A Jewish man has allegedly been violently attacked by a man carrying what appeared to be a knife in an antisemitic attack in West Hampstead, north London. The alleged assailant fled the scene and is being sought by the Metropolitan Police Service.
Police have today released a CCTV image of a man they need to speak with. The photograph that has been released may not be of the suspect.
Following the attack, police faced criticism for their initial slow response to the attack, which they had said would take an hour to respond to, however the police investigation has been upgraded following intervention by CST.
The incident took place on 2nd December at around 19:20, when the victim was returning from work. He exited West Hampstead Underground Station and walked to the nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket located in West Hampstead Square.
He saw the alleged attacker desecrating a 4-metre high public Chanukiah that was erected on West Hampstead Square to celebrate the Jewish festival of Chanukah, pulling the object down before proceeding to stamp on in and shout antisemitic abuse.
With no prior interaction, the attacker approached the victim and aggressively said: “You look Jewish” and that he was “looking for a Jew to kill” after singling out the victim among other pedestrians, despite there being no visible indication of his Jewish background.
He allegedly asked threateningly: “Are you Jewish?” The victim, understandably wishing to avoid a confrontation, said “No,” to which the man replied: “Good, I want to find a Jew to kill.”
The victim entered a nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket and the man remained outside. The victim was worried for the safety of other Jews and their families in the neighbourhood where the man was loitering, which has a sizeable Jewish population. The victim approached a supermarket employee, who said that the man had been in the store earlier.
The victim decided to call the police, explaining the situation to them over the course of about eight minutes.
Officers told the victim that they did not consider the case urgent enough for a priority response and would come within an hour, despite the attacker threatening to kill Jews.
After a short period of time, the victim spotted the man again, outside the shop, pulling down the public Chanukiah which someone had put back up in the intervening time. The victim also said that the man was shouting aggressively at a young woman, aged 18-25 who fled the square. He then returned to pulling the Chanukiah to the ground.
Fearing for the young woman, the victim and the supermarket employee confronted the man from a ten-metre distance. The attacker allegedly shouted at him in response: “I knew you were Jewish, you lied to me” and began walking towards his victim while shouting: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.” He said something in Arabic before allegedly declaring: “I want to kill my first Jew.”
The victim ran back into Marks and Spencer and turned to see if the man had followed him, which he had, having put on a facemask in the meantime.
As the assailant walked into the shop, he shouted at the victim again: “You are Jewish.”
The man reached the victim, allegedly squaring up to him aggressively with barely a metre between them. Within seconds, the man allegedly pushed the victim as hard as he could with both hands on the victim’s chest, forcing the victim to take a step backwards, all the while repeating: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.”
The attacker then allegedly punched the victim violently with force towards the head around five times, the victim had to guard himself from the attacks using his forearms and elbows.
After the first attack, the victim again told the man to back away and pushed the attacker away. The attacker allegedly replied: “I am not leaving until you are dead.” Taking steps backwards with his coat and heavy bag restricting his movement, the victim found himself cornered at the edge of an aisle with nowhere else to move backwards to.
He turned his head around to see what was blocking him, at which point the attacker took advantage of the victim’s shift in concentration and allegedly threw a strong punch which connected with the victim’s head. The victim tried to move his head backwards in an attempt to limit the impact. Had he not done this, the victim believes that his injuries would have been even more severe and he would have been knocked unconscious onto the floor of the supermarket.
Again, the victim told the man to “back away” to which the attacker repeated “I am not going away until you are dead.”
By this point, the victim began to fear for his life. He had no inclination to fight the man and wanted to defuse the situation. He managed to extricate himself and head towards the self-service checkout machines, with the man following him and allegedly shouting more antisemitic abuse and death threats. He was also heard shouting in Arabic.
The victim dropped his bag and jacket to make it easier to run from the man, but the man kept walking faster and faster, eventually reaching for his right jacket pocket.
He grabbed what was apparently a knife and allegedly said “I will kill you now, you Jew.” The victim ran to the back of the shop before the man had the chance to reveal the weapon fully. He turned to see that the man remained by the checkout machines, still staring at the victim and allegedly performing a slit-throat gesture.
The man then allegedly picked up the victim’s jacket and bag and walked calmly out of the shop. The victim remained where he was, terrified for his life. He did not see the man thereafter. A staff member then approached the victim to tell him that the man had left. The victim called the police for a second time, as did the shop employee, and spoke to operators for an extended period. Another staff member then brought over the victim’s bag, which had been discarded, and he later found his jacket in the shop. None of the contents of the bag or jacket had been taken.
Finally, the police arrived. Despite the duration of the incident and the proximity of a police station only half a mile up the road.
The victim called the CST, which provided support to the victim and pressed the police to upgrade their investigation, which is now progressing. Police mounted extra patrols in the area in subsequent days and CST adapted its operations to take account of the incident.
The assailant is described as being black and possibly of Somali ethnicity, aged between 25 and 30 and between 6’0” and 6’1” in height. He had a slender build and bad teeth, and wore a dark green beanie hat, a dark puffer jacket with large pockets, dark trousers and no gloves. He wore a dark facemask when in the shop. He spoke in English, with a mixed East London and foreign accent, and spoke Arabic.
If you have any information, please contact the police on 101, quoting reference: CAD6588/02Dec, or e-mail [email protected] in confidence.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “What this victim has suffered is unspeakable, and it is only thanks to his quick thinking that he survived the ordeal without even worse injury than he endured. The delayed response of the police, despite the close proximity of a police station just up the road, is deeply concerning, and the result is that a man who apparently wants to kill Jews is now at liberty.
“This is the most heinous of a considerable number of antisemitic crimes that we have reported over the course of Chanukah. The sad truth is that our nation’s capital is not nearly as safe as it should be for Jewish people who wish to celebrate a festival or, in this case, simply go about their daily lives. Unless the police and the justice system step up and ensure that antisemitic criminals face the full consequences of their despicable actions, this will not change.
“We are providing the victim with legal and other assistance. We urge the public to assist in the identification of the individual whose description has now been circulated.”
The Metropolitan Police Service said: “Officers have carried out a number of enquiries and have today released a CCTV image of a man they need to speak with. Anyone who recognises the man is asked to call police via 101 or tweet @MetCC quoting reference CAD6588/02Dec.”
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.
Woman arrested after allegedly throwing stones at Jewish school in Stamford Hill
A woman has been arrested after allegedly throwing stones at a Jewish school in Stamford Hill.
The incident took place on Belz Terrace at 11:46am on 26th December and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.
If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD2480 26/12/21.
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.
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.
Muslim media analyst who advises BBC on coverage of Islam apologises for sharing extract from antisemite Gilad Atzmon’s book
A Muslim media analyst who advises the BBC on coverage of Islam has reportedly apologised for sharing an extract from a book by the antisemite Gilad Atzmon.
Faisal Hanif, who words at the Centre for Media Monitoring, which is affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain and has advised the BBC on its coverage of Islam, shared an extract from Mr Atzmon’s book, Being in Time, which has been described as “profoundly antisemitic”. The extract itself did not contain antisemitic passages.
Mr Hanif apologised for sharing the post, admitting that it was an error “both professionally and personally to fail to check Mr Atzmon’s wider views.”
He said: “I stand opposed to all forms of racism including antisemitism and Islamophobia. I came across a blog post by Gilad Atzmon which was clearly not antisemitic and was comparing right and left ideology when I was researching the corrosive impact of the far right. While I took the blog post at face value at the time, I was unaware that Gilad Atzmon himself was profoundly antisemitic.”
Mr Atzmon is an antisemite who has reportedly blamed the Grenfell Tower tragedy on “Jerusalemites” as well as reportedly telling university students that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving.” He is not shy about his antisemitism, telling a Jewish Twitter user in 2014: “I am not a Jew any more. I indeed despise the Jew in me (whatever is left). I absolutely detest the Jew in you.”
At one stage, Mr Atzmon was forced to make a humiliating apology to Campaign Against Antisemitism following defamation proceedings, and Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully pressured venues not to feature Mr Atzmon due to his record of antisemitism.
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.
“I’d rather die than be a Jew”: Prospective Arsenal transfer under fire for singing inflammatory song at rival fans
While Arsenal have been strongly linked with Club Brugge player Noa Lang, some have voiced their concerns about video footage of the player allegedly singing an inflammatory song at rival fans.
Videos from May 2021 have surfaced of Mr Lang appearing to sing lyrics including “I’d rather die than be a Jew” at fans of Club Brugge’s Brussels-based rivals Anderlecht. Like some other clubs in Europe, including Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax and Cracovia, Anderlecht have a reputation for being a “Jewish” club.
Although it has been reported that Mr Lang has come under investigation by the Belgian Football Association for his alleged involvement in the chant, instead of apologising Mr Lang reportedly said in a statement: “My dad’s Surinamese and my mother’s Dutch. I know all about racism and bias. I chanted enthusiastically with supporters I met for the first time after winning. As a former Ajax fan I know very well the soccer world’s nicknames. I did not mean to offend anyone. I’m done with the subject and won’t be revisiting it.”
Club Brugge released a statement that defended Mr Lang and denied that there was anything antisemitic about the chant, saying “When Noa Lang sang with our fans, there was no antisemitic undertone. Noa did not mean to insult or hurt anyone in any way and we are sorry if this happened.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.
Bar Standards Board disgracefully rejects CAA complaint against barrister who posted social media comments in breach of International Definition of Antisemitism
The Bar Standards Board, which regulates barristers in England and Wales, has disgracefully rejected a complaint made by Campaign Against Antisemitism against a barrister who posted social media comments in breach of International Definition of Antisemitism.
Franck Magennis is a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in London. In December 2020, he tweeted that “Zionism is a kind of racism. It is essentially colonial. It has manifested in an apartheid regime calling itself ‘the Jewish state’ that dominates non-Jews, and particularly Palestinians. You can’t practice anti-racism at the same time as identifying with, or supporting, Zionism.”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.
Mr Magennis was described in his profile on the Chambers’ website as “an expert on the Palestinian struggle for emancipation from Israeli apartheid and occupation.” This has since apparently been changed to: “Franck conducts research on international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of the Palestinian struggle for emancipation. In May to August 2019 he was a research fellow in Ramallah, occupied Palestine with the award-winning Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. He is the co-author of a series of forthcoming reports responding to allegations against the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs of attacks against Palestinian individuals and civil society institutions.”
Mr Mcgennis denied that the tweet was antisemitic, asserting that, while offence may have been taken at the views expressed in the tweet, that was not his purpose and that his speech was protected by Article 10(1) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously published a briefing debunking the claim that the ECHR protects the right to make statements that breach the definition.
The Bar Standards Board panel considered that, although the tweet may be “offensive”, it was not “seriously offensive”, because it was merely “criticism of Zionism and Israel”, apparently despite what the International Definition of Antisemitism — which the British Government and the Judicial College have adopted — says.
The Bar Standards Board panel concluded that Mr Mcgennis did not in this instance “behave in a way which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in you or in the profession,” and therefore did not uphold the complaint.
Campaign Against Antisemitism is reviewing its options.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Regulators in this country are all over the map when it comes to sanctioning professionals for racism against Jews. Another regulator that we have been dealing with similarly dismissed a complaint that we made against one of their regulated professionals, and we took the case to the High Court, which has quashed that regulator’s decision and forced it to reconsider the case.
“We regret that the Bar Standards Board has disgracefully chosen to ignore the International Definition of Antisemitism, even though it has been adopted by the British Government and the Judicial College. Apparently when it comes to antisemitism, barristers and judges have different standards. We are reviewing our options.”
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.
Sports broadcaster Abbi Grace Summers confronts West Ham football fan hurling antisemitic abuse at her on train to Tottenham Hotspur game
The sports broadcaster Abbi Grace Summers confronted a West Ham football fan who hurled antisemitic abuse at her on a train to a game between the Hammers and Tottenham Hotspur.
The abuse took place on a London Underground train on 22nd December.
Footage from a video, which went viral online, showed Ms Summers accusing the West Ham fan of shouting antisemitic abuse at her, which was not caught on camera. The man smirks at her as she invites him to “say it to my face.”
Ms Summers tweeted the video to the police, writing: “Hi @metpoliceuk would like to report an incident on the 18:45 train from Liverpool Street to White Hart Lane. This man continuously shouting antisemitic comments and behaviour and clearly not sorry when called up on…[sic].”
Speaking the next day on the radio, Ms Summers said that she is “all for football banter…but it suddenly turned antisemitic.” She said that it is a “line that you don’t have to cross.” She also observed that nobody in the train carriage said anything in reaction to the abuse, noting that “I was the only woman on that carriage and I took a stand against it.” She added: “It’s sad we can’t govern ourselves, it was unfortunate no one else stood up.”
A spokesperson for the British Transport Police said: “British Transport Police received a report of antisemitic behaviour onboard a London Overground train travelling from Liverpool Street to White Hart Lane yesterday evening (22 December). Witnesses or anyone with information can contact us by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 433 of 22/12/21.”
Recently, three West Ham fans were arrested after a video surfaced of West Ham fans allegedly chanting an antisemitic song at a Hasidic passenger on a flight to a match.
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.
Visibly Jewish man punched in the face in Manchester
CCTV footage has shown a visibly Jewish man being punched in the face in Manchester.
Reports state that the suspect was drunk and in the midst of a heated argument with a woman, believed to be his partner, before he ran up to the Jewish man on the street and punched him in the side of the face.
It is understood that while the male suspect fled the scene, the woman was detained by the authorities.
The scene of the incident was attended by members of Salford Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, and Hatzola, a volunteer-run emergency medical service.
The incident occurred at 22:59 on 26th December on Leicester Road in Manchester and was reported by Salford Shomrim. If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Salford Shomrim on 0161 740 8000, quoting reference number: CAD 2747 26/12/21.
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.
CAA applauds Oak Hill College for adding explanatory note to Kittel’s theological dictionary at our request, and calls on other institutions to follow suit
Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds Oak Hill College for adding an explanatory note to its editions of Kittel following a request from us.
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited in part by Gerhard Kittel and known colloquially as “Kittel”, is a reference book openly available in Christian seminaries. While we recognise that it is a useful resource, we are also acutely aware that its editor and some early contributors, for example K.G. Kuhn, were supporters and propagators of Nazi ideology. Mr Kittel and Mr Kuhn were particularly engaged with the “Jewish Question” and actively developed and encouraged antisemitic ideology and conduct. The former claimed that Christianity should act “not as a protector of the Jew but as an effective anti-Jewish force”, while the latter, who supported Hitler’s SS, was a member of the Committee for Jewish Atrocity Propaganda, which arranged the 1933 boycott of Jews. There is no shortage of evidence of their worldview.
The particular issue with Kittel is not merely the views of its editors and contributors, but that their views subtly but significantly impact its content, and therefore it behoves educational institutions to make their students aware of this influence when they consult the resource.
As Prof. Maurice Casey warns in his article, Some Antisemitic Assumptions in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1999): “The frames of reference never lie on the surface of the articles: they are buried in apparently historical statements. It follows that this dictionary should be used only with the utmost care. Students should be warned of this hidden menace, and all readers should consult it only with their critical wits sharpened to the highest degree.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has accordingly written to numerous seminaries to inquire as to whether they make Kittel available to their students and, if so, urge them to include an explanatory note, which will assist both their students’ wider awareness of the historical influences on the resources that they use and also contribute to positive communal relations between Christians and Jews in the next generation.
Oak Hill has confirmed to us that it holds one copy of the multi-volume dictionary in its library and will insert an explanatory note into the volume. The College has advised us that it actively promotes engagement by its students with the more recent New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis by Moises Silva.
The College says that it positively engages the issue of early Jewish and Christian relations and tackles and addresses antisemitic interpretations.
Oak Hill’s welcome addition of the explanatory note follows the same decision by Moorlands College, as part of wider calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism for Christian seminaries to provide students with the full background and context of Kittel’s dictionary.
Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are delighted that Oak Hill College has taken this step, which is a testament to the importance of working towards positive relations between faith communities. At Campaign Against Antisemitism, we try to act by the same principles, and I am indebted to our Christian colleagues for leading on this project. We now call on other seminaries to follow the example set by Moorlands College and Oak Hill College and add similar explanatory notes to their editions of Kittel.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism works to raise awareness of antisemitism among all faith and minority communities.
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.
Major Parliamentary report calls for enhanced measures by social media companies to tackle antisemitism on their platforms
A major Parliamentary report has called on social media companies to introduce enhanced measures to tackle racism against Jewish people on their platforms.
The Joint Committee on the Draft Online Bill, which is studying the Government’s proposed legislation to regulate social media, has recommended changes to ensure rapid response by social media companies to requests from the police for information. The report stopped short of calling for an end to anonymous accounts, as these carry wider benefits, but it did call on companies to prevent abuse by anonymous accounts, for example by enhancing traceability for use by law enforcement.
The 200-page report also recommends that technology companies be required to appoint a “Safety Controller” from senior management who would be personally liable if the company fails to comply with the new rules.
The report insists that “no-one should be abused for their religious faith or identity and tech companies must take steps to prevent the spread of such material and remove it from their platforms.” In particular, the report raises concerns over algorithms that may amplify antisemitic abuse in social media networks.
“Platforms will have a duty to design their systems to identify, limit the spread of, and remove racist abuse quickly following a user report,” the Committee said, and declared that technology companies would “have to address hate crimes such as stirring up racial hatred that may not currently be covered.”
On abuse in football, the report specifies that companies should share information about offenders with clubs to enable abusive fans to be banned from matches.
The report also calls on Ofcom to produce a Code of Practice on platform design.
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.
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.
Graffiti equating Jews to Nazis scrawled on street in Jewish area of Brussels
Graffiti that read “Juif = Nazi” has been scrawled on a street in Uccle, a Jewish area of Brussels.
The vandalism, which was discovered in Belgium’s capital city earlier this week, was described by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Head of the European Jewish Association, as “pure antisemitism”. “It is one thing to write a ridiculous comment on a wall, and we can put any manner of graffiti down to ignorance or sheer stupidity. But this on public footpaths and at a road junction is much more calculated, much more sinister,’’ he said.
“It is no secret that a large part of the Jewish community in Brussels lives in Uccle. And this is a message to them, and indeed to every Jew in Brussels. We are equated to those who murdered six million of us. We are not welcome. We are responsible for something unspoken, unnamed.
‘’This is pure antisemitism. On the streets of an affluent neighbourhood in Brussels today. I hope to hear from politicians and community groups of all hues that this is not something that will be tolerated. Or is in any way reflective of the society where we all seek to live in peace and dignity,’’ Rabbi Margolin added.
Uccle Mayor Boris Dilles reportedly labelled the act “heinous”, adding that “The police on the one hand and the road services on the other are doing what is necessary.”
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.
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.
“We will punch your face, f***ing Jewish c**t”: Bus driver reportedly ignores visibly Jewish woman being abused by two women
It has been reported that the driver of a London bus ignored two women racially abusing a visibly Jewish woman on the bus.
The driver is understood to have been in close proximity to the incident as it was occurring but allegedly did nothing to help. The Jewish woman was reportedly threatened by two women who told her that “Jewish people are so cheap”, before adding: “We will punch your face, f***ing Jewish c**t.”
The two women reportedly also said to the Jewish woman: “You wear wigs because Jewish women shave their hair. Let’s try to pull it off!”
The victim is reportedly a visibly Jewish woman, aged twenty. The suspects are believed to be two black women aged between twenty and 25 years.
Campaign Against Antisemitism understands that the incident took place on either a 253 or 254 bus on Wednesday, and the victim would have boarded the bus at some time between 21:54 and 22:06 at the Rosingdale Street, E5 bus stop. Both the victim and the suspects reportedly left the bus at Stamford Hill Broadway.
The incident was reported today at around 12:56 by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol. If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 6797 23/12/21
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.
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.
Second round of antisemitic flyers distributed to U.S. homes by hate group in less than one week
A second round of antisemitic flyers has been distributed to homes in the United States in less than one week.
Earlier this week, Campaign Against Antisemitism reported that antisemitic flyers accusing Jewish people of masterminding the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly identical to those that were distributed to Beverly Hills homes last month, had been disseminated to homes across the United States in at least five states so far. The states included North Carolina, Texas, Idaho, Maryland and California.
Written at the top of each flyer reads “Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish” alongside the domain “goyim.tv”, a website affiliated with the “Goyim Defence League” (GDL), a group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis and is understood to be led by Jon Minadeo II. The group is responsible for stunts such as visiting a Chabad centre to claim that “these Jewish terrorists” were behind 9/11, and hanging a banner on a Los Angeles overpass reading “Honk if you know the Jews want a race war.” Earlier this year, Mr Minadeo II created t-shirts carrying antisemitic slogans such as the Holocaust was “a hoax”. Recently, they hung a banner from a bridge in Austin, Texas that read “Vax the Jews”.
