THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish community of the United Kingdom numbers 280,000 out of a total population of 58 million. Two-thirds of the community is concentrated in Greater London. Other major Jewish centers are Manchester (30,000), Leeds (10,000) and Glasgow (6,500). The Jewish population has experienced a marked decline since 1967, mainly due to a low birth rate, intermarriage and emigration.

The central organization of British Jewry is the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD). Security and defense activity is organized through the Community Security Trust (CST). Welfare and education are given high communal priority, through organizations such as the United Jewish Israel Appeal and Jewish Care. A network of Jewish day schools operates in London and in other major cities. There are also a number of Jewish tertiary study centers, including the London School of Jewish Studies (formerly Jews College) for training Orthodox rabbis, Leo Baeck College for training Reform and Liberal rabbis, and the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton. The main community papers are the 160-year-old Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Telegraph, published simul-taneously in northern cities, and the London Jewish News.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

The British National Party (BNP) remains the largest extreme right-wing group, but its leadership was beset by internal conflict during 2000. Nick Griffin, who replaced founding chairman John Tyndall in 1999, faced a challenge to his leadership toward the middle of the year from the influential deputy chairman Sharon Edwards, her husband Steve, and party treasurer Michael Newland. Their allegations that Griffin and others were defrauding the party led to their being sacked. As they were among the more successful party organizers, planned events such as the Red White and Blue festival, modeled on that of the French Front National, and the party annual meeting, were much less successful than they might otherwise have been, and party activity declined.

Nevertheless, the primary focus remained on elections, in which the leadership attempted to project an image of a dynamic new right-wing party, opposed to European integration and the admission of asylum seekers, and involved in animal rights and supporting the farming community. In the local elections in May, when over 3,000 local council seats were contested, and which coincided with elections for the newly constituted Greater London Authority, the BNP obtained 7.63 percent of the poll. In the London Assembly elections it gained 47,670 votes (2.87 percent), and in the London mayoral election the party candidate, Michael Newland, received 33,569 votes in the first round and 45,337 votes in the second round (4.57 percent).

Despite the reduction in activity, the BNP nevertheless managed to establish three new sub-groupings: the Association of British Ex-Servicemen, the Young BNP, and the Patriotic Students Association. Friendship organizations which had been established the previous year in support of the BNP now exist in the US, South Africa and Australia, although it is only the first, led by Mark Cotterill, that maintains any ongoing program of activity, with regular monthly and fundraising meetings.

The BNP continues to promote white supremacy, Holocaust denial and a belief in Jewish world domination, although in more muted form than in previous years.

The National Front (NF) was also beset by leadership problems and is now led by Tom Holmes, a veteran member. Activity again focused on demonstrations against refugees and asylum seekers from former Yugoslavia, particularly in some south coast port towns where they had been successful in recruiting local residents. National Democratic Party (NDP) activity virtually ceased in 2000, although members participated in public events organized by others.

Combat 18 (C18), which was established in 1992 as an informal stewarding group by the BNP, reduced its activity, partly due to lack of support. However, during the course of the year it strengthened its links with the loyalist Ulster Defence Association.

C18 controls part of the Blood & Honour (B&H) music organization (formed by the late Ian Stewart Donaldson), and maintains close connections with skinhead bands such as No Remorse, Razors Edge and Chingford Attack. The other part of B&H is controlled by the British Movement, which otherwise is inactive. The concerts performed by these groups constitute the main local activity for C18 supporters, both in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, particularly Scandinavia.

The Nationalist Socialist Movement, a splinter group of C18, was closed down by its leadership following the trial and conviction of David Copeland (see below). Its deputy leader, Steve Sargent, subsequently established Albion Fyrd, a publication focusing on English folk heritage and Aryan mythology.

The national revolutionary International Third Position (ITP), again the product of a split within the NF, promotes the Lefevbrist Catholic ideology espoused by a part of the traditionalist French and Spanish extreme right (see previous reports). It continues to build its contacts in Eastern Europe, former Yugoslavia and in France and Spain, where it now supports nationalist communes (see Spain). A Charity Commission investigation into its fundraising associates, the Trust of St Michael the Archangel and the St George Educational Trust, begun in late 1999 to examine its funding of a Spanish commune, resulted in the commission freezing the charities’ assets. The ITP is closely associated with Roberto Fiore and, up to his death in 2001, with Massimo Morsello, former members of the Italian national revolutionary terrorist group the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei.

