-up call to Show Racism the Red Card.

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The Government has called for the help of volunteers and we are ready to play our part

Today the Government said that it would establish a network of hubs around the country to cater to the need of those most vulnerable to COVID-19, and that those hubs would partly rely on the help of volunteers.

We have already witnessed the best of our country coming together as the NHS mobilises to treat those affected by COVID-19, as manufacturers divert their resources to designing and mass-producing ventilators, as retired medical professionals answer the call from the frontlines for help, and as scientists hurry to develop tests and vaccines.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led organisation and many of our volunteers now find themselves at home with time and talents to contribute. We would be very pleased to hear from other charities or the Government as to how our volunteers can support the national effort. We have written to our contacts at 10 Downing Street to seek any direction from them as to how we can help.

Meanwhile, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic intensifies, Campaign Against Antisemitism endeavours to continue our work as usual. We are in particular seeking to expose and silence conspiracy theorists who are claiming that the pandemic is the work of Jews.

We have taken internal measures to avoid exposing our team to risks, but our charity is built to be extremely resilient and we are lucky to be able to rely on extraordinary volunteers. Nevertheless, our fundraising is impacted and your support will be even more gratefully received than ever before.

In this precarious period for the country and the world, Campaign Against Antisemitism wishes everyone good health.

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CAA wishes everyone good health in this precarious period

As the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak intensifies, Campaign Against Antisemitism endeavours to continue our work as usual.

We have taken internal measures to avoid exposing our team to risks, but our charity is built to be extremely resilient and we are lucky to be able to rely on extraordinary volunteers. Nevertheless, our fundraising is impacted and your support will be even more gratefully received than ever before.

In this precarious period for the country and the world, Campaign Against Antisemitism wishes everyone good health.

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Oxfam apologises for selling antisemitic tract The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and removes it from online sale

The poverty charity Oxfam has apologised for selling copies of the notorious antisemitic tract, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and has removed the book from its online shop.

The antisemitic work was originally published in Czarist Russia in 1903 and, having since been translated into multiple languages, is still popular in parts of the world today. It is a fake record of a fictitious meeting of a Jewish cabal discussing its control of the world.

Oxfam’s marketing of the book was noticed by Israel’s ambassador to the UK, with a 1936 edition selling for £100 and a 2002 version available for £12.99. Reportedly, the English translations books were priced, photographed and put online by volunteers.

Oxfam released a statement saying: “As soon as the books were brought to our attention we removed them from sale and they are being destroyed. They should not have been listed.  We provide guidance to our staff on items that are not acceptable for sale. We apologise for the error and offence caused. We will look at steps to take to prevent it happening again.”

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Exposed: Show Racism The Red Card CEO Ged Grebby’s persistent dismissal of Labour Party antisemitism despite his role heading charity meant to fight racism

The CEO of the charity Show Racism the Red Card is revealed to have a troubling social media history of belittling antisemitism in the Labour Party, whose antisemitic leader, Jeremy Corbyn, he openly backs.

Ged Grebby’s Twitter history includes the following posts, demonstrating a pattern of downplaying anti-Jewish racism — precisely the opposite sentiment that one might expect from the head of a charity that describes itself as an anti-racism educational organisation.

  • January 2015: Promoted an article by the journalist David Conn that criticised Campaign Against Antisemitism for sounding the “alarm” on rising antisemitism, claiming that raising these concerns would “risk seeming a little ungrateful” towards Britain. Mr Geddy described it as an “excellent article”.
  • August 2016: Tweeted that he is “Considering stopping my @guardian subscription over their massively biased coverage of #Corbyn.” The tweet linked to an article in The Guardian about comments by Labour MP Angela Eagle, titled: “Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle bigotry has tarnished Labour”.
  • March 2018: Shared an article titled “As a Jewish Labour member, I’m sick of antisemitism being used as a political weapon against Jeremy Corbyn”, which dismissed claims of “a rise in antisemitic incidents” in the Labour Party as “tiring”, “frustrating” and “dangerous”. The notions that Labour’s antisemitism scandal was being “weaponised” or functioned as a “smear” of the Party’s leadership have been common tropes among deniers of Labour’s institutional antisemitism.
  • July 2018: Shared an article by the co-founder of the ultra-fringe Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the executive director of the highly controversial US-based group, Jewish Voice for Peace, which one leading Jewish organisation in the United States has said “gives cover to antisemites who couch their malice toward Jews as mere anti-Zionism”. The article was titled “As Jews, we reject the myth that it’s antisemitic to call Israel racist”. The article argued against the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by the Labour Party and endorsed the movement to boycott Israel, the tactics of which an overwhelming majority of Jews find intimidating. Mr Grebby described the article as an “important read”.
  • July 2018: A further tweet, captured by another user and, it seems, since deleted, also appears to have downplayed antisemitism in the Labour Party by agreeing with a series of tweets backing the infamous “code” that was floated by Labour Party insiders in 2018 as an alternative to the Definition in order to dilute it.
  • August 2018: Shared an article that wrongly claimed that the “[Definition] at heart of Labour row ‘will silence public discussion’, say minority groups.”
  • August 2018: Tweeted that “It is an absolute disgrace that #FrankField is using #Antisemitism in this way,” urging his followers to read an article criticising the backbench MP for observing in his resignation from the Labour Party that the Labour leadership was becoming a “force for antisemitism in British politics” and accusing Mr Corbyn of trying to “deny that past statements and actions by him were antisemitic”.
  • February 2019: Shared a letter that appeared in The Guardian titled “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is a crucial ally in the fight against antisemitism”, adding in his tweet the word “#antisemitism”. The letter, which backed Mr Corbyn against the concerns of the mainstream Jewish community, was signed by 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour Party.

In addition to his social media pronouncements, in 2019 Mr Geddy also appeared on a platform alongside individuals with their own worrying records, including Labour’s Richard Burgon MP, who said that “Zionism is the enemy of peace” and then lied about having done so, and Mark Serwotka, the General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, who suggested that Israel may have “created” the antisemitism crisis engulfing the Labour Party, as well as Anas Altikriti of the Muslim Association of Britain and Mohammed Kozbar, the Chair of Finsbury Park Mosque.

He also signed a joint letter with Labour frontbenchers and close allies of Mr Corbyn, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Labour’s Laura Pidcock MP and the Unite chief, Len McCluskey, and others.

Show Racism the Red Card has itself been involved in controversies over antisemitism as well, most recently when it invited the outspoken filmmaker, Ken Loach, to join a panel of judges for a school competition on creative anti-racism designs, despite Mr Loach’s own history of denying Labour antisemitism and his past refusal to denounce Holocaust denial. Mr Geddy described Mr Loach as a “valued supporter” of his organisation, which has included Mr Loach as a guest of honour in the past.

Some of Show Racism the Red Card’s sponsors are trades unions that have dismissed antisemitism in the Labour Party, and Show Racism the Red Card has also hosted Mr Corbyn at a panel at Arsenal. Mr Corbyn has also been featured as a promoter of Show Racism the Red Card’s campaigns, including by Mr Geddy directly.

It has been noted that Show Racism the Red Card receives a significant amount of funding from government departments and public bodies, as well as unions.

It is deeply disturbing that the Chief Executive of a prominent charity charged with educating against racism also downplays it and serves as a cheerleader for an antisemitic political leader who is unfit for public office.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is grateful for research from numerous activists and online monitors, which contributed to this report.

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Show Racism the Red Card involved in another antisemitism controversy as it invites Ken Loach to join a panel of judges for an anti-racism school contest

The activist group, Show Racism the Red Card, has become involved in another controversy over antisemitism following an invitation to the outspoken filmmaker, Ken Loach, to join a panel of judges for a school competition on creative anti-racism designs.

Mr Loach has a history of inflammatory comments on the subject of antisemitism. Mr Loach’s voice has been among the loudest of those who attempt to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as non-existent and a right-wing smear campaign. He claimed that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a “torrent of abuse” that was “off the scale” and that regardless of what he did, the “campaign” of antisemitism accusations was “going to run and run”. He described the BBC’s Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism as “disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism…and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn.” He was also reportedly behind a motion passed by Bath Labour Party branding the Panorama programme a “dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences” and asserting that it “disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.” John Ware, the programme’s reporter, is apparently considering legal action against Mr Loach for his comments.

In 2017, Mr Loach caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is a manifestation of antisemitism. Although Mr Loach later sought to clarify his remarks, he has continued to make inflammatory and provocative statements about Labour’s antisemitism scandal. While speaking at a meeting of the Kingswood Constituency Labour Party, Mr Loach advocated the removal from the Party of those Labour MPs, some of whom are Jewish, who have taken a principled stand against antisemitism. Shortly after that incident, the Labour Party announced that it would no longer use Mr Loach as a producer of their election broadcasts.

Another invitee to the panel, Michael Rosen, is a former backer of the Socialist Workers Party who has also reportedly defended Jeremy Corbyn against charges of antisemitism.

The group’s chief executive described Mr Loach and Mr Rosen as “valued supporters” and said that he could not “think of two people better qualified to choose winners.”

Show Racism the Red Card describes itself as an anti-racism educational charity and appears to focus on discrimination and hate towards Black and Asian communities in the UK. It does not appear to offer resources on antisemitism.

The organisation has also itself hosted Mr Corbyn, along with fellow Labour Party frontbencher Emily Thornberry, at a panel at Arsenal.

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“We Muslims condemn, in the strongest terms, what happened in the Holocaust” says head of Muslim World League on visit to Auschwitz, as Pope Francis also calls on Catholics to engage in prayer and reflection over the Holocaust

Pope Francis used his weekly address and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square yesterday to call for prayer and reflection over the Holocaust, while Muslim clergy have made a groundbreaking visit to Auschwitz to commemorate the victims.

The Pope said: “Indifference is inadmissible before this enormous tragedy, this atrocity, and memory is a duty. Tomorrow [on Holocaust Memorial Day], we are all invited to stop for a moment of prayer and reflection, each one of us saying in our own heart: ‘never again, never again’.” 

The Pope has also ordered the opening of the Vatican’s WWII archives, which Jewish groups have been requesting for years, and last week called the rise in antisemitism today a “barbaric resurgence”.

Meanwhile, a group led by the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Dr Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, has been taking part in the commemorations at the Nazi extermination camp.

Dr Al-Issa, who is based in Saudi Arabia, led a group described as “the most senior Islamic leadership delegation” ever to visit Auschwitz, comprising 62 Muslims from 28 countries, including 25 prominent religious leaders.

Dr Al-Issa said: “To be here, among the children of Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish and Islamic communities, is both a sacred duty and a profound honor,” adding: “The unconscionable crimes to which we bear witness today are truly crimes against humanity. That is to say, a violation of us all, an affront to all of God’s children.”

