British Jews want UNRWA defunded
This past week, we have published our new polling on the front page of The JC that shows that 89% of British Jews – an overwhelming majority – do not support the UK Government’s funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Only 4% do.
The allegations against the controversial UN agency are deadly serious, and its practices have been exposed endlessly. Its educational curricula have referred to the Jewish state as the “enemy”, taught mathematics by counting “martyred” terrorists, used phrases like “Jihad is one of the doors to paradise” in grammar lessons, and more. Its facilities have been used to store munitions and as rocket launch pads in practically every conflict with Israel. What’s more, its personnel is now alleged to be infested with Hamas members and supporters.
The previous Government suspended financial support, with good reason, but the current Government restored it.
Our polling reveals the strength of feeling in the British Jewish community regarding this incredibly concerning matter.
Chief Executive of CAA, Gideon Falter, also wrote an op-ed on the topic. “Nothing,” he wrote, “demonstrates willing Western gullibility more than the United Nations.” You can read the full article here.
In addition, we polled how the Jewish community feels about the Government’s unconditional recognition of a state of Palestine. More than nine in ten British Jews (91%) oppose the move.
There is a revealing contrast between the willingness of the UK and European governments to recognise a state of Palestine, despite it failing to meet the criteria of the Montevideo Convention, while opposing or even condemning Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, historically distinct from Somalia and currently a functioning polity that does meet those criteria.
You can join the thousands who have already signed our petition calling on the UK to rescind its recognition of a ‘Palestinian state’ here.
How are West Midlands Police chiefs still in post?
Last week, West Midlands Police chiefs appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee. But even before they took their seats, there were new revelations in the saga of the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending the Aston Villa match back in November.
Media reports revealed:
- An expert police review had recommended that the Israeli fans should be allowed to attend the fixture. Police then dismissed that recommendation after receiving intelligence that “locals in the predominantly Muslim area were hostile to the Maccabi fans because of their nationality and that some wanted to ‘arm’ themselves if away supporters were allowed.” Despite that rationale, police, the safety advisory group and activists claimed that it was the Jewish fans who posed a risk, thus blaming the victim.
- The police force had produced false evidence to retrospectively justify banning the fans. The force reportedly only discovered the “intelligence” after the local council said that it had been “challenged” over the decision and needed a clearer “rationale” for the ban. Leaked minutes from a meeting said that police apparently based their initial support for the ban on what one officer described as “my professional judgment” and “in the absence of intelligence”. The force only produced “significant” and “new” “intelligence” about Maccabi’s fanbase after a Birmingham Council staff member had faced questions about it and over concerns about claims of “anti-Jewish sentiment”.
Then the hearing began. It was a car crash.
They didn’t use AI. They Googled instead. Possibly using the Google AI.
They cited incidents involving other Israeli teams, even though these had nothing to do with Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
There were discrepancies about how many Dutch police were deployed in Amsterdam for a previous Maccabi Tel Aviv match and how many West Midlands police would be needed in Birmingham.
The main source of intelligence was from a private conversation with Dutch Police that the latter deny played out as presented.
A report in the media that contradicted their position had been withheld from MPs by police chiefs.
Suddenly local hostility to Maccabi fans was admitted to have been as a risk factor.
Dame Karen Bradley MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, summarised: “It feels to us from everything we’ve seen that there was a need that you felt that you had to justify banning these fans. And that scraping was done to find a reason.”
You can watch MPs grill West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford here.
The Chief Constable insisted that no political influence had been brought to bear on the police.
But that is a claim that nobody believes.
Also at the hearing, the police chiefs claimed that they did not consult – sorry, “engage” – with mosques that had been accused of extremism, prior to announcing the ban.
This too appears to be inaccurate.
Allegedly, three of the eight Muslim organisations consulted by the police force, as part of their decision–making process to ban the away fans from attending the football game, have hosted guest preachers holding antisemitic views – including one who apparently called for the death of Jews in the past. Some of the institutions had also reportedly hosted preachers who said that men could physically discipline their wives, including if they refused to engage in sexual relations with them.