Like other Third Positionists or national revolutionary groups, the range of ITP’s international contacts is disproportionate to its size or political influence. These extend to the US via the American Coalition of Third Positionists, and Eastern Europe with its emerging national revolutionary groups, based particularly in Poland, Romania, the Baltic states and Russia. Through its journals, its Internet sites and its publishing house, the Legionary Press, ITP promotes fascist and antisemitic literature and Nazi memorabilia.

The National Revolutionary Faction, formerly known as the English Nationalist Movement, was formed in late 1997, as a breakaway from the ITP. It is a revolutionary white nationalist group adhering to the concept of leaderless resistance, and claims a cell-based structure. It advocates close cooperation with other European Third Positionists and is a member of the clandestine European Liberation Front Network. It is the most outspokenly anti-Zionist and pro-Islamist of all the radical right-wing groups. Despite its international perspectives and range of contacts, its sphere of activity is essentially confined to south London. Besides demonstrating outside events associated with the Jewish community in recent years, the group has organized few public activities.

Attempts to establish the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Britain have all failed although occasional Klan activity, such as cross-burnings or meetings, takes place. Likewise, the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) (see USA) has failed to establish itself in Britain. The BNP publication Spearhead carries advertisements for WCOTC books and the US contact address.

Several other small extreme nationalist or white supremacist groups exist, often with overlapping memb.They are frequently linked to a publication rather than to political activities. Among them are Choice, led until mid-1999 by the late Lady Jane Birdwood of the British Solidarity group, and its associated publishing venture Inner City Researchers. These are now organized by Martin Webster, former leader of the NF, and by Peter Marriner. Their supporters overlap with those of Candour, a journal edited by Rosine de Bounevialle until her death in late 1999, and established by the late A.K. Chesterton, founder of the NF. Candour supports the ITP, sharing its Lefevbrist Catholic ideology. Both de Bounevialle and Birdwood acted as mentors for many on the extreme right, and allowed their homes to be used as meeting places. Their supporters also overlap with those of Bloomfield Books and On Target Publications, owned by Donald Martin, who publishes and distributes white supremacist and antisemitic literature. Their other focus of activity is promotion of a white Commonwealth, for which purpose they maintain connections in South Africa, Australia and Canada. The League of St George continues to publish its magazine League Sentinel occasionally, and overlapping membership exists with the Friends of Oswald Mosley, comprising former supporters of the British Union of Fascists and the Union Movement.

Although the UK’s Muslim community is overwhelmingly Asian, it contains representatives and active cells of Middle East groups engaged in violent insurrection in their countries of origin. Hizballah and Hamas retain support groups and fund-raising networks; the Hamas journal Filastin al-Muslima is published in London; the English-language Palestine Times is also highly supportive of Hamas.

The most active Islamist group in the UK is al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants – AM). While claiming to bear no animosity toward Jews, AM are extremely hostile toward Israel and use the terms Israeli, Jew and Zionist interchangeably. Speakers at AM events have often called for the killing of Jews or predicted gruesome fates for Jews at the hands of Muslims. AM members also deny the Holocaust in their speeches and leaflets (see below). AM promote their public activities by extensive illegal flyer-posting and by faxing regular press releases to other Muslim groups, the Jewish community and the media. They frequently use front groups such as the Khilafah Movement, to book venues and establish university societies. AM boast of their fund-raising and recruitment efforts for the international terrorist Usama bin Ladin, Hamas and other jihadist groups. They sponsor survival training and martial arts courses for their members and encourage them to support jihad in every possible way through associated groups Sakina Security Services (SSS) and al-Maddad. While the leadership disavows any political violence in the UK, their rhetoric encourages direct action against Western or Israeli targets.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (HUT), from which al-Muhajiroun split in 1996 under the leadership of its founder Omar Bakri Muhammad, was seldom active during 2000, reflecting the Middle East-based leadership’s divisions, but its antisemitism was as acute. Like AM, HUT aims to establish an Islamic state and supports the activities of violent jihadist groups in other countries. Neither AM nor HUT has a large membership, but they are influential among young people and at street level.

The Supporters of Shariah (SOS), led by Mustafa Kamil, aka Abu Hamza al-Masri, are likewise associated with AM and SSS. Unlike AM, however, they do not advertise for recruits and do not appear to have a formal membership. SOS is extremely hostile to the Jewish community, often propagating virulent Islamist antisemitism, combining traditional religious anti-Judaism with Protocols-style conspiracy theories. SOS are in direct contact with jihad groups around the world, for some of which Abu Hamza acts as public spokesman to the Western media.

