Today was a huge failure of the legal system to protect the population from extremism and support for terrorism.

Tony Greenstein was found not guilty of inviting support for a proscribed organisation. The verdict exposes a very serious problem with the way the law is being applied to extremist speech.

During the trial, the court heard that Greenstein had been charged over three posts on X promoting a blog post he had written on 7 October 2023, entitled “Full Support for the Gaza Ghetto Uprising.” The blog and posts were later deleted. The prosecution also relied on other statements to establish his attitude towards Hamas, including a post in which he said: “I support the Palestinians that is enough and I support Hamas against the Israeli army.”

But this is where the case becomes legally complicated.

I had assumed that Greenstein was charged simply with expressing support for Hamas. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. That isn’t what happened. The charge was under section 12(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which makes it an offence to INVITE support for a proscribed organisation.

That is different from section 12(1A), which concerns expressing an opinion or belief supportive of a proscribed organisation while being reckless as to whether someone will be encouraged to support it. And it is also different from the separate offence of glorifying terrorism under section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

That distinction really, really matters.

For a conviction under section 12(1), the prosecution had to prove that Greenstein actually invited support for Hamas. It wasn’t enough simply to demonstrate that he held or expressed a supportive view. A much more difficult thing to prove especially from the evidence presented.

In my view, there is a profound question about whether the charge was the right one and if it properly covered every terrible thing Greenstein had said in public. He has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas, and seemingly celebrated or justified the 7 October attacks. Over and over again. Outside Hove Town Hall he made a speech a month after October 7 and called the Hamas massacre a “breakout” from prison. He denied Hamas killed babies and committed mass rapes and glorified the terrorist attack as “colonial resistance”. In November 2024 on a webinar he said that he supported the “Palestinian resistance, including Hamas” and that October 7 was simply “resistance” to occupation. He referenced his arrest and repeated again his support for Hamas.

In Brighton train station he made a speech making an analogy to the Second World War where Hamas were the French Resistance. Seems like glofiying them to me. There was also the post used in this case to demonstrate mindset where he explictly said he supported Hamas.

Choosing the right charge and evidence was crucial and in my opinion the prosecution got it wrong. Now the consequences will go far beyond one defendant because Greenstein is no ordinary activist. He is co-founder of the National Palestine Solidarity Campaign and is a hugely influential person in that movement.

When someone who has repeatedly expressed support for a proscribed organisation can walk out of court a free man, it raises questions about whether our laws and the way they’re being used are adequate to deal with modern extremist propaganda.

This is not a game for us. Extremist rhetoric has a material impact on the safety and wellbeing of Britain’s Jewish community and on the wider population. The challenge for the authorities is to confront that extremism with the right charges and evidence and make sure it sticks.

Today, that process failed.

And those failures have consequences.

Last night I went to a Jewish community meeting with the local police. They wanted to let us know how they’re going to spend the £5.64 million in extra funding from the government to tackle antisemitic hate crimes. I arrived and immediately noted that not many people from the community were there. Usually these meetings are packed out. Jewish people are normally very engaged and take these opportunities to speak to police about their concerns very seriously.

Perhaps it was because of the earlier time or the heatwave. I don’t know. But I found it worrying that this may indicate a level of fatigue and despair that the system is not working and people have given up.

I don’t blame them. Antisemitism in Brighton & Hove has tripled since October 7. That has ranged from assaults to vandalism and the repeated desecration of our memorial to the victims of the single biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The police have often seemed unresponsive, apathetic and occasionally downright resistant to challenging the hate.

In my experience improvements have been patchy and inconsistent. It feels like there’s multiple versions of the police force and depending on the day can vary greatly in how seriously or competently crimes are treated. Many Jewish people I know have stopped bothering to even report the hate crimes they experience.

The mood in the room for those who did attend the meeting was angry and skeptical. The funding that’s coming is not to be sniffed at. It’s enough to employ over a dozen police officers and could make a real difference. But from what I heard the plans amount to extra patrols around Jewish buildings and on holidays and what they call an “Enhanced Victim Experience”.

What’s glaringly absent from the plan is prevention and proactivity. They are trying to shut the proverbial stable door. Don’t get me wrong, having the reassurance that police officers are nearby should a synagogue be attacked is not nothing. Having officers that actually understand antisemitism somewhat and will not be dismissive, rude or ignorant is welcome. I have had awful experiences reporting hate crimes and made several complaints about how I’ve been treated when making a report.

But this is a larger issue about command decisions when it comes to the source of antisemitism: the hate marches. None of these marches are notified to the police. They happen wherever and whenever the pro-Palestinian protesters decide. That creates anxiety and fear as they often enter or begin in the heart of the Jewish community. These provocations and continued incitement of chants calling for death to the IDF, Israel to be destroyed or praising terrorists is what raises the antisemitic temperature in the city.

There’s a direct connection between these marches and hate crimes too. A teenage boy who was often on the marches and used in their promotional material spat on our 7/10 memorial. I watched it happen. Another young woman who regularly went to the marches relentlessly targeted the memorial with violent graffiti and threatened to cut down the yellow ribbons for the hostages. A Jewish man was assaulted after one of the marches ended.

A woman speaking at a PSC rally in Brighton on October 8th 2023 was charged with a terror offence after saying the attack the day before was “beautiful”. One of the main leaders of this movement locally is about to go on trial for supporting Hamas. This has been going on for almost three years now and police have been reluctant or slow to act. The few arrests and charges that have happened was like getting blood out of a stone.