In a powerful opinion editorial in the UK, Dr Al-Issa wrote: “The Holocaust is truly the most horrific crime in human history, in which six million Jews perished at the hands of Hitler’s Nazi regime simply because they were Jews.

“This crime shook humankind. Only the malicious sympathise with it. These people are no less barbaric than the Nazis themselves, in terms of malevolence and brutality. Those who deny the Holocaust are equally criminal.”

He added: “I say that we Muslims condemn, in the strongest terms, what happened in the Holocaust, and express our sorrow and sadness at what we consider to be a crime of unparalleled proportions in human history.”

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“As Holocaust survivors pass the baton to us to continue their work, we accept our solemn responsibility,” writes CAA chief executive Gideon Falter

Last week, world leaders gathered in Jerusalem for an event entitled “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism.” Organised by the World Holocaust Forum Foundation with Yad Vashem, under the auspices of the President of Israel, the gathering was arranged to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day today, which is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The purpose of the event, President Rivlin explained, was to “think about how to pass on Holocaust remembrance to generations who will live in a world without survivors, and what steps we must take to ensure the safety and security of Jews — all around the world.”

President Rivlin is right to link Holocaust remembrance with the security of Jews today — there is no point commemorating the Jews of the past while tolerating hatred against the Jews of the present.

Thanks to years of hard work by the Jewish community, successive British Governments have taken Holocaust education very seriously, and indeed our country sends more visitors to Auschwitz than any other.

But Holocaust education must be rigorous, and that means resisting the growing attempts to attribute it to abstract ills such as “prejudice” and “discrimination”. Antisemitism in the Holocaust was not a footnote: it was its core.

Holocaust denial must also be fought vigorously. This is particularly true in anticipation of a world without survivors. That’s why we at Campaign Against Antisemitism brought a private prosecution against the notorious Holocaust denier and antisemite, Alison Chabloz, when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) refused to act.

Ms Chabloz wrote, recorded and publicised online songs denying the Holocaust and mocking its victims. Our action resulted in a landmark legal precedent, whereby Holocaust denial was deemed by the courts for the first time to be “grossly offensive” and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews online. This groundbreaking ruling means that Holocaust denial, in certain circumstances, has become a crime in England for the first time.

Following our prosecution, Ms Chabloz was given a suspended sentence, the conditions of which she has since breached. She may therefore be sent to prison next month, pending an appeal.

This was not the only time we have been forced to act when the CPS would not. In July 2015, neo-Nazis sought to march through Golders Green. Due to our intervention, they were forced to gather in Westminster instead. At their rally, Jeremy Bedford-Turner claimed that Jews controlled the West, drank the blood of non-Jewish children and perpetrated the French Revolution and both World Wars, before demanding: “Let’s free England from Jewish control.”

For two years, the CPS blocked our efforts to have Mr Bedford-Turner prosecuted, insisting that no crime had been committed. We understand that the then-Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Alison Saunders, personally interceded to overrule a senior prosecutor who had advised that the CPS should initiate a prosecution.

We took the CPS to court to subject its decision to judicial review and won, forcing the CPS to prosecute. In a victory for the Jewish community and a deserved humiliation for the DPP and CPS, a jury unanimously found Mr Bedford-Turner guilty of incitement and he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.

These are not isolated occurrences. Our analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group. Yet prosecution rates against antisemitic criminals remain low.

We, along with the radio station LBC, referred a secret Labour dossier of antisemitic incidents among Party activists to the Metropolitan Police back in September 2018. The Met’s Commissioner, Cressida Dick, revealed earlier this month that six arrests were made in early 2019 — the only arrests made in connection with Labour antisemitism — and that five case files were passed to the CPS in September 2019.

Despite the passage of several months, the CPS has yet to make a decision on whether to charge the activists, despite a former DPP declaring that he believes that the criminal threshold was met. We will continue pursuing these cases to ensure that the CPS does not run down the clock until it is too late for charges to be brought.

The problems in the Labour Party are well known. But as some leading figures in the Party now fall over themselves to say all the right things (others are less repentant), we will continue to hold them to account, including through our work as complainant in the ongoing investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into Labour antisemitism.

Many Holocaust survivors have dedicated their lives to education by retelling their experiences. Others sought to ensure that antisemites suffered the consequences of their actions. Education and deterrence go hand in hand; without one, the other is doomed to failure. We must educate against antisemitism and we must ensure there are ruinous consequences for those who seek to do us harm.

As Holocaust survivors pass the baton to us to continue their work, we accept our solemn responsibility.

(This article was first published, in a slightly adapted form, in the Jewish Telegraph this weekend.)

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Now is not the time to rest on our laurels — CAA prepares ambitious plans for 2020

Since we first exposed Jeremy Corbyn’s past, we have been at the forefront of putting antisemitism in the Labour Party under the spotlight and holding the antisemites to account.

We have heard from so many British Jews that as voting took place on Thursday, they felt a knot in their stomachs, wondering whether their countrymen were about to elect Mr Corbyn, who is an antisemite, as their Prime Minister. Many were doubting their future in this country; that is how high the stakes were.

Since 2015, Campaign Against Antisemitism has led the fight to bring antisemitism in the Labour Party to light and ensure that the media covered it. We made the referral and legal representation that caused the Equality and Human Rights Commission to open a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, in which we are the complainant. We have also secured the only arrests of Labour activists over antisemitism. To this day, we remain the only major organisation to call Mr Corbyn an antisemite, and we called the Labour Party institutionally antisemitic years before anybody else. Some have vilified us and accused us of scaremongering, but others have proved to be invaluable allies.

After years of exposing antisemitism in politics, in just the past two weeks Campaign Against Antisemitism published a detailed study with King’s College London exposing the extent of antisemitic views on the far-left and amongst Mr Corbyn’s strongest supporters, released detailed case files on antisemitic parliamentary candidates across all political parties, including Mr Corbyn himself, and gathered 3,200 Jews and non-Jews alike in Parliament Square at our star-studded #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism rally to stand with British Jews.

While many in the Jewish community have doubted that the British public cared about antisemitism, Campaign Against Antisemitism has for some time seen indications that British people are deeply disgusted by Jew-hatred. Polling data suggests that antisemitism was a significant factor in the resounding defeat of the Labour Party.

However, now is not the time to rest on our laurels.

Antisemitism in politics is not vanquished. Antisemitism on campuses remains commonplace. Incitement against Jews online and antisemitic intimidation and violence on the streets are growing. In 2020, Campaign Against Antisemitism will focus on three areas.

The first area is antisemitism in politics. The Labour Party will be changing its leadership, but the Party itself remains institutionally antisemitic and many of those whose failures led to the antisemitism crisis under Jeremy Corbyn will still hold positions of power. Now is the time for Campaign Against Antisemitism to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism in politics, including other political parties which are not without their problems, albeit not on the scale of Labour’s crisis. Campaign Against Antisemitism’s highly-experienced Political and Government Investigations Unit will be continuing its work to expose, document and highlight antisemitism in political parties. We will also continue in our role as complainant in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, and to ensure that antisemitic political activists are prosecuted.

The second area is antisemitism on campus. Antisemitism at universities has long been a major focus for Campaign Against Antisemitism, however in the coming year we will elevate it to one of our three major national strategic priorities, which will involve an expansion of our work to gather evidence from universities around the country, a major analysis project to understand what universities have in fact been doing to combat antisemitism (generally much too little), and investing in litigation to force universities to defend their Jewish students. We believe that university campuses have long been an incubator for antisemitism, and that students often acquire antisemitic beliefs at university and then bring those beliefs out into other arenas when they graduate, infecting political parties, for example.

The third area is antisemitic crime online and on the streets. Campaign Against Antisemitism was founded in response to surging antisemitic crime just over five years ago, and despite landmark legal successes which have involved everything from private prosecution to judicial review, the Crown Prosecution Service is still failing to adequately prosecute antisemitic incitement online, and we are also very concerned about its approach to antisemitic hate crime on the streets. We intend to build on our legal successes by bringing more cases. The incitement by antisemites and their apparent impunity is emboldening growing numbers of racists to criminally target British Jews. We must ensure that the authorities act, and deter the antisemites.

We need your help.

In order to accomplish our goals in 2020, we must raise a significant litigation fund. That is because the only part of our programme that is not funded is the litigation. Whereas we receive the help of extremely accomplished lawyers on a pro bono basis, there is only so much work they can take on. We need an in-house lawyer to assist them by taking on much of the legwork on cases so that we can bring more actions.

2020 is the year that we must build on our successes and turn the tables on antisemites in this country. We need your support to succeed, and that is why we are asking that everyone donates towards our litigation fund. We are raising money to pay the salaries of a full-time lawyer and paralegal, as well as court and insurance fees. Together, these costs are substantial, and they will be ongoing.

Please give what you can online, contact us to set up a standing order or to make a large donation, or volunteer to help us to fundraise.

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‘Leading campaigner against racism’ disgracefully quits Church of England body because Archbishop stood up to anti-Jewish racism

An academic described as a ‘leading campaigner against racism’ has resigned from a Church of England advisory body in protest at the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in support of the Chief Rabbi’s editorial warning that Jeremy Corbyn is “unfit for office” and that “the very soul of our nation is at stake,” as antisemitic crime and antisemitism in public life reach record levels.

The Archbishop issued a statement following the publication of the Chief Rabbi’s article warning that there is a “deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.” Stating that “None of us can afford to be complacent,” the Archbishop made a thinly veiled attack on those who continually deplore antisemitism whilst doing nothing against it, writing: “Voicing words that commit to a stand against antisemitism requires a corresponding effort in visible action.”

However, Gus John has now resigned his role on the advisory body saying: “As a matter of principle, I cannot continue to work with the Anglican church … after the Archbishop of Canterbury’s disgraceful endorsement of the Chief Rabbi’s unjust condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour party,” adding that the Chief Rabbi’s criticisms were received “as if he were the pope, speaking for all British Jews as the pope would for all Roman Catholics. Secular Jews and those who do not hold with the views of Jews for Labour are considered not to matter.” Mr John proceeded to note issues of discrimination against minorities within the Church.

It is regrettable that Mr John sees combating antisemitism as somehow mutually exclusive with fighting for equal rights for all minorities.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right, and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the party leader of choice for those who hold multiple antisemitic views.

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 58,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

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Church of England urges Anglicans and other Christians to repent for the “sins of the past” towards Jews

The Church of England has produced a landmark document urging Anglicans and other Christians not only to repent for the “sins of the past” towards their Jewish neighbours but to be alert to and actively challenge the continuation of such attitudes or stereotypes.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the release of this historic document which demonstrates the Church of England’s solidarity with the Jewish community at this worrying time.