The Islamic Observation Center (IOC), led by Yasir al-Sirri, aka Abu ‘Ammar, has no formal UK membership and publishes only irregular reports. Al-Sirri is one of the leaders of the Egyptian al-Jihad group and their offshoot the Vanguards of Conquest, both of which have a record of violence inside and outside Egypt. He sought asylum in Britain after having been condemned to death in Egypt for his part in the attempted assassination of former Prime Minister Dr. ‘Atif Sidqi in 1993. IOC acts as a focal point for the dissemination of information about Islamist groups throughout the Muslim world.

The publications of Friends of al-Aqsa (FOA), formed in 1988 to highlight the issue of Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque, are extremely hostile to Israel and their anti-Zionism is frequently tainted with antisemitism. Participants in FOA activity have included former Hamas activists, HUT leaders and other Islamists.

Crescent International, associated with the now defunct Muslim Parliament and Muslim Institute, regularly features extremely antisemitic articles, particularly those by the Washington-based Muhammad al-‘Asi and the UK-based convert Yakub Zaki (formerly James Dickie).

The Nation of Islam (NOI) continues its activity, but at a low level, having failed to make any real impact on Britain’s Afro-Caribbean community.

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

There were 405 antisemitic incidents reported during 2000, a 50 percent increase over the previous year (270 incidents). Thirty-six percent of the year’s total (147 incidents) occurred during October and November, compared with 17 percent during the same period in 1999, reflecting the overspill of tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

Unlike 1999 and 1998, there were two acts of life-threatening violence, both of which occurred in October. One was the attempted murder of Mayer David Myers in the Stamford Hill suburb of London on 16 October. The trial of the attacker, an Algerian asylum seeker, was to take place in mid-2001.

There were 51 non-life threatening physical assaults (13 percent of the total), 30 percent of which took place in Manchester, which has a Jewish population of some 30,000 (11 percent of the total UK Jewish population). This is a new and worrying trend, but one which clearly reflects the level of street crime in north Manchester where the majority of the Orthodox community lives. However, criminal break-ins of communal property declined, possibly reflecting the enhanced security coverage of the community by both the police and CST.

Vandalism of communal property constituted 13 percent of the total (73 incidents), compared to 25 incidents (9 percent) in 1999. In the most serious incident, during two days in June, over 500 gravestones were smashed at the Federation of Synagogues’ cemetery in Edmonton, north London.

The largest proportion of incidents were acts of abusive behavior against members of the community. There were 196 such incidents (48 percent), compared to 127 (47 percent) in 1999.

The targeted mass distribution of antisemitic literature declined to 44 reported incidents (11 percent) from 54 incidents (20 percent) in 1999, reflecting the success, or fear, of prosecutions, under the Public Order Act, as well as the death of Lady Jane Birdwood and the increasing infirmity of some of her colleagues, who in recent years were collectively responsible for a significant proportion of large-scale antisemitic leaflet distribution.

The experience of the Jewish community mirrors that of the population in general. Racist incidents reported to the police increased yet again, to 47,814 incidents in 1999/2000 from 23,049 incidents in 1998/99, a rise of 107 percent.

Britain’s race hatred laws are now generally effective, and the political will exists to enforce them. As a consequence, neo-Nazi and other extreme right groups rarely publish crude or overt antisemitic propaganda. However, most still disseminate more subtle anti-Jewish material, and all denigrate the Holocaust and Jewish claims to restitution.

David Irving’s failed libel action against Professor Deborah Lipstadt (see below) has effectively halted Holocaust depropagandin the UK, although Islamists remain generally uninfluenced by these legal decisions and some of the groups mentioned above increased their output, particularly after the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada.

During the month of October there was an unprecedented number of demonstrations by Islamist groups in London, Manchester and elsewhere. Some of the slogans were virulently anti-Jewish, as well as anti-Israel, such as: “Jewish occupiers kill them when you see them”; “Global death for Israelis”; and “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya‘ud” (Khaybar Khaybar, Oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return; see Arab Countries).