We can now report that the same flyers have now been redistributed in Maryland and California, with Vermont, Alabama, Illinois and Florida also having been targeted.
The Montgomery County Council in Maryland released a statement in which it said: “The Council stands in solidarity with our Jewish community and condemns all acts of hate and ethnic or religious bigotry aimed at Jewish residents. Furthermore, the Council condemns the spread of COVID-19 disinformation in all its forms, and the use of erroneous connections to ethnic, religious and other groups to fuel abhorrently racist agendas.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who represents Maryland’s 8th congressional district, thanked the council for its support and tweeted: “Some hateful bigot is mixing the oldest anti-Jewish conspiracy theories with sick new lies about COVID-19. We reject this filth.”
In addition to Montgomery, it was reported that for the second time in less than a week, the flyers were sent out to homes in Beverly Hills, where the flyers were also distributed on the first night of Chanukah, which is when the flyers were first believed to have appeared.
A statement signed by all five members of the City Council said: “The Beverly Hills City Council would like to remind all who commit acts of hatred toward members of our community that these cowardly acts and any divisive attempts of intimidation will be rejected outright. As a City that is made up of a diverse population and being one of the only Jewish-majority cities outside of Israel, the City condemns this unwarranted hate speech that has been unsuccessfully used to disparage a community that has, and always will, stand strong together and fight hatred of any kind.”
Carla Hill, Associate Director of the Center on Extremism of the ADL, said that members of the GDL were incentivised to distribute the flyers as the leader of the organisation, Jon Minadeo II, promised to send $100 worth of merchandise to members who participated in the leafleting, an act which Ms Hill described as the “monetisation of hate.” Mr Minadeo II reportedly runs an online shop called “Goyim Gear” that includes, among other items, t-shirts glorifying Adolf Hitler, the Waffen SS and other individuals and groups endorsed by white supremacists.
Ms Hill went on to explain that the group embarks on “tours” around the country that are advertised through its videos on its streaming channel as well as the social media platform Telegram, in which they distribute propaganda, engage in antisemitic stunts and seek donations. Ms Hill described the group as “a small network of individuals” with “thousands of supporters.”
In an incident that may be connected, though it is unconfirmed, stickers were distributed across Manhattan Beach, California which contained what the Manhattan Beach Police Department described as “antisemitic hate speech.”
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.
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.
Theatre critic Kate Maltby decries Royal Court Theatre’s “unconscious bias” that led to Herschel Fink scandal
The theatre critic Kate Maltby has blamed the Royal Court Theatre’s “unconscious bias” in her discussion of the Herschel Fink scandal on today’s episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism.
Ms Maltby, whose writing has appeared across national newspapers, also recounted her own family’s fascinating history.
The podcast with Ms Maltby 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 and actor Eddie Marsan.
Brazilian neo-Nazis’ New Year’s Eve plans to attack Jewish and black people thwarted by authorities
In a joint effort between the Brazilian and United States authorities, four suspects alleged to be members of a neo-Nazi gang have been arrested in Brazil.
The individuals had reportedly planned to carry out a series of targeted attacks on Jewish and black residents in São Paulo over New Year’s Eve, but after being warned of the plans back in May by Brazil-based Homeland Security Investigations agents, the authorities managed to intercept the attacks.
Homeland Security Investigations Brasilia Acting Attaché Patrick Chen said: “Through continued investigative collaboration, members of dangerous antisemitic and neo-Nazi cells were apprehended before they caused a possible mass casualty event. The success of Operation Bergónis a prime example of the importance of international partnerships in dismantling criminal organizations that threaten public safety and innocent lives.”
HSI Brasilia also said that the alleged neo-Nazi members used websites in the United States to “to call for violence against Jewish and black” residents in Brazil.
Authorities produced 31 search warrants which allowed them to discover and seize homemade bombs, weapons and documents containing attack plots and Nazi paraphernalia.
In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations said: “The individuals in question were part of neo-Nazi cell that were planning attacks against public areas, such as schools, as well as hate crimes against Jewish and black civilians.”
One of the suspects, a 43-year-old man who worked as security in the city of Campinas, told authorities of his plans to denote explosives during the New Year’s Eve celebration. The man was said to have recruited members to bomb a nuclear plant in the Rio de Janeiro municipality of Angra dos Reis.
The suspect reportedly identified himself as Matheus Hades NS and told the authorities in a recorded confession that “there is so much wrong in the world that I can’t take it anymore,” adding that he wanted to “kill and then commit suicide” but that he would spare anyone “as long as they are good, honest, hardworking people. With the rest, I don’t worry.”
The other three alleged members were arrested in the São Paulo city of Suzano and the Rio de Janeiro municipalities of Campos dos Goytacazes and Valença.
In October, a man in Brazil accused of Holocaust denial and pedophilia was reportedly found with a stash of Nazi memorabilia worth £2.5 million.
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.
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.
Urgent appeal for witnesses after assailant allegedly tells Jewish man he wanted to “kill my first Jew” in violent north London attack
A Jewish man has allegedly been violently attacked by a man carrying what appeared to be a knife in an antisemitic attack in West Hampstead, north London. The alleged assailant fled the scene and is being sought by the Metropolitan Police Service.
Police have today released a CCTV image of a man they need to speak with. The photograph that has been released may not be of the suspect.
Following the attack, police faced criticism for their initial slow response to the attack, which they had said would take an hour to respond to, however the police investigation has been upgraded following intervention by CST.
The incident took place on 2nd December at around 19:20, when the victim was returning from work. He exited West Hampstead Underground Station and walked to the nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket located in West Hampstead Square.
He saw the alleged attacker desecrating a 4-metre high public Chanukiah that was erected on West Hampstead Square to celebrate the Jewish festival of Chanukah, pulling the object down before proceeding to stamp on in and shout antisemitic abuse.
With no prior interaction, the attacker approached the victim and aggressively said: “You look Jewish” and that he was “looking for a Jew to kill” after singling out the victim among other pedestrians, despite there being no visible indication of his Jewish background.
He allegedly asked threateningly: “Are you Jewish?” The victim, understandably wishing to avoid a confrontation, said “No,” to which the man replied: “Good, I want to find a Jew to kill.”
The victim entered a nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket and the man remained outside. The victim was worried for the safety of other Jews and their families in the neighbourhood where the man was loitering, which has a sizeable Jewish population. The victim approached a supermarket employee, who said that the man had been in the store earlier.
The victim decided to call the police, explaining the situation to them over the course of about eight minutes.
Officers told the victim that they did not consider the case urgent enough for a priority response and would come within an hour, despite the attacker threatening to kill Jews.
After a short period of time, the victim spotted the man again, outside the shop, pulling down the public Chanukiah which someone had put back up in the intervening time. The victim also said that the man was shouting aggressively at a young woman, aged 18-25 who fled the square. He then returned to pulling the Chanukiah to the ground.
Fearing for the young woman, the victim and the supermarket employee confronted the man from a ten-metre distance. The attacker allegedly shouted at him in response: “I knew you were Jewish, you lied to me” and began walking towards his victim while shouting: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.” He said something in Arabic before allegedly declaring: “I want to kill my first Jew.”
The victim ran back into Marks and Spencer and turned to see if the man had followed him, which he had, having put on a facemask in the meantime.
As the assailant walked into the shop, he shouted at the victim again: “You are Jewish.”
The man reached the victim, allegedly squaring up to him aggressively with barely a metre between them. Within seconds, the man allegedly pushed the victim as hard as he could with both hands on the victim’s chest, forcing the victim to take a step backwards, all the while repeating: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.”
The attacker then allegedly punched the victim violently with force towards the head around five times, the victim had to guard himself from the attacks using his forearms and elbows.
After the first attack, the victim again told the man to back away and pushed the attacker away. The attacker allegedly replied: “I am not leaving until you are dead.” Taking steps backwards with his coat and heavy bag restricting his movement, the victim found himself cornered at the edge of an aisle with nowhere else to move backwards to.
He turned his head around to see what was blocking him, at which point the attacker took advantage of the victim’s shift in concentration and allegedly threw a strong punch which connected with the victim’s head. The victim tried to move his head backwards in an attempt to limit the impact. Had he not done this, the victim believes that his injuries would have been even more severe and he would have been knocked unconscious onto the floor of the supermarket.
Again, the victim told the man to “back away” to which the attacker repeated “I am not going away until you are dead.”
By this point, the victim began to fear for his life. He had no inclination to fight the man and wanted to defuse the situation. He managed to extricate himself and head towards the self-service checkout machines, with the man following him and allegedly shouting more antisemitic abuse and death threats. He was also heard shouting in Arabic.
The victim dropped his bag and jacket to make it easier to run from the man, but the man kept walking faster and faster, eventually reaching for his right jacket pocket.
He grabbed what was apparently a knife and allegedly said “I will kill you now, you Jew.” The victim ran to the back of the shop before the man had the chance to reveal the weapon fully. He turned to see that the man remained by the checkout machines, still staring at the victim and allegedly performing a slit-throat gesture.
The man then allegedly picked up the victim’s jacket and bag and walked calmly out of the shop. The victim remained where he was, terrified for his life. He did not see the man thereafter. A staff member then approached the victim to tell him that the man had left. The victim called the police for a second time, as did the shop employee, and spoke to operators for an extended period. Another staff member then brought over the victim’s bag, which had been discarded, and he later found his jacket in the shop. None of the contents of the bag or jacket had been taken.
Finally, the police arrived. Despite the duration of the incident and the proximity of a police station only half a mile up the road.
The victim called the CST, which provided support to the victim and pressed the police to upgrade their investigation, which is now progressing. Police mounted extra patrols in the area in subsequent days and CST adapted its operations to take account of the incident.
The assailant is described as being black and possibly of Somali ethnicity, aged between 25 and 30 and between 6’0” and 6’1” in height. He had a slender build and bad teeth, and wore a dark green beanie hat, a dark puffer jacket with large pockets, dark trousers and no gloves. He wore a dark facemask when in the shop. He spoke in English, with a mixed East London and foreign accent, and spoke Arabic.
If you have any information, please contact the police on 101, quoting reference: CAD6588/02Dec, or e-mail [email protected] in confidence.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “What this victim has suffered is unspeakable, and it is only thanks to his quick thinking that he survived the ordeal without even worse injury than he endured. The delayed response of the police, despite the close proximity of a police station just up the road, is deeply concerning, and the result is that a man who apparently wants to kill Jews is now at liberty.
“This is the most heinous of a considerable number of antisemitic crimes that we have reported over the course of Chanukah. The sad truth is that our nation’s capital is not nearly as safe as it should be for Jewish people who wish to celebrate a festival or, in this case, simply go about their daily lives. Unless the police and the justice system step up and ensure that antisemitic criminals face the full consequences of their despicable actions, this will not change.
“We are providing the victim with legal and other assistance. We urge the public to assist in the identification of the individual whose description has now been circulated.”
The Metropolitan Police Service said: “Officers have carried out a number of enquiries and have today released a CCTV image of a man they need to speak with. Anyone who recognises the man is asked to call police via 101 or tweet @MetCC quoting reference CAD6588/02Dec.”
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.
Swastikas daubed onto Peterborough shopping centre
Swastikas have been daubed onto a Peterborough shopping centre, it was revealed earlier this week.
The two Nazi symbols, one scrawled in green and the other in blue, were daubed onto the Brotherhood Retail Park. Paul Bristow, Conservative Party MP for Peterborough, tweeted an image of the graffiti, calling it “sickening” and “racist”. He called on Peterborough Police and Peterborough City council to remove the vandalism before adding that “The disgusting people responsible should be ashamed.”
Peterborough Police replied to Mr Bristow and said: “If this has been reported to us, we will look into it and appropriate action will be taken.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.
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.
Humberside police investigating swastika carving and illustration of a gas chamber near bus stop on busy road
Police in Humberside are investigating the carving of a swastika and an illustration of a gas chamber near a bus stop on a busy road.
The vandalism of a fence on Kingston Road in Willerby, by Hull, is believed to have taken place on 13th and 14th December. One of the city’s synagogues is also in Willerby.
Police are reportedly investigating the vandalism as an antisemitic hate crime.
We are grateful to the member of the public who brought this incident to our attention.
If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101, quoting reference number: 16/122195/21.
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.
Antisemitic flyers accusing Jewish people of masterminding COVID-19 distributed to homes across U.S. in at least 5 states
Antisemitic flyers accusing Jewish people of masterminding the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly identical to those that were distributed to Beverly Hills homes last month, have been disseminated to homes across the United States in at least five states so far.
Written at the top reads “Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish” alongside the domain “goyim.tv”, a website affiliated with the “Goyim Defence League”, a group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis and is understood to be led by Jon Minadeo II. The group is responsible for stunts such as visiting a Chabad centre to claim that “these Jewish terrorists” were behind 9/11, and hanging a banner on a Los Angeles overpass reading “Honk if you know the Jews want a race war.” Earlier this year, Mr Minadeo II created t-shirts carrying antisemitic slogans such as the Holocaust was “a hoax”. Most recently, they hung a banner from a bridge in Austin, Texas that read “Vax the Jews”.
The states in which the flyers have been distributed so far include North Carolina, Texas, Idaho, Maryland and California.
The leaders of three Jewish institutions in Greensboro, North Carolina — Temple Emanuel, Beth David Synagogue, and the Greensboro Jewish Federation — issued a joint statement in which they said that the materials attempt “to spread antisemitic, blatantly false, and evil conspiracies about the COVID-19 virus and our nation’s efforts to combat its spread.”
The flyers were also sent to homes in northwest Austin, Texas and Boise, Idaho, the latter of which reported to have received the flyers in a bag alongside ammo for pellet guns that were dropped off on porches and forced into fences.
Similarly, antisemitic flyers that were weighed down in bags of rocks or corn kernels were dropped off at homes in Silver Spring, Maryland. A report stated that a man was seen throwing the flyers from his car at 00:45.
The California neighbourhood of Pasadena also received the flyers, as did Beverly Hills, which is where the same flyers were distributed last month. Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said: “Our thoughts are with our residents and all those hurt by these disgusting acts. We know Pasadena residents — of all faiths — will to [sic] stand together and speak out against hatred in all forms.”
It is understood that the flyers are being investigated by local police departments in the areas in which they were distributed.
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.
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.
Online shop in Ukraine removes “Holocoste” sweatshirt after complaints
An online shop in Ukraine has removed a sweatshirt from its website that parodies the brand Lacoste with the word “Holocoste” after receiving complaints.
Action came about after Elina Katz, a Program Coordinator for Project Kesher in Ukraine, noticed the merchandise online. Members of the organisation then wrote a letter to the website and within two hours, the article of clothing had been removed.
Vlada Nedak, the Executive Director of Project Kesher Ukraine, said: “Our lawyer said to me, ‘Two hours, it’s too long. They should answer you in less than 30 minutes.’
“The next time I will know this better.”
In September, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a law banning “antisemitism and its manifestations”. Despite this, multiple Chanukah displays were vandalised across three cities in Ukraine during the festival of Chanukah.
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.
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.
Image credit: Screenshot from Project Kesher
Washington DC elementary school instructor forced Jewish child to play Adolf Hitler and “commit suicide” in class reenactment of the Holocaust
On Friday, an elementary school instructor in Washington DC reportedly forced her class to perform a reenactment of the Holocaust, in which she cast a Jewish child to play Adolf Hitler.
The children belong to the third-grade class of Watkins Elementary School, which would make them eight and nine years old.
According to one parent, her child was made to act like he was on a train headed towards a concentration camp, before being told to pretend as though he was dying in a gas chamber. He was also allegedly told to act as if he were shooting his classmates.
Principal Scott Berkowitz e-mailed parents at the school in which he detailed the events of the class, which said that the unnamed instructor ordered the class to simulate shooting their classmates and then to dig mass graves. According to the e-mail, the instructor also forced a Jewish child to play Hitler before telling him to pretend to commit suicide, as Hitler did. Following the incident, the entire class met with the school’s mental health response team.
Principal Berkowitz said: “I want to acknowledge the gravity of this poor instructional decision, as students should never be asked to act out or portray any atrocity, especially genocide, war, or murder.”
Friday’s class in which this took place was supposed to be for the students to work on a self-directed project which they would then present to the class, but the instructor allegedly used this time to instead carry out the Holocaust reenactment.
The instructor, who is now on leave, pending a school investigation, reportedly made antisemitic comments throughout the reenactment, which included responding to the children’s question as to why the Nazis carried out such atrocities against Germany’s Jewish population by saying that it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas”. The instructor also reportedly asked the students not to tell anyone of the reenactment, though the students informed their homeroom teacher of the incident.
The incident was reported to Washington D.C. Public Schools’ (DCPS) Comprehensive Alternative Resolution and Equity Team. A spokesperson for DCPS said: “This was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The reports of what took place in this class are so shocking as to be unbelievable. Ordering eight- and nine-year-old children to re-enact the Holocaust, including pretending to shoot one another and dig mass graves while their instructor hurls antisemitic insults at them and a Jewish child is made to play Hitler and re-enact the Nazi leader’s suicide, is not merely racist and of no pedagogical value, but is traumatising for the children, professionally derelict for the instructor and potentially abusive. It is right that an investigation takes place, and if the reports are borne out, the instructor must be fired and the school board must open its own inquiry.”
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.
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.
Teenagers being indoctrinated into neo-Nazism by their peers, new report says
Teenagers are being indoctrinated into neo-Nazism by their peers, a new report says.
The study, produced by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Political Violence (ICSR) at Kings College London and the CST, found that in looking at the growth of ten neo-Nazi youth movements, the radicalisation into the racist ideology was being enacted from teenagers to fellow teenagers, as opposed to older members to younger ones, a perception that the study dismissed as largely a myth.
The report states: “With very limited exceptions, all groups in the sample demonstrate antisemitic beliefs, demonising the Jewish community and often depicting them as the root of various problems. This includes promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and occasionally inciting violence against the Jewish community. Islamophobia and xenophobia are also common.”
Discussing what the report, titled “We Are Generation Terror!”, termed “youth-on-youth radicalisation”, the report’s author Hannah Rose said: “Young people are both vulnerable to online grooming through manipulation by seasoned extreme-right extremists and, increasingly they are themselves the groomers, the propagandists, the recruiters and the plotters, and the convicted perpetrators.”
The report also found that social media platforms’ restrictions on racist content, namely Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Telegram, were being easily bypassed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism recently produced a series of posts highlighting TikTok’s problem of allowing content that promoted Holocaust denial.
In July, we reported that according to a new study, antisemitic content on the social media platform TikTok had increased by 912%. According to research from Dr Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa and Natalie Masri of IDC Herzliya’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism, antisemitic comments on TikTok grew 912% from 41 in 2020 to 415 in 2021, and the platform saw 61 antisemitic postings so far this year compared to 43 last year. Antisemitic tropes and images that were used in video content included Nazi salutes, diminishing the impact of the Holocaust, and propagating caricatures of Jews with long, hooked noses.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years, continues to urge the Jewish community to remain vigilant and welcomes the seriousness with which the authorities are treating the danger.
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.
Man sentenced to prison for wearing t-shirts in support of banned antisemitic terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad
A man has been sentenced to sixteen weeks in prison after he pleaded guilty last month to wearing t-shirts in support of two banned antisemitic genocidal terrorist groups back in June.
Feras Al Jayoosi, 34 and of Swindon, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 12th November to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation.
One t-shirt reportedly worn by Mr Al Jayoosi supported the Izz al-Din al Qassem Brigades, which is the so-called “military wing” of the Hamas terrorist group. The other t-shirt supported the banned Islamic Jihad group.
In addition to his sixteen-week prison sentence, Mr Al Jayoosi was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service and pay £288 to the magistrate court.
Speaking directly to Mr Al Jayoosi during Friday‘s proceedings, Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said: “You had multiple warnings that the path you were taking – the organisations you sought out to align yourself with – would get you into trouble, but you carried on.”
Last month, the Home Secretary banned the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hamas in full, after it emerged that the terrorist who murdered the grandson of a prominent British rabbi yesterday was a member of the group’s supposed “political wing”.
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.
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.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown oversteps yet again, deploying the Livingstone Formulation to belittle allegations of antisemitism
The controversial columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has once again overstepped the line, arguing in an article that “any criticism of the state [of Israel] is deemed antisemitic by apologists and diehard allies, and suggesting that this is motivating a “purge” of Labour Party members.