The 121-page teaching document, which was three years in the making, was released today by the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission.

Titled G-d’s Unfailing Word, it encourages Christians to rediscover the relationship of “unique significance” between the two faiths, worshipping one God, with scriptures shared in common. It makes clear that the Christian-Jewish relationship should be viewed as a “gift of G-d to the Church” to be received with care, respect and gratitude.

It also speaks to the attitudes towards Judaism over many centuries as providing a “fertile seed-bed for murderous antisemitism.”

Writing in the afterword of the document, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis, described the relationship as a “profound friendship.” However, he said that he has a “substantial misgiving” with the document over its failure to address evangelism.

Last year, The Church of England adopted the full International Definition of Antisemitism.

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Church apologises for hosting Miko Peled as convicted Holocaust-denier Alison Chabloz seen in front row

St Anne’s Church in Soho has apologised for letting the American-Israeli activist Miko Peled give a lecture in its hall titled “Journey of an Israeli in Palestine”, regretting that the event “may not have accurately reflected our values or those of our community.”

Mr Peled is an American-Israeli activist who has said that people should be free to ask “Holocaust, yes or no” because “there should be no limits on the discussion,” and has compared Israel to the Nazis, in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

At the event, which was apparently booked by an organisation called “Keep Talking”, Mr Peled made jokes about antisemitism in the Labour Party which were greeted with laughter and applause from an audience filled with individuals with troubling records.

Among those reportedly in attendance were Alison Chabloz, a Holocaust denier convicted for offences under the Communication Act 2003 following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

According to researcher David Collier, other attendees included the disgraced conspiracy theorist Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer, who claimed that an Israeli conspiracy was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Elleanne Green, a prolific poster of conspiracy theories and friend of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who founded the virulently antisemitic “Palestine Live” Facebook group.

The church has donated the room hire fee to a Jewish charity, as part of its apology.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “This event illustrates how meaningless is the distinction between far-right and far-left when it comes to antisemitism. Right-wing Holocaust deniers and extremist campaigners on the political Left are united in their disdain for Jews and should be treated with like contempt by wider society. While we welcome St Anne’s apology, we urge churches and other institutions to conduct greater due diligence before hosting figures with such troubling records in future.”

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Looking back on five years of Campaign Against Antisemitism — and looking forward

With the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, approaching, it is a season for reflection. We at Campaign Against Antisemitism are also now marking our five years of existence and how far we have come.

We say ‘marking’ because our anniversary is not a moment of celebration: we would prefer that our work were not necessary. Neither, however, is it entirely an occasion for lamentation, as we take pride in the community of dedicated volunteers that we have created (well over one thousand strong), the individuals whom we have helped or witnessed showing social, political or legal courage, and the accomplishments we have achieved.

These accomplishments include successfully lobbying the British Government to become the first in the world to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism (the IHRA Definition), which was followed by many more institutions in the UK and abroad.

They also include Campaign Against Antisemitism’s formal referral and detailed legal representations to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which led to the EHRC’s full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, which was launched on 28th May 2019 and in which CAA is the complainant. The Labour Party has thereby joined the British National Party as the only political parties to be the subjects of such an investigation.

We have also been at the forefront of highlighting antisemitism within the Labour Party and post-Holocaust antisemitism on the political left. We were the first to speak out about Jeremy Corbyn’s past, clearly name him as an antisemite and describe the Labour Party under his leadership as institutionally antisemitic.

Meanwhile, following a gruelling effort over several years by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies within and without the Jewish community, Hizballah was completely proscribed in the UK. Hizballah supporters are no longer able to intimidate British Jews with relative impunity as they have done for years. This has formed part of our campaign against Islamist antisemitism.

We have also taken the fight against antisemitism on the far-right to the next level, with landmark legal action against Alison Chabloz over her songs mocking Holocaust survivors and claiming that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud, resulting in Holocaust denial being deemed by the courts for the first time to be “grossly offensive” and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews. This week she was sent to prison for breaching the conditions of her sentence.

Our three-year legal battle with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to force it to prosecute neo-Nazi leader Jeremy Bedford-Turner led to his sentence to a year in prison for incitement to racial hatred over his speech at a rally against the “Jewification” of Golders Green, which the CPS insisted was not a crime until we proved it was in court.

Along with others we successfully lobbied for the neo-Nazi group National Action to be designated a terrorist organisation, and have instigated dozens of criminal investigations and robustly challenged police forces at the highest levels until they corrected investigatory failings into far-right antisemites.

In addition, our libel action forced antisemitic author and saxophonist, Gilad Atzmon, into a humiliating capitulation; we submitted legal representations to the Charity Commission about an antisemitic charity, resulting in its dissolution after we threatened to take the Commission to judicial review in the High Court; and our research contributed to the Judicial College agreeing to issue guidance to all judiciary in England and Wales confirming that the use by antisemites of the term ‘Zionist’ can often be treated as a substitute for the word ‘Jew’.

Comprehensive research conducted by CAA into antisemitic crime and prejudice, as well as antisemitism in political parties, has been widely-used by journalists and policymakers and reveals the degree of antisemitism in wider society, the persistent failure of the authorities to prosecute antisemites, and the depth of concern in the Jewish community.

Our pioneering educational programmes and training for regulatory bodies, testimony to parliamentary committees and work with Government ministers, appearances in national, local and communal media, steady stream of reliable news stories, powerful rallies and demonstrations and active social media work — including our #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism campaign which saw hundreds of thousands of Jews and non-Jews worldwide show solidarity against the world’s oldest hatred — have raised awareness of antisemitism in the UK and beyond.

And our guidance to students on campus, collaboration with other Jewish community charities and action by our volunteer monitoring teams have resulted in antisemitic events being banned and antisemites being brought to justice.

As we look back on the last five years, we are confident that our work is contributing not only to the security of the Jewish community, but also to the betterment of British society, whose values of tolerance, decency and equal treatment under the law are worth fighting for.

Looking ahead, we remain gravely concerned about the turmoil in which our nation finds itself: it is precisely at these times of political instability and economic uncertainty that forces hostile to Jews and mainstream values thrive.

On this Jewish new year, on behalf of everyone at Campaign Against Antisemitism, we wish all of our supporters, Jewish and non-Jewish, a happy, healthy, safe and successful year ahead. It is thanks to your support and solidarity that we can have hope for the future.

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CAA applauds Church in Wales for adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism

The Church in Wales has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds the decision which shows the Church in Wales’ solidarity with the Jewish community in Wales.

The Church in Wales is part of the Anglican Communion and is composed of six dioceses and some 1,500 churches.

The Church of England adopted the definition in September last year, followed by the Church of Scotland’s adoption of the definition in May

The Bishops of the Church in Wales said in a statement following the adoption of the definition: “We regard antisemitism as abhorrent and recognise that the Christian Church has need of repentance for the ways in which it has contributed in the past to anti-Jewish sentiment.”

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

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CAA complains to Charity Commission and Home Office after Cambridge Union lets Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad spew antisemitism, unchallenged

Campaign Against Antisemitism is making a complaint to the Charity Commission after Cambridge Union, a registered charity, permitted proud antisemite, Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to spew antisemitic comments at an event on Sunday evening without challenging him.

In a video recording of the event posted on YouTube, Dr Mohamad was questioned by the moderator, an elected official at the Union, about his past comments about Jews. He replied: “I have some Jewish friends, very good friends. They are not like the other Jews. That’s why they are my friends.” The audience laughed loudly.

When questioned on his views of the Holocaust, he said: “The Israelis should know from the sufferings they went through in the war not to treat others like that.” Although he denied saying that only 4 million died in the Holocaust, something that he has previously stated on the record. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

On antisemitism, he said: “Of course if you say anything against the Jews, you are labelled antisemitic. No other race in the world labels people like that, why is it forbidden to criticise the Jews when other people criticise us?” He added that: “The Jews do a lot of wrong things, which force us to pass comment.”

In response to a question about previous comments that he made calling Jews “hooked nosed”, Dr Mohamad stated: “People do generalise, in describing certain people we take some general characteristics that they have, why is it that it’s the Jews who resent this when other people don’t resent being accused of some general characteristic that they have? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that pretty much every group of people objects to being casually racially stereotyped.” He followed this up by using an example that: “The British Jews used to say the Malays are lazy.”

It is disgraceful and unforgivable that Cambridge Union, a club affiliated to the University of Cambridge, one of Britain’s most prestigious educational institutions, rolled out the red carpet for this self-confessed and unrepentant antisemite, and presented him with a platform from which to share his dangerous views with students, unchallenged.

Dr Mohamad, 93, has a long history of making appallingly antisemitic comments.

In his 1970 book “The Makay Dilemma”, he wrote that: “The Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” In 2012, he wrote on his personal blog that: “Jews rule this world by proxy.”

He also notoriously boasted that: “I am glad to be labeled antisemitic…How can I be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies should any try to stop the senseless killing of their Palestinian enemies.”

In January this year, Dr Mohamad was controversially invited to speak at the Oxford Union. When challenged there about his comments about Jews, he responded that: “We talk about freedom of speech, but yet you cannot say anything against Israel, against the Jews, why is that so? If we are free to say what we like, we can say something that is regarded as antisemitic by the Jews, that is their right, to hold such an opinion of me. It is my right to tell them, also, that they have been doing a lot of wrong things.”

Last Tuesday, Cambridge Union defended its indefensible position and told the JC: “At the Union we pride ourselves on defending free speech and allowing our members to hear from and to hold to account the people that shape our world. We are sure that this event will contribute further to this great tradition.” In failing to properly challenge the views of this proud antisemite, the Cambridge Union has failed to hold him to account, instead allowing him to make light of his abhorrent antisemitism and present it as factual to his audience.

A Jewish student who attended the event told Campaign Against Antisemitism that a union staff member spoke to him during the event, telling him that he had seen him earlier near a small group of protestors and that security would specifically be keeping an eye on him. A member of security was subsequently positioned near him. On this he told Campaign Against Antisemitism that: “The way Jewish students were clearly targeted for extra surveillance by security personnel left them feeling extremely uncomfortable and in some cases, too intimidated to ask the speaker a question.”

In a statement to Campaign Against Antisemitism, the student said that: “While the opportunity to challenge Mahathir Mohamad on his regressive views on homosexuals and Jews might have been prima facie valuable, in this instance the Union failed to adequately counter his unacceptable rhetoric. The questioner did manage to bring up controversial topics, but regularly let clearly racist and discriminatory comments go unchallenged. One horrific comment about Cambridge being colonised and renamed Israel was shockingly met with laughter from the floor. It seems the Union is conflicted between pampering its VIP guests, and truly holding them to account.”