AM issued a printed “warning to all Jews” not to show any support for Israel or “you will become a part of the conflict.” Muslim Internet discussion boards posted calls to “publish a list of important Jewish personalities” and the “need to use militant groups all over the world against Jewish and Western targets.” Others called for a stop to demonstrations as “we should concentrate on strategy for jihad on the Jews.”

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

Britain marked the first Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Activities were planned and coordinated by a steering committee of the Home Office and Department for Education officials, together with representatives of the Holocaust Education Trust, the BoD and other Jewish organizations. Local authorities were asked to mark the day with communal services, and educational packs were made available to all schools. The national memorial meeting was held at Westminster Central Hall and addressed by the prime minister, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, and broadcast live on television and radio. Although focusing on the Holocaust, the Memorial Day is intended to be used as an educational tool against racism, and part of the educational material and the service were devoted to subsequent acts of genocide. Consequently, half the proceedings of the national memorial meeting were devoted to the atrocities committed in Cambodia, Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. In general, the media were supportive and devoted considerable space to relevant articles, although criticism was mounted from some quarters that the massacres of the Armenians in the late 19th century and particularly during World War I were excluded. Most faith groupings participated in the events, except for the Muslim community organizations, which were represented by a single senior imam.

Britain’s National Holocaust Museum opened early in 2000 in a newly-built wing of the Imperial War Museum in South London. Like the Memorial Day, the initiative came from the central authorities rather than the Jewish community, and funding for both was made available from these sources.

In April David Irving lost his libel action against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in the High Court in London, following a two month trial. In a damning verdict, the judge confirmed that Irving was a racist, an antisemite and an active Holocaust denier who associated with right-wing extremists, and in a second judgment in May ordered him to pay £150,000 on account for Lipstadt and Penguin’s costs. Although he was refused leave to appeal, Irving was allowed to challenge the decision in a personal application to the Appeal Court which was to be heard in June 2001.

Although Penguin declined to pursue Irving for their costs, on commercial grounds, it is expected that Lipstadt’s lawyers will do so. Irving continues to publicize his intention to sue writer Gitta Sereny and The Guardian newspaper in the defamation action that he brought against them; however, it is now unclear whether this will go ahead.

Although the BoD has yet to advise the government formally that it no longer wishes to introduce legislation making Holocaust denial a criminal offense, the government accepted the results of the law panel established by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research which reported in June. The panel’s members were eminent lawyers and academics, who found that there was little need to recommend specific legislation against Holocaust denial, but that existing legislation might be amended by the removal of the “threatening, abusive or insulting” conditions to allow the incitement offense to encompass the more subtle and sophisticated manifestations of Holocaust denial, and other forms of antisemitism and racism.

AM are among the most active proponents of Holocaust denial among Islamist groups. In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle in November, AM leader Omar Bakri Muhammad stated: “To say six million died in the Holocaust is a fallacy used to justify Zionism. We believe that the Nazis killed about 60,000 Jews during the war. The story of the Holocaust is full of myths and lies.” In a series of planned meetings in January 2001 AM continued the theme with an advertising poster which stated “How could Hitler kill 6,800,000 Jews, when there were only 3,500,000 Jews living in Europe? This talk will trace back the lie of the holocaust and show how it had been used to justify the on-going holocaust and genocide against the innocent Muslims in Palestine and to legitimize the existence of the terrorist state of Israel.” A leaflet issued in February, entitled “Holocaust: Fact or Fiction,” stated “Why are the Zionist Jews so determined to deceive the world by spreading the lie of the ‘Holocaust’, even though there is little if any evidence to substantiate this claim.”

Despite having wound up the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit the government and police continue their enquiries and provide assistance to other countries investigating war crimes. Such support has been given to the Latvian and Lithuanian governments, which led in February 2001 to the latter requesting the extradition from Scotland of Antanas Gecas, head of an auxiliary police battalion attached to the SS, who was responsible for murdering thousands of Jews and other civilians in Lithuania. Gecas had lost a libel action that he brought against Scottish TV, which accused him of war crimes; the judge stated that he was satisfied that Gecas was a war criminal. He was subsequently the subject of a UK war crimes investigation, but there was insufficient evidence available in the UK to indict him.

In January 2001 the home secretary announced that he might consider stripping suspect war criminals of their citizenship, after amending the 1981 British Nationality Act. The way would then be open to deport them to the countries where their crimes were committed. The proposal arose as a result of new evidence that a large body of Ukrainian members of the Waffen-SS entered Britain in 1947 without adequate investigation into their wartime activities.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 was passed in November, strengthening and extending the scope of the 1976 Race Relations Act. It prohibits discrimination in all public sector institutions such as the armed forces, police, local councils and government bodies. The act is radical in its approach in that it gives statutory force to the imperative of tackling institutionalized racism.