There was an arrest for the chanting of Intifada recently but was very nearly scuppered because officers at the scene did not get the suspect’s details. Often in these febrile protest environments police will opt to just get the name and address of people they suspect of committing an offence. It’s a sensible decision mostly to avoid the rest of the crowd kicking off if an arrest is made. But this time they screwed up and then had to launch an appeal to find the person.

Luckily for them she decided to defiantly repeat the offence and make a victim charade of the whole situation. Otherwise she would never have been found. She poked the law and the law won. Fast forward to the most recent hate march and again a protester was leading chants of Intifada. I was there and reported it to officers who again told me they’d get his details. They didn’t. So I reported it to two more officers and finally they went to get his information. He refused to give it and they arrested him.

After that the whole investigation process was an ordeal and is still ongoing. I mentioned these failures in the meeting and explained that tackling the source of the antisemitism is crucial if you want to have an impact on crime and Jewish people’s sense of safety.

The response from the police was the usual belaboured excuses about free speech and the right to protest. This was disappointing. If we do not confront the hate on these marches and in this movement then cleaning up the mess afterwards is not a plan.

It’s failure.

The other reason is that when I mention antisemitism, it’s hard to predict how people I don’t know well will react. In this case I riskily answered “antisemitism campaigner”. Without a single second’s pause he replied, “Oh there must be money in that”. I laughed. This is why I don’t tell people.

Ironically he was both wrong and indulging in one of the most common antisemitic myths. In fact, there is almost no money in fighting antisemitism. I have never been funded by any organisation or benefactor, no matter what the trolls on social media claim.

Whenever I have tried to apply for any grants, the restrictions are so limiting that you immediately lose control. The funder becomes the boss and everything that makes what I do effective is emptied out and replaced with corporate buzzwords.

I love what I do and the way I do it.

But.

There is always a but. Reality exists and to make what I do sustainable, I need support. To stay independent, to remain shielded from the predations of antisemites. I need help. If not from Mossad, Soros or lizard men with space lasers, then it has to be you.

So do please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or make a monthly donation at ko-fi. Having that stable foundation means I can plan better and be ambitious.

It also makes me feel like I’m doing a good job. I think I am, but it helps to know others do too. And maybe in future when someone asks me what I do, I won’t hesitate.

I fight Jew-hate and lots of lovely people enable me to do it.

Thank you.

I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to these hateful people. Their presence was so out of sink with the relaxed Brighton vibe and the warm summery atmosphere. Contrary to what pro-Palestinians say about me, I do not enjoy confrontation. My English sensibilities dominate and it takes an enormous effort to push them down. I decided to simply observe them and film. Of course just breathing and existing in proximity to these ghouls is enough to drive them into a red rage. There were no police officers around so this was risky.

Immediately a man wearing a top saying “No Pride in Genocide” in cheery rainbow colours stood right in front of me, blocking my view and filming me on his bodycam. I suspect he identifed as security with his ready to fight posture and reflective sunglasses. As I moved, he moved. Wherever I went, he followed. It was vaguely farcical if the intention had not been so malign.

Another man shifted to fly his large Palestinian flag opposite me. I recognised him too. He was one of the marchers who came to Palmeira Square where we had our October 7 memorial and shouted “Die, die terrorists” at us. The police have still not acted on that. Another of the antizionists stared at me, obviously itching to say something. He had shoved me backwards once at a protest. Police never did anything about that either. Pretty much all of the people there were vicious in one way or another. All older, all obsessed with Israel.

Seymour stopped handing out leaflets and signing people up to his campaign. I guess he didn’t want me to film it. At least my presence chilled his grotesque efforts. Knowing how nasty these people were, I decided not to engage any of them. I had no back up and they had been physical before. But one of them could not leave me alone. He approached asking “Why are you so obsessed with being here?” The irony did not escape me. I asked the question I had before: “Do you know that your campaign is linked to Hamas?” He replied with knee-jerk denial. I laid out the facts that always seem invisible.

The Israel boycott campaign is part of a wider one called Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS). It has been framed as a ‘civil society’ call from Palestinian groups. Yet left out of this narrative is that the BDS National Committee that steers the campaign includes the Council of National and Islamic Forces of Palestine. They are Fatah, Hamas, PIJ, PFLP and many others. The council is no ordinary member though. They are the largest and most important one. Even the most respectable campaigns coming from the Palestinian movements are entangled with terrorists. It is impossible to operate without doing so.

This is listed on the official website for the BDS movement, it is not hidden. These activists could factcheck me easily, yet they have chosen not to. The antizionist that approached me was Tony Greenstein. He is cofounder of the national Palestine Solidarity Campaign and a leading figure in this movement. He should know. I genuinely think he didn’t. He stumbled when I revealed the reality to him and all he could muster was “So what?” The answer of someone who has lost the argument. But actually it probably was an honest one. These activists simply do not care that their life’s work, their everyday activity, is driven by the agenda of brutal murderers of innocents.

They justify every hateful act with empty accusations: apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide.

I do not hold out any hope that knowing these facts will change their course. I do not think we can stop them from knocking at Jewish people’s doors with this intention and connection. But we can keep exposing them, their hypocrisy, malice and careless cruelty. Perhaps one day, the authorities will see through the lie of respectability and stop them.

Towards the end another of them approached, pointing at my camera, and said: “Can I know where you will put this film?”

I simply replied: “No.”

He looked surprised that someone had said no to him. More people should.

