UNITED KINGDOM 2008/9

 

The UK registered 541 antisemitic incidents in 2008, the third highest total since recording began in 1984. The four percent fall from 2007 was a consequence of the lack of “trigger events,” particularly from the Middle East. Israel’s Cast Lead Operation (December 27−January 21) provoked a total of 250 antisemitic incidents compared to 35 in the same period of 2007.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish community in the United Kingdom numbers about 350,000, out of a total population of 58 million. Two-thirds are 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 decline in recent years, due mainly to a low birth rate, intermarriage and emigration, although the strictly Orthodox minority is experiencing low but sustained growth due to larger family sizes.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) is the principal representative of British Jewry. Security and defense activity is organized through the Community Security Trust (CST). The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCOJEC) represents Jews in Scotland. 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 other major cities. There are also a number of tertiary centers for Jewish studies, including the London School of Jewish Studies (formerly Jews College) and Leo Baeck College, as well as the Jewish Studies departments at University College London, Southampton University, and the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton, all leading institutions in Europe in this field. The main community papers are the 168 year-old Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Telegraph published simultaneously in northern cities, and the Jewish News. The Jewish Tribune and Hamodia cater for the strictly Orthodox community. Three Jewish websites are based in the UK: www.jc.com; www.totallyjewish.com and www.somethingjewish.co.uk carrying national and international news.

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), formed in 2003, brings together the heads of major national Jewish organizations and key communal leaders with the aim of enhancing the long-term effectiveness of communal representation, and to ensure greater consultation by communal organizations and leaders.

The London Jewish Forum was launched by a coalition of BOD members representing London constituencies and London based groups, including the strictly orthodox communities, at the end of 2006 to represent London’s Jews on statutory bodies , including the Greater London Authority (GLA − the governing body for London).

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Far Right Political Parties

Internal squabbles which have long crippled the largest far right party, the British National Party (BNP), surfaced again in March when party leader Nick Griffin launched proceedings in Manchester High Court against the six officials he expelled in December 2007.

            In a report to the parliamentary Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission in June, it was stated that the BNP had been fined on three separate occasions for breaches of electoral law in 2007. The Commission had also investigated other irregularities in electoral law committed by the BNP going back to 2003 but was unable to establish if other offenses had been committed which would warrant prosecution.

At the May local council elections, the BNP stood 612 candidates but failed to make any great impact and received a reduced average vote. They now have 55 local councilors as well as 45 town and parish councilors. In the Greater London election their candidates received 130,714 votes or 5.3 percent of the total. Their candidate in the London mayoral election, Richard Barnbrook, received 69,710 first choice votes (2.4 percent) and 128,609 second choice votes (5.23 percent) and was elected as the BNP’s first member of the GLA. He has since been ostracized by other members of the GLA from all parties.

In May the BNP invited Bruno Gollnisch, a French MEP and vice president of the far right National Front, Andreas Moltzer, an Austrian MEP expelled by his own Freedom Party for being too extreme, and George Mayer, a Freedom Party official, to a meeting in central London to discuss European coordination.

The BNP annual Red Blue and White festival in Denby Derbyshire in August was attended by delegates of far right groups from the Czech Republic, Sweden and Australia. Police intervened to restrict the number of people who attended an anti-fascist rally near the festival site. International links were further strengthened when Griffin spoke at far right demonstrations in Hungary and the Czech Republic in October. In December, he was denied a visa to visit Australia where he planned a speaking tour, but in September, leading BNP members, including Richard Barnbrook, attended an anti-Islam conference in Cologne, which was abandoned after protests by local residents.

BNP member Ellis Hammond, who worked as a Police Community Support Officer in southeast London, was convicted of possessing illegal weapons in March. A police search of his home revealed a collection of neo-Nazi literature and insignia.

In September, the BNP organized a rally and demonstration to publicize the murder of BNP activist Keith Brown who was stabbed to death in July 2007 by his Asian neighbor, who had suffered a long-running campaign of racial abuse. The theme of the protest echoed the party’s developing strategy of campaigning against the Muslim community, immigration in general and downplaying its anti-Jewish background.

The National Front (NF), led by Terry Blackham, stood in 5 constituency seats for the GLA election and received a total of just under 35,000 votes. In April, the NF held its annual St George’s Day march in April in Eltham southeast London. The annual Remembrance Day march to the national Cenotaph war memorial in central London in November was attended by only 150 people, but among them was a representative of the German far right National Democratic Party.

The England First Party and Democratic Nationalists both stood a handful of candidates in the May elections but failed to win any seats, and exist only in name or at elections.

