Dame Helen Mirren accosted on the streets of London
This week, a video resurfaced in which acclaimed actress Dame Helen Mirren gets called an “evil Zionist b****” by a pro-Palestine thug.
You can watch the appalling encounter here.
We are now at a point where public figures can be screamed at and abused simply for being perceived as being sympathetic to the world’s only Jewish state or unwilling to conform to an ideological litmus test.
This is not activism. It is intimidation, mob behaviour and extremism masquerading as moral virtue.
We led on this story, amassing hundreds of thousands of views on our social media, comments in major newspapers and interviews with our Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman.
No Jewish Culture Month in modern Britain, it seems
Last week, the British Museum announced that an event to mark Jewish Culture Month in the UK entitled “Ancient Israel and Judah in the British Museum” would be postponed.
According to its press statement, this was due to the museum being “informed that a significant proportion of registered attendees were individuals intending to deliberately disrupt the event, preventing others from participating in good faith and undermining the purpose of the programme.”
In modern Britain, you can’t have a Jewish Culture Month.
Soon enough, in modern Britain you may not have many Jews either, given the percentages of them who say that they are considering leaving the country.
The Prime Minister recently talked about how Jewish people are being bullied out of the arts: now we’re seeing it at the country’s leading museum.
We are still waiting for some brave institution to stand up and say that the Jew-hating mob will not win in their space.
One wonders if there are any still left in modern Britain.
Several outlets came to us to comment on the decision – watch what we had to say on LBC and Talk TV.
Just across the river, in another acclaimed British institution, there was more controversy.
Over 60 MPs and peers have called on the Culture Secretary to investigate Misan Harriman, the chair of the Southbank Centre, who has attracted significant media attention recently over a series of inflammatory comments such as that “Zionism is part of a bigger, and in many ways uglier machine, which is capitalism. That’s what’s making this world so wounded.”
It is understood that the Charity Commission is also “assessing concerns” regarding Mr Harriman, who may have broken its rules of political impartiality with his comments, to say the least.
The SXSW London Festival was also due to host controversial streamer Hasan Piker this week.
Mr Piker has made a slew of concerning comments, including saying that he would “vote for Hamas over Israel”, describing Orthodox Jews as “inbreds” (a comment he reportedly later regretted) and saying that “America deserved 9/11”.
The festival described the streamer on its website as someone “wielding sharp political insight and a characteristically irreverent sense of humour”.
It is astonishing that at a time when British Jews are facing a torrent of antisemitism on the streets and online, SXSW London believed this would be an appropriate guest speaker.
Thankfully, we understand that following calls to do so from CAA and others, Hasan Piker’s visa has been revoked and he is now barred from entering the United Kingdom.
Britain has enough extremists of its own to contend with. We don’t need any more.
When hatred arises, CAA acts
This week CAA has been busy holding institutions, event organisers and establishments to account.
We have been writing to several sponsors and partners of Boomtown Festival, including Red Bull, Amplify and Charge Candy, regarding the inclusion of Irish rap group Kneecap in the festival’s lineup.
For a festival that prides itself on inclusivity and community, the decision to host Kneecap is profoundly at odds with the values it claims to champion.
We have written to Curzon Cinemas to raise concerns with the description currently published on their website for the forthcoming documentary entitled “Planet Israel” promoting a misleading and inflammatory characterisation of Jewish people.
Considering the current climate when such narratives are being used to legitimise violence against British Jews, we have requested that Curzon Cinemas remove the description pending urgent review and revision.
Also this week, we have sent a letter to Historic Royal Palaces regarding an information board outside the Tower of London entitled “Medieval Jewish Prisoners”.
We have notified the curator of our concern with the absence of any reference to the pervasive antisemitic sentiment in Medieval England on the board, which risks decontextualising the information and giving a misleading colouration to the display.
We also wrote to the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells regarding a performance some weeks ago featuring comedian Jen Brister.
Whenever antisemitism rears its ugly head, whether that be in the arts, our institutions, our schools and beyond, we will be there.
That’s the message which we took to a vigil in Borehamwood, where Elie addressed the crowd.
From Brighton to Borehamwood
“Dirty filthy Jew”.
This is what a man is alleged to have said to two passengers disembarking a bus in Hove. Sussex Police has launched an investigation into the reported incident, which is being treated as a hate crime, and has appealed for information from the public.
Elsewhere, a nineteen-year-old man has reportedly been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence following an incident which occurred outside a synagogue in Borehamwood on Friday 22nd May.
