Waterstones to remove all books by antisemitic hate preacher David Icke

Waterstones has announced that it will remove from sale all books by the conspiracy theorist and antisemitic hate preacher David Icke.

The bookseller reportedly made the announcement after one of Mr Icke’s books, titled ‘Everything You Wanted to Know But Have Never Been Told’, was found at a branch in Southport in a section marked “alternative histories and conspiracies”.

A spokesperson for Waterstones told the Jewish News newspaper: “Most of the selection is done at a local, shop-floor level. We will look into this immediately to ensure any stock is removed from sale.”

Mr Icke uses social media, his books and his stage performances to incite hatred. His preaching is so absurd that since the 1990s he has been dismissed as a crank, but because he is dismissed, there has been no major opposition to him and he has built up a following of thousands upon thousands of disciples whom he has persuaded to adamantly believe that the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists”. His repertoire includes conspiracy myths and tropes classified as antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism. Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully persuaded some venues to pull out of hosting his events.

Recently, Ofcom sanctioned the television channel London Live for airing an interview with Mr Icke on COVID-19 and Facebook and YouTube resolved to remove Mr Icke from their platforms, albeit because of his conspiracies regarding the pandemic rather than because he is a Jew-hater.