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UK: “Appalling” antisemitic graffiti found in alleyway in Cheltenham

Antisemitic graffiti has been discovered in an alleyway in Cheltenham.

The graffiti was reported two days ago, and includes two swastikas as well as an offensive phrase which appears to be something like “F*ck the Jews”, but the first word has been censored. It thus could conceivably be considerably worse (i.e. an instance of incitement).

Gloucestershire Live commented that the fact that sexual innuendo was found near to the antisemitic graffiti perhaps indicated that the graffiti was the “work of young people, who may not fully understand their extreme offence”. However, the fact that they are clearly aware enough to associate the Swastika with the hatred of Jews perhaps indicates otherwise.

The Community Security Trust also commented:

“In context, this may well be something between youths, but it is still troubling as to why someone should want to use a swastika, which is a notorious racist hate symbol.”

“Those using the swastika must at least know the basics of what it means, otherwise why else would they use it?”

The chairman of Cheltenham Hebrew Congregation, Jenny Silverstone, also commented on the incident, saying:

“The police in Gloucestershire are very supportive and we have every confidence in them to deal with this and every confidence that the people of Cheltenham will reject such messages of hate.”

“It is dispiriting that this continues. It never quite goes away and it’s hard to tell you how it makes me feel when you see or hear about this. But there are so many good people around that it’s them I have to turn to raise my spirits”

Last year, we reported that a 59-year-old resident of Cheltenham was flying the Nazi and confederate flags in his garden, despite insisting that he is not racist.

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Huge neo-Nazi rally allowed by Cambridgeshire Police

The BBC has reported that a neo-Nazi march was attended by “hundreds” of individuals in Cambridgeshire.

Around 350 people attended the rally held in honour of Ian Stuart Donaldson, a neo-Nazi who founded the group ‘Blood and Honour’, a reference to a Nazi expression. Donaldson was best known as the founder and frontman for the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver, whose songs include “Hail Victory” (a translation of the Nazi expression “Sieg Heil) and “Free My Land”, which includes the line “Once a nation, and now we’re run by Jews”.

A witness at the event reported seeing “a lot of cars, a big bonfire and a lot of music”, continuing “The one that I heard was a song about white power and this kept going on and on. It was very loud and distinctive”.

Cambridgeshire Police allowed the event to happen, believing it to have been in aid of Help For Heroes, who have denied any connection to it.

Matthew Collins of Hope Not Hate commented that it is disappointing that the event slipped under the radar but, that he was “aware of a number of occasions when the police appear to have been caught short about the activities of the extreme far right”.

Following the event, a police representative told a local news source “We had been in contact with other forces about similar events and were aware of a possible right wing element” but that there was no “crime committed”. However, video of the event shows hundreds of people performing Nazi salutes, people with Swastika flags, tattoos and t-shirts, and songs being performed with antisemitic language.

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Man shouts “Jews, gas them all” and “Sieg Heil” as he is sentenced

A judge was caught up in a colourful verbal exchange with a defendant during sentencing.

John Hennigan, 50, told Judge Patricia Lynch QC that she was a “bit of a c*nt”. Judge Lynch, angered by the comments from the man who has repeatedly been involved in racist offences, told him: “You are a bit of a c*** yourself. Being offensive to me doesn’t help”.

Mr Hennigan was jailed for 18 months for insulting a black mother.

However, as he was sentenced he repeatedly banged on the glass, performed Nazi salutes and shouted “Sieg Heil”.

He also sang “Jews, gas them all” several times before being removed.

Mr Hennigan has previously been involved in many racist incidents. He was sentenced for having told a black woman that doesn’t “agree with inter-racial relationships”. This marked the ninth time he breached an ASBO designed to warn him away from racist actions.

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Education Location Medium Politics South East of England United Kingdom Verbal Abuse

Leaked report into Oxford University Labour Club antisemitism seems designed to be unremarkable

The Labour Party’s inquiry into allegations of antisemitism in the Oxford University Labour Club has today been leaked. Carried out by Baroness Jan Royall, the report was commissioned after Alex Chalmers, Co-Chair of the club, resigned in February 2016 stating rampant levels of antisemitism as his reason for doing so. The incident brought antisemitism in the Labour Party into the public spotlight, and Campaign Against Antisemitism met Baroness Royall to assist her inquiry.

The full version of Baroness Royall’s report was originally kept secret, with only the executive summary being published in May. It was then expected to be published in full alongside the wider-ranging Chakrabarti Inquiry report into antisemitism in the Labour Party last month, but instead Baroness Royall was brought into the Chakrabarti Inquiry as a Co-Vice Chair, perhaps as a means of keeping her quiet. Baroness Royall’s report remained unpublished and the report issued by the Chakrabarti Inquiry was a total whitewash. The JC has now published a leaked copy of Baroness Royall’s full report.

Baroness Royall finds “no evidence that the Club is itself institutionally antisemitic” but notes a “cultural problem in which behaviour and language that would once have been intolerable is now tolerated. Some Jewish members do not feel comfortable attending the meetings, let alone participating.”