In the article titled “The UN is warning of spiralling violence, yet the West has forgotten the Palestinians” for the i newspaper, Ms Alibhai-Brown also wrote that “a report from Jewish Voice for Labour accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of purging Jewish members who call Israel to account.”
This is a fine example of the ‘Livingstone Formulation’, by which allegations of antisemitism are dismissed as malevolent and baseless attempts to silence criticism of Israel. In its report on antisemitism in the Labour Party, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that suggestions of this nature were part of the unlawful victimisation of Jewish people in the Party.
This is not Ms Alibhai-Brown’s first offence of this nature. Last year, she replied to journalist Stephen Bush’s reaction to being appointed to lead a Jewish charity’s review of racial inclusivity in the Jewish community by tweeting:“maybe ask them about the Palestinians.” The review was concerned with British Jews and was unrelated to Israel, a distinction that Ms Alibhai-Brown is apparently incapable of apprehending.
Previously Ms Alibhai-Brown also expressed her opposition to the Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, describing the fringe minority of Jewish individuals who agreed with her as “good Jews”.
Newspapers and television broadcasters who host Ms Alibhai-Brown must think again before giving a platform to someone who takes such positions.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
Aristocrat Piers Portman refused leave to appeal after being sentenced to 4 months in prison and having to pay over £20,000 for calling CAA Chief Executive “Jewish scum”
The Hon. Piers Portman, the youngest living son of the 9th Viscount Portman and heir to 110 acres of West End real estate, has been refused leave to appeal after he was sentenced in October to four months in prison and ordered to pay over £20,000 after being found guilty of calling Gideon Falter, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chief Executive, “Jewish scum” in a confrontation at a courthouse in 2018.
In refusing Mr Portman leave to appeal, the Hon. Mr Justice Hilliard said: “I have considered all the grounds of appeal which have been advanced carefully and thoroughly, and to best advantage. Nonetheless, for the reasons I have given, I am satisfied that there are no arguable grounds of appeal against conviction and the application for leave to appeal must be refused.”
When Mr Portman was originally sentenced at Southwark Crown Court, His Honour Judge Gregory Perrins said that Mr Portman has “strongly-held antisemitic beliefs”, and that he had “deliberately targeted Mr Falter because of his role in prosecuting Alison Chabloz.” Ms Chabloz is an antisemite who has been repeatedly imprisoned following work by Campaign Against Antisemitism.
In scathing sentencing remarks, HHJ Perrins told Mr Portman: “You said you’re an honourable British gentleman. You’re anything but.”
HHJ Perrins then imprisoned him for four months, with the possibility of release on licence after two months, and ordered him to pay a £10,000 fine, make an additional £10,000 compensatory payment to the victim, Mr Falter, and pay court costs. Mr Falter donated the entire £10,000 to Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Mr Portman, 50, was prosecuted after approaching Mr Falter, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chief Executive, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 14th June 2018 following the sentencing of Alison Chabloz, a notorious Holocaust denier and antisemite. Campaign Against Antisemitism had brought a private prosecution against Ms Chabloz which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took over, and which ultimately led to a conviction and landmark legal precedent. Mr Falter had testified against Ms Chabloz, who has since been repeatedly sent to prison over her antisemitic statements, including denying the Holocaust and claiming that Holocaust survivors had invented their suffering for financial gain.
Mr Portman followed Mr Falter out of the courtroom and confronted him in the lobby of the court building, where an enraged Mr Portman came close to Mr Falter and said: “I’m Piers Portman. I have written to you before. Come after me, you Jewish scum. Come and persecute me. Come and get me.”
Mr Portman was referring to a 1,527-word e-mailed screed previously sent to Campaign Against Antisemitism in which he denounced his former wife and her divorce lawyer, Baroness Fiona Shackleton each as a “greedy, grasping and lying manipulator of the system that happens to be Jewish.” He accused his former wife of “playing the Talmud inspired ‘Tyrant posing as a victim.’” Noting in the e-mail that he had a “Harrow Public School education”, Mr Portman defended the term “Holohoax”, writing that “I fail to see how the fabricated word has anything to do with hating anyone. Surely it is merely an expression created by people that believe they have been lied to,” and questioning how the terms “Jew” and “Jewboy” could be antisemitic.
He concluded his e-mail by taunting Campaign Against Antisemitism to “Come and pick on me…come and have a do with me…come and perform your charity on me.”
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.
Image: Piers Portman, right, leaves Southwark Crown Court with conspiracy theorist Matthew Delooze
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.”
Leader of Dutch right-wing party ordered by judge to delete social media posts comparing COVID-19 restrictions to the Holocaust
Thierry Baudet, leader of the ring-wing party Forum for Democracy (FvD), posted content to Twitter in which he compared the Dutch Government’s policy on combating COVID-19 to the Holocaust. However, Mr Baudet was ordered by a judge to delete the four tweets or face a fine of €25,000 a day until they have been deleted.
Mr Baudet was also forbidden from making such references in future speeches.
In one tweet dated from 14th November, Mr Baudet wrote: “The current situation can be compared to the 1930s and 1940s. The unvaccinated are the new Jews, the ignorant who exclude them are the new Nazis and NSB [wartime Dutch Nazi organization] members.”
“There, I said it,” he added.
In another tweet, accompanied by images of unvaccinated children paired with one of a Jewish boy wearing a yellow star in Nazi Germany, Mr Baudet wrote: “Ask yourself: is this really the country you want to live in? In which children who are ‘unvaccinated’ are not allowed to go and see Santa Claus? And need to be dried off outside after swimming lessons?”
“If not: THEN RESIST! Do not participate in this apartheid, this exclusion!”
The case was brought against the right-wing party leader by two Dutch Jewish organizations, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) and the umbrella Central Jewish Consultation (CJO), and was backed by four Jewish Holocaust survivors. The plaintiffs asserted that the tweets were “seriously insulting and unnecessarily hurtful to the murdered victims of the Holocaust, survivors and relatives.”
The judge, upholding the ruling, said that Mr Baudet “spoke in an unnecessarily offensive way to victims of the Holocaust and their relatives,” before adding that “The right to freedom of expression for a representative of the people is not unlimited.”
The FvD have said that it will be appealing with the decision, tweeting that “Freedom of expression is restricted by the judge,” and called the ruling a “totally hallucinatory statement.”
In February, Mr Baudet provoked outrage by stating that the trials against Nazi leaders in Nuremberg after World War II were “illegitimate”.
Mr Baudet resigned as leader last year after several members of his Party were accused of antisemitism, but was reinstated shortly after.
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.
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.
Tory aide reportedly grabbed Jewish journalist’s face to check his nose and “judge his Jewishness”
An aide working for the Conservative Party reportedly grabbed a Jewish journalist’s face in order to check his nose and “judge his Jewishness”.
Alexander Brown, a Westminster Correspondent based in Parliament who writes for The Scotsman, has shared his account of how whilst out for drinks with colleagues, he was grabbed by a Tory aide so that they could view his nose from the side and, as Mr Brown writes, check his “Jewishness”.
Mr Brown said: “Going for drinks and desperate to build contacts, a staffer had asked about my background, and I’d shared I studied an MA in Jewish History. Before I’d even finished speaking she had grabbed my jaw, tilted my head to the side to look at my nose and spat out ‘you don’t look Jewish’.”
He adds that he was warned not to report the incident so as not to risk damaging his career. “This was a Tory staffer grabbing me in public to judge my Jewishness, at a time it was supposedly only the Labour Party that had a problem. It took place during the Corbyn years,” Mr Brown writes. “It was a depressing, draining time, with the avalanche of antisemitism on Twitter a constant in my life both personal and professional.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism 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.
Calls to remove new Austrian Interior Minister from position amid antisemitism allegations
Calls to remove the new Austrian Interior Minister from his position have arisen amid antisemitism accusations.
Gerhard Karner was made Interior Minister on 6th December, but shortly after, accusations of antisemitism surfaced from comments he made over a decade earlier when he was said to have accused Austria’s center-left Social Democrats of working “against the country with gentlemen from America and Israel,” and described them as “climate poisoners.”
The German news website Der Spiegel, who published the report which featured the accusations, also included a quote from the Minister’s spokesperson who said that he was referring to “dirty campaigning” by an Israeli political adviser.
An open letter, which included signatories from Jewish students, academics, Nobel Prize-winning playwright Elfriede Jelinek and others, stated: “The antisemitic dimension of this comment is obvious. We are convinced that this person is completely unsuited to the office of interior minister and call on the government to put our security in the hands of moderate politicians.”
Mr Karner reportedly said on Monday that he regrets his comments, but rejected the accusations of antisemitism. “If things I said then were understood ambiguously, I regret that,” Karner said. “The comments were never in any way intended to go in this direction, and I would not make them now.”
Mr Karner has also reportedly arranged to meet with Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) and the Federal Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Austria, who had asked the Minister for clarification on 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.
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.
Lord Grade tells Podcast Against Antisemitism BBC’s reportage of Oxford Street incident is “shoddy journalism”
Lord Grade, a former Chairman of the BBC, has described the BBC’s rapportage as “shoddy journalism” in today’s episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism.
In the podcast, Lord Grade described the BBC’s coverage of the recent antisemitic Oxford Street incident, which has come under fire, as a “very poor piece of journalism”.
In response to why he thought that the BBC has been alone among major media outlets in suggesting, without evidence, that the Jewish victims in the incident were also racist and therefore at least partially to blame, Lord Grade described the coverage as “very poor journalism. I wouldn’t put it down to antisemitism. It’s very, very poor journalism on the face of what we know at the moment. It’s just a very, very poor piece of journalism. To describe the antisemitic taunts from the people who launched the attack, which you can see on film, there’s no way you can describe the antisemitism as ‘alleged’, which is what the BBC report says. They then said there were clearly anti-Islamist cries from the bus. There is no evidence for that. It may be true, there may have been, I don’t know, but there is no evidence that anyone’s found so far to support that and the BBC has got to explain two things; why it defended the broadcast without really understanding the nature of the complaint and examining the evidence, and then two, how on earth did they come to make such a pig’s ear of their rapportage.”
Our polling has shown that a majority of British Jews are not satisfied by the BBC’s handling of antisemitism complaints, which is a figure far worse for the BBC than any of the other major broadcasters. Historically, the BBC has handled complaints internally, and only relatively recently has Ofcom been given a role, whereby if the BBC rejects complaints at every stage, a complainant can now escalate the matter to Ofcom. But few members of the public have the patience to get through this uniquely drawn-out process, which they have to do because the BBC so consistently rejects antisemitism complaints. Why, we asked Lord Grade, is the BBC so resistant to acknowledging error, both in this case and over the years?
Lord Grade replied: “Well the first thing to say is that I have found, because I have complained to the BBC even as a former Chairman and as a former Senior Executive in the corporation, I have complained to the BBC and without exception, the first complaint has gone into the programme makers, the editorial people, and without exception they come back, always, they’re never wrong. They always come back, straight away, the default position is ‘we’re not wrong.’ Then when you dig into it and you escalate it to the BBC’s formal complaints procedure, there’s a bit more work done, forensic evidence collecting, and eventually…I don’t think I’ve ever lost a complaint against the BBC at that stage. So the problem lies with the editorial teams who seem incapable of ever admitting quickly that they’re wrong, and I think that’s a very serious failing. What they don’t understand is that admitting you’re wrong and admitting quickly that you’re wrong is a sign of strength, not of weakness, and I think they seem to see it as a sign of weakness, which it isn’t, of course.”
Lord Grade also discussed highlights from his storied career in media and broadcasting, and endorsed Campaign Against Antisemitism’s coming protest outside the BBC.
The podcast with Lord Grade 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 and actor Eddie Marsan.
“Vaccination makes you free” sign displayed at anti-vaccination rally in Poland
A sign bearing the words “Vaccination makes you free” was displayed at an anti-vaccination rally in Poland on Tuesday.
The sign references the slogan which sat atop the gates to Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most notorious concentration camps where over a million people were murdered, that read: “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes You Free”).
Members of Poland’s far-right Confederation Party were photographed posing with the banner at the demonstration, which drew criticism from Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, Israel’s chargé d’affairs in Warsaw. Ms Yaalon tweeted: “Most of my father’s family was murdered in @Auschwitz along with more than a million other victims. This sign is disrespectful to their memory, and I find it unbelievable that such Holocaust distortion can happen 300 km from where the original sign stands.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum also denounced the display, writing: “‘Arbeit macht frei’ is one of the icons of human hatred. The exploitation of the symbol of suffering of victims of #Auschwitz, the largest cemetery in Poland and the world, is a scandalous expression of moral decay. It is particularly embarrassing when it is done by Polish MPs.”
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, commented that the scenes on display were a “dramatic and dark picture of how the holy memory of monstrous German crimes can be harmed.”
During the summer, “Jews are behind the pandemic” and “rule the world” chants were heard at an anti-vaccine rally in Głogów, Poland.
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.
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.
Azerbaijan to commemorate International Holocaust Memorial Day for first time
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has announced that for the first time, Azerbaijan will commemorate International Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th.
The decision reportedly arose after a meeting with New York-based rabbi, Rabbi Marc Schneier, who said of their encounter: “President Aliyev said in response, ‘We would very much like to do this, and to be a part of it,’ and said that he would instruct his Foreign Ministry to coordinate with Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan in planning the commemoration events for the day.”
“I think this is one more step, one more benchmark in Aliev’s unparalleled solidarity and commitment to his indigenous Jewish community, and to world Jewry and the State of Israel,” he continued.
President Aliyev also agreed to provide funding to the only Jewish school in Azerbaijan, the Chabad Ohr Avner Jewish school in Baku, the country’s capital.
Rabbi Schneier added: “All around the Muslim world, we are seeing miracles of a bold new support for Jewish life and partnership between our communities. This magnanimous demonstration by President Aliyev is truly an astounding example of goodwill at the highest level, and mirrors Azerbaijan’s wholehearted commitment to the embrace of its Jewish population. I express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to President Aliyev for his profound commitment to interreligious cooperation and coexistence.”
Azerbaijani Chief Rabbi Schneor Segal, a leader of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, also praised the President’s pledge to assist the school financially. “Azerbaijan is taking the concept of tolerance to a whole different level than what we see anywhere else in the world,” said Rabbi Segal. “For decades, the Jewish community has enjoyed a comfortable and peaceful life, without experiencing any sign of antisemitism. The government is truly committed to supporting and strengthening the future of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan. We are thankful to President Aliyev for his constant care for the Jewish population.”
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.
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.
Man who wore Nazi armband to trial found guilty of terror offences and stirring up racial hatred
A man who sported a moustache in the style of Adolf Hitler’s and wore a Nazi armband to his trial has been found guilty of terror offences and stirring up racial hatred.
Matthew Henegan, 35, appeared in court last year on seven charges of publishing, distributing and possessing material in March and April 2020 that is likely to stir up racial hatred. It was also claimed that he distributed leaflets in Cambridgeshire, where he resides, and possessed a document titled “How To Make Armour Piercing Bullets”, which apparently contains information likely to be useful in terrorism. In the raid of his home, investigators reportedly found a Nazi armband and leaflets which referred to Hitler as “your saviour”.
In addition, Mr Henegan asserted that Jewish people masterminded the COVID-19 pandemic and created an hour-long film in which he claimed that Jewish people controlled the police, economy and media. He reportedly referred to Jews as “kikes”, adding that they were filthy and sadistic and branded them “creatures”.
The content was published in documents and videos labelled “Corona Virus Hoax Full Edition”, “Corona Virus Hoax Supplement” and “Corona Virus Hoax Update – How You Are Being Controlled” which was then stored on archive.org, a publically accessible online database.
Jurors watched excerpts from Mr Henegan’s films, one of which included the statement: “One (you) given a standing command upon my death to slaughter the kike, for they will come to slaughter you as they already do and you will enter your children into the same slave stage that you live in today.
“Colonisation is what the kike is doing here with us, they merely turn film into their perverted dream and our reality. The power of the Aryan far exceeds the kikes and I will lead you to victory over these vile sadistic creatures. Your Fuhrer.”
Mr Henegan reportedly appeared at last year’s preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey wearing dark glasses, a hairband and an armband with a red swastika. According to a report, the judge asked the defendant’s lawyer: “Can you see what he’s wearing?”, and ordered Mr Henegan to leave the courtroom. The defendant asked: “Are we done for the day then?” The judge replied: “We are not.” The defendant replied: “I have a right to freedom of expression, freedom of dress, freedom of religion. They are rights not for debate.” The judge instructed the lawyer to give his client advice and said: “Next time it will not be out in the public corridor.” Mr Henegan returned to the courtroom with a jacket, with the armband no longer visible.
Mr Henegan told the jury on Monday: “You may see me, with my moustache, and think of it as a Hitler moustache, rather than Charlie Chaplin or Oliver Hardy. It is clearly your diseased mind that influences your thoughts.”
When Mr Henegan was asked if he was a National Socialist, he replied: “Yes, “I do not pretend otherwise.”
Judge Nigel Lickley said to him: “You have to understand that because of the convictions now recorded against you, you are facing a custodial sentence. The length of that custodial sentence and whether it is immediate or suspended are matters I will decide on the next occasion. I have no firm view at the moment other than all sentencing options are open and that includes immediate custody.”
Prosecutor Julia Faure-Walker told the jury: “Mr Henegan chose to use the particularly derogatory term ‘kike’. There is no way that Mr Henegan was intending there to be any caveats in relation to the ethnic group he was directing hatred towards, it is absolutely clear that the words ‘kike’ and ‘Jew’ are used interchangeably.
“During the video Mr Henegan complains no one listens to him, they’d much rather go on about f***ing antisemitism. He won’t have it that people are trying to raise this matter. He has no time for complaints about racism towards Jews. There must have been a reason why he used the word ‘kike’ within the material.
“The reason it was used was purposely to communicate his intense dislike for this group of people. The endless highly offensive swear words are an indication that he wasn’t just attempting to relay facts. He was trying to conjure up anger and extreme animosity. He was perfectly able to give evidence without using such extreme profanities. That sort of language is reserved for the groups he looks down on, mostly Jews.
“There will be some who look at leaflets, view the video or listen to the audio and immediately dismiss it as rubbish. Unfortunately, there will be others when faced by such highly emotive and charged language who will have feelings of racial hatred.”
Despite denying all charges, Mr Henegan was convicted at the Old Bailey in central London on Monday for publishing, distributing or possessing material intended to stir racial hatred on six counts and one count of possessing a document useful to a terrorist after approximately eleven hours of jury deliberation.
Mr Henegan is due to be sentenced on 14th January at the Old Bailey.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “On top of every other misery that this pandemic has inflicted on the world, it has also been treated as a pretext for racists to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. Among them is Matthew Henegan, who calls himself the Fuhrer, came to court with a Nazi armband and says that Jews control the media and police and are behind a supposed ‘Covid hoax’. We welcome this conviction of this abominable individual, and we call for a sentence that keeps him out of society and keeps the rest of us safe from the danger that he poses.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years, continues to urge the Jewish community to remain vigilant and welcomes the seriousness with which the authorities are treating the danger.
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.
Newcastle bus shelters vandalised with swastikas
Authorities have expressed alarm over swastika graffiti discovered on bus shelters in Newcastle.
The bus shelters on Newcastle’s Great North Road, in addition to being defaced with the antisemitic hate symbol, were also vandalised with claims that the COVID-19 pandemic is “a hoax” was also found.
A spokesperson from Northumbria Police said: “Enquiries are ongoing to identify those responsible. Anybody found to have been involved will be dealt with swiftly and robustly.”
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
Journalist India Willoughby doubles down on inflammatory Nazi and Holocaust analogies
The journalist India Willoughby has doubled down on inflammatory Nazi and Holocaust analogies.
Ms Willoughby tweeted earlier this month that “If Liz Truss replaces Boris [Johnson], it will be like Hitler coming to power. We’re f*****.”
After receiving criticism for hyperbolically and needlessly invoking the Nazis, she doubled down, tweeting: “Excuse me? I think you’ll find the Nazis hated trans people. They burnt down the world’s leading trans research institute and made us wear pink triangles before being sent to the camps.” Ms Willoughby is transgender. She appears to have since deleted this tweet.
This is not the first time that the commentator and former BBC journalist has made inflammatory analogies to Nazi Germany. In 2020, she tweeted that she “[does not] like invoking the Nazis, but for trans people, this is like being Jewish in Germany at that time.”
Current policies in the UK are not remotely like those of Nazi Germany, which forcibly transferred minority communities to concentration camps and murdered six million Jewish men, women and children. It must be possible to have reasonable political debate in Britain without invoking the Nazis and, in the process, effectively diminishing the Holocaust.
