Is this year shaping up to be any different?
A lot of British Jews and our friends — and those who care about the social fabric in Britain — have been wondering whether 2025 is going to turn the page on more than a year of the worst antisemitism and extremism that our country has seen in living memory.
Over the holiday period and heading into the new year, we at Campaign Against Antisemitism have been just as busy as ever.
Much as we would like to provide reassurance on the direction of travel for antisemitism and the Jewish community over the coming year, it is still too early to tell.
However, among the persistent bad news, there have recently been some positive developments.
Are the Met Police finally changing course?
Our Demonstration and Events Monitoring Unit continues to monitor anti-Israel rallies across the country, and we continue to see antisemitic or terrorist-sympathising signage and rhetoric at these protests, such as a sign at a demonstration in Leeds featuring the inverted red triangle symbol. This symbol has been used by some anti-Israel activists to signal support for proscribed terrorist organisations such as Hamas, inspired by the appearance of the symbol in Hamas propaganda videos to indicate targets for attack.
While we have all become used to such expressions of support for Hamas and the murder of Israeli Jews on our streets, we will continue to call them out and take action, so that our society does not allow this conduct to become normalised.
But down in London, the Met has for once heeded calls by the Jewish community to divert the next big Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march — which, if it’s anything like previous protests, will also feature plenty of antisemitism — away from local synagogues holding weekly Shabbat morning services.
Naturally, the PSC and its supporters are furious; the very idea of accommodating Jewish concerns – whether or not the organisers consider them to be founded or not – is apparently unacceptable to them.
The Met has stuck to its proverbial guns, however, and imposed restrictions under the Public Order Act, prohibiting the march from assembling near Broadcasting House because of the close proximity of a synagogue that has been significantly affected by the almost-weekly demonstrations.
The Met has finally stood up to the bullies. This is the bare minimum that should be expected, and it is outrageous that it has taken over a year to see this sort of action, in spite of calls by us and others for a change in policing policy. Still, at least it’s a start.
Naturally, the PSC is refusing to comply. So the question is — as ever — how the march will be policed on the day, and how strictly the Met’s conditions will be enforced. Will those who brandish antisemitic signs and chant antisemitic chants be dealt with?
We will be watching.
There have also been arrests here and there, such as an individual who protested a public Menorah lighting by Chabad in Islington, North London during Chanukah.
Good news in the courts
In the courts too, there has been good news.
A man who published antisemitic posts online, including one that called to “eradicate every Zionist,” was sentenced to twelve months in prison.
Mohammed Nafees Ahmed, 32, of Tipton, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for eight offences of supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. The offences related to several posts from his X account, including one that read, “Your fool, long live Palestine long live hamas [sic],” in response to then-Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s condemnation of attacks carried out by the terrorist group in Israel on 7th October 2023.
Another post, published only four days after the attacks, read: “Wipe them off the map. Death to Israel and America.” Other posts celebrated Israeli soldiers being killed. In response to a post by Sir Keir Starmer celebrating Chanukah in December 2023, he wrote, “You Zionist, your time will come,” accompanied by an emoji of a knife.
Meanwhile, two individuals convicted of expressing support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, have had their pre-trial appeals dismissed by the Court of Appeals.
The three judges, headed by the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, upheld the convictions delivered by crown courts in two separate cases. In their judgment, the justices underscored that a defendant’s knowledge of whether an organisation is proscribed does not need to be proved by the prosecution to make out an offence under terror legislation.
On the far-right, a Lancashire taxi driver responsible for setting up “Southport Wake Up”, a far-right Telegram channel that was used to instigate and organise the summer riots last year and who has a history of engaging with neo-Nazi ideology, was sentenced to seven and half years’ imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court following a guilty plea to charges of encouraging violent disorder and carrying a knife.
Messages in the Telegram channel that Andrew McIntyre, 39, set up included “support neither brown nor Jew,” while another described Hitler as “the only politician since Roman times to truly care for his people”. In the same message, the user wrote: “The Jewish people fabricated the Holocaust…Today, Jewish media, NGOs, finance, business, entertainment and a huge overrepresentation in government, are doing the same all over Europe. The fight will be long brothers, but we will succeed. Never capitulate.”
Mr McIntyre was found to have sent a message in the channel urging people to target mosques and synagogues and referred to “k*ke ideology”. It was also revealed that days after rioters had attacked hotels housing migrants and asylum seekers, he shared a video of the Christchurch mosque attack in 2019 with the caption: “WHITE LEGEND. F*** ISLAM, F*** JEWS.”
It is vital that all types of extremism are confronted with the same vigour and treatment by our judicial system.
A mixed bag in the media
The BBC has apologised for an atrocious interview with Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. This was one of the starkest examples of anti-Jewish BBC bias that we have ever encountered.