Every night I put together a dedication to one of the victims of October 7th to send out in the morning. Each night I weep for them as I type. It’s become a ritual of grief I do alone before sleep. I get to know them in that moment through what their loved ones have written or shared.

Sometimes there isn’t much information to find. The families mourn privately. But often there’s a whole life and death to learn about. I sit a miniature shiva in conversation with their loved ones digitally, remotely.

It’s an abstract intimacy. One-sided but felt deeply in my heart and soul. There are so many beautiful and powerful eulogies to the victims and I try to do justice for each loss. Sometimes a family has lost many members to the massacre. Those are the hardest. Grandparents, parents, children. A multi-generational tragedy, unfathomable in its pain. Then it’s impossible for tears to stop.

Tonight is one of those nights. As the years pass I have oftentimes learned about victims in isolation and not made connections to the friends or family they died with or were related to. The events of that Black Shabbat are a terrible puzzle where pieces only come together over time, as more evidence or information reveals itself. The sheer amount of victims is difficult to hold in one mind.

Tonight I learned the story of Rami Katzir and the horrors that befell the entire family as my memory connected three victims together. Rami was murdered inside his safe room and his wife Hanna and son Elad were kidnapped to Gaza. Hanna was released but Elad was murdered in captivity and his body eventually returned. Hanna died a year later from health complications suffered in captivity. Her heart literally broke. This one family suffered the sick spectrum of the Palestinian terrorists sadism.

It is impossible to fathom the depth of depravity and the abyss of grief. Yet we know more of this family because Rami’s daughter Carmit has let us into her world of pain. Her words shout from the page, gentle and sharp, solid and broken.

“These past two years have shown me how much in this world is not in our control. That there is evil. That unfair things happen. That the good do not always win, and the good do not always survive. And alongside these hard truths, I also know that this is not the whole truth. That there is also good. That there is choice. That there are good people in the world who filled me, and us, with love and goodness, whether they are still here or not.”

I read the words and in this strange online existence, connected with a stranger in their darkest moments and deepest insights. I read the words and they pierce distance and time.

Tonight is a night for tears. There is scant comfort.

Sleep will come eventually but memory lingers long into dreams and nightmares.

Today two women were acquitted of intending or likely to stir up racial hatred after they were filmed at a pro-Palestinian protest in October 2023 chanting “Khaybar Khaybar Ya Yahud Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud”. This was three weeks after the Hamas massacre in Israel. The chant translates to “Khaybar Khaybar, oh Jews, the armies of Mohammed are coming”. It references a 7th century battle where an early Muslim army massacred Jews. It was the final murderous act in the campaign against Jewish tribes in the Arabian Peninsula by the leader of this new religion — Mohammed. 

The Jewish tribes had refused to accept Mohammed and he punished them in various ways. One tribe was driven out to Syria, another was slaughtered and those in Khaybar were forced into submission. Accept him or be expelled. The Jews who stayed had to pay half their income in taxes and this was the template for the oppressive ‘dhimmi’ status that saw non-Muslims abused as a lower caste.

When the Khaybar battle is invoked, it is a direct call to invoke the defeat of Jews and either their murder, dispossession or suppression. 

It has become the chant of choice for many pro-Palestinians on demonstrations and the legal system seems unable to stop it. There was a previous case of this chant used on a protest back in 2021 when Khaldoun Ahmad El-Al and Mohammad Jihad Al Safi were charged with inciting racial hatred. It took four years to come to trial and their defense successfully argued that the chant wasn’t targeted at Jews but at Israel. As intent had to be proved they were acquitted. 

The shocking part of that defense being accepted is that if it truly was not aimed at Jews, why was that particular battle chosen. Mohammed had plenty of others to pick from. It is common sense that the link was Jews, therefore the target was too. Yet the jury was persuaded. This has been a consistent issue with cases related to antisemitism and the conflict. They seem willing to believe laughable explanations and dismissive of the impact of these verdicts on the Jewish community. Given we are seeing murders, stabbings, arson and assaults against the Jewish community at an unprecedented rate, the leniency of courts towards incitement is shocking. 

On Sunday the most extreme antizionists in the UK went into a Jewish community in London to protest outside a synagogue. A red line crossed. I cannot imagine pro-Israel activists protesting outside a mosque even though the extremism in some of those spaces is well documented. Whatever ‘plausible deniability’ excuse they gave about sales of settlement property, their intent was darker. They went to rant and rave about destroying Israel. They made the triangle sign of Hamas at Jews and waved a flag with terrorist Marwan Barghouti on. Yet they were allowed to do it by the authorities. Protected. Enabled. 

This is the most serious threat. These hateful people will always exist. But when they’re given license by the institutions who protect us, that’s where the real danger lies. When Mohammed forced Jews into submission and set up systems to enshrine it, there was no way out.

We cannot allow that here.

Leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, just proudly wore a shirt saying “Free Marwan”. It refers to Palestinian terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti, currently serving five life sentences in Israel for murder. He is bandied around as the new Nelson Mandela, yet in these fantastical discussions, his victims are erased.

Yoela Chen was on her way to a family wedding. She stopped at a petrol station to fill up while chatting to her elderly aunt Rachel. They must have been excited and looking forward to the party, a celebration of love. Unbeknownst to them, she struck up a conversation with Palestinian terrorists. Their pretence at casual chatter was actually an attempt to confirm that Yoela was Israeli. A cell was lying in wait to ambush unsuspecting innocents. They opened fire on both, killing Yoela and injuring Rachel. The wedding party became a shiva.