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.
Celtic FC reportedly refuse to state whether antisemitism investigation promised in January has begun
Celtic FC has reportedly refused to state whether the antisemitism investigation that the club promised to undertake in January has begun or not.
The club promised an investigation to Scottish Jewish leaders after Celtic fans unleashed a torrent of abuse at the club’s Israeli midfielder after a loss to rival Rangers.
Nir Bitton was called a “dirty Jew bastard” and a “Zionist rat” on social media after receiving a red card in the match. His wife also revealed that she has been subjected to abuse, including calls for her and her husband to be “hanged”. One post said: “Here you ya cow, you and yer husband deserve tae be hung on the streets. F**k you and yer wains.”
Their two children have also reportedly had abuse directed at them as well.
This is not the first time that Mr Bitton has disclosed the abuse he suffers from some of the club’s fans; in 2016 the police launched an investigation after a Celtic fan said that Mr Bitton should be gassed.
It is also not Celtic’s first brush with controversy over Jews or Israel, having been sanctioned by UEFA in the past over persistent problems. In the Scottish FA Cup final in 2016, for example, fans displayed a banner reading “end Zionism”. A Jewish former director of the club was also subjected to abuse by fans, including “Get this Ashkenazi c*** out of OUR club and take that other fake jew p**** Bitton with him [sic]”, and “He’s a Jew what do you expect”.
At the time, a spokesperson for Celtic FC said that it has passed its fans’ “vile” comments to Police Scotland and called for those responsible to be identified, adding that “all appropriate action should be taken”. The spokesperson added that “those responsible for such vile comments do not represent Celtic or Celtic supporters. They are faceless and nameless.”
However, there have reportedly been no confirmations as to whether such action has been taken yet.
Jordan Allison, Campaign Manager for Show Racism the Red Card said: “The problem we have in Scottish football is that these incidents are not being documented enough. The victims don’t feel confident enough to report it to police or stewards. In turn, the stewards are not trained in how to record it as a form of racism. There’s far more work to be done. We are so far behind in Scotland that the authorities are not at the stage yet where they can do something about it.”
The Premier League has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
Campaign Against Antisemitism recently produced an Instagram post detailing recent incidents of antisemitism in football.
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.
Tory MP compares NHS COVID Pass to Nazi Germany during BBC Radio 5 interview
Marcus Fysh, the Conservative Party MP for Yeovil, compared the NHS COVID Pass to Nazi Germany during a BBC Radio 5 interview earlier this week.
During the interview, Mr Fysh told interviewer Rachel Burden that if people don’t feel safe and secure going to a pub or a restaurant without COVID restrictions, then they should not go. He said: “You don’t tell other people what they should do with their bodies.”
Ms Burden replied that the point that she was making was that “you’re not telling someone what to do with their body other than to say they’ve taken a test.” Mr Fysh responded: “You are segregating society based on an unacceptable thing. We are not a ‘papers please’ society. This is not Nazi Germany, okay?”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Ms Burden replied, adding: “And I think there’s a long, long way between what people are being asked to do and Nazi Germany.”
In August, Campaign Against Antisemitism created an Instagram post detailing why it is wrong to compare vaccines to the Holocaust.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism 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.
BBC interviews YouTuber who filmed himself harassing Jewish community in Golders Green over “child-killing” for antisemitism documentary
In a recent documentary intended to shine a light on British antisemitism, the BBC chose to interview Mohammed Hijab, a YouTuber who proudly filmed himself harassing members of the Jewish community in Golders Green over “child-killing” for a YouTube video.
The premise of the YouTube video in question, released in May, was initially outlined by one of the presenters as them just wanting to “have a dialogue…a discussion…a friendly debate,” but quickly became an excuse for the presenters to accost passing members of the Jewish community, including children.
This involved one of the presenters, Ali Dawah, confronting Jewish passers-by with a microphone and asking: “Do you agree with what’s happening [in Israel]?” Mr Dawah is also seen following and questioning a group of Jewish men and their children who are walking away from him.
When the YouTubers saw that Jews were crossing the street in order to avoid a confrontation, another one of the presenters, known as Smile2Jannah, commented: “The thing is, if somebody is being butchered in this way, the least you should be able to do is have a conversation. Provide your view. I mean, why would you cross the road and not be willing to engage?”
His co-host, Mohammed Hijab, then instructed the cameraperson to film them crossing the road, before Smile2Jannah said: “They should understand, they should realise that people want answers. People want to know your opinion, so go on record. Give your opinions. Discuss, debate.”
The YouTubers also brought with them an LED billboard, upon which they displayed images of Jewish Holocaust victims in a concentration camp. Next to the images were the words: “Did we learn nothing from the Holocaust?” The images were then proceeded by photos from the conflict between Israel and Gaza.
Standing in front of the billboard, Mr Hijab went on to say that “as Muslims”, they “have no problem with Jews, per-se,” before pressuring them to “reveal their viewpoints.” Shouting at a Jewish man who was walking away, Mr Hijab yelled: “Do you condemn the killing of children? Do you condemn it? Do you condemn it? See, look at you. The silence is deafening.”
In an outtake from that video, uploaded to Mr Hijab’s own YouTube channel, Mr Hijab is seen acting aggressively towards another Jewish man off-camera, yelling: “You need to go back to the Torah. That’s what I tell you all. Go back to the Torah, read it from the beginning again.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is astonishing that the BBC has tried to portray this man as some kind of champion of coexistence. During the period of peak racism against Jews in this country in the spring, Mohammed Hijab spent a Shabbat harassing Jews in Golders Green, trying to hold British Jews responsible for the politics of the Middle East and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, both breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. In effect, the BBC has presented a documentary about ‘both sides’ of antisemitism, interviewing not only victims and experts, but also purveyors. It is shameful, but par for the course for an institution that has long ago set its face against the Jewish community.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The programme was a serious examination of the nature and impact of antisemitism on British Jews and included interviews with a range of people in the UK. We reject any suggestion that it presented anyone as a ‘champion’. The reporter challenged the contributor throughout the interview on his past actions in a robust manner.
“As our editorial guidelines make clear, a serious examination of any issue can mean our output includes people whose views may cause offence to our audiences.”
Recently, the BBC also used footage of a Jewish Chanukiah to illustrate a controversy about a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street.
Last night, hundreds of protestors attended Campaign Against Antisemitism’s “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” rally outside Broadcasting House in London, which was endorsed by Lord Grade and Dame Maureen Lipman.
The rally was prompted by the BBC’s appalling coverage of an antisemitic incident on Oxford Street over Chanukah, when a group of Jewish teenagers celebrating the festival were accosted by racist thugs who forced them back onto their bus and began hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing.
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.
CCTV footage shows North London gang picking up and running off with Jewish child
CCTV footage released last night shows a North London gang picking up and running off with a Jewish child, reported to be a ten-year-old boy who was on his way home from school.
The gang is believed to be associated with the nearby Webb Estate and is accused of harassing Jewish residents for years.
The incident took place in Stamford Hill and was reported at around 23:05 yesterday by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol. If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 6066 9/12/21.
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.
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.
CAA’s “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside Broadcasting House, backed by Lord Grade and Dame Maureen Lipman, draws hundreds, irate at BBC’s coverage of antisemitic incident on Oxford Street
This evening, hundreds of protestors attended our “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” rally outside Broadcasting House in London, which was endorsed by Lord Grade and Dame Maureen Lipman.
The rally was prompted by the BBC’s appalling coverage of an antisemitic incident on Oxford Street over Chanukah, when a group of Jewish teenagers celebrating the festival were accosted by racist thugs who forced them back onto their bus and began hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing.
The BBC reported on its website that the explicit expressions of antisemitism evident in the video were merely “allegations”, and simultaneously claimed — alone among all media outlets — that “some racial slurs about Muslims can also be heard from inside the bus,” an assertion made with no evidence to support it and which was even contradicted in the article by a witness from the bus who said that she heard no such slurs. On its BBC London Evening News, the BBC even suggested that “it’s not clear what role [the supposed slurs] may have had in the incident.” After public fury, the BBC amended the article to refer to an “anti-Muslim slur” in the singular, but failed to show any evidence why a supposed slur that nobody could hear with certainty was described as “clearly heard” and reported as fact — and even implied to have been a cause of the antisemitic harassment — while the harassment itself remained mere “allegation”.
Lord Grade, a former Chairman of the BBC, described the BBC’s rapportage as “shoddy journalism” and called for answers in a video supporting the protest, while Dame Maureen Lipman encouraged people to attend “Because you care, and you will be demonstrating against my often-times employer asking for parity with other victims of racism, prejudice and abuse.”
At the rally, Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said to the crowd: “We don’t want to be here, but we have to be here, because we have to say: ‘BBC News, stop blaming Jews’.” He added: “We see no evidence for the BBC’s claim, which is a distraction from the real story, which is that Jewish teenagers were prevented by racist thugs from celebrating Chanukah.”
The founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism, Fiyaz Mughal OBE, observed that “It’s sad we have to come out here again, when Jews are blamed by institutions that we think we should have trust in.”
The crowd demanded: “BBC News where’s the proof! BBC News tell the truth!”
The rally came after the BBC failed to respond substantively to contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism and other Jewish organisations about its recent coverage, which is not out of the ordinary for the public broadcaster. Polling that we conducted last year for our Antisemitism Barometer revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. These figures reflect years of eroding confidence in the BBC on the part of the Jewish community.
We have submitted a complaint to the BBC and have also written to the Chairman and Director-General of the BBC to voice our concerns. In our letter, we called on the BBC to reveal their evidence that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard on the bus and explain why the claim that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard is asserted as fact (despite nobody else being able to discern such a slur) while the evident antisemitism is caveated as mere allegation.
We also reiterated our call for the BBC to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism and once again offered to provide the Corporation with training in how to identify and deal with antisemitism, which will go some way to restoring what little remains of the confidence of the Jewish community in our nation’s public service broadcaster.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Tonight’s rally sends a message to the BBC that the Jewish community has had enough of years of the BBC victim-blaming Jewish people for antisemitism, downplaying racism towards Jews, platforming antisemites and fuelling antisemitism in Britain. We demand explanations over the BBC’s outrageous coverage of the recent antisemitic incident on Oxford Street, when the BBC’s reports victim-blamed Jewish teenagers for being attacked. We also call on the BBC to finally adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism and accept antisemitism training from us for its staff and reporters.”
We will be discussing the incident and the rally further in our podcast this Thursday, which will also feature a full interview with Lord Grade.
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
Image credit: Nathan Lilienfeld
CAA understands that police have found no evidence of supposedly “clear” anti-Muslim slur from the victims of antisemitic attack, as alleged by BBC
Campaign Against Antisemitism has come to understand that the police who were tasked with investigating the antisemitic attack on Jewish teenagers celebrating Chanukah on Oxford Street have found no evidence of BBC London News’ supposedly “clear” anti-Muslim slur from the victims.
The attack occurred on a bus that travelled down Oxford Street on 30th November carrying a group of visibly Jewish teenagers celebrating the Jewish festival of Chanukah. Videos taken by passengers on the bus appeared to show a group of men hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing. Further footage was published showing that the teenage passengers had been dancing in the street before being accosted and forced back onto the private bus.
Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the BBC last week demanding explanations over its outrageous coverage of the antisemitic incident on Oxford Street.
Originally, the BBC reported on its website that the explicit expressions of antisemitism evident in the video were merely “allegations”, but the BBC simultaneously claimed — alone among all media outlets — that “some racial slurs about Muslims can also be heard from inside the bus,” an assertion made with no evidence to support it and which was even contradicted in the article by a witness from the bus who said that she heard no such slurs. On its BBC London Evening News, the BBC even suggested that “it’s not clear what role [the supposed slurs] may have had in the incident.” The BBC appears to have fed this unsubstantiated claim to the Met, which assured the Corporation that the incident will be looked at “in its entirety.”
The public reacted to the article with fury, with nobody able to identify any “anti-Muslim slurs” in the audio accompanying the video. Despite justifiable calls for the BBC to release the evidence for its assertion, it has failed to do so, instead merely amending the article to refer to an “anti-Muslim slur” in the singular. A BBC spokesperson stated that: “The audio appears to show that a slur can be heard coming from the bus. We have changed our story to clarify only one such slur can be heard clearly.”
Still, however, nobody is able to discern any slur — let alone being able to hear one “clearly”, as the BBC has insisted — and no evidence has been provided. Moreover, the alleged slur is still reported as fact while the obvious antisemitism remains a mere “allegation”.
In our letter, we also noted polling that we conducted last year, in our Antisemitism Barometer, which revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. In view of these figures, we trust that you will take these concerns seriously.
We have called on the BBC to reveal its evidence that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard on the bus and explain why the claim that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard is asserted as fact (despite nobody else being able to discern such a slur) while the evident antisemitism is caveated as mere allegation.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We understand that police investigating the antisemitic attack on Jewish teenagers celebrating Chanukah on Oxford Street have found no evidence of the supposed ‘anti-Muslim slur’ from the victims that BBC London has said could be ‘clearly heard’, and now that part of their investigation has been closed down. The BBC must immediately release whatever evidence they have based their reporting on or apologise fulsomely and publicly.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism is holding a “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside the BBC’s headquarters at Broadcasting House tonight at 18:30.
“You’re one of those [that] Hitler didn’t finish”: Rabbi subjected to antisemitic abuse in Melbourne
A rabbi was subjected to antisemitic abuse in Melbourne, it was reported yesterday.
During the incident, which occurred one month ago at Crown Melbourne, a man reportedly approached the rabbi where he then alleged that the rabbi was filming him and his family. The rabbi replied by saying that he was not filming and was only checking his phone. The stranger then hurled insults at the rabbi and reportedly said: “You’re one of those [that] Hitler didn’t finish.”
The rabbi reportedly remained calm during the incident but later described it as “traumatising,” adding that he never imagined that he would receive this sort of hate in Melbourne.
In September, the State of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, announced that it would become the first Australian state to ban the display of Nazi symbols.
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.
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.
Today, as Labour Party is mandated by law to introduce semi-independent disciplinary process, CAA resubmits complaints against fifteen sitting Labour MPs including Angela Rayner
Today is a key monitoring date and sign-off point in the Labour Party’s Action Plan agreed with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The Action Plan came in the wake of the EHRC’s finding that Labour had unlawfully discriminated against Jewish people following an investigation in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant.
Under the Action Plan, it is required today that “An independent process is up and running and will be used to determine 100% of applicable antisemitism complaints,” save for cases already at the adjudication stage under the existing system.
Last year, on the day that the EHRC published its report, Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted complaints against fifteen sitting MPs, including former Leader Jeremy Corbyn and current Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, as well as Diane Abbott, Tahir Ali, Mike Amesbury, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Barry Gardiner, Kate Hollern, Afzal Khan, Rebecca Long Bailey, Steve Reed, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Barry Sheerman and Zarah Sultana, as well as other officeholders and candidates.
Although Mr Corbyn sits as an independent MP, he nevertheless absurdly remains a member of the Labour Party – after he was rapidly readmitted following his brief suspension – and therefore subject to its disciplinary processes. On 18th November 2020, we submitted a further complaint about Mr Corbyn over his personal responsibility for the Party being found guilty of unlawful acts of antisemitism, for which he must be held to account.
We asked that our complaints not be investigated until an independent process is introduced. At Party conference in September of this year, Labour endorsed a proposed semi-independent disciplinary process, and today the Party is required to have it up and running.
In the year since they were submitted, none of our complaints have been acknowledged, let alone investigated, therefore we resubmit them today with the expectation that a timeframe for their investigation be provided and that an efficient, fair and transparent investigation be conducted.
Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Addressing antisemitism in the Labour Party and making it safe for Jews depends on delivering justice for the years of discrimination and pain that the Party continues to cause for the Jewish community in Britain. That must include investigating those MPs who have been culpable in promoting or excusing racism towards Jews or belittling allegations of antisemitism as ‘smears’, which the EHRC recognised was central to the unlawful victimisation of Jews by the Party.
“The Party has not even acknowledged our complaints of one year ago, let alone investigated them. As of today, the Party is required to have introduced a semi-independent disciplinary process to handle antisemitism complaints. We have therefore resubmitted our complaints against fifteen sitting MPs and expect them to be investigated efficiently, fairly and transparently.”
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Antisemitism in Berlin at highest levels in three years
Recorded incidents of antisemitism in Berlin during the first half of 2021 are the highest that they have been compared with other recordings from January to June in the past three years, according to a report published yesterday by RIAS, a Berlin-based monitoring institute.
Between the months of January and June of this year, 522 incidents of antisemitism were reported, which is an increase of about seventeen percent year-on-year. This is the highest number reported since 2018.
The report also found that 211 of the incidents – almost half of the total – were reported during the month of May, which marked the eruption of the most recent conflict between Israel and the antisemitic terrorist group, Hamas.
Samuel Salzborn, the antisemitism Commissioner for Berlin, said that “Every antisemitic act is one too many,” adding: “We need to aim to have no more antisemitic incidents. Unfortunately, we are far away from being there.”
Mr Salzborn noted that “antisemitic incidents pile up when people find excuses to justify their hatred,” and went on to say that “This was most recently visible in the context of the ideological conspiracist ‘Querdenken’ scene, and during the anti-Israel demonstrations in the spring.” He continued: “We have to keep these structures of opportunity for antisemitic expressions and deeds more closely in mind earlier on and not allow them to become antisemitic hotspots in the first place.”
The RIAS report found 22 instances reported that referred to damage of property, twelve recorded attacks and 447 episodes of hurtful behavior, including antisemitic verbal abuse and harassment, the latter of which were documented at 35 antisemitic gatherings and demonstrations. The study also found 26 cases of antisemitic letters distributed.
A fifth of incidents was labelled as “modern” antisemitism, with typical cases involving conspiracy theories about Jewish people wielding political or economic power.
48% of the incidents reportedly related to Israel, and approximately 43% involved Holocaust denial or minimisation. Holocaust denial was found to be present in more than three-quarters of all antisemitic incidents that related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, it was reported that the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) had punished Union Berlin football club after some of its fans performed Nazi salutes and shouted antisemitic abuse towards opposing supporters during its match with Israeli team Maccabi Haifa.
During the summer, the German Government announced that it will pay €35 million to combat antisemitism.
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.
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.
Women’s college in Massachusetts sees third report of antisemitic graffiti this semester
A college in the State of Massachusetts has seen its third report of an antisemitic incident this semester.
Earlier this week, a swastika and an antisemitic slur were allegedly found in the bathroom at Mount Holyoke College, a prestigious women’s college in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
According to Peggy Shakur, the School’s Deputy Regional Director, this is not the first instance of this happening, with two similar incidents occurring within the last semester. Ms Shakur stated that the graffiti was written in black marker on tile, but in the past, the graffiti has appeared on the bathroom’s mirror.
Sonya Stephens, President of Mount Holyoke College, said in a statement: “The college’s leadership team and I understand the harm and fear this symbol has provoked on our campus. We join you in both anger and grief and condemn in the strongest terms this provocation and all symbols of hate, which have no place on our campus.”
During the summer, a Chabad rabbi in Boston, Massachusetts was held at gunpoint and stabbed eight times outside of a synagogue and Jewish school.
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.
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.
BBC journalist reportedly praised activist who once created video asking “How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”
A BBC Arabic journalist has reportedly praised an activist who once created and shared a video that asked “How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”
Activist Muna Hawwa was suspended by Al Jazeera after she created and shared a video that asked, “How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”
Ms Hawwa was also reportedly suspended from Twitter. Upon her return to the platform, BBC Arabic journalist Layla Bashar al-Kloub allegedly tweeted in May: “My dear Muna…there was a great victory for you, yourself specifically, the victory of the free word, and the victory of exquisite journalism, you have proved everybody you are capable of confronting large institutions by yourself, may Allah strengthen you.”
It was also said that in November 2016, Ms al-Kloub tweeted: “The Zionist entity does not recognize any international law or agreement, their entire [legal] proceedings are infringements of human rights treaties. They are the terrorists, not us.” The tweet has since been deleted.
On Wednesday, Campaign Against Antisemitism announced a “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside the BBC’s headquarters at Broadcasting House this Monday 13th December.
We are demanding explanations over the BBC’s outrageous coverage of the recent antisemitic incident on Oxford Street during the Jewish festival of Chanukah, when the BBC’s reports victim-blamed Jewish teenagers for being attacked.
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
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.