Looking at the wider issue of antisemitism, she also explains that “a pervading discourse now is that Jews are neither weak, nor poor, neither workers, nor have-nots. In short, Jews cannot be victims and cannot be discriminated against.” She goes on to say that “being anti-Zionist…is often used deliberately as a tool of antisemitism”.

Baroness Royall further notes “an environment in which Jews cannot debate, or feel safe to do so, unless their every remark is prefaced by a criticism of the Israeli government”. While she explains that a clear definition of what is antisemitic “can provide useful tools for helping consider what may, or may not, constitute antisemitic discourse” and urges the Chakrabarti Inquiry “to consider this carefully”, the Chakrabarti enquiry conspicuously avoided defining antisemitism.

The full text of Baroness Royall’s report does not change Campaign Against Antisemitism’s opinion following the publication of the partial report. The full report tells us nothing new, except that Baroness Royall thinks that Alex Chalmers was wrong when he resigned as Co-Chair of Oxford University Labour Club over rampant institutional antisemitism.

The leaking of Baroness Royall’s report has revealed that it too fails to identify individuals who are guilty of antisemitism within the Labour Party. It now seems that this reluctance to name those responsible may be a reflection of Labour’s inner conflicts.

The Young Labour conference at Scarborough followed shortly after Young Labour’s own suppressed investigation. It became clear at that Scarborough conference that some of the individuals alleged to be guilty of antisemitism at Oxford are the same young politicians with important roles in Momentum, the movement that help engineer the election of Jeremy Corbyn.

The fact that they are under suspicion lends greater urgency to the task of providing transparency on this issue, which the Labour party refuses to do.

Yet again, it seems that the needs for political expediency outranks the desire of the Labour Party’s leadership to confront the antisemitism in its ranks.

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Rampant antisemitism exposed at Oxford University Labour Club

The Co-Chair of the Oxford University Labour Club, Alex Chalmers, has resigned after the club voted to embrace “Israel Apartheid Week”.

Chalmers wrote about his resignation in a hard-hitting Facebook post, saying: “Whether it be members of the Executive throwing around the term ‘Zio’ (a term for Jews usually confined to websites run by the Ku Klux Klan) with casual abandon, senior members of the club expressing their ‘solidarity’ with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians, or a former Co-Chair claiming that ‘most accusations of antisemitism are just the Zionists crying wolf’, a large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews. The decision of the club to endorse a movement with a history of targeting and harassing Jewish students and inviting antisemitic speakers to campuses, despite the concerns of Jewish students, illustrates how uneven and insincere much of the active membership is when it comes to liberation.”

Oxford University Labour Club is a member organisation of Labour Students, which said that they were “deeply troubled” and that they “unequivocally condemn any form of antisemitism”. Without offering any specifics, Labour Students promised to investigate and take action.

Since Chalmers announced his resignation, Oxford Jewish Society has published further allegations in a Facebook post of their own, shedding further light on the rampant antisemitism at the heart of the Labour Club.

According to Oxford Jewish Society:

  • Members of the Labour Club’s committee have been known to sing the song “Rockets over Tel Aviv” and have specifically expressed support for Hamas’ tactic of launching indiscriminate attacks against Israel’s Jewish citizens.
  • One Labour Club member stated specifically that it was “not antisemitic” to allege the existence of a “New York – Tel Aviv axis” that rigs elections, and said that “we should be aware of the influence wielded over elections by high net-worth Jewish individuals”. He also stated that it was “not antisemitic” to allege the existence of an international Jewish conspiracy, even though he did not endorse the idea himself.
  • One Labour Club committee member stated that all Jews should be expected to publicly denounce Zionism and the State of Israel, and that nobody should associate with any Jew who fails to do so.
  • Several individuals, some who have been on the Labour Club committee, repeatedly used the word “Zio” (a word normally only found on neo-Nazi websites) to refer to Jewish students.
  • Several Labour Club members have alleged that US foreign policy is under the control of the “Zionist Lobby” and when asked if by “Zionist” they simply meant “Jewish” they did not answer.
  • One member of the Labour Club was formally disciplined by their College for organising a group of students to harass a Jewish student and to shout “filthy Zionist” whenever they saw her.
  • In a public discussion on the Labour Club’s Facebook group, one member argued that Hamas was justified in its policy of killing Jewish civilians and claimed that all Jews were legitimate targets. Several other members, including two former Labour Club co-chairs and one then on committee, defended the member as making “a legitimate point clumsily expressed”.
  • Two Labour Club members argued that Jenny Tonge, a peer expelled from the Liberal Democrats over antisemitism, should be encouraged to join the Labour Party.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Jewish people should feel comfortable in any political party. Many of the pivotal figures in Labour have been Jewish, but we have also received increasing reports from Jewish Labour supporters who no longer feel welcome in their party. It has been more than three months since Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded to an antisemitic outburst by Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman by voicing ‘deep concern’ and assuring us that he was ‘implacably opposed to racism’ before deciding to take no disciplinary action whatsoever against the MP. We call for the Labour Party and Oxford University to investigate this matter fully and take the strongest possible action to demonstrate to Jewish students that antisemitism will not continue to be tolerated. Where the law has been broken, this matter must be referred to the police; these students are supposed to be amongst our nation’s brightest and cannot be excused.”

