The Home Affairs Committee releases the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban report
The Home Affairs Committee’s report on the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban has been released.
We welcome this report, and especially the Committee’s interventions in bringing senior officers before them to testify. Had the Committee not done so, Craig Guildford might still be Chief Constable.
However, despite its positive work in its oral hearings, the Committee’s report pulls its punches, noting disturbing patterns of behaviour by senior officers but never joining the dots. It is a missed opportunity to address the impact of growing sectarianism on the life of this country.
There is not a single reference to Islamist radicals in the report, even though it was clearly at their behest that officers at the highest levels of the force fitted up the Israeli fans as the most dangerous in international football, fabricating evidence and framing them to justify the outcome demanded by an extremist mob.
It was intentional appeasement in response to extremist incitement, and senior police lied to parliament to cover it up. Some of the senior officers responsible are still in their posts, and that needs to change.
Looking at the Committee’s overall assessment, it is also clear that the Police and Crime Commissioner failed in his duties and must now consider his position.
At a time when the Jewish community’s trust in police is already at a record low, this debacle has plumbed new depths. This report shows how urgently police forces must be cleansed of appeasers in senior positions who undermine the work of brave frontline officers by appeasing Islamist extremists.
Britain was once known for its firm but fair rule of law, and the Home Secretary must now lead the charge in hastening the return of those days.
You can read our full statement here.
Our criminal justice system faces scrutiny
The six activists affiliated with Palestine Action, who were cleared earlier this month of aggravated burglary in connection with the break-in at a UK subsidiary of Elbit Systems, are set to face a retrial for the other charges that the jury failed to reach a decision on.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that the retrial will consider the charges of criminal damage and assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.
During the incident, which occurred in August 2024, a police officer was struck with a sledgehammer breaking her spine, and military equipment valued at over £1 million was irrevocably damaged.
We will be awaiting the outcome of this retrial with considerable interest. The CPS is already under considerable scrutiny, as our Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, discussed on GB News, which you can watch here.
The toxic alliance between far-left extremists and Islamists is corrupting our revered national institutions. It feels like every day, the criminal justice system finds a new way to betray British Jews.
When a poster at a protest depicting a Star of David and the words “stop the genocide” was reported to the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reportedly dismissed this concern by claiming that there is a “confirmed genocide in Gaza” and therefore the content was not considered “unlawful”.
It argued that the placard was aimed at “the state of Israel for the now confirmed genocide in Gaza, not the race or religion”, and maintained that the blue colouring of the stars — “one of the colours of the Israeli flag” — served to distinguish the symbol from Judaism more broadly.
The CPS has since offered an “unreserved apology” for its handling of the incident and the “poor quality of advice” it issued to its officers. It has said that it is “urgently reviewing how this happened”.
While an apology is welcome, it is deeply concerning that the institution designed to deliver justice for British citizens so often finds itself mired in scandal over its treatment of matters relating to this country’s Jewish community.
Earlier this month, Jews partaking in CPS review panels came forward to say that they do not feel that antisemitism is being taken seriously by the CPS.
Are we really surprised that only 7% of British Jews believe the CPS does enough to protect them, according to our polling?
The courts must take their share of the blame, however. There has been yet another suspended sentence for yet another crime against Jews.
A man has been sentenced for waving an imitation gun out of his car window with the intention to cause fear or violence towards Salford’s Jewish community.
Julius Goncarukas, 42, was arrested in August last year after police received phone calls concerning a man driving past Welbeck Grove in Salford waving the firearm, a gas-powered ball bearing gun, out of his car window towards the residents.
The court sentenced Mr Goncarukas to sixteen months in jail, suspended for eighteen months. He is additionally required to serve fifteen days of rehabilitation, and was handed a 90-day alcohol monitoring order. This uplifted sentence reflected the hate element of the case, which Mr Goncarukas had initially denied.
There are deep flaws within this country’s criminal justice system, as Elie explored in this week’s video, which you can find here.
We want consistent laws in this country, and we want the issue of extremist radicalism to be confronted head-on.
Our schools and universities need protecting from extremism
Surely, it is common sense that extremism has no place in the classroom — and this includes anyone who has posted Holocaust comparisons to their Facebook account.
And yet, apparently, that is exactly what has happened, as Mark Khadim Jackson was welcomed in to speak to the young children at Chester-le-Street CE school in County Durham.
Comparisons between events taking place in Gaza and the Holocaust are clear breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. They show a woeful ignorance of history, insult the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants and diminish and trivialise the genocide of the Jews.
The idea that anyone espousing these views would be invited and given the responsibility to educate is an utter disgrace.
This issue of extremism is widespread, however, and extends beyond schools and to our universities.
There are reports of a student group body which organises guest speakers and the selling of merchandise at UK universities in support of the Islamic Republic.
45 Ahlulbayt Societies (Absocs) can be found up and down the UK.
Guest speakers have included preacher Hussain Makke and cleric Mohamad Khani, both of whom had reportedly attended the funeral of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah — which has subsequently led to Mr Makke being banned from visiting Australia, it has been alleged.
Mr Khani has also been reported to share incendiary images on social media,including one which apparently featured a graphic of a baby being impaled by an arrow bearing the Star of David.
The merchandise reportedly sold at some of these campus events is equally disturbing, from books about an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member, to autobiographies of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali.
Absocs are a network operating openly amongst the UK’s top educational institutions. It is no wonder that the radicalisation of young people in this country is increasingly a cause for concern.
This is why it is more imperative than ever that the UK Government shows that it does not tolerate extremism. The first step would be to ban the IRGC immediately.