Image credit: The JC via Twitter
Chabad house in Milan, Italy vandalised
The Chabad Jewish Center in Milan, Italy has been vandalised, it was reported earlier this week.
Photographs of the desecration which surfaced earlier this week show the premises in disarray with religious materials, including Jewish prayer shawls and the Chabad house’s Torah scroll, scattered across the floor.
Milan police reportedly stated that the criminals stole two laptops, 155 euros and some precious medals.
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.
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.
Image credit: StopAntisemitism.org
Eddie Marsan tells Podcast Against Antisemitism that antisemitism is often ignored or even indulged in because it’s seen as a “trendy racism”
Today’s guest on Podcast Against Antisemitism is the actor Eddie Marsan, who shared insightful comments on antisemitism within the acting industry and the UK.
Marsan, who is not Jewish, has also received antisemitic abuse for playing a Jewish character in the BBC’s Ridley Road and for speaking out against antisemitism online and in public life.
Mr Marsan said: “There isn’t only a blindspot against antisemitism. In some ways, I think antisemitism is a trendy racism. It’s a trendy racism. I read a thing about a guy called Ferdinand August Bebel, who was a German social democrat in the nineteenth century. And he described antisemitism as the “socialism of fools”, because most racists, when they attack somebody who they consider to be inferior to them, they’re always shooting down, but a lot of antisemites, especially those on the left, believe that they’re shooting up to this kind of all-powerful Jewish cabal that runs the world. And it’s quite often sold as a form of egalitarianism, as anti-capitalism, as anti-imperialism. And so you have lots of very, very experienced left-wing intellectuals who are telling younger people: ‘This isn’t racism, this is anti-capitalism.’ Then morally, it’s okay to do. And so that’s why I say, it’s a very, very seductive and a very trendy racism. And it goes against my culture.”
Mr Marsan went on to say: “It breaks my heart for young, Jewish actors, really. I mean, I’ve got lots of Jewish friends in the profession, and they’re walking into rehearsal rooms and film sets and they have to make a decision about whether they put their head above the parapet or not. And that kind of thing upsets me, and I don’t think that’s right for a profession like ours, which is supposed to encourage empathy and openness and complexity and understanding, to be so bigoted.”
He also observed: “As an actor, when you explore characters, you realise in order to be a good actor, you can never play evil characters or good characters. You can only play human beings. What you have to accept, as an actor, is that all aspects of the human condition are on a spectrum. You have to explore the spectrum and embrace the spectrum, and what I’m beginning to realise now is that because of the binary nature of populism, whether it’s left-wing or right-wing populism, people are not embracing the spectrum, they’re not embracing the complexity. So antisemites on the right or the left will ask someone like you, ‘where do your loyalties lie?’ They will ask you to be binary because they see the world in a binary way. And the reality is, the world isn’t binary. Do you know what I mean? And human beings aren’t binary. I mean, your Jewishness doesn’t define you. It’s an aspect of you and it’s a part of you that informs who you are but there’s loads of other elements that inform who you are.”
On the scapegoating of Jews, Mr Marsan said: “Populism is still powerful, because we live in a very, very complex world and people prefer simple lies to complex truths, and one of the simplest lies that a politician can sell people is to create an ‘other’. If they create an ‘other’, then you unify everybody on your side, and you create a narrative that people can belong to. And one of the easiest ‘others’ for people to hate are Jews, it’s really easy. And the far-right and the far-left can hate Jews to the same degree, they’re a really convenient ‘other’ for them.”
On diversity, he said: “When it comes to the antisemitism, in many ways that kind of broke my heart because the people who were being antisemitic were people who I thought would never be. Do you know what I mean? They were supposed to be the champions of diversity, they were supposed to be standing up against that and they weren’t.”
You can listen to the full podcast here.
Or you can watch the full interview here.
Podcast Against Antisemitism streams every Thursday and can be downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.
Last week’s guest was comedian and author David Baddiel.
CAA to hold “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside Broadcasting House on Monday 13th December following outrageous coverage of antisemitic incident on Oxford Street
Campaign Against Antisemitism has announced a “BBC News: Stop Blaming Jews!” protest outside the BBC’s headquarters at Broadcasting House this Monday 13th December.
We are demanding explanations over the BBC’s outrageous coverage of the recent antisemitic incident on Oxford Street during the Jewish festival of Chanukah, when the BBC’s reports victim-blamed Jewish teenagers for being attacked.
This incident is one of many in which the BBC has victim-blamed Jewish people for antisemitism, downplayed racism towards Jews, platformed antisemites and fuelled antisemitism in Britain.
This bias against Jews has not gone unnoticed. Polling conducted last year for our Antisemitism Barometer revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints.
The BBC must provide explanations for its recent coverage, adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism and finally take up our offers of antisemitism training for its staff and reporters.
Join us on Monday so that the outrage of decent people can be heard.
To attend the protest, please register at antisemitism.org/bbc.
We will also be discussing the Oxford Street incident on tomorrow’s episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism. The episode can be streamed here tomorrow or downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.
Spanish Town until recently called Fort Kill the Jews is subject to antisemitic graffiti
Residents of Castrillo Mota de Judíos, a Spanish village in Northern Spain, discovered graffiti earlier this week in four locations, including at the entrance to the townhall, on the signpost welcoming visitors to the village, at the site of a future Sephardic centre, and on a sign marking the village’s twinning with an Israeli city.
The village, which has only about 50 residents and no Jewish inhabitants, was originally called Castrillo Motajudíos, or Jew’s Hill Fort, in 1035, when Jews sought refuge there from a nearby pogrom. In 1627, the town was renamed Castrillo Matajudíos, or Fort Kill The Jews, during the Inquisition.
In June 2015, following a referendum held by Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez, the village’s name reverted to Castrillo Mota de Judíos, with the Mayor also undertaking efforts to restore the village’s Jewish heritage.
Some of the graffiti amended signs to the town’s old name, while the leader of the Inquisition was also praised.
Mayor Rodriguez said: “These are cowardly, intolerant and ignorant people who do not value neither heritage nor people; nor do they have respect for anyone or anything. These intolerant people are not allowed here.”
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.
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.
German broadcaster suspends relationship with Jordanian TV channel over “disgusting” antisemitic images
A German news broadcaster has suspended cooperation with a Jordanian television station following the discovery of antisemitic comments and caricatures posted on the channel’s social media network.
Deutsche Welle announced the suspension following reports in Vice magazine about the Jordanian TV channel, Roya TV.
Deutsche Welle’s Guido Baumhauer apologised for their failure to “notice these disgusting images” and said that the broadcaster would now have to “re-evaluate the cooperation” with Roya TV.
He added that some content disseminated on the station’s social media channels was not compatible with Deutsche Welle’s values and they would now “review our selection of partners even more critically,” particularly with regard to antisemitism.
Deutsche Welle said it had originally selected Roya TV for partnership because of the Jordanian station’s promotion of gender equality, the rights of minorities in Jordan and media literacy among young people.
Deutsche Welle has a “legal mandate to bring German and European perspectives into the international discourse,” a spokesperson added, and had “established an active dialogue with media partners in many countries.”
Deutsche Welle is also currently investigating allegations of antisemitism against several employees in its own Arabic editorial department as well as freelance journalists abroad.
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.
Channel 4 appoints figure who defended Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism allegations to its board
Channel 4 has appointed to its board a figure who defended Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism allegations.
Tess Alps, a former chairman of the TV advertising industry body ThinkBox and member of the Labour Party, has been made a non-executive director of the channel.
When the Labour Party under Mr Corbyn was accused of racism towards Jews – allegations that were confirmed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) following an investigation in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant – Ms Alps defended Mr Corbyn.
In 2019, Ms Alps reportedly said, in connection with Labour antisemitism,: “I would be only too happy to change my mind if I saw proper evidence. Being pro-Palestinian rights or anti current Israeli government practice is not the same thing at all. I feel the hurt of my many Jewish friends, some of whom have been subject to shocking abuse, but…”
She then apparently asked her interlocutor on Twitter to send her a direct message so that they could continue the exchange privately.
Her appointment, which is controversial for other comments that she has made as well, comes at a sensitive time for the channel, as the Government considers the possibility of privatising it.
Ms Alps reportedly said in a statement that she always supports the leader of the Labour Party and claimed that Mr Corbyn “didn’t stop some of the terrible things that might have happened, but that is not the same as being the author of them.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
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.
Lib Dem candidate apologises for tweets that appeared to compare English Channel migrants to Jewish inmates at Auschwitz
The Liberal Democrat candidate in the coming North Shropshire by-election has apologised after social media posts emerged in which she appeared to compare the experience of migrants crossing the English Channel to Jewish inmates at the Auschwitz death camp.
Helen Morgan, reportedly wrote on Twitter in September 2020 about her son reading The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, a book about the son of a Nazi camp commandant befriending a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence.
Ms Morgan tweeted: “He commented that the Nazis were only able to do such terrible things because they didn’t think their victims were people. He’s 11. On Twitter this morning, there are people talking about cancelling their RNLI [Royal National Lifeboat Institution] donations because they have picked up ‘illegals’. The language used every day in this country – by the Government, press and people with thousands of followers on social media – it’s nothing short of chilling. We have travelled too far down this road. We urgently need to turn back.”
In the same thread, she apparently ‘liked’ a tweet by another user who claimed: “Having visited Auschwitz concentration camp in the recent past. It really brings home man’s inhumanity to man. Now on a daily basis the language and actions of the Conservative Party make me more and more concerned about the direction they are taking the UK and its people.”
Ms Morgan has also apologised for telling Home Secretary Priti Patel to “tear up your copy of Goebbels’ manual” on Twitter in an exchange on migrants crossing the English Channel. Ms Morgan removed the tweets and said: “I apologise for this insensitive tweet which I have taken down.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Helen Morgan has taken down this tweet and apologises if any offence was caused. She is passionate about standing up against this Conservative Government which is taking people in Shropshire for granted.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism 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.
Police call for help identifying suspects in last week’s antisemitic incident on Oxford Street
The Metropolitan Police have issued a call for witnesses and assistance in identifying suspects in last week’s antisemitic incident on Oxford Street.
The Met is investigating as a hate crime an attack on a bus that travelled down Oxford Street on 30th November carrying a group of visibly Jewish teenagers celebrating the Jewish festival of Chanukah. Videos taken by passengers on the bus appeared to show a group of men hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing. Further footage was published showing that the teenage passengers had been dancing in the street before being accosted and forced back onto the private bus.
Shneor Glitsenstein, Director of the Chabad Israeli Centre Golders Green, who was on the bus with 40 young people, said: “Let me be clear: on Monday evening we were attacked on the streets of London for being Jewish and celebrating Chanukah. While our bus contained no references to Israel, we were clearly a Jewish group. The young men who surrounded us were not engaged in political protest; this was a bigoted antisemitic attack in the heart of London, seen by dozens of others, who stood by silently.”
Police reportedly stopped the bus in Grosvenor Place to check on the welfare of the passengers.
The Met have now released images of three men to whom the force would like to speak.
Detective Inspector Kevin Eade said: “Our investigation into this appalling incident continues and we are now in a position to release three clearer images of the men we would like to speak to. Despite extensive inquiries over the past week, we are yet to make any arrests; however, I am confident that somebody will recognise the people in these images, and I would urge anyone who does to contact us immediately.”
If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or the Charing Cross Hate Crime Unit on 07900 608 252, quoting reference number: 6184/29Nov. Alternatively, you can tweet @MetCC or e-mail Campaign Against Antisemitism at [email protected].
Earlier this week, Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the BBC demanding explanations over its outrageous coverage of the incident.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said “This was a heinous antisemitic attack on a group of Jewish teenagers celebrating Chanukah at the heart of our nation’s capital. We urge members of the public to help the police identify suspects and persons of interest so that the culprits can be brought to justice. If you recognise these individuals, please contact the police or us on a confidential basis.”
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.
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.
Image credit: Metropolitan Police Service
Chanukah display in Primrose Hill destroyed in act of vandalism
It has been reported that a Chanukah display in Primrose Hill has been destroyed.
A photograph uploaded on Twitter this morning showed a Chanukiah smashed in half. Rabbi Yossi Baitz, the Chabad rabbi to Kentish-CamdenTown London, told Campaign Against Antisemitism that he placed sandbags over the base of the Chanukiah to hold it in place, which would have then been removed in order to smash over the display.
Rabbi Baitz wrote on Twitter: “Im the Rabbi who worked so hard to put this Menorah as a symbol of light. it breaks my heart to see it vandalized. I promise to put this Menorah again every Hanukkah ,we will never surrender to darkness.”
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. If anyone has any information about this incident, please contact us or call the police on 101.
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.
Birmingham man jailed after hurling antisemitic abuse at couple in front of off-duty police
A man from Birmingham has been jailed after hurling antisemitic abuse at a couple in front of two off-duty police officers.
Adam Boyle, 32, was reportedly “visibly intoxicated” when he approached the Jewish couple on 7th October. They were waiting at Victoria Station in Manchester for a train to Bury.
Two off-duty police officers were nearby and, witnessing Mr Boyle’s abuse, arrested him.
Mr Boyle was charged with racially/religiously aggravated intentional harassment and was convicted. He was sentenced at Birmingham and Solihull Magistrates’ Court to 26 weeks in prison.
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.
Labour councillor who chanted “From the River to the Sea” has whip removed and Jeremy Corbyn’s former legal head deselected, but elsewhere local Labour group passes motion praising Ken Loach
A Labour Party councillor who chanted “From the River to the Sea” at a rally and called a former Jewish Labour MP a “hideous traitor” has reportedly had the whip removed.
Sam Gorst, a councillor in Liverpool, is reportedly no longer a member of the local Labour Group and will sit as an independent. Cllr Gorst was filmed earlier this year marching alongside Jeremy Corbyn and chanting “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”. The chant only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state – and its replacement with a State of Palestine – and is thus an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination, which is a breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. The rally was addressed by Mr Corbyn and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, and was endorsed by Labour MPs Paula Barker, and Kim Johnson.
Labour Against Antisemitism has also previously claimed that Cllr Gorst was involved in the now-proscribed Labour fringe groups, Labour Against the Witchhunt and Labour in Exile Network.
Cllr Gorst, who is reported to have been suspended from the Labour Party for twelve months in August 2020, claimed that Mr Corbyn was a victim of a “smear campaign”, described the Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger as a “hideous traitor” when she declared her intention to run for Merseyside Mayor in 2016, and called another Jewish Labour MP, Dame Louise Ellman, a “disgrace” when she quit the Party in 2019 over antisemitism.
Cllr Gorst reportedly said that he is “appealing this injustice.”
In London, the Labour Party’s former Director Governance and Legal under Mr Corbyn’s leadership has been deselected as a candidate by the Party in advance of next year’s local elections.
Thomas Gardiner, a councillor in Camden who was referenced repeatedly in the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s report into Labour antisemitism, which followed an investigation in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, was involved in overseeing the Party’s catastrophic complaints process. He became known for his decision that a meme showing an alien crustacean with a Star of David emblazoned on its back sucking the life out of the Statue of Liberty was somehow not antisemitic.
It is understood that Mr Gardiner launched an appeal against the deselection, but that the decision was upheld.
Elsewhere in London, the Hornsey and Wood Green Constituency Labour Party has come under fire for approving a motion that praises the outspoken filmmaker and expelled Labour member Ken Loach. The motion also called for local public screenings of his films. The motion was reportedly proposed by local member and television actress Margot Leicester.
A second motion claimed that Labour under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer had become a “hostile environment” as a result of the “expulsions of prominent socialists.”
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism 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.
Anne Frank Memorial in Boise, Idaho vandalised again with swastikas nearly one year to the day after similar incident
The Anne Frank Memorial in Boise, Idaho has been vandalised again nearly one year to the day after it was last defaced.
On 1st December 2020, the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise was defaced with swastikas and antisemitic messages, an incident in which Dan Prinzing, Executive Director of the Wassmuth Centre, said was “a sad day” before questioning why “hate has become so emboldened.”
The Memorial, dedicated in 2002, is an adjunct to Boise’s Wassmuth Centre for Human Rights, which shared photos on Facebook showing the swastikas and racist messages.
On Saturday, the memorial was once again defaced with swastikas and antisemitic messages, which included “f**k Jews” and “I [heart] Nazis”.
Chief Ryan Lee of the Boise Police Department said: “We recognize the significance of this being the last Saturday of Hanukkah and we are reaching out to Jewish leaders in our community to let them know we will not stand for such hateful and abhorrent behavior in our city. The graffiti is in the process of being cleaned and covered up.”
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean condemned the latest incident on Twitter, saying: “The antisemitic messages contained in the graffiti found along the Greenbelt put a literal and figurative stain on our community. This will not be tolerated.
“Hate speech is reprehensible. It is not who [we] are as a city and is not part of our shared values. I invite all good people of Boise to stand with me, as I stand with our Jewish neighbors, to rebuke this hate.”
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.
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.
Image credit: Twitter via The Algemeiner
CAA writes to BBC demanding explanations over its outrageous coverage of Oxford Street antisemitic incident
Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to the BBC demanding explanations over its outrageous coverage of the antisemitic incident on Oxford Street last week.
The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating as a hate crime an attack on a bus that travelled down Oxford Street on 30th November carrying a group of visibly Jewish teenagers celebrating the Jewish festival of Chanukah. Videos taken by passengers on the bus appeared to show a group of men hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Nazi salutes, as well as shouting antisemitic insults and swearing. Further footage was published showing that the teenage passengers had been dancing in the street before being accosted and forced back onto the private bus.
Originally, the BBC reported on its website that the explicit expressions of antisemitism evident in the video were merely “allegations”, but the BBC simultaneously claimed — alone among all media outlets — that “some racial slurs about Muslims can also be heard from inside the bus,” an assertion made with no evidence to support it and which was even contradicted in the article by a witness from the bus who said that she heard no such slurs. On its BBC London Evening News, the BBC even suggested that “it’s not clear what role [the supposed slurs] may have had in the incident.” The BBC appears to have fed this unsubstantiated claim to the Met, which assured the Corporation that the incident will be looked at “in its entirety.”
The public reacted to the article with fury, with nobody able to identify any “anti-Muslim slurs” in the audio accompanying the video. Despite justifiable calls for the BBC to release the evidence for its assertion, it has failed to do so, instead merely amending the article to refer to an “anti-Muslim slur” in the singular. A BBC spokesperson stated that: “The audio appears to show that a slur can be heard coming from the bus. We have changed our story to clarify only one such slur can be heard clearly.”
Still, however, nobody is able to discern any slur — let alone being able to hear one “clearly”, as the BBC has insisted — and no evidence has been provided. Moreover, the alleged slur is still reported as fact while the obvious antisemitism remains a mere “allegation”.
In our letter, we also noted polling that we conducted last year, in our Antisemitism Barometer, which revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints. In view of these figures, we trust that you will take these concerns seriously.
We have called on the BBC to reveal its evidence that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard on the bus and explain why the claim that an anti-Muslim slur can be heard is asserted as fact (despite nobody else being able to discern such a slur) while the evident antisemitism is caveated as mere allegation.
We have also once again called on the BBC to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, and have again offered antisemitism training, as previous offers to the former Director-General, Lord Hall, were repeatedly rebuffed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
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.
North London gang verbally and physically assault Jewish children in two separate incidents
A North London gang is reported to have verbally and physically assaulted Jewish children in two separate incidents.
In both instances, the gang is believed to be associated with the nearby Webb Estate and is accused of harassing Jewish residents for years.
In one incident, the gang threw stones at ten-year-old Jewish boys before being stopped by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol. They then went on to vandalise a phone box.
The incident took place on Craven Park road in Stamford Hill and was reported at around 22:40 yesterday by Stamford Hill Shomrim. If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: 4632764/21.
In a separate incident, the gang allegedly assaulted a twelve-year-old boy and screamed “take off your kippah” at him.
This incident took place on Oldhill Street in Stamford Hill and was reported this afternoon by Stamford Hill Shomrim. If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 6959 06/12/21.
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.
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.
Philadelphia civil servant resigns after allegations of antisemitism and “fostering toxic work environment”
Michael Rashid, the head of Philadelphia’s Commerce Department, has resigned after allegations surfaced of his antisemitic comments and abusive workplace behaviour.
Mr Rashid said in a statement that his “continued service would serve as a distraction from the work of the Department.”
Department staffers had told the Philadelphia Inquirer of, among other incidents, multiple instances when Mr Rashid had discussed the film Schindler’s List, allegedly telling them how he had previously thought the film was “Jewish propaganda” and avoided watching it.