https://twitter.com/JoeMiles94/status/699727568988196865

Source: Campaign Against Antisemitism

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Ha’aretz correspondent allegedly tells UK students “Elders of Zion” planned “colonisation”

Israeli journalist Amira Hass has reportedly told students at the University of Kent that the “Elders of Zion” planned “colonial” hegemony over Palestinians. Blogger David Collier attended a conference entitled “Israel and the Palestinians: Colonialism and Prospects for Justice” which was a joint event by University of Kent and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Hass is married to a Palestinian and has lived in Ramallah since 1997. She is well known for her uncompromising attacks on Israel.

Writing in his blog, Collier recalled: “I tried to make sense of what I was hearing. Hass was discussing a hidden agenda, a secret group of Jews, plotting and planning beyond the reach of Israeli democracy – by extension, this secret group were to blame for the ‘war crimes’, for the death of innocent Palestinian children. Hass was spinning tales of a Jewish cabal, of shady secretive control, of unworldly plots and sinister deeds. A road that leads to dead children. Hass was resurrecting a classic historic antisemitic blood libel in a British university.”

He then quotes Hass as saying: “And I ask myself did the Elders of Zion really sit together at the beginning of the seventies and then during the nineties, and plan, and have all these military orders, all these changes?”

The “Elders of Zion” refers to a fictitious Jewish cabal that supposedly controls world affairs to the detriment of mankind and forms the basis for most antisemitic conspiracy myths.

Source: David Collier

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Football fans banned for three years for Nazi salutes and mimicking escaping gas

Two Southampton FC supporters who yelled abuse, mimicked the sound of hissing gas and made Nazi salutes at Tottenham Hotspur fans have been banned from attending matches for three years.

Thomas Flynn and Michael Haydon committed the offences at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium during a match on 19th December 2015.

Flynn, 22, of Yeovil Chase, Harefield, Southampton and Haydon, 23, of White Hart Lane, Cadnam, admitted a charge each of using threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour in what was deemed a religiously aggravated public order offence.

They were barred from attending games in Britain and abroad for three years after being convicted at Southampton Magistrates’ Court, where prosecutor Charles Nightingale had described how Flynn, Haydon and another man were seen shouting antisemitic abuse including “gas the Jews”.

Mr Nightingale said one of the Spurs fans reported: “There was a white male raising his right hand and finger below his nose and making hissing sounds imitating gas escaping.”

After a steward notified police, Haydon was arrested at the ground, while Flynn was detained nearby. The court heard that the third man was never identified.

Haydon had been drinking since that morning, said his lawyer Jane Hiatt, and admitted making hissing sounds but denied saluting and shouting abuse.

In mitigation she said of the season ticket holder, who had attended games since he was aged five: “This is very out of character and a blip. He’s horrified and ashamed.”

Nicola Attwood, for Flynn, said her client — who was sober — also admitted hissing but denied making salutes. She said: “He is disgusted with himself and that he deserves a ban and that the people would be gravely offended by his behaviour.”

Magistrate Victoria Parker sentenced them to a three-year banning order preventing them from attending games in Britain and requiring them to hand passports to police before major games abroad.

They were also handed a 12-week community order and curfew, banned from going within a mile of St Mary’s Stadium four hours before and after kick-off on matchdays, and ordered to pay £145 in costs.

She said: “This was a very serious matter and watching you during these court proceedings I think you know that and are very ashamed of what you did.”

Source: Southern Daily Echo

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Everyday Antisemitism London South East of England Sports Verbal Abuse Ξ E-mail

Police seek the public’s help in identifying five men following antisemitic chanting on train

British Transport Police have issued CCTV images showing five men sought for questioning following antisemitic chanting on a train travelling between Watford Junction and Milton Keynes.

PC Michael Botterill said in a statement: “A man, who boarded the train at Watford Junction, took his seat in the first class carriage. A group of West Ham fans were already seated and, as the train pulled away, they began to sing antisemitic songs. The man, quite rightly, took offence to these vile songs and challenged the group over their language. However, they refused to stop and continued with their chanting.”

Police received reports from several other witnesses to the behaviour of the men, who are believed to have left the train at Northampton. The train was the 19:03 service from Watford Junction to Birmingham New Street on Saturday 15th August, the day West Ham played Leicester City at Upton Park.

PC Botterill continued: “This sort of casual racism has gone unchallenged for too long. We know the vast majority of football fans are decent people, but for those who continue to make life unpleasant for the travelling public, our message is clear: we will not tolerate your yobbish behaviour. I think the men in the pictures we are issuing today, have information about this incident. Please let us know who they are.”

Do you recognise these men? If so, please contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40, or text 61016, quoting reference MSUB/B4 of 12/10/2015. Information can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.