Yoela was an innocent victim in a perceived act of vengeance by Palestinian terrorist groups bent on answering the assasination of their comrade Raed Karmi. He was a leader of the armed wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and had admitted murdering two Israeli restaurant owners. Israel had insisted he be arrested by the Palestinian Authority, yet he walked free. This provoked an assasination, which in turn ended the ceasefire and suicide and terror attacks resumed. Yoela was murdered a day after Karmi. Her killers were organised on the ground by Ahmed Barghouti, the right hand man of leader Marwan Barghouti. Transcripts from police interviews with Marwan reveal that in the mourning tent for Karmi, he authorised a ‘revenge attack’. Leadership was often one step removed from the reality of these bloody murders yet they approved, directed and funded them.

When those outside this conflict refer to the ‘cycle of bloodshed’ this is commonly the pattern. Terrorists are killed and retaliation is taken out on civilians.

The murder of Yoela Chen was only one of Marwan Barghouti’s convictions - there were more killings of innocents that could be laid at his door. The previous year a potential suicide bomber approached Barghouti and said he wanted to carry out an attack. Barghouti referred him to another operative who would train and supply him. In the end the attacker carried out a shooting at a car with Israeli license plates. It belonged to Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus, from the monastery of St. George in Wadi Kelt, who was driving home. The Greek Orthodox monastery is stunningly set into cliffs overlooking the Judean desert and was founded in the 5th century during the Byzantine era. It is located in what is currently considered Area C of the West Bank and under the authority of Israel. The terrorists later deemed it ‘mistaken identity’. They had meant to murder Jews.

Two months after Yoela Chen was murdered, Barghouti’s minions struck again. This time in Tel Aviv. Ibrahim Hassouna went to a seafood restaurant and threw grenades inside. By some miracle, they failed to explode. Instead he opened fire and then began to stab people. He murdered two civilians and then stabbed to death a Druze police officer who was the first at the scene, before being killed by police. Barghouti authorised the attack though he later claimed to have instructed it to happen in settlements, not Israel proper. This seems more like a strategic and optics decision rather than an ethical one. Barghouti was responsible for the murders of Israelis and non-Israelis alike whether they lived in the settlements or not. He had no compunction about targeting civilians. The judges recognised that even though he claimed to not agree with targeting civilians in Israel, he continued to work with the same terrorists on further attacks.

Marwan Barghouti was also convicted of an attempted suicide bombing planned for a Jerusalem shopping centre. Luckily the bombers were stopped and killed before they could carry out their deadly attack. Again Barghouti claimed to have instructed the attack to happen outside Israel. This seemed to be a repeating pattern so either he was an ineffective leader or this was just plausible deniability. The judges saw no reason why this was an excuse, they still found Barghouti culpable for financing and ordering the murders - wherever they happened.

He was convicted for five murders and attempted murder as well as membership of a terrorist organisation.

The entire indictment brought against him by Israeli prosecutors spanned 37 different attacks that resulted in 26 deaths. But the judges acquitted on those charges because of a lack of evidence that Barghouti was directly involved in them. There is no doubt he was an influential leader at the top of a terrorist group that funnelled money, training and directions to suicide bombers and the murderers of innocents. Yet his victims are forgotten in the scrum to whitewash one Palestinian notable person that the co-opted left can get behind. They compare him to Nelson Mandela, yet the South African leader saw violence as a much narrower tool and engaged in acts of sabotage that attempted to avoid harm to people. He eschewed terrorism and became the unifying force that the country needed. Marwan Barghouti is in the gutter with those who target civilians for gruesome death and sees ‘liberation’ as a bloody enterprise.

He is no Mandela.

Nothing symbolises the dark pretence of the Gaza Flotilla as a respectable enterprise with a sinister agenda than this image of a Dutch activist being interviewed while a supporter makes the Hamas triangle sign behind him. He was quickly hurried away by a steward because they do not want the world to see their true face when the mask slips.

A week ago a fleet of 54 flotilla boats containing over 400 activists from 40 countries was intercepted in international waters 250 nautical miles from Cyprus. They claimed to be delivering humanitarian aid but there was little or none on board the fleet of small vessels. The primary purpose of the campaign was to generate and provoke bad publicity for Israel and further the agenda of terrorist organisations in Gaza.

The main organisers Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek had been apprehended weeks before on April 29th. Ávila had previously attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Abu Keshek was just sanctioned by the US government for his organisation’s links to Hamas. Their deportation on May 10th from Israel left the remaining fleet leaderless yet radicalised enough to continue. The Flotilla this year had come under internal and external criticism after sexual misconduct allegations were made against the leadership. Fierce debate within the pro-Palestinian movements were aimed at them for being pointless and self-obsessed. In fact they had very little support and their popularity was diminished significantly.

They had been wracked by bad publicity and controversy as members danced provocatively in videos and threw chocolate bars and plastic bottles overboard. The Israeli Navy played Britney Spears over the radio when they were being intercepted and the world mocked them.

That was until Israeli government minister Itamar Ben Gvir made a self-aggrandising video humiliating detainees and showed one woman being physically restrained after shouting “Free Palestine”. In one short clip Ben Gvir reinvigorated the Flotilla’s status and sent their stocks soaring. Israeli Ambassadors were summoned by 11 countries and widespread condemnation by allies and foes were issued. Even the Prime Minister of Israel criticised the actions of his own minister. It was a spectacular own goal and laid the foundation for stories of alleged abuse at the hands of Israel to find fertile ground and exaggerations and falsehoods given a listening ear by the world’s media. And that’s exactly what happened.