 

Far Right Extra-parliamentary Groups

Membership of far right groups amounts to no more than a few hundred, and their public activities are limited to group meetings and demonstrations.

The British Peoples Party (BPP), led by Kevin Watmough, Peter Williamson, Eddie Stanton and Peter Rushton, maintains an association with the remnants of the British Movement, which is no longer active.

Blood and Honour mostly operates abroad or at very small venues, but 800 people attended their September tribute event to the late Ian Stewart Donaldson, leader of the far right Skrewdriver band, in Redhill Somerset. Displays of swastika flags and other Nazi symbols led to complaints by local residents.

The November 9th Society, renamed the British First Party, and led by Kevin Quinn, is the most overtly pro-Nazi group in the UK. In February, Quinn was charged with racially aggravated public disorder following an incident the previous December in which he delivered an impromptu political speech in a local shopping center against immigrants. In November, members held a rally to commemorate fallen National Socialists at the German military cemetery in Staffordshire.

 

Militant Islamist and Other Extremist Groups

There are approximately two million Muslims living in the UK, the majority originating in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Smaller communities from East Africa, North Africa and the Arab world came to the UK in later years.

The remnants of the far left anti-Zionist Respect Coalition, which split into two groups in 2007 − Respect led by George Galloway MP and the Left List − both stood a small number of candidates in the May elections, but none were elected except in the Sparkbrook ward of Birmingham, where Respect won a third seat.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) continued to campaign against Israel and to publish anti-Zionist and antisemitic material on its website. In particular, it held “Neocons and Zionists” responsible for the war in Iraq and for controlling the world money supply. The leadership of MPAC is based on a small group in east London but their influence among young Muslims nationally is considerable, particularly during elections, when they have campaigned against MPs perceived to be pro-Israel.

Six leaders of the successor group to the disbanded extremist al-Muhajiroun (AM) were convicted at Kingston Crown Court in April in connection with speeches made outside the Central London Mosque in November 2004 at which they incited people to fight coalition troops in Iraq and donate money to fund terrorism. The speeches were on a DVD discovered during a raid on the home of Omar Bakri Mohammed, the group’s founder (see also below), in March 2006, following a protest outside the Danish embassy.

Delegates of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) were expelled from the annual National Union of Students conference in Blackpool in April for distributing antisemitic leaflets.

In June, former leader of Supporters of Sharia Abu Hamza al-Masri was refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords against his extradition to the US to face terrorism charges. He remains in the UK, however, until he has served his seven year sentence for inciting murder and race hate against Jews and others. In February, he lost his final appeal against extradition to the US.

Hizb ut Tahrir (HUT) continues to recruit and influence young Muslims. In August it held its annual conference entitled “Khilafah, the Need for Political Unity” at an east London venue.

Islam4UK, one of the successor groups to AM, held a conference in August entitled “Khilafah for Britain – the Divine Alternative.” Although their booking was cancelled by the venue owners at the last moment as a result of external pressure the group were able to meet nearby and the meeting was addressed by Omar Bakri Mohammed from Lebanon (see ASW 2005), via video link. The group held a second London meeting on the anniversary of September 11, which again was addressed by Mohammed via video link.

The annual al-Quds march, initiated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, took place in September at the end of Ramadan. The event, entitled “In support of Palestine. End child killing. End oppression. End Israeli apartheid,” was organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission and supported by a number of Shi`ite and Sunni Islamist, as well as far left and anti-Zionist organizations, including HUT. In past years the march was a occasion for distributing antisemitic literature, but pro-active policing has now stopped this.

 

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

Violence, Vandalism, Harassment and Threats

The CST recorded 541 incidents in 2008, the third highest total since recording began in 1984, and a four percent fall from 2007 (561 incidents, including reports notified after UK 2007 was posted). This was in spite of the fact that there were no major “trigger” events in the Middle East until the end of the year. Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza occurred too close to the end of the year to affect the annual trend.

As in 2007, the CST registered one incident of extreme violence, involving the stabbing to death of Michael Kahan, a random victim, in Bury, north Manchester in June. His attacker, Jonathan Mills, was a paranoid schizophrenic who had delusions that Jewish people were preventing him from getting his medication. At his trial he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and has been detained indefinitely in a high security psychiatric hospital.

