Matt Lucas, the Jewish comedian best known for his work in Little Britain, as well as various other appearances, has been the recipient of antisemitic comments following a tweet in which he pointed out the problem of antisemitism on the contemporary political left.
Lucas tweeted: “you may think you’re on the far left, but if you’ve got a problem with Jews, you’re on the far right”.
In response to Lucas’ tweet condemning antisemitism in the contemporary left, one follower tweeted “you don’t need to be racist to be critical of Jewish treatment of Palestine”, whilst one claimed that “Corbyn has no problem with Jews, he just doesn’t agree with their governments actions”. One follower rejected the distinction between Zionists and Jews and implicitly between Jews and Israeli policy, responding to another commenter who pointed out that “Jews don’t have a government any more than atheists have a government”, asking “so who is blasting children on a daily basis in Palestine?”, which is also an inaccurate claim. Another wrote “why would people be critical of Israel/Jews?”, sharing a video which allegedly depicts a Palestinian woman having her house appropriated by settlers, but no source verifying the contents of the video can be found. Regardless of the veracity of the video’s description, or the legitimacy of any grievances people may have against Israeli policy, it is antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for Israeli policy or for the behavior of certain Israelis.