As soon as detainees arrived from deportation to Istanbul in Turkey, the wild stories poured forth. Remarkably the statements activists made to the media were repeated almost word for word. Soundbites like calling the warship they were first detained in a “concentration camp” were delivered by several activists from countries including Canada, Australia, Ireland and the US. It’s very unlikely this was a coincidence. The deliberate Holocaust inversion serves to both minimise that horror and put Jews on the same par as Nazis - a deeply felt insult delivered with malice and premeditation.

Then there was the theatrical use of stretchers for people who could clearly walk unaided and medical props that were seemingly unneeded and discarded before arrival in their home countries. One British man claimed the IDF may have broken his spine yet he was filmed disembarking the plane in Turkey with no apparent discomfort.

When a group of Spanish activists arrived in the airport in Bilbao, they blocked the arrival gate to pose for photos. Police asked them to move and they did not. When an officer used his body to push backwards and clear space, an activist used his elbow to shove back. Then a Flotilla supporter tried to break through the barrier and an officer used a baton to stop them and the Flotilla activist ran to intervene and all hell broke loose. Police used force and accused the activists of trying to steal batons and resisting arrest.

It wasn’t the only place where trouble happened. In Athens the police could barely control the seething crowds chanting and trying to get to their arriving champions. Flotilla activists can be seen shoving police there too. In Austria, police arrested one returning Flotilla member after complaints were made about loud noises and blocking of areas in the airport. In Brussels the Flotilla fans surged into the arrivals gate and caused mayhem though police seemed totally overwhelmed. Every country had varying degrees of chaos and aggression. Yet not one Ambassador was called nor one leader spoke out to condemn police treatment.

That wasn’t the only horrible thing these people did. In Ireland, an activist held the Islamic Republic of Iran flag and called the “Axis of Resistance” heroes. That includes Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Those protesting the treatment of the Bilbao activists also waved that horrible flag in their protest, which is grotesquely ironic given the regime’s murder of thousands of protesters. In Toronto the crowd chanted “Death, death to the IOF” and in New York an activist admitted the Flotilla wasn’t about aid but “confronting” Israel. A Dutch activist gave a speech saying “the Zionist State” had no right to exist and supporters chanted “Israel no more”. One made a Hamas inverted triangle sign behind a Flotilla member before being hurried away by a steward.

That is the key here. These people are crafting an image of themselves as ‘humanitarians’ simply on a mission to bring aid. In reality their organisers have links to Hamas and are working for an annihilationist agenda. This was a war armada not a peace convoy. The response to the maltreatment video posted by Ben Gvir compared to the filmed beatings they got from their police forces exposes both the hypocrisy of the West who berates Israel, but also the true nature of who these people are and how they are behaving even within their own nations. They are extremists with the intention towards destruction and death. We must not give them ammunition to aim their weapons but we must expose them and push for sanctions and restrictions from their own governments who should take responsibility for their citizen’s child-like despotism.

The Met police have given a very strong statement on the pro-Palestinian ‘Nakba Day’ march this weekend which is a significant shift in their communications and approach. But it’s incredibly complex unless you understand what’s been happening for the past two and a half years.

The devil really is in the detail when it comes to policing and I’ve been on a steep learning curve.

For the first time the police have admitted that the hate marches have in fact been hateful. Previously they have been opaque about the negotiations they’ve had with organisers and minimised the arrests. Often those arrests have only come after being monitored by Jewish people or exposed on social media. It’s been a battle to eke out any action at all.

The police state that in the run up to marches they had to  “intervene to change the route for 21 out of the 33 protests. On 17 of those occasions that intervention was necessary to protect Jewish communities because the organisers were trying to assemble near, march past or finish near synagogues. These marches always take place on Saturdays which is the Jewish holy day, when Jews are attending religious services. This only adds to the fears already being felt.” That’s half of the marches. 

Police say the organisers made “persistent attempts to assemble and march in this way” which hints that this was a deliberate attempt to intimidate Jews or at least be entirely lacking in care about the community’s fears. This is a damning indictment given how police have resisted attempts to ban the marches and have often downplayed the Jewish community’s worries about them. That is unforgivable given the levels of hatred and violence that have exploded since October 7. It undermines the trust and faith in messaging coming from those who are supposed to protect us. The political winds allow for the truth to come out but only after there’s been dead and stabbed Jews, burned ambulances and firebombed synagogues.

Putting that betrayal and gaslighting aside, let’s examine what the police say they will actually do now.

They say strict conditions are now in place that the assembly point, route and finishing times are set in stone and any deviance from those will result in arrest. In previous marches breakaway wandering extremists have ended up causing chaos in different parts of London. The police may now arrest anyone who does this. Good. They also have powers to remove masks and search people. Excellent.

Police have stated that speakers “don’t break the law by using these events as a platform for unlawful extremism or hate speech”. Again the devil is in the detail as to what constitutes both. They mention “intifada” chants and “death, death to the IDF” though the latter was only in relation to chanting it at Jews. Given the counter protesters Stop the Hate are not planning to be there, this seems redundant. No Jewish person is going to put themselves in the vicinity of these extremists. A hate chant is still a hate chant even if Jews aren’t around.

They will take an “assertive approach to chanting and the displaying of phrases on placards or banners that incite hatred or indicate support for terrorism or other forms of extremism”. We have not seen much of that and it has been said before so the proof will be in the pudding. 