When you invite a Rabbi to discuss Chanukah in wartime, the bare minimum is to ask questions about Chanukah. Instead, Rabbi Sylvester was subjected to an aggressive interrogation about Israel accompanied by images of war before being cut off in mid-sentence, in glaring contrast to the respectful and sympathetic treatment of the Imam and Reverend interviewed earlier in the day. Not a single question about Chanukah or Jewish suffering in the region right now. Absolutely despicable. The only silver lining is that Rabbi Sylvester acquitted himself very well in the circumstances.
It is yet further evidence that the BBC abandoned the principles of fair journalism a long time ago. The BBC’s quiet apology to the rabbi is only a start. This was a collective effort — producers, editors, anchors, and researchers all demonstrating an unspoken prejudice that this is how Jews or anyone connected with the Jewish state should be treated, in contrast to the respectful treatment of anyone who criticises the Jewish state.
When will our national broadcaster explain to British Jews and the wider public how it is going to address its internal rot?
The apology was an outlier, however.
More typical of the BBC is this headline, which unequivocally declares that journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israel. But buried in the body of the article is the rather significant line: “The BBC has not been able to verify claims made by either side.” So the BBC is effectively reporting something as fact that it itself admits may not be a fact.
Unsurprisingly, this maybe-fact portrays the Jewish state negatively.
Our polling consistently shows that overwhelming proportions of British Jews believe that media bias against Israel fuels antisemitism. Not that the BBC will let that come in the way of bad journalism.
Over on LBC, a summary of Matthew Wright’s line of questioning towards towards his guest, The JC Editor Jake Wallis Simons:
‘You’re a “Jewish man”: tell us the “Jewish figure” for how many children the Jews have killed in Gaza.
‘Now let’s turn to discuss antisemitism in the UK and what we can do about it.’
With interviews like that, it’s a total mystery!
Three retailers take action
Three retailers have taken action following contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Customers had been complaining for days to the local Pret A Manger in St John’s Wood to remove antisemitic graffiti reading “Zionists are child killers” from the public toilet door, but only after we contacted the branch the graffiti was finally removed.
It should have happened faster and should not have required our intervention over and above the dozens of complaints that the branch received, but ultimately the offensive vandalism was rightly addressed.
After being alerted by customers, we also contacted the Camden branch of clothing outlet Urban Outfitters about graffiti reading “F*** Zionism” in one of the changing rooms, following which the graffiti was scribbled out.
These are obviously only two examples of graffiti that we have all seen repeatedly over the past fifteen months. It is appalling that rhetoric of this sort has become so visibly widespread.
Estarli agreed to remove from its social media platforms footage of a BDS Israel boycott sticker displayed on a bicycle in one of its video advertisements after we alerted the e-bike maker to its inclusion.
The retailer wrote to us saying: “We are very sorry if we have caused any offence. We hold no prejudices and when we film with customers we do not know how they have personalised their bikes and we do not stage what they wear or have on their bikes. We were not aware of this sticker when we filmed nor when we made the video. We will now remove it from any content it appears in and we will be more vigilant in the future. Sorry again.”
Leaving aside the role of particular Estarli in this case, the notion that a sticker like this is prevalent enough that it features in apparently randomly filmed scenes underscores just how normalised the anti-Israel rhetoric has become, and thus why it has such an impact on British Jews.
If you become aware of antisemitic graffiti or inflammatory political messages at commercial premises or in promotional material, please e-mail us at [email protected].
World Bowls Tour reverses a terrible decision
At the very end of the year, the World Bowls Tour caved to pressure from the anti-Israel mob, banning competitors from the Jewish state from participating in the Bowls World Indoor Championships.
“Bowls is a sport that unites people,” the organisation declared. Except, apparently, Jews, who were excluded. This decision was a disgrace to international sport. Athletes should be judged by their skill, not their race, ethnicity or nationality. Unfortunately, that principle did not seem to apply to Jewish athletes.
Thankfully, the decision was quickly reversed after an outcry.
World Bowls Tour apologised and arranged for “an increase in the security presence at the event,” thereby apparently making possible a restoration of the invitation to participants from the Jewish state to attend.
While it is shameful that the Israeli athletes had been disinvited in the first place, it was a reassuring end to the matter and a welcome happy note on which to bring 2024 to a close.
It does not take long before a major catastrophe is blamed, somehow, on the Jews.
Naturally, then, the haters sought a way to connect the Los Angeles fires with the Jews or the Jewish state.
Among them is the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese. She also recently posted in support of the conspiracist and disgraced academic David Miller, before (inexplicably, for her) deleting her tweet.
We continue to call for the UN to remove her from her position — and on the UK Government to pressure the UN to do so.
Our hearts go out to those affected by the fires.
It’s a terrible shame that antisemites prefer hate to empathy and will use any opportunity to incite against the Jews.
