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Israelis are being demonised as a “vehicle for hatred of Jews”, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has said.
Jonathan Hall said police forces should be held responsible for failing to clamp down on the targeting of “Israeli citizens as well as Jews living among them”.
The KC’s comments were condemned by a pro-Palestine campaign group for a “conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism”.
In a speech at a Policy Exchange event in London, Hall said the targeting of a nationality such as Israelis must be recognised as a breach of the Public Order Act of 1986.
He said: “Let me read section 17 of the 1986 act which defines racial hatred, and I am going to do this slowly: ‘In this Part “racial hatred” means hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.”
“The demonisation of Israelis matters because it is a vehicle for hatred of Jews. My perception is that if you don’t deal with anti-Israeli hatred, you leave wriggle room for those who indulge in antisemitism but formally disavow it. Once hatred to Israelis is tolerated then it is carried around like a flame.”
Hall said there was a “palpable” national security risk when police prioritised maintaining public order over applying the law, particularly during pro-Palestinian protests where chants such as “death to the IDF” or “globalise the intifada” went unchallenged.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a group of lawyers and politicians who comment on human rights, disputed Hall’s argument.
Its head of public affairs and communications, Jonathan Purcell, said: “Hall’s conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism is deeply problematic, a well-trodden line that erases the existence of the many anti-Zionist Jewish people at pro-Palestine marches.
“If he is truly alarmed about sectarian calls for violence, he would be well advised to also concern himself with the genocidal comments of Israeli officials, and our government’s relationship with such a rogue state.”
Hall, who backed listing Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist group, said in his speech that – for some people – any signs of Israeli life were “illegitimate”.
He added: “There have been protests against Israeli-owned restaurants and bakeries in London and Australia and the United States. In Australia, a restaurant with Israeli ownership was attacked by protesters shouting ‘Death to the IDF’.
“Israelis are a group like any other whose individual members, like members of any other group, deserve protection. We have lost our collective senses if, as a society, we permit the demonising of holders of any nationality who live in our tolerant and open society.”
Asked who should be held responsible for failing to protect Israelis, Hall replied: “Ultimately, police have got to be responsible for the safety of their citizens. And I include expressly within that Israeli citizens as well as Jews living among them.”
He told an audience at the right-leaning thinktank that he had “lost count” of the times that hatred against Israelis had been “stirred up” on UK streets.
He also questioned why West Midlands police appeared to have been aware of intelligence that “Islamists” were preparing to attack fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in November but failed to enforce the law.
“If, according to intelligence held by the West Midlands police, local Islamists were arming themselves and preparing to seek out and attack fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv, that can only have been because of their hatred to Israelis. The local Islamists were not hostile because of football, they were hostile because of nationality,” he said.
Ministers have refused to be drawn on the future of Craig Guildford, the West Midlands chief constable, over the ban on Israeli football fans watching their team in Birmingham.
An independent report commissioned by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, into the ban is expected this week. The decision to bar Maccabi fans from attending the match against Aston Villa was taken for safety reasons, according to the force.
Guildford defended his officers in an appearance before the Commons home affairs committee and said there had been “no conspiracy” to stop Israeli fans.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, has defended his force’s handling of a demonstration outside an Israeli-owned restaurant in Notting Hill. Dozens of protesters, calling themselves the “International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network” gathered outside Miznon on Friday.
Speaking on LBC on Monday, Rowley said: “I do take very seriously how Jews in London feel and how the behaviour of protesters influences that. We are taking those issues very, very seriously.”
Prof David Feldman, director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, said: “There are reasons why Israel’s actions excite condemnation and anger. It is a sad fact that sometimes protest slips into antisemitism and occasionally targets individual Israelis living in this country. But any suggestion that these failings characterise anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel in general is wide of the mark.”
He added: “Jonathan Hall’s support for liberal principles and for individual not collective punishment is welcome. But by conflating Islamic State with street demonstrations in support of Palestinian rights, he does, in fact, target a collectivity and not individuals. He departs from the very principles he wants to uphold.”