There were 88 violent incidents, a fall of 25 percent from the 117 assaults recorded in 2007, the highest ever recorded. Eighty-one appeared to be random opportunistic attacks on Jews in public places, and 77 of the victims were identifiably Jewish. Nineteen assaults took place on people going to or coming from synagogue services. For example, on May 9, a rabbi was going home from synagogue with his family in London when two men drove past them in a car and shouted antisemitic abuse. The car then returned and the men sprayed soda at the family from a soda bottle.

Incidents of damage and desecration to Jewish property rose by 14 percent to 74 incidents, from 65 incidents in 2007. Of these, 33 involved desecration of synagogues, compared to 9 in 2007.

There were 314 incidents of abusive behavior, a fall of 7 percent from the 336 incidents reported in 2007, and 28 reported threats, including direct threats to people and property, an increase from the 24 incidents reported in 2007. The distribution of antisemitic literature, including mass produced mailings, rose by 95 percent from the 19 incidents recorded in 2007, largely a consequence of one man’s mailings to Jewish communal bodies (see Court Cases below).

It is noteworthy that 50 incidents were directed at Jewish schools, and that of these, 33 were against schoolchildren on their way to and from school; 9 took place at Jewish school premises. Of the 541 incidents recorded, 236 took place in Greater London, 125 in Greater London and 180 were reported from over 50 other locations around the country.

 

Operation Cast Lead

Between December 27 and January 21, 2009, the CST recorded over 250 incidents as a consequence of Operation Cast Lead. This compares with 35 during the same period in 2007. They included an arson attack on the north London Brondesbury synagogue, which sustained only limited damage due to security measures; two assaults on visibly Jewish men; numerous anti-Israel and anti-Jewish daubings on synagogues and other communal buildings; and extensive hate mail and abusive messages to Jewish organizations and communal leaders.

Several slogans appeared repeatedly in Ilford, Finchley, Stamford Hill, Golders Green and other areas of London. They included: “Slay the Jewish pigs,” “Jihad4Israel” and “Kill the Jews.” Web forums on Islamic websites threatened prominent members of the community and Jewish communal events. On the Ummah Forum, “Saladin 1970” called for forum members to compile a list of British people who supported Israel, and reproduced the “JC Power 100,” a compilation of prominent Jews published annually on the web. Several on the list subsequently received abusive emails. The web forum of MPAC published reasons for disrupting Jewish events in the UK, including one at a synagogue, but no demonstrations actually took place.

Antisemitic themes and slogans featured in many of the more than 100 demonstrations that took place during the Gaza crisis. Many of the rallies were initiated by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated and pro-Hamas groups in concert with far left and anti-Zionist organizations, but others such as Islam4UK and Submit2Allah, another AM successor group, carried out their own protests. They included shouts of “Kill the Jews” heard at a Birmingham demonstration on December 29, at a demonstration on December 30 outside the Israeli embassy in London, and again at a central London rally on January 3; and “Heil Hitler” and “Dirty Jews go to hell” chants at a Islam4UK demonstration outside the US embassy in London on January 2.

In contrast to past mass demonstrations against Israel, those during the Gaza crisis were marked by open displays of support for Hamas (and Hizballah) and for anti-Israel terrorism. For example, at another central London demonstration on January 10, Azzam Tamimi of the British Muslim Initiative told a cheering crowd three times that, “We are all Hamas,” and “Today, Hamas has acquired, in addition to democratic legitimacy, not that I believe in democracy any more, it has acquired resistance legitimacy…Today, Hamas is our leader to liberation… Israel has dug its grave. Zionism has dug its grave... That embassy there one day will be a Palestinian embassy. The Zionist flag will come down, and the flag of Palestine will go up.”

There were also accusations on the Internet against Jews that echoed traditional far right anti-Jewish themes, such as Jewish world domination and money power, as well as street violence that included assaults on police officers accompanying demonstrations. The Israel equals Nazi trope became increasingly common. In addition, stores perceived to be supportive of Israel or which sold Israeli goods were invaded, including branches of Starbucks and Tesco. Anti-Zionist activists at the January 10 demonstration forcibly occupied the Ahava Israel cosmetics shop in central London.

 

Public Opinion Polls

The Pew Global Attitudes Project published the report of its large-scale inquiry, under the title “Unfavourable Views of Jews and Muslims on the Increase in Europe,” in September. The study found that the United Kingdom stood out as the only European country in the survey without a substantial increase in antisemitic attitudes. Just 9 percent of those polled rated Jews unfavorably, a figure that has remained largely unchanged in recent years, while 73 percent were favorably disposed toward Jews. However, it also showed that that 19 percent of British respondents did not answer the question about their attitude to Jews, which may suggest some reticence in appearing to be seen as antisemitic or greater ambiguity of feeling. It found that there was a notable parallel between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim opinion in western Europe and those in the older age bracket and with less education were both more antisemitic and anti-Muslim.