Why are our politicians still dragging their feet when it comes to this threat, which not only is prepared to wreak havoc on British Jews but on Britain itself?
Help us to push the Government to act by signing our petition here.
Brighton has a problem
First, it was the “Apartheid Free Zone” campaign, in which activists went door to door in Brighton urging residents to boycott products from the Jewish state.
Now, in the same city, a woman has been found guilty of stealing and binning part of a memorial board dedicated to hostages taken by Hamas on 7th October 2023.
Fiona Monro, aged 58, was found guilty of theft. The crime took place in Palmiera Square, Brighton, in February 2024, four months after Hamas kidnapped over 250 hostages.
She reportedly described the “large laminated board with a photograph of a hostage” as “highly inflammatory”.
Ms Monro was given an eighteen-month conditional discharge, and is required to pay a sum of £1,200 in prosecution costs.
Regarding a second charge of criminal damage, which referred to a later alleged incident where Ms Monro was said to have defaced the same memorial with the words “pray for the 30,000 murdered Palestinians”, she was acquitted.
You can find more details here.
Vandalism plagues our streets
This past week we have seen yet more thuggery from so-called activists.
The newest Gail’s bakery branch in Archway, North London has been vandalised.
Targeting businesses with Jewish roots belongs in the dustbin of history, so why is this happening today?
A London underground train was the site of further vandalism. “Death to Israel. Death to the IDF”, a violent call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state, had been carved into a train carriage, accompanied by a Star of David.
This is a sinister and deranged act, and sends a chilling message to Jewish Londoners. So there is no longer any surprise when we hear of British Jews feeling unwelcome or scared for their safety, as a survivor of the deadly Yom Kippur terror attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue has come forward to say.
Yoni Finlay was shot by a stray police bullet whilst attempting to shield his community during the attack by blocking the doors to the synagogue. Outside, the Islamist terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie was armed with a knife, trying to get inside.
Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed as a result of Al-Shamie’s actions. After a stand-off with police, Al-Shamie charged at officers before being shot and killed.
The news that another planned terrorist attack targeting Manchester’s community had been thwarted only reached Mr Finlay as he returned from the hospital after being treated for his gunshot wound. Speaking about his reaction to the news of the foiled terrorist plot, which involved the use of nearly 50 firearms and 1,200 rounds of ammunition, he said: “There was an element of it was going to happen because antisemitism has been allowed to grow and fester and become normalised.”
He added: “There’s an undercurrent of hate, there’s an undercurrent of antisemitism.”
This undercurrent runs increasingly close to the surface. According to our polling, almost half of British Jews do not feel welcome in the UK.
With the repeated targeting of one of the UK’s biggest Jewish communities, is it any wonder?
Antisemitism has no place in politics
Calling a Jewish councillor “Zionist trash”? This is repugnant, and should not be heard anywhere near the mouths of those with ambitions to lead our country.
Members of Your Party – the new political venture of Zara Sultana and the disgraced former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who led Labour’s descent into illegal discrimination against Jews – have apparently attempted to oust a Jewish councillor from their midst after allegedly branding him “Zionist trash”.
In leaked messages from a Your Party group chat, made up of members from the London Borough of Redbridge, activists reportedly targeted Jewish Labour councillor Lloyd Duddridge, calling him “Zionist trash” and urging others to “boot him out”.
Mr Duddridge, who represents Churchfields on Redbridge Council, has previously been targeted ferociously on social media by an anonymous campaign with slurs which apparently describe him as a “genocide-denier”.
Other messages make references to “fake antisemitism” claims, following similar patterns of the rhetoric observed at recent events that Your Party has hosted, including alleged remarks about “settler colonialism” in reference to the Jewish state and a supposed “antisemitism witchhunt”.
It remains to be seen whether Mr Corbyn’s track record of presiding over a culture of antisemitism in politics lives on.
But his is not the only political party which needs to hold itself accountable.
Over in Reform UK, comments have reportedly been unearthed from the social media account of the Party’s interim campaign manager in Tameside containing allegedly antisemitic and misogynistic content, including one which appeared to read: “I wouldn’t touch a Jewish woman.”After concerns were raised by CAA and others, Adam Mitula has reportedly been suspended from the Party. We are pleased that action has been swiftly taken. Antisemitism must be rooted out from every political party.
We’re hiring!
We are now hiring for a Paralegal.
You will work closely with our legal team, Director of Investigations and Enforcement and volunteers in pioneering legal cases, bolstering CAA’s litigation work to ensure that antisemites are held to account and victims receive justice.For more information, click here.
We are also hiring for a Campus and School Educator! Find out more here.
The institutions in this country must be held accountable when issues arise, so that they can function as safe spaces for everyone, including for Jews. But too often they turn a blind eye.
In London, the Saatchi Gallery has reportedly refused to alter the numerous incorrect references to Palestine in a description of a painting in its current exhibition. The description of a work entitled “shifting sands” repeatedly appears to refer to areas within Israel — for example, the city of Acre — as “Palestine”.
The gallery has responded that “The accompanying text reflects the artist’s own perspective”, and that it “does not take a position on the political or historical interpretations that may arise from an artist’s work”.
This is not up for interpretation. This is denial of the Jewish state.
When art institutions treat Jews and their history as conditional, contested or controversial, it sends a message that Jewish identity is somehow up for debate.
And it isn’t.
Our national institutions, from the CPS to our police forces, to our world-renowned educational and cultural centres, have to demonstrate that they each take antisemitism as seriously as any other form of racism, or they risk irreparably losing the confidence of British Jews.
Until then, we will continue to call for change and accountability.