West Midlands Police has previously run recruitment drives at one of the mosques, and, more incredible still, that mosque’s Chief Executive was on the interviewing panel that awarded this Chief Constable his job three years ago.
The hearing naturally raised more questions than it answered.
If the intelligence that an Amsterdam-style pogrom was being planned in Birmingham was strong enough to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Aston Villa match in the name of public order, presumably significant action has been taken against the conspirators?
We are interested to know from West Midlands Police: what steps has the force taken to investigate, expose, dismantle and arrest the groups who were preparing to arm themselves to attack Jewish fans?
Meanwhile, protesters assembled outside Parliament to voice their anger at West Midlands Police.
We went to speak to them.
Since the hearing, more details have emerged:
- The Chief Constable Craig Guildford was praised by local mosques and other organisations for declining to intervene during anti-Israel protests at the University of Birmingham – demonstrations which ostracised Jewish university students and made them feel unsafe and intimidated on their campus.
- It was reported that the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, was aware of the decision to ban the away fans for over a week longer than she had previously suggested. Her claims of having insufficient time to review the ban and take action are now in question.
- Several senior MPs, including those who attended the most recent Home Affairs Select Committee hearing, have now called on the Home Secretary to initiate the process by which the Police and Crime Commissioner can sack the Chief Constable.
It has also emerged that, on the day of the fixture, West Midlands Police downplayed threats against Maccabi Tel Aviv football players from “Asian youths looking for a fight”.
Local Islamists tried to hunt down Maccabi players and police officers were instructed to play down these threats of violence.
Not only did the leadership of West Midlands Police succumb to Islamist intimidation to ban the fans, but it consistently lied about how this entire fiasco unfolded and has engaged in a systematic cover-up at every stage.
Worse still, it is now becoming clear that this campaign by West Midlands Police to gaslight the Jewish community, politicians and the general public has an antisemitic undertone. Whether deliberately or at the behest of Islamist thugs, West Midlands Police victim-blamed Jewish Maccabi fans for the pogrom committed against them in Amsterdam, victim-blamed Jewish Maccabi fans for non-existent threats that they purportedly posed to locals in Birmingham, and used these racist lies to justify banning people from the Jewish state from supporting an Israeli team at the match in Birmingham.
The tired “Asian youth” euphemism for Islamists is itself also racist, deliberately covering for radical Islamic sentiment and implicating other minorities like Hindus, Sikhs and Jains who had nothing to do with the threats of violence. This is not an “Asian youth” problem. It’s an Islamist problem. And West Midlands Police is showing the same cowardice in its language as it did in allowing Islamists to browbeat it into failing to do its job.
This is an utter failure of policing at every level. It is the same mentality that we have seen for the past two years, where the mob is appeased in the name of public order and those who are ready to resort to violence get their way at the expense of law-abiding British people.
The leadership of West Midlands Police must apologise to Maccabi Tel Aviv and its fans, the politicians they have repeatedly lied to, and the Jewish community they have gaslight and insulted over and over again. They must reveal everything that went on here and who was bullying them to do what, and finally they must resign – or be sacked.
Campaign Against Antisemitism‘s Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, spoke to TalkTV about West Midlands Police.
The Muslim Brotherhood: the British Government just doesn’t get it
In a recent debate in the House of Lords on the subject of proscribing the Muslim Brotherhood, Lord Godson asked, “Why is this country now an outlier in not giving a proper analysis to the country of what threat this organisation constitutes here and abroad?”
We have been asking the same question for months now.
Others are not waiting for answers. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that it is withholding funding from students wanting to study at UK universities. While the UAE will provide grants to students looking to study abroad, the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups on British campuses means that such opportunities will not be extended to those wishing to study here.