As well as complaining to the University of Cambridge and the Charity Commission, Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the Home Secretary to draw attention to these latest comments and to ask why Dr Mohamad was allowed into the country despite his history of using his visits to spread hatred against Jews. The event could breach the Government’s counter extremism policy, Prevent. You may wish to support us by writing to your MP.

If Cambridge Union wished to host Dr Mohamad in the name of free speech, his longstanding Jew-hatred should have faced the harshest dissection and cross-examination that is the best of this country’s academic tradition. Instead, the Union gingerly and respectfully provided a platform for a revolting bigot. The Union decided to allow Dr Mohamad to spew his vitriol against Jews without challenge and we intend to ensure that it bears the consequences of that unforgivable choice.

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Cambridge Union debate with proudly antisemitic Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to go ahead as part of its “great tradition”

Cambridge Union has disgracefully invited proud antisemite Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to give a speech at 18:30 on Sunday.

It is unforgivable that Cambridge Union at the University of Cambridge, one of Britain’s most prestigious educational institutions, is rolling out the red carpet for this self-confessed and unrepentant antisemite, and allowing him to share his dangerous views with students.

Dr Mohamad, 93, has a long history of making appallingly antisemitic comments.

In his 1970 book “The Makay Dilemma”, he wrote that: “The Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.” In 2012, he wrote on his personal blog that: “Jews rule this world by proxy.”

He also notoriously boasted that: “I am glad to be labeled antisemitic…How can I be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies should any try to stop the senseless killing of their Palestinian enemies.”

In January this year, Dr Mohamad was controversially invited to speak at the Oxford Union. When challenged there about his comments about Jews, he responded that: “We talk about freedom of speech, but yet you cannot say anything against Israel, against the Jews, why is that so? If we are free to say what we like, we can say something that is regarded as antisemitic by the Jews, that is their right, to hold such an opinion of me. It is my right to tell them, also, that they have been doing a lot of wrong things.”

The Cambridge Union shamefully defended its indefensible position and told the JC: “At the Union we pride ourselves on defending free speech and allowing our members to hear from and to hold to account the people that shape our world. We are sure that this event will contribute further to this great tradition.”

As well as complaining to the University of Cambridge And the Charity Commission, Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the Home Secretary to ask why Dr Mohamad was allowed into the country despite his history of using his visits to spread hatred against Jews. The decision could breach the Government’s counter extremism policy, Prevent, which Campaign Against Antisemitism is raising with the Home Secretary as well as with the Secretary of State for Education and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. You may wish to support us by writing to your MP.

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CAA applauds Church of Scotland for adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds the decision which demonstrates the Church of Scotland’s solidarity with the Jewish community in Scotland at this worrying time.

Reverend Dr Richard Frazer, Convener of the Church and Society Council, put forward the proposal to adopt the definition and noted that “antisemitic incidents in the UK are at a record high for the third year in a row.” His motion said that adopting the definition would “aid the Church in challenging antisemitism.”

Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism, Lord Eric Pickles and others worked hard for over many meetings with officials at Downing Street. The Church of Scotland’s move follows adoption of the definition by the Church of England in September last year.

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Kamran Ishtiaq, President of British Pakistani Youth Council, would still “salute” Hitler for killing Jews and claims Holocaust might have been caused by Jews

Kamran Ishtiaq, who has been President of British Pakistani Youth Council since 2009, said in 2014 that he would “salute” Hitler for killing Jews, and has now reportedly reaffirmed his views.

After posting a picture of Hitler on his Facebook page, which received 40 likes, he was admonished by another Facebook user who wrote: “Hitler was a racist bro”. Mr Ishtiaq responded: “I know that and to be honest he would have killed Muslims too if he got a chance. But you know what, I would salute him still if he killed 90 Muslims and 92 Jews.” He then followed up with another comment, adding: “Now why he is my hero cuz, he just killed Jews, didn’t get a chance to kill Muslims… lol.”

In a long telephone interview with BirminghamLive, he confirmed that he stood by his statements, whilst also questioning whether six million Jews really died in the Holocaust, suggesting that the figure might have been “exaggerated” in order to justify Jewish “revenge”. He also suggested that the Jews may have done something “to the Germans” to cause the Holocaust.

Asked by BirminghamLive whether he still felt that Jews deserved to be massacred, Mr Ishtiaq said: “To be honest with you, I feel that about the Jews who are killing the Palestinians now. Not the Jews who are leaving Israel — there are Jews who support Palestine. I was reading today in the media that there are Jews leaving Israel because Israel didn’t live up to their expectations. OK, but Jews, American Jews, yes I feel like that about them. The ones who are murdering the Palestinians. I do feel that about them. And what I wrote there, it’s about the Jews.”

He added: “When I say Jews, it’s not the Jews fighting the Jewish killers of Palestinians, the Jews who are with Muslims, but the Jews which are killing the Palestinians, yes. The murderers. I mean if anything happened to any Jewish community here my youths would be there frontline to support them. Jewish people here are not Palestinian-killing like the Jews over there. They’re peaceful like us Muslims here. They don’t want nothing to do with that. It’s like the terrorists. You can’t hate all Muslims because you hate terrorists. You can’t hate all Jews because you hate the killing Jews.”

Asked about Jews killed by the Nazis, Mr Ishtiaq said he did not believe that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust: “To be honest, I don’t believe that. Every attack, anything on Jews is exaggerated. Yeah. I think that was an exaggeration too. He killed Jews, yeah. He did kill Jews, there’s no doubt in that. He killed Jews. But that figure is a question mark for me.”

Asked why he thought the Nazis killed Jews, he replied: “We don’t know what happened then. If they were doing this now, killing Palestinians, we don’t know what they done to the Germans at that time.”

Asked why the figure would be exaggerated, Mr Ishtiaq said: “It gives the Jewish people a reason, you know retaliation — ‘Look what’s happened to us? We were nearly being ethnic cleansed and have to stick together’. It gives them a point of unity, it gives them a reason to retaliate, revenge, you know, empathy, whatever, you could say.”

Asked if he thought Hitler was wrong to kill the Jews, he said: “Er, no, I can’t think for Hitler. I can’t think why Hitler killed them. I just made that statement [on Facebook]. So why and how, I couldn’t tell you. I stand by the statement I made, yes.”

Mr Ishtiaq said his views about Jews were shared by young people he worked with: “They feel ten times worse. My job is to get that feeling out of them, but I need positives to erase that feeling out of them. The Jews, the Israel [sic], have not given me a positive. Them feelings are getting day by day worse after what the Israelis are doing.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is reporting Mr Ishtiaq to West Midlands Police, as well as to Birmingham City Council as he absolutely should not be anywhere near children if he holds such views.

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Tickets nearly sold out for Campaign Against Antisemitism’s comedy night fundraiser with award-winning artists

Tickets are nearly sold out for the first event in Campaign Against Antisemitism’s new fundraising programme to support our ongoing efforts to counter and expose antisemitism in Britain.

The first event on the calendar is a comedy night that will be held later this month at the Arts Depot in Finchley, London. “Funny you should say that!” features an exciting line-up of the best of British Jewish comedy, headlined by comedian Bennett Arron, dubbed the “Welsh Seinfeld”. Also performing on the night are special guests: “Mock the Week” regular Gary Delany; celebrity prankster, Simon Brodkin (aka Lee Nelson); Jewish Comedian of the Year 2015, Philip Simon; Sol Bernstein, the comedy creation of veteran stand-up Steve Jameson; and writer, director, and educator Rachel Creeger who is currently on her debut tour.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s fundraising team are currently inviting any supporters who are interested in assisting at events or donating facilities for future events to e-mail us at [email protected].

Tickets are selling fast. if you would like to support Campaign Against Antisemitism by attending “Funny you should say that!”, or would like to learn more about the event, please visit the Arts Depot online box office.

Book your ticket now

Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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CAA applauds Church of England for adopting International Definition of Antisemitism, in full, with no caveats

The Church of England has adopted the full International Definition of Antisemitism.

The Council of Bishops took the decision on the recommendation of the Archbishop of Canterbury after he met with the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis. Rabbi Mirvis had expressed his concern about the “deep sense of insecurity” among the Jewish community in the UK.

The Council also issued a statement calling on public figures to “reject all language and activity that leads to prejudice, stigma, or hatred towards people on the grounds of their religion, culture, origins, identity, or belief.”

The Church of England’s unquestioning and complete acceptance of the full International Definition of Antisemitism has come just a week after Labour’s National Executive Committee voted to accept the definition with a caveat and an option to revisit the issue at a later date.

Dr David Walker, the Bishop of Manchester, said that the Jewish community should feel reassured that the Church of England will continue to reject “prejudice and bigotry”, and that “[we] will continue to speak out critically”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds the decision, which demonstrates the Church of England’s solidarity with the Jewish community at this worrying time.

Image credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Facsimile Editions Limited
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On the occasion of Jewish new year, we rededicate ourselves to doing everything in our power to defend British Jewry’s future

Tonight, Jews around the world will begin to celebrate the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. At Campaign Against Antisemitism, we have adopted the Jewish tradition of taking this moment to reflect on the year that has passed, and to anticipate the year ahead.

We have achieved so much more than we had hoped to achieve at this time last year. We recruited over 1,000 people who have stepped forward to join our outstanding volunteer team, and we opened a new office in Manchester, our first base outside London.

Together, we have fought at the forefront of the Jewish community’s struggle against antisemitism in politics, working closely with journalists, especially this summer, to expose Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism and Labour’s growing institutional antisemitism. We have now triggered an investigation into Labour by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and reported Labour to the police for covering-up threats of violence by its activists towards its own Jewish MPs.

We have also had a spate of legal successes. We won our three-year legal battle with the Crown Prosecution Service to force them to finally prosecute neo-Nazi leader Jeremy Bedford-Turner. He has now been sentenced to a year in prison for incitement to racial hatred over his speech at a rally against the “Jewification” of Golders Green, which the Crown insisted was not a crime until we proved it was in court.

We have also taken legal action to ensure that Alison Chabloz was convicted of criminal offences in relation to songs mocking Holocaust survivors and claiming that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud. She was convicted in the first case of its kind, following a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which the Crown eventually agreed to take over.

A defamation action forced antisemitic author and saxophonist, Gilad Atzmon, into a humiliating capitulation in libel proceedings. He had claimed that we “fabricated” antisemitic incidents as part of a “business plan” to fraudulently obtain donations and make personal profits. He was forced to admit that his claims were false and agreed to pay substantial damages and costs.