The long-awaited Terrorism Act, passed in 2000, came into effect in February 2001. It replaces temporary legislation and puts Britain’s treaty obligations under the January 2000 UN Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism Financing onto a statutory footing. The act allows for the proscription of terrorist groups and prevents members or supporters of such groups from raising finance or organizing other material aid in the UK, or planning acts of terrorism abroad. It also allows for the prosecution of those attacking British interests abroad, and those engaged in cyber terrorism, while fully enforcing Britain’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. It is expected that among its targets will be some of the Islamist groups currently active in the UK, and which have been the subject of continued diplomatic complaints from some Middle Eastern countries.

There wereseveral convictioof activists with connections to far right groups. In July David Copeland was given six life sentences at the Central Criminal Court for the London nail bombings of 1999 (see ASW 1999/2000). Acting alone, Copeland had been a member of the BNP before moving on to the NSM, which provided a more focused outlet for his Nazi views and hatred of colored immigrants.

Another former BNP member, Cameron Martin Dudley of Grimsby, was sentenced to five years for planning to import guns and ammunition from American neo-Nazi groups in order to kill Jews and Asians. His planned purchases had been conducted over the Internet and were intercepted by US federal law enforcement officers.

In June Simon Shepherd of the Heretical Press of Hull, a current BNP member, was sentenced to nine months for publishing and distributing leaflets parodying the deaths of Jews in the Holocaust. He had previously been imprisoned in Holland for similar offenses.

C18 members Andy Frain from Reading, and Jason Marriner from Feltham, who is also a KKK member, were sentenced to seven and six years imprisonment, respectively, on charges of committing violent disorder and affray. Their trial arose out of a BBC television investigation into football violence but both had previous convictions for racist violence and in Frain’s case possession of racist and antisemitic material. Television footage was shown to the court at their trial of the visit both men had made in the company of other C18 members to Auschwitz where they gave Nazi salutes, insulted visiting survivors and even climbed into a crematorium oven.

The trial of veteran neo-Nazi leader Colin Jordan, and publisher and printer Anthony Hancock, was due to take place in June 2001 in York Crown Court. They are charged with various offenses under the Public Order Act relating to the printing and distribution of antisemitic postcards in 1997 which called on the recipients to harass Eldred Tabachnik, then president of the BoD, as well as various antisemitic leaflets.

Several Islamists were also convicted. In January Imam Sa`id `Ali Abouzaid, a member of HUT, was convicted of racially aggravated assault for an unprovoked attack on two Jewish men outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London.

In October members of al-Muhajiroun were arrested in various parts of the country, and subsequently charged with distributing leaflets which called for the killing of Jews. The police investigation into the production and dissemination of anti-Jewish material from Islamist sources was widened at the end of the year, and is expected to lead to further arrests.

The Metropolitan Police launched Operation Athena in March against extreme right activists involved in violent and non-violent racist crimes. On one day alone 109 people were arrested. The operation is part of the police initiative to crack down heavily on racist violence and is co-coordinated by the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force established in 1999. The Task Force is aided by independent advisors, including the CST. During 2000 it also hosted a series of local meetings of community leaders throughout London at which the Jewish community’s experience and expertise were commended to other communities.

A British delegation participated in the Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance in January 2001 (see Sweden).

In October Britain joined with other Council of Europe member states in signing a Political Declaration at the European Conference against Racism, formulated in Strasbourg in preparation for the September 2001 world conference in South Africa. Expressing alarm, they noted “the continued and violent occurrence of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and related intolerance.” The governments committed themselves to implementing fully the relevant universal and European human rights instruments, adopting and implementing effective national legislation and administrative measures that specifically counter and prohibit racial discrimination, bringing to justice those responsible for racist acts, and establishing national policies and plans to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and related intolerance, giving particular attention to education at all levels of society and to reinforcing and strengthening international bodies among governmental organizations engaged in combating these problems. The declaration also stated that “the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”

The General Conclusions Document, in which governments spelt out how the principles of the declaration would be enforced, recognized that violent acts against members of Jewish communities and the dissemination of antisemitic material continued and suggested that all member states now make Holocaust denial a punishable offense.