Offensive social media posts by Mr Rashid have also emerged, including one in which the official reportedly quotes Malcolm X as complaining that, while “Jew Town” neighbourhoods had Jewish stores, Black areas did not have equivalent shops. According to PhillyVoice, which first revealed the posts, another post allegedly criticised the portrayal of a “white Jesus” as a “psychological tool” that “subliminally engrains the myth of white superiority into the subconscious minds of people of colour.” .
Commerce Department staffers had also accused Mr Rashid of fostering a toxic work environment and verbally abusing employees, with the result that several allegedly left the agency in protest.
Mr Rashid said he had spoken with leaders of the Jewish community in Philadelphia to apologise for his “previous comments which were inappropriate and insensitive.”
He said he looked forward to “engagement with the community going forward” and said it was important that the Department stayed focused on its “mission of supporting Philadelphia’s business community at this critical time as we continue to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic.” Accepting the resignation, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement that the City was “committed to ensuring a fair and inclusive working environment where the values of respect and dignity are upheld.”
Jewish groups had condemned the revelations about Mr Rashid’s past comments, with the American Jewish Committee asking the Mayor to call for his resignation and urging the Mayor to “take immediate action” and “work with the Jewish community to educate all city offices and city-funded institutions” to make Philadelphia “truly” the “city of brotherly love where pluralism and diversity are respected and honoured.”
Michael Balaban, President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, also condemned the revelations in a statement, saying that, “if there is no room in our City for antisemitism,” then Mr Rashid should be removed from office immediately.
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.
Oxford University under fire for inviting defender of David Miller and critic of International Definition of Antisemitism to deliver lecture on “equality and diversity”
The University of Oxford is under fire for inviting a defender of the disgraced academic David Miller and critic of the International Definition of Antisemitism to deliver lecture on “equality and diversity”.
Tariq Modood, the founder and Director of the University of Bristol’s Research Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, delivered the Oxford Law Faculty’s Annual Equality and Diversity Lecture, titled “Islamophobia and the Struggle for Recognition,” last week.
In March, Prof. Modood defended his then-Bristol colleague, David Miller, reportedly saying: “I think the empirical research that David is doing is not antisemitic and is valuable for hunting down evidence that displays the linkages between various organisations and funders in this country, the U.S. and Israel that are not just promoting their own views. Of course they have a right to do that, but they’re having the effect of making it difficult for people in this country, including academics, to speak up at conferences for the Palestinian cause without incurring the charge of antisemitism and therefore putting one’s career and reputation at risk.”
He also reportedly criticised the International Definition of Antisemitism, asserting that it was “mixing up anti-Zionism and anti-Israel with antisemitism”.
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.
The incident came just weeks after Oxford became embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that the University had accepted a donation from the Mosley family trust and was intending to honour the family name.
Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is extraordinary that a vocal supporter of the disgraced academic David Miller and an opponent of the International Definition of Antisemitism should be invited to lecture on equality and diversity. In the midst of the deep controversy surrounding the acceptance of donations from the Mosley family trust and attempts to honour the name of Britain’s foremost fascist family, one would have expected the University of Oxford to be particularly sensitive to Jewish concerns at this time. Instead, the University has yet again shown contempt towards Jewish students.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by 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].
New poll reveals majority of Jewish Labour Party members do not find other local members friendly and welcoming
A new poll has revealed that 65% of Jewish members of the Labour Party do not find other local members friendly and welcoming.
In a poll of 2,890 people carried out by the Fabian Society in August, 65% of Jewish respondents disagreed with the claim that other local members are all friendly and welcoming, a new report has found, which was the highest proportion of any group, including LGBT, under-35s, women and other ethnic minority members.
One member told the pollsters:: “I was asked questions [by fellow local members] about my loyalty and affiliations and memberships because I am Jewish. Other candidates were not asked these questions.”
Another worried that their candidacy for office might be blocked because of their membership of the Party’s Jewish affiliate.
The survey was open and promoted through blogs, social media and organisations affiliated to the Labour Party, and its authors noted that those polled were “not designed to be representative of the membership as a whole.”
Since the poll was carried out, the Labour Party has endorsed a new semi-independent disciplinary process, although it has not yet been implemented.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “Keir [Starmer]’s relentless focus since his election as leader has been on positively changing the Labour Party. Thanks to the significant progress made, we are proving to the public that we understand and are acting on their priorities. This progress includes rebuilding our relationship with the Jewish community, and demonstrating wholeheartedly that only Labour is the party of equality and opportunity for our members and the country. We are committed to taking our dedicated membership with us at every step.”
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Prominent far-right streamer with goal of “exposing the filthy Jews” jailed for four years
A prominent far-right streamer who described his goal as “exposing the filthy Jews” has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to stirring up racial hatred.
Richard Hesketh, 36 from Greater Manchester, posted 4,000 antisemitic videos that garnered over 5.5 million views under the name Rick Heskey on the platforms Bitchute and Goyim TV, the latter of which is a website affiliated with the “Goyim Defence League”, a group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis and is understood to be led by Jon Minadeo II, a man who Mr Hesketh had previously appeared in a video with. The group is responsible for stunts such as visiting a Chabad centre to claim that “these Jewish terrorists” were behind 9/11, and hanging a banner on a Los Angeles overpass reading “Honk if you know the Jews want a race war.” Earlier this year, Mr Minadeo II created t-shirts carrying antisemitic slogans such as the Holocaust was “a hoax”. Most recently, they hung a banner from a bridge in Austin, Texas that read “Vax the Jews”.
Mr Hesketh described his goal as “exposing the filthy Jews” and reportedly saw himself as a “Full time Jew Namer”. It is also understood that one of his social media profiles had the title: “Dedicated to Exposing the Jew”.
In one video regarding an antisemitic assault on a Jewish man in Brazil, Mr Hesketh reportedly said: “Hitler should have killed more Jews. Completely agree, I’d say he should have killed about 16 million, that should have finished them off.” Another video was titled “The Filthy Jews of York Castle”, in which Mr Hesketh visited Clifford’s Tower in York, where approximately 150 Jews were murdered in 1190.
In October 2020, Mr Hesketh reportedly shared a video with the title: “Jews in the News- Halle Synagogue attacker 1 year on”. This came shortly after a 26-year-old Jewish man was attacked outside a synagogue in Hamburg as members of the local community celebrated the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Mr Heskey stated during this video: “If you’re gonna go into a synagogue and scare the s**t out of these rat-faced Jews it’s like, why would you take a shovel? It’s not exactly the best weapon for cleaving people. It’s good for bonging them on the head with, filthy Jew sit down.”
In August 2021, Richard Hesketh was charged with seven counts of distributing a recording of visual images or sounds stirring up racial hatred, contrary to section 21(1) Public Order Act 1986.
On 7th September 2021, Mr Hesketh pleaded guilty to all charges and on 3rd December 2021, he was sentenced to four years in jail at Manchester Crown Court.
After the sentencing, Detective Superintendent Will Chatterton, of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: “Hesketh shared as well as created hundreds of shockingly offensive videos and content on social media, which undoubtedly incited hatred towards the Jewish community. In police interview [sic] Hesketh showed no remorse and even continued to upload offensive material to his social media channels after he was released under investigation. Hesketh enjoyed viewing videos of serious attacks on Jewish people and even made comments referring to his disappointment that the attacker in one video did not kill the victim, showing just how depraved his beliefs are. Peddling this mind set across the internet is dangerous and at the same time incredibly upsetting to our communities. This case highlights that right wing terrorism will not be tolerated in any shape or form and we will do all we can to bring these offenders to justice. I am pleased that Hesketh will no longer be able to continue his campaign of abuse and I really do hope that his time in prison is spent reflecting upon his appalling behaviour.”
This sentencing comes after investigative research by the Community Security Trust (CST).
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Richard Hesketh was a prolific streamer of antisemitic material who, by his own admission, had dedicated himself to trolling Jews. His guilty plea avoids the indignity of a courtroom platform on which he might further promote his racist views, and this four-year sentence removes him from society, where he has proven that he does not belong. We commend the authorities for pursuing him and the CST for its investigative work that helped bring about this outcome.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.
Image credit: Greater Manchester Police
German media company suspends staffers amid antisemitism investigation
German media company Deutsche Welle has suspended four employees and one freelancer amid its investigation that was launched this week after accusations of antisemitism were made against it.
The accusations come from a report by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, which alleges that several members of Deutsche Welle’s Arabic editorial team made antisemitic comments.
One example mentioned states that an editor was said to have called the Holocaust an “artificial product” on Facebook, reportedly adding that Jews would continue to control “people’s brains through art, media, and music.”
Another reported remark said that “everyone involved with the Israelis is a collaborator and every recruit in the ranks of their army is a traitor and must be executed.”
Deutsche Welle’s investigation is allegedly being carried out by former German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and psychologist Ahmad Mansour. The media company said that the staffers would remain suspended until the investigation was complete and that it would “immediately draw the necessary consequences” once it has concluded.
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.
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.
Far-left Dutch party labels event commemorating the Holocaust “inherently racist”
A far-left Dutch party has reportedly labelled an event commemorating the Holocaust “inherently racist”.
In a draft of its program for Amsterdam’s upcoming March elections, the BIJ1 Party allegedly claimed that “the Indonesian, Surinamese, Korean, Iraqi victims of the Dutch (or of the violence supported by the Netherlands) are not commemorated,” and that as long as this is the case, “Amsterdam should not serve as a platform” for the event.
Amsterdam’s official memorial commemoration for victims of the Holocaust and Dutch casualties of war is held on 4th May.
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.
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.
Multiple Chanukah displays vandalised across three cities in Ukraine
Multiple Chanukah displays have been vandalised across three cities in Ukraine.
In the country’s capital city of Kyiv, a public menorah that was erected in the city’s northeast district of Troieshchyna was knocked down and its lamps were smashed. This incident occured last Tuesday and was reported on Facebook by Eduard Dolinksy, the Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.
In the eastern city of Dnipro, five teenagers have been arrested after being suspected of knocking down a large menorah on 29th November.
It was also reported that on 30th November, unidentified individuals in Nikolayev, a city in southern Ukraine near Odessa, cut the lighting strips that decorated a large menorah.
Last week, hundreds of residents of the Pennsylvania town of Lancaster turned out to support the town’s Jewish community after a chanukiah in the town-centre was vandalised.
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.
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.
Co-founder of neo-Nazi National Action terrorist group jailed for ten years
The co-founder of the neo-Nazi National Action terrorist group has today been jailed for ten years.
Ben Raymond, 32, was found guilty of membership of the proscribed group earlier this week at Bristol Crown Court, where he has now been sentenced.
Mr Raymond, from Swindon, helped launch the group in 2013 and reportedly coined the term “white jihad”. He is the seventeenth person to be found guilty of membership in the banned group. He was also convicted of possessing a manifesto written by the far-right terrorist Andrews Breivik, as well as a guide to homemade detonators, but was found not guilty of four counts of possessing other documents.
Mr Raymond remained involved in the group, even after it was banned, producing much of its material and reportedly being likened to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister. He also remained in contact with other leading figures in the group, several of whom have been jailed.
The court how he had also forged links with foreign neo-Nazi groups, including Atomwaffen Division, which the UK has also proscribed.
Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Parker QC said that Mr Raymond was the “principal propagandist” for National Action, both before and after the ban and sat “at the centre of the web” as the group fragmented in an effort to evade the ban. The judge said: “In the shadows of the internet you continued to offer guidance to regional National Action organisations on tactics, security, organisation but most importantly propaganda. From the centre of that web you intended just as much as other associates that National Action should survive following proscription.”
The judge added: “It was intended that the documents produced by you would be used to create instability within society, hatred between white people and other ethnic groups and ultimately create racial violence on which National Action could capitalise. You intended that the material should be used to recruit new members, specifically new young members…those young people were at risk of being groomed by your behaviour into committing acts of extreme racial violence.”
Mr Raymond was sentenced to eight years in prison for membership and two years, to run concurrently, for the two offences relating to possession of terrorist documents. After release, he will be subject to terrorist notification requirements.
National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.
Mr Raymond’s alleged co-founder recently pleaded not guilty to a single charge of membership of a proscribed organisation and will stand trial next year.
They are alleged to have founded the group when they were both university students.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Ben Raymond was the co-founder of National Action, the poster child group for neo-Nazis in Britain today. He was also its master propagandist, doing what he could to broadcast its message of racist hate. The ban on National Action, secured after calls from Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, was the first step, and convictions of its members are the second. This sentence, removing someone with grotesque and dangerous views from society, is the third.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.
Image credit: Counter Terrorism Policing
Conviction for man who sent Alan Sugar antisemitic letters
A man has been convicted of religiously-aggravated harassment after sending Alan Sugar a series of abusive and antisemitic letters.
Lord Sugar, the former host of The Apprentice television show, was reluctant to refer the matter to the police, but thanks officers for “helping to shine a light on the fact that this type of behaviour is simply not acceptable.”
Patrick Gomes, 70, sent three letters to one of Lord Sugar’s business premises in Loughton between October and December 2018, according to Essex Police.
Each letter was addressed to Lord Sugar and reportedly included abusive, threatening and offensive language that was also derogatory towards the Jewish faith.
Mr Gomes was arrested at his home in Leyton in March 2019, after his DNA and fingerprints were found on one of the letters. Police found additional discriminatory letters, and discovered that the address of the letters to Lord Sugar was in Mr Gomes’ address book.
Mr Gomes denied involvement but was found guilty of religiously-aggravated harassment, putting those targeted in fear of violence, on 1st December at Chelmsford Crown Court.
He did not appear at court and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested on 2nd December and is being remanded in custody to await sentencing, which will take place on 23rd December.
A spokeswoman for Chelmsford Crown Court said a sentencing hearing has been listed for 23rd December.
Lord Sugar said: “I would like to pass on my sincere gratitude to the police for their assistance in this case. I have to be honest, I was reluctant to pass this matter on to the police as they are already stretched and have enough on their plates…I would like to thank them sincerely for helping to shine a light on the fact that this type of behaviour is simply not acceptable and that racism or any form of discrimination is simply not acceptable.”
Investigating officer PC Marc Arnold, of Epping Forest’s Community Policing Team, said: “Nobody should ever be subjected to this level of abuse or fear physical violence because of their faith. I’m really pleased that justice has been rightly served. There is simply no excuse for any hate crime and if this happens to you or you witness this type of behaviour, please tell us – we will not tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind and neither should you.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Lord Sugar was right to refer this matter to the police. There must be zero tolerance for antisemitic crime, but that can only happen when victims report incidents. If racism against Jews is allowed to fester, the number of victims will only grow. We commend the police for pursuing the matter, and trust that the sentence will be proportionate to the crime.”
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.
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.
Spotify removes nearly 150 hours of antisemitic, racist and white supremacist material from its platform
Spotify has reportedly removed nearly 150 hours of antisemitic, racist and white supremacist material from its platform following a media investigation.
The streaming giant does not allow hateful content on its platform, but a Sky News investigation reportedly found “days’ worth” of listening, promoting “scientific racism, Holocaust denial and far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories”.
Much of it was buried within hours-long episodes, but in some cases there were explicit slurs in titles, descriptions and artwork.
Spotify removed the content after being alerted, but it remains online on other, unmoderated platforms, such as Google Podcasts.
Searching for the phrase “Kalergi Plan”, for example, directs users to a podcast with 76 episodes discussing the far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which imagines that Jewish elites promote mass immigration as part of a deliberate plan to erase the white European race. One of the episodes apparently contains a monologue that ends with an explicit call for violence against Jews.
Another US-based podcast featured racist slurs and white supremacist symbols in its title, descriptions and artwork, with the host promoting various antisemitic theories, Holocaust denial and scientific racism.
Yet another series talks of the “beauty” of white supremacism and features readings of essays and books by Hitler, Goebbels and other Nazi figures.
Spotify allows users to report material that violates the platform’s guidelines, and the company is developing new technology to identify hateful material. But questions remain over what is being done currently to monitor podcast material, the large volume of which requires a mix of algorithmic and human moderation, as well as technology that can detect hate speech in audio.
Hannah Kirk, AI researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and The Alan Turing Institute, observed numerous technological challenges, including the amount of memory needed to store long audio files, the difficulty of sifting through multiple speakers and fast-paced dialogue, and the complexity of linguistic cues in audio, such as tone, pitch of voice, awkward silences and laughter. The technology to encode these sorts of linguistic signals is not currently available.
Google podcasts, which is more of a directory than a platform, reportedly does not wish to limit what people can find and will only remove content in rare circumstances, according to what a spokesperson has previously told The New York Times.
A Spotify spokesperson told Sky News: “Spotify prohibits content on our platform which expressly and principally advocates or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability. The content in question has been removed for violating our Hate Content policy.”
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.
Peloton apologises after instructor quotes Shakespeare’s “liver of a blasphemous Jew” line in live workout
Peloton has apologised after an instructor quoted the phrase “liver of a blasphemous Jew” in a live workout.
The Halloween workout video, in which trainer Christine D’Ercole quotes the line from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, has been removed from the company’s library.
A spokesperson for Peloton said: “Peloton’s aim is to strengthen, support and uplift our diverse community and sometimes we fall short of that goal. We apologise that during one of our classes an instructor quoted a Shakespeare passage that included an antisemitic line. This was a mistake and the class has been removed from our library.”
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.
Image credit: Jewish News
CAA launches Podcast Against Antisemitism, a weekly podcast streaming every Thursday, with David Baddiel as our first special guest
Campaign Against Antisemitism has today launched a new weekly podcast.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, streaming every Thursday, is the first podcast in the world to focus on racism against Jews.
Each week, the podcast gives you the chance to hear from those on the front line in the fight against antisemitism – in politics, media, universities, social media, entertainment and on our streets – with expert analysis from Campaign Against Antisemitism. In this first episode, we discuss the fight against antisemitism in sport.
The podcast also features an in-depth interview with a special guest in each episode, including leading activists, authors, celebrities, columnists, social media influencers and more. In this first episode, we are joined by the comedian and author of Jews Don’t Count. David Baddiel, who talks to us about antisemitism as the forgotten racism and his experiences of it as a football fan and in the arts.
You can stream or download Podcast Against Antisemitism on Amazon, Apple, Buzzsprout, Google, Spotify and Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts.
Alternatively, you can listen at antisemitism.org/podcast, where each episode will be available every week and where you can subscribe to receive the latest episodes straight to your inbox.
You can also watch the full interview with our special guests every week on our YouTube channel.
If you have any questions, please e-mail [email protected].
German media company launches investigation after being accused of antisemitism
German media company Deutsche Welle is launching an investigation after accusations of antisemitism have been made against it.
The accusations come from a report by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, which alleges that several members of Deutsche Welle’s Arabic editorial team made antisemitic comments.
One example mentioned states that an editor was said to have called the Holocaust an “artificial product” on Facebook, reportedly adding that Jews would continue to control “people’s brains through art, media, and music.”
Another reported remark said that “everyone involved with the Israelis is a collaborator and every recruit in the ranks of their army is a traitor and must be executed.”
Deutsche Welle now plans to launch a full, independent investigation, stating: “On the orders of the Intendant, Deutsche Welle will immediately commission an independent external investigation.”
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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Scottish NHS staff “scared” after Tory councillor who previously apologised for comments appearing to diminish the Holocaust is appointed to health board
Scottish NHS staff are reportedly “scared” after a Conservative councillor who previously apologised for comments appearing to diminish the Holocaust was appointed to a health board.
In a post on a martial arts forum several years ago, Cllr Ryan Houghton, wrote under the username, Razgriz, that there was “no credible evidence to suggest the Holocaust did not happen” but revealed that “I do find some of the events fabricated, and exegarated [sic] in some cases.” He continued: “As history is written by the victors there is always going to be a bit of re-writing.” He also praised the “interesting” research of the antisemitic Holocaust-denier, David Irving. However, in a later post he said that he was “not defending David’s Irving’s views” and that he does not agree with “some of the stuff he says.”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “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 an example of antisemitism.
Cllr Houghton is also accused of having made homophobic and anti-Muslim statements online. In a statement at the time, he said: “I apologise unreservedly for any hurt now caused by these comments and have been in contact with members of the Jewish community in Aberdeen.”
According to The National, a senior figure from NHS Grampian has said that staff had been “astonished and actually scared” in reaction to the appointment of Cllr Houghton, which was effected by a letter sent by Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf in May. Cllr Houghton was appointed “in your capacity as the nominated Local Authority Councillor from Aberdeen City Council”.
Aberdeen Council must appoint an elected member to the NHS Grampian board by law.