You can read information on his bail conditions here – which we are grateful to the police for imposing, to protect our increasingly unnerved community. We hope that justice will be firm and swift.
Also last week, an alleged repeat offender was arrested for the fourth time in two weeks.
Francis Achille, 64, was arrested for allegedly threatening Jewish children with a stick. The incident reportedly took place outside a synagogue. You can watch the footage here.
Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch group, has since reported that Mr Achille has been arrested for a fifth time.
This is neither justice nor deterrence.
“Free Palestine” at the airport, and other so-called ‘activism’
Are people no longer free to travel without being accosted by so-called ‘activists’?
This weekend we saw footage of airport employees in London Stansted Airport shouting “Free Palestine” shortly after a flight from Tel Aviv had landed – you can watch it here.
This is doing nothing to bring peace to the Middle East.
There has been a fair share of attention-seeking stunts this week – such as one man who decided to wear a t-shirt claiming that “all Zionists are racist” to this weekend’s football celebrations.
We believe this man to be Max Geller, who claims to be a former activist within Palestine Action prior to its proscription as a terrorist organisation (which is currently subject to legal argument).
Wearing a t-shirt claiming that “all Zionists are racist” in public only serves to inflame hatred and intimidate the vast majority of Jews at a time when antisemitism is already at record-breaking levels.
The Iranian threat exposed once again
According to an investigation conducted by The Times, an Iranian intelligence operation is allegedly attempting to recruit British people to openly protest against Israel in order to stir up anti-Israel fervour in this country.
The intelligence services are reportedly using public Telegram channels in order to recruit. The investigation found that money was offered in exchange for planning and organising anti-Israel rallies.
We have also seen similar means used to recruit British people to commit arson against Jewish targets.
We have seen where rhetoric posing as “just” anti-Israel activism can lead. It leads to the radicalisation of British people. It leads to Jewish people being stabbed. It leads to Jewish schoolchildren routinely subjected to abuse. Incitement dressed up as anti-Israel activism has real consequences for British Jews.
At a worrying time of heightened antisemitic violent attacks – several of which have been claimed by an Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, which experts say has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Iranian threat can no longer be ignored.
A step in the right direction would be banning the IRGC now. Sign our petition: antisemitism.org/BantheIRGC
Two and a half years on, we remember
Hundreds were murdered when Hamas terrorists attacked the Nova Music Festival on 7th October.
Inside London’s Nova Exhibition, survivor Hila Fakliro took Elie through the horrors of that day – watch here.
Local elections may be old news, but the allegations keep emerging
In the aftermath of last month’s local elections, where political parties faced increased scrutiny, there have been some developments to note.
Hau-Yu Tam won her re-election and is now the Green Party Cabinet Member for “Communities, Sanctuary and Healing” on Lewisham Council.
This is the same person who in 2025 allegedly expressed support for a barrister representing Hamas in a legal effort to de-proscribe the genocidal antisemitic organisation in the UK, and allegedly shared a post that appeared to call Zionism “the Nazism of our time”.
It will be interesting to see how someone with these odious views plans to ‘heal communities’.
In a welcome decision, the newly appointed orator of Worcester, Giovanni Esposito, has been sacked from his post granted to him by the Green Party Mayor of the town, Tor Pingree, after concerns arose regarding his social media history, including reportedly sharing a comment referring to “Zionist maggots”.
This extremist rhetoric has no place in public discourse, and the Mayor’s decision to repeal his position is one which we welcome.
Restore Britain has also featured in the media this week, with reports that it is being urged to address claims of antisemitism amongst party officials and supporters.
You can read about the allegations here.
Restore should seek to set an example by fighting antisemitism and speaking out. If it fails to do so, that failure will send a clear message.
CAA Event: “Ilona Domnich: in concert and in conversation”
Join us at 19:00 on Wednesday 8th July as CAA hosts renowned soprano Ilona Domnich in an evening of Jewish pride, resilience and beautiful music.
Ilona built a career that took her to opera houses and theatres around the world. But that all changed after 7th October 2023, when her refusal to stay silent in the face of hatred and lies resulted in her increasingly being shunned and excluded from the profession she loves.
Ilona’s story is representative of many in the arts, who face severe professional consequences to their position in defence of their community, their people and, often, their country.
CAA is always there to help artists in these situations and to hold venues and industries to account.
Ticket prices have been kept as low as possible to cover the cost of the event and ensure that Ilona’s story can be heard. There will be an appeal on the night, with the donations received going towards our work supporting people like Ilona who must not be left to fight the antisemites alone.