 

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE HOLOCAUST

Holocaust Commemoration and Education

The theme of the annual national Holocaust commemoration on January 27, 2008 was “Imagine… Remember… Reflect… React,” and the host city was Liverpool. The service was attended by the secretary of state for communities and local government and other ministers, the chief rabbi, the archbishop of Canterbury, concentration camp and Kindertransport survivors and Jewish community leaders. The prime minister spoke via video link.

For the first time members of the Muslim Council of Britain, the largest Muslim umbrella group, attended the event officially, although some Muslim leaders have participated since its inception.

Over 3000 packs were distributed to 500 local organizers and a further 3000 education packs, posters and DVDs were sent to schools, local councils, public libraries and museums to enable them to mark the event. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the government-funded central organizing body, reported that its website received over 1.5 million hits in the weeks leading up to National Holocaust Memorial Day.

In response to a parliamentary question in February, the secretary of state for education stated that more than 1500 high school students had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, under the “Lessons from Auschwitz” project organized by the Holocaust Education Trust, and that the government was giving a further £4.65 million in funding for the next three years.

In Scotland, the first deputy minister, communities minister, members of the Scottish parliament and faith communities leaders attended the national commemoration in Renfrewshire. In November, the Scottish government announced that it too would fund school trips to Auschwitz. In addition, the Scottish government confirmed in June that it will set money aside to fund a national Scottish Holocaust museum.

In November, the London University Institute of Education launched a large-scale national survey funded by the government department for children, schools and families to establish how well the Holocaust is taught in English schools.

Also in November, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, spoke about his paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, who sheltered Jewish refugees, when he attended the seventieth anniversary of the Kindertransport operation which brought 10,000 Jewish children from Germany to Britain in 1938. Other participants included the minister for welfare, the chief rabbi, and film director Lord Richard Attenborough, whose parents adopted two Jewish refugee sisters.

Anne Frank Day is marked in July with an annual award to school students who have displayed great personal courage; it was commemorated in 2008 in over 2000 schools.

 

Holocaust Denial

Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom, an academic astronomer, had his research fellowship withdrawn by University College London in April after he published The Auschwitz Gas Chamber Illusion on the website of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust, an American denial site, and on the site of the Iranian linked Press TV.

Organizers of the annual War and Peace Show, a large militaria exhibition held annually in June, issued a warning to exhibitors that they would have their exhibition passes cancelled if they showed displays of concentration camp artifacts and antisemitic material, after a BBC Panorama television documentary showed British Holocaust denier David Irving selling his books at the 2007 event.

Australian Holocaust denier Frederick Toben was arrested in October on a European warrant issued by the German government while in transit at London’s Heathrow airport. He was released from custody in November following a court hearing which decided that he could not be extradited for a criminal offense that does not exist in British law, and repatriated to Australia. On his release, a reception was held for him by advertising model Michelle Renouf, now the most vocal proponent of Holocaust denial in Britain.

David Irving continued his writing and lecturing activities, although two universities and several public venues refused to host him. During the summer months he toured the US speaking at a number of venues. In October, he hosted a garden party at his home near Windsor which was attended by Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, a bishop in the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius against which the excommunication order was lifted by Pope Benedict XV1 (see http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/updates.htm). Earlier in the year Irwin was interviewed for a Swedish television program, during which he stated that only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews had perished in World War II, and none in gas chambers. In previous statements he has accused the Vatican of being controlled by Satan and the Jews of world domination.

 

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Legislation

During the course of the year the government published its Equalities Bill, which is designed to make the United Kingdom a fairer society by introducing a single equality duty. Public bodies will have to consider the diverse needs and requirements of their workforce, and the communities they serve when developing employment policies and planning services.

Public bodies will have to adopt transparent and measurable policies, and employment tribunals will be required to make recommendations to employers on their working practices. The planned legislation will also extend existing positive action measures to allow organization to be more representative of the population, and public bodies will have to deliver more effective services to disadvantaged groups. Additionally, the law will be made more accessible and easier to understand by bringing together major, disparate pieces of past legislation.

The bill has implications for the Jewish community, which may now be in a position to legally challenge proposed boycotts of Israel on the grounds that a boycott of Israeli manufactured kosher goods creates inequalities for Jews who might not be able to buy alternatives.