We have also just launched judicial review proceedings against the Crown Prosecution Service over its failure to prosecute the leader of the pro-Hizballah “Al Quds Day” parade, Nazim Ali, and the Crown Prosecution Service’s subsequent attempt to block us from privately prosecuting him.

We have launched a pioneering educational programme and provided guidance to students experiencing antisemitism on campus and sent teams to monitor events of concern all over Britain. Our interventions resulted in events being banned.

As in years past, we have continued to publish comprehensive research into antisemitic crime and prejudice, and antisemitism in political parties. Our research has become widely-used by journalists and policymakers.

We have also partnered with other organisations to launch the British Council for Countering Antisemitism, which has fostered ties and promoted cooperation between Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Jewish Police Association, three Shomrim organisations and KSPA.

And in just the past few weeks we have launched #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism, through which thousands of Jews and our non-Jewish friends have been able to show solidarity against the world’s oldest hatred.

Of course, there is so much more that we have done, but without listing every single accomplishment, it is safe to say that this past year has seen Campaign Against Antisemitism go from strength to strength, with many new successes to our credit.

However, this year has also been a year of unprecedented challenges and dangers. As the burden of countering antisemitism has increased, Campaign Against Antisemitism has had to spend large amounts of money. Providing state-of-the-art cloud computing systems to our volunteers has become increasingly costly, and due to the unrelenting media work that we have been engaged in, we have just hired our third member of staff. In anticipation of continued pressure in the coming year, we are preparing to hire a fourth member of staff. The result is that Campaign Against Antisemitism is beginning to cost a lot of money to run. Our expenditure is still well below that of pretty much any other organisation around the world tasked with this kind of work, thanks to the dedication of our volunteers who donate their time night and day, but costs are still mounting despite our culture of thrift. Generous donors have stepped forward in the past year to support our funding needs, but we still need your help.

If, like us, you feel that antisemitism poses an existential threat to British Jews, and you want to see antisemites held to account, be they high-ranking politicians or invisible thugs on social media, please ask yourself: “What will I do to help? How will I ensure that action is taken?” If you have already volunteered or donated, you know the satisfaction of making a difference. If not, please consider stepping forward to help us.

Let us hope for a relief from those threats in the year to come. We all have a great deal to be proud of, and so much more to do. It is truly a privilege to work with such an exceptional group of people on something so important.

For those who are celebrating tonight and over the coming days, Shana Tova. May your prayers for a better future be answered.

For our many non-Jewish volunteers and supporters, now is a perfect moment for us to thank you for being such a source of hope and strength for all of British Jewry in these trying times. May your sheer decency and sense of human solidarity inspire many to follow you in standing shoulder to shoulder with all of us against antisemitism in the year to come.

No matter what next year brings, our volunteer team will do whatever it takes to defend British Jewry’s future.

Please help us to keep achieving our goals.

Image by kind permission of: Facsimile Editions

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Officially defining Jews as an ethnicity could complicate efforts to track antisemitism

Campaign Against Antisemitism is concerned that proposals to create a ‘Jewish ethnicity’ on official forms could complicate efforts to track antisemitism.

Presently, all official forms which include a question about ethnicity offer a choice between a range of white, black, asian and mixed ‘ethnicities’ which are in fact largely based on race more than shared cultural or other characteristics. The Government accepts that “There is no single agreed international definition of ethnicity and race or of the distinction between the two”.

For decades, there has been a debate as to whether Jews can be considered a race as well as a religion. In the landmark case of Mandla v Dowell Lee in 1983, it was determined that for the purposes of hate crime legislation, Jews could be considered as either. This had the benefit of affording Jews protection under legislation that had created a criminal offence of incitement to racial hatred at a time when there was no equivalent offence of incitement to religious hatred.

Aside from pragmatic legal arguments for defining Jews as a race as well as a religion, the topic is controversial. Clearly, as the result of conversion and intermarriage, there are Jews from many races.

At present, when it comes to the matter of official statistics, Jews are counted as a religious group, and not as an ethnicity. However, recently there have been renewed suggestions that the Office for National Statistics should define Jews as an ethnic group as well as a religious group.

Many official classifications are based on categories used by the Office of National Statistics, and we are concerned that counting ethnic Jews and religious Jews separately creates the likelihood of diverging sets of data which might make the Jewish community and antisemitism difficult to quantify.

Were regulators and employers, for example, to start holding separate data for ethnic and religious Jews, antisemitic incidents might be counted in different ways. For example, might a regulator consider that discrimination occurred due to a victim’s Jewish ethnicity or religion? Would someone who does not consider  themselves to be religiously Jewish consider themselves to be ethnically Jewish because of some Jewish ancestry? The fact that the answers to these questions are unpredictable could lead to the gathering of separate data on discrimination against Jews on the basis of ethnicity and religion, with little clarity on the overlap between the two. The problem would be less likely to affect police forces, which use a special flag to identify crimes motivated by antisemitism, but not all antisemitism is recorded as a crime, which means that it is crucial that other sources of data on antisemitism remain reliable.

Ultimately, Judaism is not a skin colour, and for centuries Jews have made their homes all over the world. Jews are much more likely to identify as Jews because they practise the Jewish religion or cultural traditions originating in the Jewish religion. Since ethnicity forms require respondents to self-define their ethnicity, it must be possible for the forms to be interpreted consistently in order to ensure some consistency of data.

Campaign Against Antisemitism sees considerable risk and little merit in the suggested adoption of a category of ‘Jewish ethnicity’ by the Office for National Statistics.

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UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance issues statement condemning tampering with the International Definition of Antisemitism

The UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has issued a statement condemning efforts to tamper with the International Definition of Antisemitism by removing or amending the examples of antisemitism which form part of the definition.

The statement does not mention the Labour Party, but the timing and content of the statement appears to be a response to the Labour Party’s refusal to adopt a number of the examples in the definition.

In a pointed remark, the statement says: “Any ‘modified’ version of the IHRA definition that does not include all of its 11 examples is no longer the IHRA definition. Adding or removing language undermines the months of international diplomacy and academic rigour that enabled this definition to exist. If one organisation or institution can amend the wording to suit its own needs, then logically anyone else could do the same. We would once again revert to a world where antisemitism goes unaddressed simply because different entities cannot agree on what it is.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes IHRA’s intervention to defend the integrity of the definition. It should shame the Labour Party that its efforts to tamper with and undermine the definition precipitated such a move.

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Renowned libel and privacy lawyer Dr Mark Lewis becomes an honorary patron of CAA

Renowned libel and privacy lawyer Dr Mark Lewis has today become an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Dr Lewis began advising Campaign Against Antisemitism pro bono two weeks after it was established, contributing substantially to its successes from behind the scenes, without recognition.

Dr Lewis is one of the foremost libel and privacy lawyers in the country and has been responsible for landmark legal victories, including the voicemail hacking claims which led to the demise of News of the World and the Leveson Inquiry. He devised a strategy for bringing libel actions which he and Campaign Against Antisemitism have begun to use to force antisemites into either apologising in court, or paying substantial damages. The first win for Dr Lewis’ strategy was the recent High Court success against Gilad Atzmon, a notorious antisemite, who was forced to apologise and pay substantial damages.

Dr Lewis joins other public figures as honorary patrons of Campaign Against Antisemitism, including Sir Eric Pickles, Lord Mitchell, Lord Ahmed, Lord Carey, Baroness Deech, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Ian Austin MP, Mike Freer MP and Dr Matthew Offord MP.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Dr Mark Lewis is a hero of the Jewish community whose work has gone unsung for far too long. He has been instrumental in making Campaign Against Antisemitism the success that it is. Today we are delighted to recognise his enormous contribution to our work by appointing him an honorary patron of our charity.”

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CAA to launch new bridge-building and public speaking course in Manchester

Campaign Against Antisemitism is launching a new short course in bridge-building and public speaking in Manchester.

The course will include sessions on public speaking about antisemitism and how to build bridges with natural allies, as well as how to disrupt the spread of the extremist antisemitic ideologies of the far-left, far-right and Islamists.

The first training session will take place on 10th May at 18:30 in north Manchester.

Anybody who would like to help build bridges and disrupt the spread of antisemitism should sign up at antisemitism.org/volunteer.

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Changing of the guard as Nathan Hopstein steps down after more than three years as CAA’s Director of Organisation and Finance

Nathan Hopstein, one of the original founders of Campaign Against Antisemitism is stepping down as Director of Organisation and Finance after three-and-a-half years ensuring that our charity has been soundly managed during a period of intense growth. At the end of last year, Nathan informed us of his decision to take a step back from the helm of the charity, and the search began for his successor.

Our new Director of Organisation and Finance will be our former Head of Online Monitoring and Investigations, who has extensive experience in organisational strategy, systems, compliance and building processes to support the growth of a volunteer-led organisation.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Nathan has been a guiding hand from the foundation of Campaign Against Antisemitism. His wise and steady counsel has seen us through many challenges and a period of extremely intense growth as demand for our work has rapidly increased. He is a mensch of the first order and we all wish him great success in the future. We are also delighted to welcome Nathan’s successor to the board, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise that will help us to continue to build our charity over the coming years.”

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Shaw Trust opens investigation after worker allegedly tells Jewish man at party “The 1940s called…your shower’s ready”

A leading learning disability and mental health charity has opened an investigation after one of its employees reportedly posted on Facebook an account of how she told a Jewish man: “The 40s called…your shower’s ready”, according to controversial anti-racism group Hope Not Hate.

Julie Brownlee, from Lowestoft, allegedly made the comment, an apparent reference to Nazi gas chambers which were sometimes disguised as showers, to the man, whom she also referred to as a “Jwish [sic] prick” on social media, at a Christmas party in response to him criticising her shirt.

In reply to Ms Brownlee’s Facebook post, former National Front activist, Paul Warburton, replied: “Fire up the ovens”.

Ms Brownlee’s role involves helping people with disabilities and learning difficulties to find employment and independent living. Those she helps would have been murdered under Nazi Germany’s programme to kill those with certain disabilities.

As well as posting her outrageous, antisemitic comments, Ms Brownlee also posted asking for party game ideas for the adults with learning disabilities whom she was assisting. The post attracted some appalling replies which Ms Brownlee commented would not “go down well with the powers that be”.

Ms Brownlee has apparently been associated with far-right groups for some time, including the South East Alliance, North East Infidels, Bishop Auckland against Islam, North West Infidels and the Scottish Defence League. She has reportedly not just attended events organised by these groups but spoken at them. According to Hope Not Hate, she was also expelled from the UK Independence Party for “associating with the English Defence League”.