This is extraordinary, and represents a national embarrassment but also a very serious – and not unjustified – accusation from an important Arab ally.
Our representative polling shows that more than four-fifths (85%) of British Jews think that the British Government should proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
Britain must follow the example of numerous countries worldwide and proscribe this dangerous organisation.
Are the authorities doing enough to combat Islamist terrorism?
Almost all British Jews (96%) consider Islamists to be a serious threat.
Are the authorities asleep at the wheel? We hit the streets to find out more – watch the video here.
Our first video was so popular that we published a follow-up.
Government announces it is breaking promise to ban IRGC
The Government has declared that it is breaking its promise to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
The Iranian people are trying to throw off the yoke of oppression. Parliament’s Security and Intelligence Committee says that the IRGC is planning to kill and kidnap in Britain, targeting Jews and Iranian dissidents.
How can Britain’s response be to do nothing to stop the IRGC operating on our soil?
Before the election, the Labour Party was unequivocal. In early 2023, then Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that Labour would proscribe the IRGC. Months later, then Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper reiterated that a Labour Government would apply a full ban. They rightly criticised the previous Conservative Government for not having already banned the IRGC.
Yet now, in 2026, Business Secretary Peter Kyle says that following a review of terror laws, the Government has already gone “as far as it can” with sanctions.
If that were true, they would never have promised to proscribe the IRGC. It’s just not credible.
The IRGC is a paramilitary force that answers directly to Iran’s radical Islamist regime. It is responsible for violent repression inside Iran and for exporting terrorism abroad. Numerous other countries have all recognised the IRGC for what it is and banned it as a terrorist organisation.
Here in the UK, arrests in London have allegedly been linked to the IRGC. An Iranian proxy was recently found to have stockpiled three tonnes of high explosives in this country. The IRGC openly threatens Jews worldwide, which means British Jews, here at home. No wonder that according to our polling, 93% of British Jews support proscribing the IRGC.
This decision by the Government will be welcome news to the embattled theocratic regime in Tehran — and to Hizballah, Hamas and the Houthis, which rely on the IRGC for financial, operational and ideological support when they target Jewish civilians.
At a time of heightened threats and rising extremism, this backtracking is unconscionable. The IRGC is not just a threat to Jews; it is a threat to Britain itself.
The Government must keep its word. Ban the IRGC now. Add your voice by signing our petition here.
It is not just the Government that is getting it wrong on Iran.
Journalists in the UK have insisted that they cannot cover Iran because they do not have access to the country, comparing it to the situation in Gaza. But of course while they could not access Gaza that did not prevent them from talking about it. The double standard is glaring, and they have been called out for it, including by prominent individuals.
Speaking of the media, the BBC has apologised to a family who survived the 7th October attacks, after international editor Jeremy Bowen entered and filmed in their house without their knowledge or approval.
The Horenstein family, who lived on the Gaza border, have received £28,000 from the BBC in compensation for the unwarranted intrusion, which occurred just days after their home was decimated by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.
This is yet another plain failure on the part of the BBC and Mr Bowen in particular. His reputation in the Jewish community is already in the gutter. It should come as no surprise that our polling reveals nearly all British Jews (a staggering 95%) believe that there should be an independent investigation into the BBC regarding alleged bias in its coverage of matters of Jewish interest.
Antisemitism in our schools
A Religious Studies teacher in London who reportedly praised Hamas as “freedom fighters” has been allowed to continue teaching.
Ronan Preston, a teacher at a school in Wimbledon, allegedly described the terrorist group as “freedom fighters” and “defenders of humanity” who “committed no crime” in multiple social media posts made between January and April 2024. He also apparently called for “glory to Hamas”.
Mr Preston was dismissed by the school in July 2024 after being suspended and reported to the police. At a misconduct panel, the Teaching Regulation Agency did not find substantial evidence to ban Mr Preston from the teaching profession, even after considering the posts to be “abhorrent and extremely offensive”. Instead, the panel concluded that the offence was “entirely out of character” for the accused, and the findings from the hearing were published as punishment.