This is interesting. They say they want to “reflect on language that prosecutors have previously advised didn’t meet the threshold for prosecution to see if that position may now change”. That could mean the other hate chants like “from the river to the sea” or “Zionism no more” may be acted upon. Who knows. They’re still being quite opaque. This is where the problem has always been. Anti-Israel hate and antizionism have been tolerated for too long and we are weak on the overlay of antisemitism in this area. The authorities have not recognised what this language is and where it leads. We’ve seen the horrible impacts of that failure in the past year as attacks on Jews have exploded.

I truly hope this is a turning point. That the authorities are having an enlightened moment that means they will act on the hatred we’ve witnessed for years. 

That the detail beats the devil.

Yesterday I rested.

I needed it after spending most of Saturday exposed to the condensed hate of the Brighton pro-Palestinian scene. First there was the Palestine Solidarity Campaign stall at the Clocktower in the centre of the city. This is their usual spot. It was where my husband filmed them on October 8th 2023 having a rally where a woman called the previous day’s attacks “beautiful” and “inspiring”. The Clocktower itself was built to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign. I wonder what she would think about the vile activists gathering under her image. She once called Brightonians “indiscreet and troublesome” and with these people I can’t disagree.

I had approached the antizionist door knockers a few days before and asked an awkward question about their campaign. At least they were attempting to mask their darkness. The pretence of respectability needed to be maintained. But with the PSC there are no such restraints. Victoria would not have approved. Vicious aggression and malicious bullying are the tools of their trade. There is no room for reason. I couldn’t even get my question out before being harangued, having posters shoved in my face, being swarmed by multiple people and vile language was spewed.

I spent 9 minutes and 23 seconds in their company and it felt like a decade of psychic damage was done.

As I retreated from the Clocktower towards Brighton train station, I began to calm. Each step away from them was to reenter reality. I focused on the obliviousness of the smiling tourists who flocked to the city like seagulls would to their chips. It was just enough normality to smooth my jangled nerves.

Then the tinny grate and squeak of a cheap megaphone drifted down on the wind.

The woman who was arrested for chanting “globalise the intifada” a month before was robotically leading chants to a dozen cult members gathered around two bed-sheet banners.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”

“There is only one State, Palestine ‘48”

Both these chants call for Israel to be erased. Disappeared. Each phrase is a puncture, a wound. The words stab. People wandered by, unaffected. Perhaps a look of bewilderment at these strange activists intent on souring the sun. Yet not the depth of impact I was experiencing. I was plunged into war in a place of peace. The ‘intifada’ woman spotted me and suddenly the chants had a target.

And just like that the ordinary world disappeared. It became the backdrop for battle, invisible to all the uninvolved. Even the few police officers that were sent to play their part in this, blurred out of focus. They stayed on the edges, the knife-like chants had no effect on them. Generated no reaction, did not pierce their souls. It was fifteen robots and one of me.

I was alone.

“Death, death to the IDF”

“1, 2, 3, 4 Gaza broke the prison door”

For an unknowable architectural reason, these chants echoed in just the right way to make this small group sound like an army. As they marched down Queens Road, named for Victoria, the buildings themselves became accomplices. A few ordinary people briefly entered our bubble of war. A disgruntled taxi driver leaned out his window and rolled his eyes and used every part of his upper body to communicate disapproval. A perturbed pedestrian swore at them and was shushed by a police officer.

That is when the linguistic feints from the chanters dug deeper. There was a police van taking up the rear, two officers floating around, intelligence gatherers and two liaison officers mingled in with the marchers. None of them were stopping this hate march. Those tasked to protect had become enablers.

“British police Zionist police”

Ironically this submission was not enough for the pro-Palestinians. They accused the police of being in the thrall of Israel. Of being complicit in genocide. Each accusation was an overlay of myths of Jewish power. Fantasies created to explain away the inadequacies, failures and malice of antisemites. The police did not hear with my ears, nor detect the millenia old malignancy.

Eventually the war-march reached its final destination - Brighton police station. Still the officers did not register the threat.

“Say it loud say it clear, Zionists not welcome here”

The ‘intifada’ woman looked me dead in the eyes when she chanted it.

The malice dripped off her and pouty poison distorted her face. She seemed child-like in that moment, though children can be cruel. The speeches were full of self-righteous self-pity, both delighted in and railed against. They said “armed struggle” and I knew it meant terrorism. The violence that had robbed our family of so many precious souls. The marchers and I understood one another and inhabited a disturbing private dispute in a public space.

The police were present but not involved.

At one point it was overwhelming. The realisation that we stood outside a police station while antisemites called for blood broke through. And nobody saw it, nobody felt it. I was surrounded by other people and completely alone. A wave of grief and fear hit, and tense tears flowed. Perhaps it would have satisfied them to see that. I doubt my emotions elicited empathy. Zionists aren’t welcome after all.

Then it was over. The curtains came down on this theatre of hate. Banners were folded and the megaphone switched off. They looked pleased with themselves, energised. I turned and walked away. Dazed. My heart limped home.

Later that night I met with Jewish friends to watch a comedy show, to enter the same world again but with a mutual universe of company. We laughed. Laughed. Then I told them all about the terrible day. One said she felt this urgent need to go to Israel and refuel. That every day here takes a little something from her. She didn’t need to live in Israel, but a visit was vital to replenish. What I experienced that day was an infinitesimal taste of what Jewish people live with. A constant outflow of expense and ignominious inflow of stabs to the soul.