A spokesperson for Shaw Trust told us: “We are treating these allegations extremely seriously, and our HR team are investigating the allegations fully.”

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CAA ends 2017 with £31,000 deficit, issues call for monthly donations

Contrary to the imagination of the antisemites who have come to fear us, Campaign Against Antisemitism is not funded by the vast resources of international financiers. Our annual budget is funded by donations by members of the public who support our work, like you. We do not receive any annual grants.

Due to unprecedented demand for our services, for which we do not charge, our costs in 2017 increased by nearly seven times against 2016. Fortunately, more people than ever have stepped forward and signed up to make monthly donations, but despite their generosity, our management accounts show that we ended 2017 with a £31,000 deficit. Part of our funding was lost after a foundation was lobbied by another Jewish community organisation to stop funding us due to our robust challenging of the authorities.

In the past year, our numbers have swelled to 700 volunteers, supported by two outstanding full-time members of staff working from a tiny rented office. The two salaries we pay, our rent, the systems that we use to coordinate our work, and the costs of running our various projects, will come to almost £100,000 this year.

Fortunately we have emergency reserves which we use to fund urgent, unexpected work, and last year we burned through £31,000 of our reserves to cover the shortfall last year. This year, we will continue to work to secure enough funding, but we need your help.

If all of our supporters gave just £5 per month, we would not have to fundraise. From the outset, Campaign Against Antisemitism has been community-led campaign, and we want to remain independent.

We are determined not to let our community down. We will continue to speak truth to power. We will continue to privately prosecute antisemites when the authorities fail to act. We will continue to take the authorities to court and win when they shirk their responsibility to protect British Jews. We will continue to work with social media giants to clean up their act. We will keep raising antisemitism as a national priority in the mainstream media. We will not stop producing research that spotlights antisemitism, its dangers and its effects. We will expand our programme to train volunteers to educate those at risk of being radicalised by antisemites.

But we will only do so with your help. If you want Campaign Against Antisemitism to exist and continue to ensure that antisemites face the consequences of their actions, now is the time to go to antisemitism.org/donate and sign up to support us with a regular monthly donation.

We are determined to do whatever it takes to defend British Jews, but we can only do it together.

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CAA starts recruiting volunteers for new team conducting targeted online investigations on social media

Campaign Against Antisemitism has begun recruiting volunteers, including a team leader, for a new team that will conduct targeted online investigations on social media, and ensure that action is taken to disrupt and penalise antisemitism.

If you would like to volunteer, please visit antisemitism.org/volunteer.

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Jewish Leadership Council CEO must stop sniping and apologise for claiming CAA’s private prosecution of pro-Hizballah march leader will “make yet more fear”

The CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council, Simon Johnson, has once again launched an attack on Campaign Against Antisemitism, this time berating us for privately prosecuting the leader of this summer’s pro-Hizballah “Al Quds Day” procession through London after the Crown Prosecution Service failed to act.

Mr Johnson, who claims to represent the British Jewish community, used Twitter to publicly decry our private prosecution, saying that it “risks making things worse” and we will “make yet more fear”, which he claimed is “par for the course” for Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Ironically, Mr Johnson, whose salary is double Campaign Against Antisemitism’s annual operating budget, claimed that our private prosecution, which is being conducted by expert lawyers who are donating their time pro bono, is a “waste of money”.

Mr Johnson was rounded on by Twitter users who fiercely defended Campaign Against Antisemitism and its volunteers, with one activist even setting up a petition demanding that Mr Johnson apologise or resign. We are very grateful to the many people who have spoken out in our support.

In August, Mr Johnson humiliated himself by making a video claiming that our volunteers engage in “hyperbolic scaremongering” as part of an “attempt to grab attention and appearances on television”. Sharing the video through the Jewish Leadership Council’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, he admonished us for highlighting antisemitism, which he said was an attempt to “create a situation of panic in this community”, and for daring to criticise the authorities for failing to take sufficient action.

At the time, we did all that we could to resolve the matter behind the scenes to avoid embarrassing the Jewish Leadership Council and they deleted the video, which had provoked revulsion within the Jewish community and won the praise of antisemites. That should have been the end of the matter, but instead, despite an agreement that neither side would comment, a day later the Jewish Leadership Council said that it stood by the video that it had deleted.

Mr Johnson, who is a former solicitor, should have realised that his repeated efforts to impugn our motives will likely be seized upon by defendants whom we privately prosecute. Other than that, what does his sniping achieve?

Yet despite repeatedly humiliating himself with his ill-conceived attacks, Mr Johnson has a long track record of publicly attacking Campaign Against Antisemitism. In February 2015 he gave his word that he would offer any criticism privately rather than engaging in public sniping. When he broke his word months later, we asked whether his word was worthless. His reply: “Well, so it was. I admit.” That is not Jewish leadership.

Antisemitic crime and the inadequate response to it by the authorities is a very serious concern that should be seen as an urgent priority for British society and our law enforcement authorities. Mr Johnson’s highly-personal attacks on our volunteers suggest that far from trying to address the situation by raising awareness and taking legal action when the authorities fail to act, we are in fact trying to “make yet more fear” so that we can “grab attention and appearances on television”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has a longstanding policy of refusing to engage in Jewish community politics. Our focus is on countering antisemites. However, Mr Johnson’s shameful interventions have become too persistent to ignore. Enough is enough.

The Jewish community has many enemies to contend with, and this public sniping by Mr Johnson at those of us trying to tackle antisemitism must now end. Campaign Against Antisemitism has done all that it can behind the scenes to try to stop Mr Johnson’s damaging smears, but since he will not honour his word and does not heed the opinion of our community, it now falls to the trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council to insist that he apologises and then falls silent.

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Yousef al-Kuwari, head of Qatari Nectar Trust, reportedly founded website which called on readers to “hate” Jews and Christians “for the sake of Allah”

Yousef al-Kuwari, the Chairman of the registered charity, Qatar Charity UK, now renamed the Nectar Trust, reportedly founded a website, Islamweb, which allegedly called on readers to “hate [Jews and Christians] for the sake of Allah.”

According to The Telegraph, Islamweb issued edicts stating that it is “forbidden” to swear an oath to gain British citizenship. In June, it reportedly warned of Jews and Christians: “It is incumbent to hate them for the sake of Allah.”

Between 1998 and 2010, fatwas were reportedly posted on the website including calls on all citizens to “wage jihad by every means against the Zionist occupation and aggression” and stating that “living in non-Muslim countries is forbidden except for a dire need”.

The Mayfair-based Qatar Charity UK, which claims “To relieve poverty and provide assistance to the needy in all parts of the world affected by war, natural disasters or catastrophes,” is the British arm of Qatar Charity, a Doha charity which has reportedly been designated a proscribed organisation by neighbouring Gulf states. According to the Companies House database, the UK’s registrar of companies, on 23rd October, Qatar Charity UK changed its company name to become the Nectar Trust. Mr al-Kuwari is one of only four trustees. The charity’s website is no longer active.

Mr al-Kuwari was previously head of information technology at the Qatari Ministry of Endowments and reportedly set up Islamweb, which issues religious edicts or fatwas. The ministry is listed as registrant and administrator of the website. In a 2007 posting, Mr Al-Kuwari is referred to as chairman of its board of directors, a role he held until 2010.

Qatar Charity UK told The Telegraph that during Mr al-Kuwari’s time as Islamweb chairman “he was not involved in the development or moderation of the website’s content or in its daily management. The views and contents expressed in the website do not reflect the views of Mr al-Kawari and cannot be attributed to him. They certainly do not reflect the views of and cannot be attributed in any way to QCUK.”

In 2015, Qatar Charity UK reportedly provided a grant of £400,000 for a “multipurpose centre in the UK”, a project they worked on with the Emaan Trust in Sheffield in the north of England. The Telegraph reported in June that one of the trustees of the Emaan Trust, Dr Essam Al Fulajii, said Muslims and Christians should unite against the “monster” Jews. In October 2015, Dr Al Fulajii reportedly wrote in the Al-Watan newspaper: “I am still convinced that the international Zionists and Mossad were behind the September 11 attacks in the US. There were no Jews in the two buildings at the time of the incident.” He also reportedly wrote an article for the Al Anba newspaper this April, entitled “The spread of Jews in the world,” where he claimed that “the Jewish people are the ones controlling the world.” He said that “This was done with great subtlety, planning, deceit, conspiracy, extortion, women, money, “riba”[usury]  and organised crime and mafia.”

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Event: How can we secure a future for British Jews?

How can we secure a future for British Jews? As antisemitic crime rises and antisemitism becomes increasingly normalised in politics, Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, takes you inside the fight for British Jewry.

The event will begin at 20:15 on 9th November at a North Manchester venue, and there will be time for questions.

Tickets cost £5 and can be booked by calling 0161 766 3732.

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British Council for Countering Antisemitism established to ensure unity and strength in response to antisemitism

Campaign Against Antisemitism has today co-founded the British Council for Countering Antisemitism, with the Jewish Police Association, the Kehilah Security and Protection Association (KASPA), Shomrim Broughton Park, Shomrim North West London and Stamford Hill Shomrim. The organisation will have no staff or offices, the secretariat being provided by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

In a joint statement, the co-founders said: “In response to mounting antisemitism, organisations responsible for fighting antisemitism in the United Kingdom have come together to establish the British Council for Countering Antisemitism (BCCA). The BCCA aims to foster cooperation between its founding members, enabling them to speak with a single voice on important matters and providing a forum through which to devise and deliver new strategies and frameworks for countering antisemitism in the United Kingdom.”

In the past two years, antisemitic crime has surged by 45%, and 39% of British Jews now conceal their religion in public.

We are delighted to be co-founding this initiative with partners who share our dedication to keeping British Jews safe. It is absolutely crucial for Campaign Against Antisemitism and other organisations which counter antisemitism in Britain to work together closely for the good of the Jewish community and British society as a whole. Establishing the BCCA is an important step in ensuring that we challenge antisemitism from a position of unity and strength.

You can follow the BCCA’s work on its website, Facebook page and Twitter account.

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CAA contacts Reading International Solidarity Centre over charity’s planned book launch for notorious antisemite Gilad Atzmon

The Reading International Solidarity Centre will be hosting a the launch of notorious antisemite Gilad Atzmon’s new book, Being in Time — A Post-Political Manifesto. Organised by Reading Friends of Palestine, the event is part of the Reading International Festival and will take place at 7:30pm on 22nd October.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the Reading International Solidarity Centre to alert them that Gilad Atzmon is a notorious antisemite who has, for a number of years, used social media as a vehicle to harass and bait Jewish people. If they insist on holding the event, we will contact organisations which donate to the Centre, as well as the Charity Commission.