Earlier this year, Cllr Houghton withdrew as co-leader of the Council just days after being elected, due to his past comments. It is understood that he remains leader of the Conservative group on the Council.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Conservatives said that Cllr Houghton “had fully apologised for his comments, [and] was fully investigated by a committee, who ruled in favour of lifting his suspension. Perhaps most importantly, his appointment on the board was brought forward by Humza Yousaf who said he was looking forward to working with him in addressing challenges and opportunities.” The spokesperson also observed that a former chairman of Aberdeen Synagogue had said that while what Cllr Houghton had said “wasn’t right…it shouldn’t be held against him for the rest of his life.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “There is no place in public life for holocaust denial, racism or any other form of discrimination and prejudice. The Health Secretary has no role in deciding which councillors are chosen by local authorities to sit on health boards – other than issuing a standardised routine letter to them after their appointment. We understand the concerns being raised about this appointment and will be in contact with NHS Grampian to check that all correct processes have been followed and to discuss the serious allegations being made.”
A spokesperson for NHS Grampian said that the health board “takes all matters relating to equality, diversity and human rights very seriously. We have received the concerns and are currently seeking clarity about due process.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Campaign Against Antisemitism 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.
Antisemite Wiley suspended again by Twitter but not before direct attack on CAA, and he continues to post on Instagram
Once again, the antisemite Wiley has been able to create an account on Twitter and spout racist hate towards Jews, even directly attacking Campaign Against Antisemitism. Twitter has suspended his account after we called on the platform to do so.
The rapper Richard Kylea Cowie, who is known as Wiley, went on an antisemitic tirade on social media in July 2020, has gone on another tirade this week, culminating today. Using the handle @WileyRecordings, he has tweeted an image of himself in Hasidic garb and a video titled “the Jewish Faces that Control Hiphop and Mainstream Black Music.” He posted a further video “discuss[ing] historical tensions between blacks & Jews” and, in another tweet, asserted: “The more they block me the harder I go and when I get through the door I will stand there and look in their faces with the same look they don’t wanna see….They are just angry they can’t control me…” He also tweeted a video of the antisemitic hate preacher Louis Farrakhan titled “I’m here to separate the ‘good Jews’ from the ‘Satanic Jews’”, and a video of another antisemitic hate preacher, David Icke.
Wiley then went on to target a senior figure in Campaign Against Antisemitism directly, changing his profile picture to an image of this member of our team and tweeting a further picture of him. He then proceeded to taunt him in a series of tweets, including calling him a “coward” and then posting a video on Instagram taunting him.
The rapper, who recently released an album unsubtly titled “Anti-Systemic”, told our member on Instagram this morning: “Don’t hide” and “come outside”. Wiley has recently been charged with assault and robbery. We are in touch with the police over the taunts and are examining legal options.
At this minute, Wiley is currently live on Instagram spewing antisemitic rhetoric, talking about banks that are owned by “Jewish families” and speculating that maybe Jews do in fact control the world. We are in contact with Instagram, calling on the platform to ban him immediately.
In his tirade in 2020, Wiley likened Jews to the Ku Klux Klan and claimed that Jews had cheated him and were “snakes”, tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn” – a slang expression meaning that they should be shot – and added: “Jewish community you deserve it”. He also called on “black people” to go to “war” with Jews and repeatedly evoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for the slave trade and were imposters who usurped black people — a conspiracy theory that has incited acts of terrorism against Jews in the United States.
In the days that followed, Wiley continued to rail against Jews on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, a major 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram in which we participated, and our projection of antisemitic tweets onto Twitter’s London headquarters, which then went viral, Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok agreed to remove Wiley from their platforms, depriving him of access to his nearly one million social media followers.
At the time of Wiley’s original antisemitic tirade, Campaign Against Antisemitism immediately reported Wiley to the Metropolitan Police Service, but the police eventually confirmed to us that Wiley was not in the UK at the time of his tirade. Under Home Office rules, that means that the Metropolitan Police must give primacy to police in the jurisdiction where Wiley was at the time. Lawyers acting for Campaign Against Antisemitism have filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands, which is where he was located when he launched his tirade against Jews.
We also called for Wiley to be stripped of his MBE and have his Ivors Award rescinded.
However, barely a year later Wiley was again active on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, notwithstanding their pledges to ban him. Wiley tweeted at the time: “In all my years on earth I realised everyone wants you to care about their stuff like Holocaust etc but not one of them give a f*** about the enslavement and f***ery of black people so it’s hard for me to care for them knowing they don’t care for us #YaGetIt #JusSayin.”
This week, he has gone on another tirade, and only now has Twitter finally removed him, after we called once again on the platform to do so. We are also calling on Instagram, to which he has shifted his attention, to do the same. If these platforms had kept to their word, he would not have been on them in the first place.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has called on several venues over the past year to drop the unrepentant Wiley from their line-ups.
Earlier this year, we published a major report that shows how Twitter fails to implement consistently its own policies on hate. The report showed how Twitter appointed Campaign Against Antisemitism as a partner to monitor anti-Jewish racism on its platform and promised regular meetings, only to cease those meetings and ignore offers of antisemitism training after we began alerting the company to the inconsistent application of its policies by personnel.
Not only were phrases like “f*** the Jews” not considered to breach Twitter’s rules, but other phrases such as “Hitler was right” were sometimes permitted and sometimes removed, without any form of coherent reasoning. Moreover, one of the few areas where Twitter has in the past said that it would take action is over Holocaust denial, pledging to remove “attempts to deny or diminish” violent events such as the Shoah. Our report, however, shows that Twitter personnel repeatedly raised no objection to phrases such as “#Holohoax” and other, more elaborate tweets of Holocaust denial.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The antisemite Wiley has been able to return to Twitter and Instagram to spout racist hate, even adopting the image of one of our personnel as his profile picture and taunting him. We are in contact with the police and are examining legal options.
“Twitter has suspended Wiley’s account after we called on the platform to do so, but the company has failed to prevent him joining the platform repeatedly over the past year, despite its pledge to ban him. The company continues to ignore a wide range of antisemitic accounts that we have brought to its attention, presumably because they fail to attract the same degree of public interest and negative publicity as this case.
“We are now in contact with Instagram, asking for his live stream to be ended and his account removed, and we are in touch with the police about some of his deranged output.”
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.
Antisemitism-denial group Labour Against the Witchhunt reportedly disbanding
The antisemitism-denial group Labour Against the Witchhunt is in turmoil over a decision by members to merge with another controversial group, Labour in Exile Network.
Both groups were proscribed by the Labour Party earlier this year and, in the months since, those who have had affiliation with the groups have been automatically expelled from the Party.
In a statement, members of Labour Against the Witchhunt, including Jackie Walker, explained that they were resigning from the group’s steering committee following a vote on 27th November over whether to merge with Labour in Exile Network, which reportedly passed by 47 votes to 27, with twelve abstentions.
The motion to merge was reportedly moved by the “notorious antisemite” Tony Greenstein, who apparently believed that Labour Against the Witchhunt had “outlived its usefulness”. However, the signatories of the statement believed that the group’s mission would not be served by merging with other, less focused groups that were simply committed to Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 and 2019 election manifestos.
Earlier this year, Mr Greenstein was declared bankrupt by a judge after failing to comply with court orders to pay Campaign Against Antisemitism after his defamation claim against us humiliatingly backfired.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Police investigating attack on bus of Jewish teenagers celebrating Chanukah on Oxford Street as hate crime
The Metropolitan Police are investigating as a hate crime an attack on a bus travelling down Oxford Street yesterday carrying a group of Jewish teenagers celebrating Chanukah.
The attack was filmed by passengers on the bus and appeared to show a group of men hitting the vehicle with their hands and then their shoes, spitting on it, trying to break windows and performing Hitler salutes.
The assailants were told that the passengers are Jewish and then hurled antisemitic insults and slogans.
The men appear to be of Middle Eastern heritage and hitting an object of antipathy with one’s shoes is common in that region.
The teenagers were on their way to a candle lighting ceremony in central London to celebrate Chanukah.
Campaign Against Antisemitism and others publicised the video and called on the police to investigate. We are also in contact with the victims.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These are shocking images of an abhorrent attack on a bus carrying Jewish passengers at the heart of London during the festival of Chanukah. We are in contact with the victims. Police must investigate and identify suspects.”
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.
New York police look for three women allegedly behind spree of assaults on Jewish people
The New York Police Department is looking for three women who are allegedly behind a spree of assaults on Jewish people.
According to police, the suspects slapped a three-year-old boy across the face last Friday and pulled an eighteen-year-old girl to the ground on Sunday. Shortly after, the women reportedly slapped a nine-year-old boy on the head repeatedly.
All three of the victims were said to have been visibly Jewish.
Anyone with information on the incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or reach out via the CrimeStoppers website or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
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: New York Police Department
Jewish students in Australia sue State of Victoria over secondary college reportedly ignoring antisemitic bullying
Jewish students in Australia are suing the State of Victoria over allegations that Brighton Secondary College in Melbourne reportedly ignored claims of antisemitic bullying.
The State, in addition to the principal and two teachers at the college, now face a Federal Court hearing in proceedings for breaching of the Racial Discrimination Act and negligence. The students have accused the college of creating a “prison culture”.
Lawyers for the State and school staff deny the accusations.
The case comes a year after an inquiry was launched into the accusations, the results of which the parents of the students were unhappy with. Jane McCullough, a lawyer representing the students, said at the time: “The families do not believe that the report and its findings go in any way far enough towards combating a significant problem of antisemitism at Brighton Secondary College, nor does it provide an acceptable outcome or justice for them. The families will continue to fight to be heard and for justice for their children.”
The inquiry was launched after an investigative piece was written by The Australian Jewish News, which reportedly unearthed a long list of claims that “that spanned years, with one Jewish student said to have been lured to a park where he was robbed and beaten at night, and another allegedly threatened with a knife in a school bathroom. One boy said he was told to ‘Get in my oven’ and had ‘Heil Hitler’ chanted at him. Countless instances of swastikas were said to be daubed on school walls and property, and allegations of inaction were directed at the principal and coordinators.”
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.
American School in London in turmoil over concerns about diversity education and staff meeting that sparked antisemitism allegations
The prestigious American School in London is in turmoil over concerns about the content of diversity education and after revelations about a staff meeting that sparked antisemitism allegations.
The headteacher of the school – the most expensive day school in Britain, which counts several famous alumni and children of numerous celebrities – has resigned well short of the end of her ten-year term, after complaints were made by parents about the content of diversity education at the school, both to the media and directly to Campaign Against Antisemitism.
Concerns centred around the teaching of “critical race theory” and other controversial ideas, including “white privilege”. Campaign Against Antisemitism has received concerning reports about the school apparently teaching that Jews are part of a privileged elite. A “Privilege Power” chart was reportedly disseminated, which appeared to show Jews just below Protestants and Catholics at the upper end of the “Spirituality-Religion” segment of the chart.
The introduction of racially-segregated after-school clubs reportedly upset numerous parents, many of whom are American.
In addition, allegations have arisen about a staff meeting in which the words “Nazi”, “swastika”, “Hitler” and “skinheads” were used by faculty members during what was described as a heated conversation about how some parents have reacted to the diversity curriculum.
The school has denied that the inflammatory terms were used to describe parents but has not clarified in what context the terms were used. A spokesperson for the school did concede that remarks made during the meeting “could cause offence to the community,” with numerous Jewish families sending their children to the school.
Concerningly, the school’s statement noted that “There were questions asked about whether the response to racism is always as strong and immediate as the response to antisemitism.” This suggestion by one teacher, apparently in connection with parents, caused offence among colleagues, who passed on their concerns to parents and trustees.
Although the headteacher has resigned, concerns remain that the culture and curriculum are the product of wider thinking among senior staff.
A spokesperson for the school said: “Teachers did not refer to parents by any of the words [listed above]. However, [the headteacher] and the school were concerned that the question contrasting the responses to racism and antisemitism could cause offence to members of the community, and this was addressed immediately. We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable and inclusive school community and firmly believe this will lead to a better future for all our children.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We have been receiving disturbing reports about the American School in London. There are claims that terms like ‘Nazis’ were used at a staff meeting. Although the school denies this extreme language referred to Jewish parents, it apparently does not dispute that these terms did appear in their discussion, which allegedly also featured language suggesting that antisemitism and racism are different. The school must tackle this problem suitably forcefully and seriously.”
Do you or your friends/family have stories of schoolteachers or pupils facing antisemitism at schools in the UK? Contact us at [email protected] or call +44 (0)330 822 0321.
Image credit: Google
Woman in Swindon reported to police after neighbours see swastika flag hanging in her bedroom window
A woman in Swindon was reported to the police after neighbours saw a swastika flag hanging in her bedroom window.
One local resident said that “You couldn’t miss the flag,” adding: “It’s vile and this is such a nice area which makes it even more shocking. We’re all disgusted. That symbol means nothing but hate and evil. Why would anyone want to have it hanging on display for everyone to see through the window?”
When asked about the flag, the homeowner reportedly only said that she had “lots of flags in my home.” It was also alleged that her stepdad Derek, when told that the swastika was a racist symbol, said: “So? You want to mind your own business.”
Wiltshire Police said: “We responded to a call from a member of the public on Friday evening, who reported having seen what appeared to be a Nazi flag hung inside a room of an address in Lower Stratton, Swindon.
“Our officers attended the address that evening and gave strong words of advice to the person living there to advise that possession of the flag was not illegal, but that if it can be viewed from a public area, this could be considered a racially aggravated public order offence. The person agreed to remove it from public view.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism: “It is sickening to think that there are still people in Britain who take pleasure in hanging giant Nazi banners in their homes. This person even apparently had the audacity to display the flag for anyone looking from outside to see. She vastly underestimated the common decency of her neighbours. If it happens again, the police must issue more than just warnings.”
Former England striker Carlton Cole apologises for describing poor football performance as “a Holocaust” on live radio
The former England striker Carlton Cole has apologised after he described a poor football performance as “a Holocaust” during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Speaking on West Ham boss David Moyes and whether he had chosen a defensive side against Manchester City, Mr Cole said: “You can say he has gone a bit negative. Why not? You’ve got to give Man City some respect otherwise you’re going to get picked off. Otherwise it will be a Holocaust and you don’t want that.”
Later during the programme, Mr Cole said: “I’d just like to apologise to the listeners for a totally unacceptable phrase that I used earlier in the show. I’m sorry if I’ve offended anybody, really and truly. Sorry.”
This is not the first time a Holocaust reference has been made in the context of describing a poor performance.
In October, Joey Barton, the former football player and current manager of Bristol Rovers Football Club, issued an apology after he also described a bad football performance as “a Holocaust”.
Reacting to Bristol Rovers’ loss to Newport County, Mr Barton said: “I said to the lads during the week, you know, the team’s almost like musical chairs, you know. Someone gets in and does well, but then gets suspended. Someone gets in and does well, gets injured. Someone gets in, does well for a game and then has a Holocaust, a nightmare, you know, an absolute disaster.”
Mr Barton later apologised, stating: “Clearly no offence was meant, but some people have rightly pointed out to me the use of the analogy was not correct. So if anybody was offended by that, I would like to apologise for that. I think the FA were right to write to me and remind me of that. You hope to use better analogies in future, but it was certainly with no malice or offence intended to anybody.”
In 2019, football pundit and former footballer, Perry Groves, apologised after reportedly describing a player as having “a Holocaust of a game” on a live radio show. One year earlier, Phil Brown, the football player turned manager, apologised for using the same phrase.
Residents rally in support of Jewish community after Chanukiah is vandalised in Pennsylvania
Hundreds of residents of the Pennsylvania town of Lancaster turned out to support the town’s Jewish community after a chanukiah in the town-centre was vandalised.
The custom built steel chanukiah, which was designed by Mark Joshua Lewin, was damaged just hours after its unveiling in Penn Square.
On Sunday, the first night of Chanukah, hundreds of residents came out to support the city’s Jewish community. Messages of support and concern were also posted on social media and around the town.
A message board outside a Quaker hall read: “We stand with our Jewish neighbours: there is no room for hate in Lancaster County.”
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: Combat Antisemitism
Student union’s discriminatory resolution leads to fears for kosher food provision on Canadian campus
There are fears at the University of Toronto that a resolution passed by one of its student unions could be used to prevent Jewish caterers from supplying goods or services.
A motion passed by Scarborough Campus Student Union (SCSU) at the University of Toronto pledged to buy kosher food “only” from kosher caterers who “do not normalise Israeli apartheid.”
Given the central role that the Jewish state plays in contemporary Jewish identity, the notion of excluding Jewish institutions that have connections to Israel potentially means untenable restrictions on other Jewish practices, including the provision of kosher food, much of which is produced in Israel.
Consequently, the resolution has led to fears among some Jewish students and student groups that they will not be able to have a kosher diet on campus.
Scarborough campus student Gabriela Rosenblum said that “even for something as simple” as ordering jam doughnuts for Chanukah, Jewish students at SCSU would “now be forced to prove that kosher caterers do not support their Jewish homeland” which, she added, was “basically impossible.”
A spokesperson for the University’s Hillel said it was “deeply disappointed” by the union’s position and called for the union executive to “reverse this shameful resolution.”
Daniel Koren, Executive Director of Hasbara Canada, said in a statement: “Whether the SCSU likes it or not, Israel is an essential part of Jewish identity. They do not have the right to tell Jewish students how to practice Judaism on campus.”
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.
Co-founder of National Action found guilty of membership in the proscribed neo-Nazi organisation
The co-founder of National Action has today been found guilty of membership in the proscribed neo-Nazi organisation
Ben Raymond, 32, helped launch the group in 2013, with Bristol Crown Court hearing how he coined the term “white jihad”.
Mr Raymond, from Swindon, is the seventeenth person to be found guilty of membership in the banned group. He was also convicted of possessing a manifesto written by the far-right terrorist Andrews Breivik, as well as a guide to homemade detonators, but was found not guilty of four counts of possessing other documents.
National Action was proscribed by the British Government following repeated calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.
Mr Raymond’s alleged co-founder recently pleaded not guilty to a single charge of membership of a proscribed organisation and will stand trial next year.
They are alleged to have founded the group when they were both university students.
Mr Raymond remained involved in the group, even after it was banned, producing much of its material and reportedly being likened to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister. He also remained in contact with other leading figures in the group, several of whom have been jailed.
Mr Raymond has been remanded in custody, with sentencing expected at the same court on Friday.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Ben Raymond was the co-founder of National Action, the poster child group for neo-Nazis in Britain today. He was also its master propagandist, doing what he could to broadcast its message of racist hate. The ban on National Action, secured after calls from Campaign Against Antisemitism and others, was the first step, and convictions of its members are the second. We trust that the sentence will be proportionate to the very serious charges on which Mr Raymond has been found guilty.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.
Image credit: Counter Terrorism Policing
“Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish”: Antisemitic flyers distributed to Beverly Hills homes on eve of Chanukah
Antisemitic flyers alleging that the COVID-19 pandemic has been masterminded by Jews were distributed to Beverly Hills homes.
The flyers were found yesterday, shortly before the Jewish community ushered in the first night of Chanukah. Written at the top reads “Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish” alongside the domain “goyim.tv”, a website affiliated with the “Goyim Defence League”, a group whose membership reportedly contains several neo-Nazis and is understood to be led by Jon Minadeo II. The group is responsible for stunts such as visiting a Chabad centre to claim that “these Jewish terrorists” were behind 9/11, and hanging a banner on a Los Angeles overpass reading “Honk if you know the Jews want a race war.” Earlier this year, Mr Minadeo II created t-shirts carrying antisemitic slogans such as the Holocaust was “a hoax”. Most recently, they hung a banner from a bridge in Austin, Texas that read “Vax the Jews”.
The Beverly Hills Police Department released a statement in which it labelled the event a “hate incident” and confirmed that an investigation was underway. The police received a call from a resident shortly after 18:00 yesterday who reported “a flyer containing hate speech.” After undertaking a search, police discovered that more flyers of the same design, enclosed inside plastic bags of rice in order to anchor them, had been distributed across other homes nearby.
The flyer was described as a single eight-and-a-half-inch by eleven-inch sheet of paper that contained “propaganda style hate speech related to the COVID pandemic and the Jewish people.”
Singer Pat Boone said that “There is no rational reason for this kind of prejudice or bigotry. It is not founded on anything that makes any sense at all,” while Beverly Hills Mayor Robert Wunderlich reportedly said: “All too often Beverly Hills has been a target for various sorts of hate crimes and we won’t tolerate it.”
Anyone with information regarding the incident was urged to call the police at 310-550-4951.
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.
