(Tuesday, April 30, 2019) – The European Jewish Congress (EJC) is calling on the British law enforcement agencies to investigate and arrest a British Labour Party activist after saying people should “march” on the local synagogue to “defend” themselves for incitement to violence.
“This is one of the most egregious cases of incitement to violence against Jews that I have heard in a long time,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the EJC, said. “To call on people to march on a local synagogue is aimed at sending a message of terror to Jews everywhere.”
The Labour Party activist, Amanda Bishop, made the comment on social media in response to the suspension of Alex Braithwaite, a local volunteer in Brighton, southern England, who was suspended after she claimed that the Rothschilds were “responsible for almost every war on Earth”, “Satanist”, and linked to “the Illuminati”.
It is understood that Bishop has been suspended pending investigation.
“Unfortunately, the Jewish community no longer has any faith or trust in the Labour Party to investigate cases of antisemitism so we are calling on the police to intervene to allay the fears of the Jewish community who have been physically threatened,” Dr. Kantor continued.
“These types of things can no longer be swept under the rug. No community should be threatened in this way and no other community would be treated to the same level of distraction and deflection. We stand in solidarity with our UK affiliates, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the strong lead it has taken in challenging Labour’s antisemitism problem.
“It is getting harder to claim that some of these patterns of antisemitism are not eerily reminiscent of Europe in the 1930’s as we have seen in recent months Jews being mass murdered in synagogues, Goebbels-like cartoons in a major newspaper and now political activists calling to march on synagogues. I understand that Labour’s National Executive Committee intends today to discuss how the UK Labour Party can take on the worrying rise of the despicable far right in Europe. My advice to Labour is that, tragically, its failures on antisemitism give it no moral authority to lead this fight and that the biggest contribution it could make is to get its own house in order and stop its members and representatives acting like the far right themselves.”
On Wednesday, Dr. Kantor will present the Annual Report on Antisemitism in 2018 at Tel Aviv University which demonstrate a significant rise in violent antisemitism worldwide but particularly in places deemed as safer for Jewish communities.