The decision to allow this man to continue teaching is deeply concerning. We will be challenging this and are reviewing all of our options.
Meanwhile, a Minister has revealed that a Jewish fellow MP was barred from visiting a primary school in their constituency “in case his presence inflames teachers”.
This is modern Britain.
Mother and daughter jailed for posting extremist neo-Nazi content on social media
Shirley Craughwell, 51, was sentenced to twenty months, and Hannah Craughwell, 27, to sixteen months after pleading guilty to hate crime offences aggravated by racial and religious prejudice at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The content ranged from antisemitic, calling Jews “the devil’s children”, to racist, describing non-white people as “a different species”. Another image posted reportedly depicted the chef Gordon Ramsay shouting at Hitler to “put them back in the oven”.
At the sentencing, the court was also made aware that the pair distributed racist and anti-trans material through leaflets in their local area.
Meanwhile, Vanguard Britain, a far-right group founded in 2022 with a reported history of targeting Jews and other ethnic minorities, has launched a recruitment campaign allegedly ahead of a proposed storm of violence across Britain.
According to our polling, nearly two thirds of British Jews (64%) consider the far-right to be a serious threat.
The gravity of these developments should not be underestimated.
Holocaust remembrance
An audio bench, bearing the testimony of Holocaust survivor Chaim Ferster, has been smashed and dumped in a lake at Salford’s Clowes Park.
Several members of Chaim’s family were murdered in the Holocaust and he survived numerous concentration camps.
The bench allowed people to hear Chaim’s experiences, keeping his story alive. The bench was placed in Clowes Park as he would walk there daily with his dog. He died in 2017 at the age of 94. Appallingly, it appears as though the bench’s audio box was ripped out.
The memories of Holocaust survivors must be preserved. Instead, they are being destroyed. We understand that a resident has reported this to their local councillor, believing it to be an act of antisemitism. The councillor has since reported this to the police as a hate crime.
If you have information about this incident, please inform Greater Manchester Police or contact us in confidence at [email protected].
We are mourning the passing of Holocaust survivors Josef Veselsky and Eva Schloss.
You can read more about Josef here and Eva here.
May their memories be a blessing.
Come work at CAA!
We are recruiting for a communications position and an educator position.
If you have a few years’ experience in communications, media or a related field, our Senior Communications and Research Officer role may be right for you. More information is available at antisemitism.org/get-involved/jobs/senior-communications-and-research-officer.
We are also seeking a Schools and Campus Educator to work directly with students across the UK, delivering education and supporting those facing antisemitism. This is an entry-level position for a capable and enthusiastic educator to bring knowledge and awareness of antisemitism to students on campus and pupils in school. You can find out more at antisemitism.org/get-involved/jobs/campus-and-school-educator.
Even though 2026 is not yet two weeks old, it is already shaping up to be another extremely difficult year.
- Instead of facing up to the terror-exporting thugs of an evil regime, the Government is breaking its promise to proscribe the IRGC.
- Far from seeing UNRWA for what it is, Britain is still sending it millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
- The Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to operate freely here, making Britain an outlier amongst the Arab states and Western allies who have banned them, to the extent that the United Arab Emirates does not want its citizens to study here, lest they be radicalised by British Islamists.
- Rather than enforcing the law, senior police officers are giving in to Islamists and trying to cover up their appeasement.
- Regulated professionals – even teachers – are increasingly confident that their extremism will not be an impediment to their careers.
The good news is that the public is starting to awaken and demand change. The clamour is growing.
Whatever 2026 brings, CAA will continue to fight tooth and nail from the courtrooms to the newsrooms to the classrooms to the corridors of power to shine a spotlight on the extremists who threaten the British way of life, and the appeasement that enables them to thrive.
Thank you for your support – our work is more necessary than ever.