CAA’s Stephen Silverman explains history of antisemitic tropes to Azeem Rafiq in JC tour of Jewish Museum with Holocaust survivor
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, joined the cricketer Azeem Rafiq on a tour of the Jewish Museum, organised by the JC, with a Holocaust survivor.
Mr Rafiq recently highlighted the problem of racial abuse in cricket before it emerged that he had made antisemitic comments when he was nineteen.
The thirty-year-old former Yorkshire cricketer has been praised for exposing racism in the sport, including during his tearful testimony at a hearing of the House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, where he said that racism destroyed his career.
But he then had to apologise after it was revealed that he and former Leicestershire cricketer Ateeq Javid, in an apparent discussion about another professional cricketer, appeared to accuse the latter of being reluctant to spend money on a meal out because “he is a Jew”. Mr Rafiq joked that he will “probs go after my 2nds again ha…Only Jews do tht sort of shit [sic].”
Mr Rafiq has since apologised and looked to learn more about anti-Jewish racism. In a JC-organised tour of the Jewish Museum, Mr Rafiq was accompanied by Holocaust survivor Ruth Barnett and Mr Silverman, who explained the history of the antisemitic trope of Jews and money and why Mr Rafiq’s historic remarks had been so hurtful.
Mr Silverman also told Mr Rafiq of his own experiences of being teased and insulted as a child because he was Jewish: “It was always two things, either ‘you killed Christ’ or comments about Jews and money. The word ‘Jew’ used as an insult was a constant soundtrack.” Mr Silverman added that “Forty years later, my daughter joined the same school. And she experienced exactly the same antisemitism.”
Mr Rafiq said: “Racism can be subtle and discreet. It breaks you slowly. I was constantly asking myself if I was being too sensitive, if it was only a joke. Now that I’ve learned about the history of my comments, I understand the hurt and I’m really sorry to the Jewish community.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to act against instances of anti-Jewish racism in all sports.
Image credit: Rick Findler
Jury finds Charlottesville rioters who carried Ku Klux Klan torches and chanted antisemitic slogans liable for $26 million in damages
A jury in Virginia has found that prominent white supremacists and white-supremacist organisations are liable for more than $26 million (£19.5 million) in damages from the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, in which one civil rights activist was killed and dozens were injured.
During the rally, held to oppose the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, white supremacists marched through the town carrying torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
The case, seeking damages for the physical and emotional injuries caused at the rally, was brought about by the civil rights organisation “Integrity First for America”, alongside those injured in the violence as well as other town residents. The jury in the civil trial heard testimony for four weeks and took three days to deliberate.
Evidence entered in the trial known as Sines v. Kessler included social media posts, text messages and online chats between the rally organisers. According to the jury, the plaintiffs proved that the defendants – who included event organiser Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer, thought to have coined the term “alt-right” – violated a Virginia conspiracy law in advance of the event.
In her testimony, Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt said that there was “a great deal of overt antisemitism and adulation of the Third Reich.” Ms Lipstadt added that “very few things” surprised her, but she was “taken aback” by the evidence she saw.
According to reports, antisemitic slurs and hate speech were frequently heard from defendants during the trial, with defendant Michael Hill pledging during testimony that he was “a white supremacist, a racist, an antisemite, a homophobe, a xenophobe, an Islamophobe, and any other sort of ‘phobe’ that benefits my people, so help me God.’”
Commenting on the result in a statement, Integrity First for America said that the case had sent “a clear message” that “violent hate won’t go unanswered.” The statement added: “At a moment of rising extremism, major threats to our democracy, and far too little justice, the case has provided a model of accountability.”
During the 2017 violence, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr drove his car into a crowd, killing civil rights activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens. Mr Fields was convicted of murder in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.
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.
Cardiff University Students’ Union adopts International Definition of Antisemitism, but Students’ Unions at University of East Anglia and Queen Mary’s adopt wrecking Jerusalem Declaration instead
The Cardiff University Students’ Union has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The welcome move will add pressure to Cardiff University, which earlier this year declined to adopt the Definition, ludicrously fearing “a potentially divisive situation.”
The motion was passed at the Students’ Union’s Annual General Meeting on 25th November, following unsuccessful efforts by student groups over the past year to pressure the University into doing so as well.
Elsewhere, Students’ Unions at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Queen Mary University of London, failed to represent and show solidarity with their Jewish members by adopting the Jerusalem Declaration, which is a wrecking document intended to undermine the globally-recognised Definition.
Both Universities have themselves adopted the Definition, even as their students unions have now failed to do so.
It is understood that at the UEA Students’ Union, the measure passed amid controversy over the extent to which Jewish representatives would be able to contribute to the debate. The UEA Jewish Society said in an e-mail to the Union Council that “it is disgusting that this is even being debated and that non-Jewish people feel they have the right to tell us, the Jewish community, what antisemitism is.” The motion expressly repudiated the International Definition of Antisemitism, even though it is supported by Jewish students, the wider Jewish community and national governments around the world.
It is understood that the campaign to adopt the wrecking document has been underway for months at the campus. Jewish students are reportedly reviewing appeal options.
At Queen Mary University, the Students’ Union repealed its previous adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism and replaced it with the Jerusalem Declaration. The measure was reportedly not discussed with Jewish students, who reacted with disgust.
Binyomin Gilbert, Programme Manager at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We commend Cardiff Students’ Union for adopting the International Definition of Antisemitism and urge the University to follow the inspired lead of its students. We also call on the UEA and Queen Mary’s Students’ Unions to listen to Jewish students and think again.
“With efforts to water down the International Definition of Antisemitism increasingly failing, campus groups are now seeking to adopt the so-called ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ instead, which can only sabotage efforts to fight antisemitism.
“This week, we have seen students’ unions take the opposite approach to their universities: where the university has adopted the Definition, the students’ union adopts the Jerusalem Declaration, and where the university has failed to adopt the Definition, the students’ union does so.
“It is extraordinary that fighting racism should be so controversial: all universities and students’ unions, if they truly care about Jewish students, should be adopting the Definition in full and without caveat or substitutes.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by 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].
Anti-racism trainer who ran Cabinet Office inclusivity workshop has record of comparing Israel to Nazis and wishing death on “Zionists” and was even barred from standing as a Labour candidate
An anti-racism trainer who ran an inclusivity workshop for the Cabinet Office reportedly has a record of comparing Israel to Nazis and wishing death on “Zionists”.
An investigation by the JC revealed that Mizanur Rahman, known as Mizan the Poet, ran a training session at the Cabinet Office in 2019 called “an inclusive Britain”, despite having shared posts comparing Israel to Nazis and white supremacy.
According to the report, in 2014, Mr Rahman posted photos of prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp alongside people at the Ephraim-Taybeh checkpoint, referencing the supposed “similarities”. In a caption, he said: “In the Holy Land, the Zionist government, with the support of the majority of Israel’s population, are themselves perpetuating a holocaust against the Palestinian people. After the bodies are counted and the atrocities documented, how will the Zionist government excuse themselves for committing these crimes against humanity?”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Mr Rahman also tweeted about a wounded Israeli soldier: “Hopefully he, and all IDF soldiers and Zionists, will lose more than just their limbs…their lives!!!!”
Another post said: “#Israel has no right to exist. Israel was founded on terrorism, ethnic cleansing and practises antisemitism as #palestinians are #semitic.”
In 2018, he reportedly attended an Al-Quds Day march in London, where flags of the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group, Hizballah, were on display. One of the speakers at the rally called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Hizballah has since been banned in full in the UK as a terrorist organisation.
After a session at the Ministry of Defence in 2019, he reportedly tweeted: “I spoke about institutional racism/Islamophobia, the role of the media, Prevent, detention centres and other ways that racism manifests in society.”
When former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended resigned from the Labour Party after claiming that Hitler supported Zionism, Mr Rahman reportedly described Mr Livingstone’s remarks as “pure historical fact”.
This month, Mr Rahman apparently complained to the Labour Party after being banned from a list of potential candidates for local council.
According to the JC, when asked on Twitter whether he still believed that all Zionists should die, Mr Rahman said: “The answer to that is no. I, personally would like a peaceful solution to the conflict where Palestinian rights would be upheld and treated equally to their Israeli counterparts. With that said, the Palestinians are living under an occupation…” adding that he had “nothing against Jewish self-determination,” before giving further views on Israel.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “The Cabinet Office has recently adopted an increased due diligence process for guest speakers in line with cross-government best practice. This includes enhanced searches of social media. All events are consistent with the Civil Service Code of Conduct.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is astonishing that the Cabinet Office could have engaged a speaker who apparently holds such virulent antisemitic views to educate about racism. This incident is one of many that raise troubling questions about the ‘anti-racism training’ industry in this country. Not only has this field long had a blind spot when it comes to racism against Jews, but examples of industry figures actually promoting antisemitism arise too often to be ignored. Over the past several years, we have seen how frontline politicians have identified as ‘lifelong anti-racists’ in an effort to deflect very real allegations of antisemitism. It is time that public bodies and private corporations stop assuming that just because people call themselves ‘anti-racist’, they actually are.”
Image credit: YouTube
Axe thrown through chapel window in Belgrade Jewish cemetery
One of the Jewish cemeteries in Belgrade, Serbia was vandalised on Wednesday night when an axe was thrown through its chapel window.
A spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Belgrade said that the vandalism had caused serious material damage, adding that “severe physical injuries or even death” could have occurred had the chapel been occupied at the time. “This act reminds us of Kristallnacht,” they added.
On Thursday, European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin called upon Serbia’s Minister of Internal Affairs to carry out a full investigation. Rabbi Margolin said: “It is clear that whoever was responsible has no respect for the dead, never mind the living. We extend our support to our Jewish brothers and sisters in Belgrade and Serbia as a whole, who must be reeling at this attack, and feeling vulnerable.
“I have written to Serbian minister [sic] of Internal Affairs asking for a robust response to the attack, as well as a full throated condemnation, lest the antisemites that carried out this act believe that it is now open season on Jewish buildings in Serbia.”
It was also reported that Serbia’s Jewish community has faced other incidents of hostility recently, which included a campaign of repeated, antisemitic harassment against a well-known Jewish epidemiologist that involved comparisons made between him and Josef Mengele, and the infamous Nazi doctor. Demonstrations were also reportedly made outside of the epidemiologist’s home, whereby demonstrators wore yellow Stars of David.
Threats of a second Holocaust, as well as Nazi symbols, antisemitic emails, have also been made against the Community’s Facebook page.
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: Chabad Serbia
Far-right Italian lawmaker apologises for referring to Holocaust survivor by the tattoo number she received in Auschwitz
A far-right Italian lawmaker has apologised for referring to a Holocaust survivor by the tattoo number that was forced upon her as a teenager in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Liliana Segre, who received the tattoo when she was thirteen years old, has been an outspoken supporter of COVID-19 health measures. It was on this point that Fabio Meroni, a member of the city council of Lissone who represents the far-right party Northern League, criticised her in a Facebook post, whereupon he referred to her using the number of her tattoo, stating: “All that was missing [in the vaccine debate] was…75190.”
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
The far-right figure was condemned for his comments by both political and religious figures alike. Lissone councilors from the center-left Partito Democratico urged Mr Meroni to apologise, stating that equating the process of vaccination with Nazis was “vulgar” and would “offend all people with historical awareness and a sense of humanity.”
Mr Meroni responded by saying that he used “that number instead of her name to avoid getting banned from Facebook.”
Walker Meghnagi, President of Milan’s Jewish community, said that it was “intolerable” for a public figure to use such “vile terms” against “those who have suffered the horror of the racial laws on their own skin.”
After receiving substantial backlash for his comments, Mr Meroni wrote that “in this climate of hatred, unfortunately, I too got involved and I tried to express my thoughts in a totally wrong way,” later adding: “I want to apologise to Senator Liliana Segre, it was not my intention in any way to offend you and if one day I will have the honor of being able to speak to you, I will personally explain my thoughts.”
The initial post has since been removed from Facebook.
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.
Far-right influencer who reportedly stormed Capitol Hill is charged with damaging Arizona Chanukah display
A far-right influencer who reportedly stormed the US Capitol earlier this year has now been charged with damaging a Chanukah display in Arizona.
Tim Gionet, who is also known as “Baked Alaska” and has been accused of harbouring neo-Nazi views, faces charges of criminal damage and attempted criminal damage after allegedly vandalising the Chanukah display at the Arizona Capitol building in Phoenix in December 2020.
One of the organisers of the Chanukah presentation at Wesley Bolin Plaza stated that video footage shows Mr Gionet tearing a sign off the festive display. Arizona’s Rabbi Levi Levertov said that he viewed the incident as “an attack on an entire community.”
Mr Gionet also faces charges over allegedly storming the US Capitol during the riot on 6th January, and is also awaiting sentencing after he was convicted of assault, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing in an incident in which authorities state that he shot pepper spray at an employee at a bar in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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.
Man who spat on Jewish neighbours and told them that Hitler should have gassed them is jailed for six months
An Ohio man who spat on his Jewish neighbours and told them that Adolf Hitler should have gassed them has been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
The man has also been ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 and one year of supervised release for criminally interfering with the right to fair housing.
Court documents reveal how on 7th November 2020, Douglas G. Schifer, 66, broke his neighbours’ windows, spat on them, and hurled antisemitic abuse and threats towards them.
Mr Schifer was quoted as saying: “All you f***ing people, it’s no wonder Hitler burned you people in ovens,” “f***ing Hitler should have gassed you,” and “Jews burn, you belong in ovens.” He also threatened to shoot both his neighbours and their dog.
Mr Schifer’s trial was held in July, where he pleaded guilty in federal court to criminally interfering with the right to fair housing.
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.
Metro apologises after CAA and others call out the newspaper for printing letter telling readers that racism against Jews matters less if it comes from a member of another minority
The Metro has apologised today after Campaign Against Antisemitism and others called out the newspaper for printing a letter yesterday telling readers that racism against Jews matters less if it comes from a member of another minority.
The letter, from “Vytautus” in Sheffield, claimed that “Racism is [exclusively] an attempt by a ‘privileged’ majority to undermine the destiny of a minority individual or group – it can only be applied by the privileged. What we term ‘racism’ by minorities is not racism but ‘prejudice’, as the minority cannot affect the destiny of the privileged majority.”
The letter went on to describe the cricketer Azeem Rafiq’s past antisemitic comments as “prejudicial” but insisted that they were not “racist”, because Mr Rafiq is from a minority community.
As to whether Mr Rafiq’s comments could not be racist also because they targeted Jews, the letter was ambiguous.
Campaign Against Antisemitism and others called out the newspaper for printing a “dangerously irresponsible” letter.
Metro’s editor, Ted Young, tweeted in response to complaints: “The MetroTalk page is carefully edited with all sorts of views coming in from around the country Nicole. Our readers always challenge views that are clearly wrong in the cut and thrust of debate. But In hindsight this should not have made the page. Apologies.”
Mr Young promised an apology in today’s edition, which was duly printed: “Yesterday, we published a letter that argued remarks about Jewish people from cricketer Azeem Rafiq did not amount to racism. The MetroTalk page is carefully edited with all sorts of views coming in from around the country. Our readers always challenge views that are clearly wrong in the cut and thrust of debate. But in hindsight the letter should not have made the page. Apologies.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
Jewish child grabbed and kicked by local gang in Stamford Hill
A Jewish child was attacked by a local gang in Stamford Hill.
The twelve-year-old victim was grabbed by the neck and kicked.
The gang is believed to be associated with the nearby Webb Estate and is accused of harassing Jewish residents for years.
The attack took place at 18:05 on 18th November on Leadale Road and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.
If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 8336 18/11/2021.
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.
Leicester City Labour councillor suspended over antisemitism allegations after allegedly accusing Sir Keir Starmer of being an “agent of Israel”
A Labour Party councillor on Leicester City Council has reportedly been suspended after allegedly accusing Sir Keir Starmer of being an “agent of Israel”.
Jacky Nangreave, who represents Westcotes ward, is accused of saying of Sir Keir that “he seems to be an agent of Israel, I wonder what they can offer him.” She also allegedly posted a comment saying that “Zionism is terrorism”, with the hashtag “#HangTheGoddamnBankers”, according to a sixtreen-page-report by Labour Against Antisemitism.
It is claimed that she used a social media handle called Jacqueline Cryar.
Cllr Nangreave has also reportedly declared support for the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson and the antisemite Jackie Walker.
Cllr Nangreave said: “I am very sorry for what I see is a misunderstanding with the party and I hope it will be resolved positively soon. I continue to be a councillor for Westcotes…Residents can contact me about any problems they have with the council or the area.”
Leicester City Council has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
Image credit: Labour in Leicester
Australia bans the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hizballah in its entirety
Australia has banned the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group Hizballah in its entirety
Until now, Australia only proscribed the so-called “military wing” of Hizballah, but, since such a division is entirely artificial, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews has now rightly extended that ban to all of Hizballah’s operations.
She noted that the Iran-backed terror group “continues to threaten terrorist attacks and provide support to terrorist organisations,” and poses a “real” and “credible” threat to Australia.
The ban means that membership, public support and financing of Hizballah will be illegal in Australia.
Ms Andrews also announced today that her country would be proscribing the far-right group The Base, which she described as “a violent, racist neo-Nazi group known by security agencies to be planning and preparing terrorist attacks.”
In 2019, the UK banned Hizballah in its entirety, and last week, the Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a full ban on the antisemitic genocidal terrorist Hamas in the UK, following calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and allies.
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.
Jewish child threatened with knife in Stamford Hill
A Jewish child was threatened with a knife in Stamford Hill yesterday.
The twelve-year-old victim was riding his bicycle to school and was accosted by a 65-year-old man who said to him: “I will take out a knife to you, if you pass by again.”
The incident took place at 08:05 on 24th November on Leadale Road and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.
If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123, quoting reference number: CAD 310 17/11/2021.
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.
Convoy suspects appear in court for plea hearing on charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred
The four men charged in connection with the alleged antisemitic abuse shouted from a ‘Free Palestine’ convoy in North London in May have appeared in court today.
Mohammed Iftikhar Hanif, 27; Jawaad Hussain, 24; Asif Ali, 25; and Adil Mota, 26, all from Blackburn, all appeared remotely at Wood Green Crown Court today and pleaded not guilty to charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred.
The charges relate to the convoy on 16th May, participants in which were caught on video allegedly shouting through a megaphone “F*** the Jews…rape their daughters” as they drove through Jewish neighbourhoods waving the flag of the Palestinian Authority, during fighting between Hamas and Israel.
The incident took place a stone’s throw from a synagogue in West Hampstead and continued into St John’s Wood. The convoy had previously and provocatively passed through other Jewish neighbourhoods as well, including Hendon and Golders Green.
The abuse was condemned by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Service admitted that they had failed so badly to monitor the convoy that it took hours to find the car in question, which was identified from photographs taken by a Jewish member of the public who had the presence of mind to capture images of the vehicles’ licence plates. Later that day, the four arrests were made.
The charges are punishable by up to three years in prison.
Today’s trial preparation and plea hearing will be followed by a further remote hearing on 11th February 2022.
Last week, the Home Secretary announced a full ban on the antisemitic genocidal terrorist Hamas in the UK, following calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism and allies.
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.
Russian social media platform reportedly rife with antisemitism
VK, a Russian social media platform with an active user base of at least 60 million, is reportedly rife with antisemitism, online watchdog Fighting Online Antisemitism has said.
Some examples of the alleged content include offensive caricatures that evoke classic antisemitic tropes of Jews with exaggerated facial features, as well as portraying Jews in positions of power over the media.
Comparisons between Jews and rodents and leeches were also made, and it was even reported that content promoting Holocaust denial and admiration for the Nazis were present.
Allegations that Jewish people have masterminded the COVID-19 pandemic to further their own gains were also not uncommon. Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
It was also reported recently that VK was fined 3 million roubles for not deleting banned content, though it is not known whether this content relates to the antisemitic posts reported.
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: Fighting Online Antisemitism
Swastikas spray-painted in Florida reportedly remained there for weeks before being removed
Swastikas that were spray-painted on a road in Lehigh Acres, Florida remained there for weeks before being removed, it has been reported.
The Nazi symbols are understood to have been painted over on Friday, though not before being discovered by local residents.
One resident stated that what bothered him the most was “that someone with that sort of attitude would even be in this area.”
It was also pointed out that the symbols were “down the road” from one of the local school bus stops.
Gerald Reisdorf, another member of the community, said: “I guess they maybe want to send a message. ‘What message?’ I don’t know. You know, to me, it’s childish.
“I’m old enough to know what the second world war is about… all of that stuff, you know. And I thought that was behind us.”
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.