 

Court Cases

The year 2008 saw a large number of people, including several neo-Nazis, convicted of antisemitic and racist offenses. Several verdicts were issued in June. For instance, Martin Gilleard, a leader of the BPP and former member of the NF, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment at Leeds crown court following his conviction for terrorism offenses, . He had planned to bomb mosques and other buildings connected to minority groups, including Jews, in Leeds where he lived. In court, the police stated that he had a collection of Nazi memorabilia and propaganda at his home. Jefferson Azevedo was sentenced to four years imprisonment at Southwark crown court for sending over 150 racist messages and packages containing caustic soda, which burns on contact with the skin, through the post. They included one containing a swastika and copies of American white supremacist groups’ publications to an elderly Holocaust survivor. Ashraf Ali was convicted at Portsmouth magistrates court of sending an anthrax-like white powder together with antisemitic messages to the offices of the Jewish Chronicle, and to Portsmouth and Southsea synagogues. In one of them he wrote “All Jews Die.” He was given a nine-month sentence suspended for two years and put under a two-year supervision order. Owen Dodds was jailed for seven years for possession of high explosives, bomb-making equipment and firearms. In court police stated that his home contained neo-Nazi music, flags and literature.

Two far right activists who published racist and antisemitic pamphlets and articles on the Heretic Press website hosted in the US were found guilty at Leeds crown court in June of publishing racially inflammatory material. However both men fled to the US before the end of their trial and claimed political asylum on arrival at Los Angeles airport. Simon Sheppard was found guilty of the eighteen charges he faced, and Stephen Whittle, who wrote under the pen name of Luke O’Farrell, was found guilty of the five counts he faced. In March 2009 they were due to have their asylum request reviewed but were detained in the interim in Santa Anna jail in Orange County, Los Angeles. The pamphlets, which were delivered to homes and synagogues, included the American publication Tales of the Holohoax and Don’t be Sheeple, both of which deny the Holocaust.

            Nathan Worrell, a neo-Nazi sympathizer and formerly member of the BNP, NF, BPP and WNP, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for terrorist offenses in December at Grimsby crown court. He had planned a bombing campaign against immigrants and was described by the trial judge as a dangerous individual who harbored extreme antisemitic views. The court was also told that police had found Nazi regalia in his flat at the time of his arrest.

A few teenagers (unnamed because of their age) were also convicted of various antisemitic and racist crimes. One had been involved, together with others, in assaulting a rabbi at his Prestwich Manchester home and stealing Hebrew books and phylacteries in February 2008. Another was charged in December with racially aggravated harassment and assault for attacking a Jewish Free School pupil on a bus in Hendon, north London. The arrest followed a proactive policing operation designed to catch assailants of Jewish pupils.

At the end of December, Rangzieb Ahmed became the first al Qa`ida member to be convicted in the UK for directing terrorism and membership of al-Qa`ida, and was jailed for life. His co-defendant, Habib Ahmed, was also found guilty of being a member of al-Qa`ida and possessing a document for terror-related purposes, namely one used in the bombing of Balfour House, the office of the United Jewish Israel Appeal and Zionist Federation, in 1994; he was jailed for 10 years. The men had been gathering information on a range of targets, including a prominent Jewish community figure.

 

Official and Public Activities

The “All-Party Inquiry into Antisemitism: Government Response One Year On Progress Report” was published in May as a command paper, which elevated its status to that of government policy. The report summarized the findings of the Inter-Departmental Working Group on Antisemitism and their response to the 2007 report of the Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism. The report noted a rise in antisemitic incidents and antisemitic discourse, and among the various initiatives it pledged to carry out were: funding a report on the impact antisemitic discourse has on the “acceptance” of antisemitism (due to be published mid-2009); providing £2 million of funding to roll out a schools linking network for Jewish and Muslim schools; development of the Race for Justice initiative for criminal justice agencies (on which the CST represents all faith communities); improving national collection of data on antisemitic incidents by police forces, by April 2009; funding for Jewish schools’ security; increasing financial support for the “Lessons from Auschwitz” project which sends high school students from all public schools to Auschwitz-Birkenau; updating and reissuing guidelines to schools and universities on promoting good relations; and public opposition to academic boycotts of Israeli academics and universities.

Additionally the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) gave a commitment to improve training for prosecutors and police, provide better witness support and to involve Jewish community representatives in these and other initiatives involving antisemitism.

In response to inquiries by the CST, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families confirmed in June that his department would make clear to local authorities that they could fund security equipment for Jewish schools but only from existing capital resources. Discussions continue with the government to find a longer term solution.