Sometimes we focus so much on defending the State of Israel as a bureaucratic or military entity. A pragmatic protector of the Jewish people. What I missed was the source of psychic sustenance the Jewish majority nation is. The cost of living with the foundations of diaspora life being hacked at by the hateful is high. Feeling the sands of Tel Aviv beaches on your toes and resting a hand on the Western Wall is repair and renewal. To talk freely and be yourself without looking over your shoulder or checking who might be listening. To not have to constantly explain. To just be. And relax the spirit.

The next day I reported the hate chants to the police. Minutes passed and a reply came from the ‘contact centre’. No offences detected. I expected it yet the wounds from the day before were poked at. Each rejection costs. Punches a hole for darkness to creep in. An unsteadiness that cannot be described by law. An anxiety that will not be quantified in crime statistics. Not only the realisation that an injustice will go unpunished to embolden and fuel an atmosphere that gets Jews killed, but the paranoia of patterns. That institutions meant to protect will turn like a pet that goes rabid. That will enable and legitimise Jew-hate. Will join in.

That is what is not seen or heard by those with ears that cannot hear and eyes that refuse to see.

No offences detected.

The past two days have been particularly insane in the world of the pro-Palestinian movement. I even questioned if there was a full moon, though these people don’t require that myth to display their lunacy. I had been following the Artemis journey to the actual heavenly body just to bring lightness to my timeline and as the astronauts descended, so the behaviour of the pro-Pals rose to new levels of madness.

On Friday the hardcore elements organised a protest outside King’s College London University where the London Defence Conference was being hosted. The gathering is in its fourth year, having been set up in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It rightly saw that the geopolitical landscape was shifting dramatically and brought together defence experts to discuss and network. The theme this year was “Readiness”.

What we aren’t ready for and haven’t been for two years is the threat right outside the door. The extremists aren’t hiding in basements. They’re chanting for “intifada” on the streets and normalising destruction and terrorism. Not just towards Israel and America but to us. To Britain. That is perfectly exposed by what happened next. After some warm up chants outside the conference, the pro-Pals moved off onto an unnotified march. Usually a moving protest has to notify police 7 days before in order to ensure public safety and proper policing. These people never abide by the rules everyone else has to follow. They think they’re above the law. Often they are.

They took over the roads, abused drivers, spewed hate, and mocked Iranian dissidents. Until they spied British military personnel who were coming back from the conference into the Ministry of Defence. The pack swarmed, shouting “baby butchers” at high level officers. The British forces have no role in Gaza and never have. They’ve been absent from the Iran theatre too. But none of this is supposed to be about reality. It’s pure bullying to ensure compliance.

As the mob first ran at the military personnel like a pack of galloping zombies, an armed officer moved to protect them. Immediately a ‘journalist’ from the far left rag The Canary, Ibrahim Essad, began shouting as though he was in a war zone about the officer pointing his gun at unarmed activists. The whole scenario was absurd. A Carry On Complaining. This is often what I come away with seeing these sinister yet ridiculous scenes unfold. The pro-Pals will bully and harass but exploit any opportunity to be perceived as victims. The classic strategy of narcissists and abusers.

That brings us to Saturday.

The Defend Our Juries campaign has morphed from its first defence of the jury system to solely sticking up for a proscribed terrorist group - Palestine Action. They’ve organised multiple grandstanding events to get as many people arrested for holding placard saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. They add the first part as a sort of passive aggressive scolding for anyone who arrests them. Another example of the cry-bully strategy.

So far they claim 2700 arrests though the police say it’s more like 1600. Many are multiple offenders. Today they had hoped since a bizarre decision by the High Court ruled the proscription of Palestine Action as “unlawful” that they’d have a merry day of celebration. Or so they said. But the Met police reversed a decision to not arrest for this kind of support. So we entered Groundhog Day and hundreds were arrested. Again there were many familiar faces of multiple arrestees.

This time there were very many police, including help from as far afield as Wales. The Palestine Action fans were mostly elderly, disabled people of a Quaker bent. Their fragility was meant to elicit sympathy while bu

rly cops carried them roughly away. It’s all about the optics. Their supporters had no such restraints and the very same crew who swarmed the military personnel the day before were chanting “death, death to the IDF” and creating mayhem. This is a relatively small group and would be easy to disrupt if the authorities were willing. But time after time, they escape punishment. They rule the streets.

I began by feeling overwhelmed by this hysteria. But of course this is planned, meticulously. There is a coordinated campaign to disrupt democracy, push the law to its limits and beyond and normalise extremism.

It’s their plan and they’re winning.

Tonight I was walking home from my local pharmacy and I spied people wearing little pink tabards in the distance. Like nails on a chalkboard it triggered a visceral shudder. I’d seen those before.

It was the antizionist doorknockers.

They first launched their grim campaign on February 7th and Sky News followed them around and exposed just how ridiculous and hateful their activities are. The overwhelmingly negative response they received from the nation did not make them question these tactics. Since then they’ve had more door knocking sessions and gathered 150 sign ups to their pledge to boycott Israeli produce.

As I approached I recognised the lead campaigner Seymour Millen who was featured prominently on the Sky News piece. I asked him: “Are you the Israel boycott people?” He proudly replied “yes” and then said: “you’re Heidi Bachram right?” It does not feel good to realise that people with antizionist politics know my face and soon may be knocking at my door.