In March this year, Mr Atzmon attended a talk at the London School of Economics with Richard Falk, the discredited and disgraced fringe antisemitic conspiracy theorist and the former UN envoy, where he reportedly told those around him that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving.” Stunned audience members asked him to repeat what he had said and he did. Mr Atzmon also was heard recommending the works of disgraced historian David Irving, who in 2000 was proven in court to be an antisemite, a Holocaust denier and an admirer of Hitler. It is also reported that Mr Atzmon later said, “Jews are always expelled for a reason.”

In December 2014, he told a Jewish Twitter user, “I am not a Jew any more. I indeed despise the Jew in me (whatever is left). I absolutely detest the Jew in you.”

Another of his books, The Wandering Who, was described in 2011 as “quite probably the most antisemitic book published in this country in recent years.”

He has stated that Jews were responsible for their persecution by the Nazis, Jews should apologise for making gentiles hate them, burning synagogues is “a rational act”, Jews are trying to control the world, Jews are harming the planet, Jews caused the credit crunch, and Israel is worse than Nazi Germany. He has also trivialised the scale and impact of the Holocaust.

The International Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the British government, states, among other things, that the following are antisemitic:

  • 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.
  • Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
  • Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

In March 2012, a collective of Palestinian writers and activists disavowed Mr Atzmon for his attacks on Jews and Judaism, as well as his denial of the Holocaust.

You may wish to contact the Reading International Solidarity Centre to politely add your voice to calls for the launch to be cancelled by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 01189 586 692.

Facsimile Editions Limited
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Our reflections on the past year on the occasion of Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah

Tonight, Jewish families around the world will start to celebrate Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. It seems like a good moment to reflect upon our work over the past year. We have had an incredibly busy year, and that is both a good and a bad thing.

First the good. Almost 700 people are now registered to volunteer with us, a growing number of whom are not Jewish, which we find hugely encouraging. To support our growing team of volunteers we have expanded from one part-timer to two exceptional full-time members of staff, and we are investing time and money in sophisticated systems (and cybersecurity) to manage our projects and the network of volunteers who work on them. Our work with Downing Street continues to bear fruit, including the British Government’s agreement to become the first in the world to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism. Our strong relationship with the Home Office has also produced results, such as the first ever ban on a far-right terrorist group, National Action. Our lawyers have held the authorities to account, winning our 13-month High Court legal battle against the Crown Prosecution Service over a decision not to prosecute, launching our first private prosecution, and producing expert guidance for Government bodies, regulators and universities on the application of the definition of antisemitism. We published new research on the prevalence and effects of antisemitism, and antisemitic crime and prosecutions. We have helped those who seek our assistance to secure criminal and professional sanctions for antisemites, and those results have been widely reported in the media, sending a clear message to other antisemites that we are working to ensure that their hatred has severe consequences. Our team has also travelled the country, speaking to Jewish communities about what action they can take against antisemitism, and educating the non-Jewish public about the threat to society that antisemitism poses. Campaign Against Antisemitism is now three years old and has developed an excellent reputation, so we are privileged to have secured the support of our distinguished Honorary Patrons, public figures who stand with us in our fight against antisemitism.

The bad news is that our work is increasingly necessary and urgent. Our research showed that antisemitic crime surged by 45% between 2014 and 2016, whilst prosecutions remained at a paltry level. We are hearing from more and more people affected by antisemitism, many of whom never imagined that they would experience it in their lifetime, and that when they did experience it, they would have such difficulty in obtaining justice from the authorities. We have also seen disturbing violent manifestations of antisemitic hatred, including the firebombing of two kosher restaurants, and a man chasing Jews down the street armed with a meat cleaver and machete, shouting antisemitic abuse. We remain extremely disturbed by the way in which antisemitism in major political parties, especially the Labour Party, remains unaddressed. Our work relating to police forces, prosecutors, regulators, universities and political parties is increasingly urgent, and we are lucky to continue to recruit outstandingly talented and committed volunteers to take on this difficult work.

We would like to end on a very positive note: for the past three years, we have worked with YouGov to measure antisemitic prejudice in Britain. Whilst antisemitic crime is increasing alarmingly rapidly, antisemitic sentiment amongst non-Jewish Britons is in decline. That means that, British people are increasingly thinking about and rejecting antisemitism. Antisemitic hatred has been growing all over Europe, but in Britain, uniquely, antisemitism is falling, although we still have a long way to go. We believe that our media strategy of talking about antisemitism and raising it as an urgent national issue is one of the factors leading a significant number of British people to think about and fulsomely reject antisemitism. In the next few days, weeks and months, you will continue to see our work and its impact in the news.

Our campaign is run by volunteers like you and our staff of two and our office are funded by people like you. We will do whatever it takes to secure the future of British Jews and protect British society from the poisonous ideology of antisemitism. To succeed, we rely on people like you to volunteer or give a regular monthly donation, so if you haven’t already supported us in this way, please play your part by donating monthly or volunteering today.

On this Jewish new year, on behalf of everyone at Campaign Against Antisemitism, we wish all of our supporters, Jewish and non-Jewish, a happy, healthy, safe and successful year ahead. It is thanks to your support and solidarity that we can be hopeful for the future.

Cover image credit: Facsimile Editions

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Former Archbishop of Canterbury becomes Honorary Patron of CAA

We are delighted to announce that the former Archbishop of Canterbury has become an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The Rt Rev. and Rt Hon. Dr The Lord Carey of Clifton PC RVC GBE FRSA served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002. Both during his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury and since, Lord Carey has spoken out firmly against antisemitism and worked tirelessly to strengthen bonds between Christians and Jews. Lord Carey led efforts to deepen the Church of England’s involvement in Holocaust commemoration, and has devoted many addresses to discussion of the lessons of the Holocaust. He is Honorary President of the International Council of Christians and Jews and in 2016 he delivered the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s important Dorothy Gardner Adler State of Antisemitism Lecture.

He joins our existing Honorary Patrons, The Rt Hon. The Baron Ahmad of Wimbledon, Bob Blackman MP, The Baroness Deech of Cumnor DBE, Mike Freer MP, Jonathan Goldberg QC, Fabian Hamilton MP, Brian Kennelly QC, The Baron Mitchell of Hampstead, Dr Matthew Offord MP and The Rt Hon. Sir Eric Pickles.

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CAA Chairman writes in Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph explaining our Antisemitism Barometer research

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chairman, Gideon Falter, has this week written articles in the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph, explaining the results of our Antisemitism Barometer research, which were misrepresented by some who claimed that we were expecting almost a third of the UK’s 269,000 Jews to leave the country imminently. If you would like to voice your support for CAA’s work, please feel free to e-mail [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected], making sure that you include your postal address (indicating that you would prefer that it is not published).

We must resist the seduction of both complacency and fear

The following article was published in the Jewish News.

I have never understood why some people get used to antisemitism. There are people in our community who see nothing disturbing about dropping their children off at fortified schools, or passing through airport-style security to enter their synagogue. As antisemitic crime surges, they look perplexed and observe that nothing feels different to them because nothing has happened to them personally. They accept the risk of antisemitism as part of their everyday life, but fail to act as long as they themselves are not targeted.

Our charity seeks to educate against antisemitism whilst simultaneously working to inflict criminal, professional and reputational sanctions upon antisemites. To succeed, we must pinpoint the problem, and that is why the accuracy of our research is crucial: if it contains mistakes, we could find ourselves fighting the wrong battles.

Last week, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) published our Antisemitism Barometer research. Conducted over three years, it included three specially-commissioned YouGov polls of the British population’s attitudes towards Jews, and two separate CAA polls of British Jews, the data from which was weighted by a former Associate Director at YouGov. Our rigorous research showed that antisemitic prejudice was actually declining, but that British Jews were becoming increasingly fearful with almost one in three having asked themselves whether to leave the UK. They do not need to be packing their bags for the question to be significant. When our polling asked British Jews to point a finger of blame, more than half accused the Crown Prosecution Service for failing to prosecute all but a handful of antisemitic crimes annually, and the Labour Party was attacked by 4 in 5 of us for its newfound mastery of the art of whitewashing antisemitism.

Just when we should be celebrating a fall in prejudice against Jews, we find ourselves grappling with rising fear of surging antisemitic crime and the acceptance by swathes of the electorate of a political party riddled with antisemites. Our findings sparked national debate, but the communal debate was no less interesting because of the divisions that it exposed.

Some complained that they had never been a victim of antisemitism, and so it could not possibly be true, accusing us of exaggeration. Others accused us of somehow suppressing the voices of those who are making plans to leave.

Perhaps in this world of social media bubbles and fake news, we are all losing the ability to listen to the views of others. British Jews’ experiences will vary according to their denomination and whether they wear visible signs of their Judaism. They vary by neighbourhood, age, and gender. Those with children may feel differently about the future to those without. As a community, we must accept these variations and try to understand the whole picture, not just our personal part of it.

The facts are in our research and we neither played them up nor down. They tell us that Britain is one of the best places in the world in which to be Jewish, but we can also see that our comfort in this country is increasingly at risk. There is no contradiction in recognising how lucky we are, whilst fighting the threats that assail us. Our research tells us that however satisfied we may be with our laws and the majority of our politicians, it is imperative that we focus our attention on the failures to prosecute, and antisemitism in the Labour Party. Future generations will not forgive us if we enjoyed the golden era for British Jews but watched complacently as it ended.

Our dedication to ensuring CAA hate stats add up

The following article was published in the Jewish Chronicle.

In last week’s JC, sociology researcher Keith Kahn-Harris welcomed Campaign Against Antisemitism’s latest research into antisemitism in the UK, and British Jews’ responses to it, but he raised questions about our charity’s approach to the answers which I am happy to answer.

Our Antisemitism Barometer research is the product of three years’ work. We undertook five polls and analysed 10,567 responses. We commissioned leading pollsters YouGov to survey attitudes towards Jews amongst British people in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Separately, we worked with partners in the Jewish community to poll British Jews’ responses to antisemitism in 2016 and 2017, hiring a former Associate Director at YouGov to ensure that our results accurately represented the national Jewish community. As Dr Kahn-Harris recognised, “The report’s findings need to be considered seriously.”

Our charity seeks to educate against antisemitism whilst simultaneously working to inflict criminal, professional and reputational sanctions upon antisemites. To succeed, we must pinpoint the problem, and that is why the accuracy of our research is crucial: if it contains mistakes, we could find ourselves fighting the wrong battles.

We found that British people are becoming less antisemitic. Today, 36% hold at least one antisemitic prejudice, compared with 45% in 2015. Only 54% say that they have ever met a Jew. We pinpointed the worst regions, age groups, political persuasions and more. Amongst Jews, we found that in the past two years, nearly one in three has considered moving abroad due to antisemitism. That does not mean they are busy packing their suitcases, but Jews are asking themselves alarming questions about their future here, and that is significant. 39% of us are concealing our religion in public. 64% of us think the authorities do too little to punish antisemitism, and 52% think that the Crown Prosecution Service does too little. 76% say political developments have caused more antisemitism and 83% say Labour is harbouring antisemites. We use this information to target our work, including drawing up recommendations that we are discussing with the Government.

Dr Kahn-Harris asks questions about our research, focusing on the speed of our analysis and what he called our lack of “collegiality”. He might just as well have asked us by e-mail as in a newspaper column.

It is hard to characterise a three-year study as hasty. Rather than being disconcerted by the speed of our analysis, he should understand that Campaign Against Antisemitism operates like a startup. Instead of salaried 9-5 functionaries, we are powered by dedicated unpaid volunteers working all hours when needed. By the time we had concluded our 2017 polling, we had already built the data models to analyse it and discussed previous years’ findings. All that remained was to analyse the latest results, and how they compared to what we had found previously.

I suspect that Dr Kahn-Harris most objects to what he perceives as our lack of “collegiality”. He explains that we are rarely to be seen at conferences or at communal symposia, and he blames us. The fact is that Campaign Against Antisemitism is excluded from the Jewish community’s cosy club of established bodies, but we will always be willing to collaborate constructively against antisemitism. Next time there is a conference, if he invites us, we will be delighted to come.

CAA polling was accurate and rigorous, but disturbing

The following article was published in the Jewish Telegraph.

Last week’s Jewish Telegraph led with a headline attacking a poll conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism, claiming that it had been “panned” by “Jewish academics”. Readers would have had to turn to page 23 to find that out that was not the case.

In fact, none of the academics cited, or this paper itself, criticised the polling, and in any case, as specialists in history, politics and management, the academics asked to comment were hardly experts in statistics. They did not criticise the polling but did express dismay, even disbelief, that so many British Jews are now having second thoughts about their future in this country.

The journalism was uncharacteristically unfair. Most editors would not admit that, so I am grateful for this opportunity to set the record straight.

In five polls over three years, we asked what British people think about Jews, and what British Jews think about antisemitism. We asked expert pollsters, YouGov, to poll the British population’s attitudes towards Jews in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In separate polling, we worked with Jewish community bodies to poll a nationally representative sample of British Jews about antisemitism in 2016 and 2017, hiring a former Associate Director at YouGov to review our work. We analysed 10,567 responses over three years.

What we found was both harrowing and uplifting.

First, the good news: British people have begun to shun antisemitism. In 2015, YouGov found that 45% of British adults held at least one antisemitic stereotype, but that fell to 39% in 2016, and 36% in 2017. We can be grateful that antisemitism is falling in Britain even as it soars on the Continent. Of the one third of British people who hold some prejudice against Jews, there are degrees of severity, which our research helps us to pinpoint. We now know, for example, which regions we need to target, which age groups, and which supporters of political parties.

Now the bad news: British Jews are increasingly fearful, with almost 1 in 3 saying that they have considered leaving Britain in the past two years. Last week’s coverage absurdly suggested that we now expect a third of the UK’s 269,000 Jews to pack their bags. However, it is significant that British Jews are increasingly considering this option. Delving into the responses further, we find that 76% of British Jews say that political events caused antisemitism to rise, and 83% of us feel that the Labour Party is harbouring antisemites. 37% of us have been concealing our Judaism in public and merely 39% felt confident that an antisemitic crime against them would be prosecuted. 52% say the Crown Prosecution Service does too little. Our community is hugely concerned about Islamism, the far-left, and antisemitism disguised as discourse about Israel. Perhaps none of this is surprising, but it is important to know, and important to be able to demonstrate it to the Government.

Our research provides a roadmap that Campaign Against Antisemitism will use to fight antisemitism. Campaign Against Antisemitism is a charity that trains unpaid volunteers (including me) to work in highly-effective teams with backup from eminent lawyers to ensure that antisemites pay a crippling criminal, professional and reputational cost for their hatred. Simultaneously, we interrupt the flow of antisemitic ideology through highly-targeted outreach and education work. Anybody can join us in our fight against antisemitism by visiting www.antisemitism.org/act.

Our rigorous research has shown that we are starting to turn the tide, but we still have a great deal to do.

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CPS responds to CAA research by pointing out that it is prosecuting plenty of hate crime, just not antisemitic hate crime

The Crown Prosecution Service has bizarrely attempted to defend its extremely poor record on prosecuting antisemitic hate crime by pointing out that it is prosecuting more hate crime than ever before, just not antisemitic hate crimes.

In response to Campaign Against Antisemitism’s National Antisemitic Crime Audit research, which was released today, the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement saying: “Last year we prosecuted more hate crimes than ever before – more than 15,000 cases. We do not recognise the statistics contained in this report. Religiously-aggravated hate crimes display an ugly element of society which can be devastating to victims who have been targeted because of their beliefs. We will always prosecute crimes against people of all faiths where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so.”

The statement fails to address the crux of our criticism of the Crown Prosecution Service, which is that last year they prosecuted a paltry 20 known cases of antisemitism, and only 12 the year before. Admitting that they prosecute many thousands of hate crimes every year, but have yet to prosecute more than 20 antisemitic crimes merely proves the validity of our criticism.

Our research revealed, the parlous state of law enforcement against antisemitism, with hate crime targeting Jews surging by 44.5% in the past two years, but charging of antisemitic crime plummeting by 35.5%, whilst only 15 and 12 known cases were prosecuted in 2016 and 2015 respectively.

The research and our press effort was the work of volunteers. If you would like to support our work, please do volunteer or donate.

We are encouraging our supporters to read more about the report, or watch our short explanatory video, and then write to their MP.

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Mosque trustee removed after being exposed as a vehement antisemite

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Purim celebrates an ancient victory over antisemitism — we need your help to keep fighting in that same spirit

The Jewish festival of Purim is now a week away. It 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.

Thankfully we live in very different times, but the echoes of the Holocaust remind us that it was not so long ago that such machinations were successful.

Even in modern Britain, antisemitism is still present and it is growing. Whilst the British state defends its Jews from antisemitism, sometimes that protection is not forthcoming. Indeed this month, Campaign Against Antisemitism will be in court due to correct dismal failures by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Our team consists of talented volunteers who give many thousands of hours of their time, day in, day out, to defend British Jews and British society at large from the corrosive disease of antisemitism. Supported by our two brilliant employees, our charity takes robust action against antisemitism, including groundbreaking legal work. We do so working closely with the government, whose respect we have earned because when the authorities fail to act, we hold them to account, even in court when necessary.

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

We continue to rely on your donations to cover the costs our work.

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

We wish all of our Jewish supporters a Purim sameach.

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Image credit: Facsimile Editions

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Precious Life comparing pro-choice campaigner to Hitler diminishes the Holocaust

Precious Life, an anti-abortion campaigning group in Northern Ireland, has compared advocating for a woman’s right to choose an abortion on medical grounds to Adolf Hitler’s eugenics programme which saw disabled people and other undesired members of society, including Jews, murdered by doctors.

The debate over abortion should be had without such cheap shots which diminish the Holocaust in what might be called ‘softcore’ Holocaust denial. Adolf Hitler was not a pro-choice campaigner, he was the ultimate author of the Holocaust. Precious Life ought to be ashamed of itself.

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Muslim Public Affairs Committee congratulates Ecuador on antisemitic slur

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) has tweeted its congratulations to Ecuador after Horacio Sevilla Borja, and Ecuadorian diplomat said he did not think there was “anything more similar” to Nazi persecution than Israeli policy. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

The tweet was part of a series of tweets in which MPAC used an Israeli Defence Forces training video taken on a rooftop to allege that Israel trains its servicemen to throw children off rooftops. Since that allegation has no factual basis whatsoever, some might suggest that it is a modern day antisemitic blood libel.

MPAC has a long and notorious history of antisemitism. It once used its Facebook page to comment on Holocaust Memorial Day: “I’m trying not to swear so you’ll have to fill in the gaps. Take your Holocaust, roll it up nice and tight then shove it up your (be creative)!”

MPAC was banned from university campuses in 2004 for its antisemitism under the National Union of Students’ “No Platform” policy. In 2006, MPAC was accused by an all-party parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism of replacing “Jewish” with “Zionist” and articulating “Jewish conspiracy theories through the language of Zionism describing it as an ‘octopus that now penetrates every western nation and pushes it to start world war three upon Muslims’ and warning that ‘Any man who knows anything of Zionists, knows that they will not stop until the Muslims followed by mankind are dead or enslaved’”.

MPAC’s founder, Asghar Bukhari, recently spoke out to defend an antisemitic speech by the former Malaysian Prime Minster. In 2006, he was forced to repudiate David Irving, the British Holocaust denier, to whom he had sent £6000, which he claims he did under the belief that he was merely an “anti-Zionist” who had been smeared as something much worse. He also famously accused Mossad of breaking into his house and stealing one of his shoes and claimed that “any Muslim who fights and dies against Israel and dies is a martyr and will be granted paradise”. Despite this, he has been allowed to speak for British Muslims on numerous occasions, both in his capacity as a founder of MPAC and independently, including appearances on BBC News, The James O’Brien Show, LBC, Sky News and The Big Questions.

MPAC is currently running a campaign against the government’s Prevent counter-extremism strategy.

https://twitter.com/mpacuk/status/830079514210365440

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Next CAA volunteer recruitment evening scheduled for 25th January in London

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s next volunteer recruitment evening has been scheduled for 25th January in central London. Our work is undertaken by our growing team of volunteers, who are recruited into one of eight directorates, each with multiple specialised teams. Anybody wanting to volunteer should register at antisemitism.org/volunteer. We are planning to hold a volunteer recruitment event in Manchester next month, the details of which are being finalised.

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Happy new year (and let us suggest a meaningful new year’s resolution)!

All of us at Campaign Against Antisemitism would like to wish all of our supporters, donors and volunteers a very happy, healthy, successful and safe year ahead.

Many will want to get 2017 off to a positive start by setting a new year’s resolution, and we would like to make a suggestion! Why not make 2017 the year you join the fight against antisemitism? By volunteering your time you will be joining a highly-motivated and talented community of volunteers working to turn the tide of antisemitism, and by donating you will be supporting our work, so please do take the opportunity to start the year by volunteering or donating at antisemitism.org/act!

We are seeking to recruit a Programme Manager 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.