I asked Seymour if he knew that the boycott campaign he was pushing on the doorstep was led by a committee that included members like Hamas. He laughed. “I don’t think it does.” He didn’t think. If I was running a campaign, I would definitely know whether or not it was linked to terrorists. I’d be able to give a definitive answer. He did not and that is revealing.

In fact the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is controlled by an organisation called the BDS National Committee (BNC). Bear with me for acronyms here. The BNC’s largest and most prominent member is the Council for National and Islamic Forces in Palestine. That’s made up of the terrorist groups active in the region including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PFLP and many other monsters. Those three groups participated in the October 7 massacre, raping, maiming, murdering and kidnapping innocents including my relatives Tsachi and Ma’ayan Idan.

BDS is one arm for the many pronged strategy for these murderous terrorists to further their agenda to destroy Israel. This is just one method to delegitimise and isolate the only Jewish majority State. It’s cloaked in NGO language and wrapped in respectability. But as criminals hide their wrongdoings in layers of shell companies, so do the nightmarish aims of these violent thugs. Committees and councils conceal and obfuscate.

It was a question that Seymour was not expecting. He had no script, no rehearsed answers. He floundered. “Do you think I’m Hamas?” he sputtered. No of course not, but his campaign is furthering the agenda that these psychopaths lead. He grasped frantically around for anything to get me off track. He looked to his comrade for help. Desperation led to deflection and distraction. I would not let it go.

Then he asked me if I’d like to sign the boycott pledge. That’s when I got cross. “Are you kidding? You’re running a Hamas-led campaign and you’re asking someone who had relatives murdered by Hamas to sign up to it?” This is the callous cluelessness of these people. They either don’t see us as human beings or don’t care to.

Towards the end of our encounter, Seymour complained that I was filming and would put the video on X. That last time he was on Sky News he had “500 Neo-Nazis” after him. I’m not really sure why Nazis would object to his politics. They’re fully on board with the destruction of Israel and boycotting Jews. Frankly, the objection that I’d be getting him targeted was an insult when he was unperturbed by the reality that knocking on the doors of Jews to demand a purity pledge would cause immense anxiety and fear. As he turned to ring someone’s doorbell, I accused once more that they were pushing a campaign led by Hamas.

He turned his back.

I left, leaving “shame on you” in the air. I doubt he has any.

“March for love, for unity, for hope”

That was the strap line of today’s ‘Together against the Far Right’ antiracist extravaganza. A medley of unions, hippies, yummy mummies, Islamists and antizionists numbered in the thousands and as they walked, revealed just who the left is these days.

The march had been organised ostensibly in response to the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ shock event that brought huge numbers out six months ago. Though Tommy Robinson was the catalyst for that surprise success, the Together march seemed obsessed with Nigel Farage and Reform.

This is who the left has determined constitutes the far right in 2026. It’s a question of perspective I suppose though the far right of long tradition is usually centred around the Nick Griffins on the spectrum. This is where things get awkward for the current formulation because Griffin is onboard with the other target of today’s antiracists — Zionists.

Daniel Kebede, a key organiser, spoke on stage today wistfully about a “Muslim and Jewish child holding hands” yet in 2021 he called for a crowd to “globalise the intifada”. Jeremy Corbyn headed up the march alongside Mothin Ali, Zarah Sultana and other controversial figures. None of these people scream inclusion for most Jewish people.

The first image I saw was a man wearing a hoodie saying “death, death to the IDF” and a Hamas red triangle, holding an Islamic Republic of Iran flag. In fact there was a whole feeder march called ‘Together for Palestine’. No other country or cause got this exceptional treatment. This wasn’t just a pro-Palestine advocacy bloc. This was a full on pro-Iranian regime, pro-terror, antizionist hate march. The antiracist left and antizionists are so deeply entwined to be almost inseparable.

At one point I saw a video of an anti-regime Iranian woman, Niaz Abadani, who was walking around completely perplexed and appalled by the support for her people’s oppressors. She challenged a white British woman who was holding a placard saying “Stop bombing Iran”. Niaz asked her “what are you doing supporting a terrorist regime?” The woman stuttered out “I’m not going to convince you.” Niaz replied “Convince me of what? I’m Iranian, I’ve been imprisoned by that regime. I can’t even go to see my father’s grave. I left as a refugee. Please just think about it.”

The woman looked a little ashamed. Niaz said after the video ended they cried together and the woman put the placard down. This interaction was the most profound of the whole day. It exposed the ignorance and tribalism built into this march, this movement. There were probably many people trying to do the right thing there today. But that has become murkier than ever. The binaries of antiracism of the past no longer exist. This incarnation has aligned itself with some of the most murderous and horrific regimes and terrorists in the world.

To be together is not enough. To label yourself acting out of love is meaningless if you walk alongside those who support murdering opponents. That’s not unity, it’s looking the other way. I appeal to those with good intentions to look inward. Look to your left and right. Really look. Then reject those who hate most Jews, who support murderous Islamists and authoritarians.

Then I might hope.

Two weeks ago a communist affiliated group called ‘Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’ (FRFI) protested in support of the antizionist door knockers in Brighton. They didn’t like us exposing the hate behind this sinister campaign to rock up at Jewish people’s homes and demand a pledge to boycott Israeli produce. We saw through their attempts at respectability to the rotten core of lies about Israel and an attempt to create a hostile environment for most Jewish people.

That day FRFI had a speaker called Maya who gave a speech with barely concealed support for Hamas who led chants of “Intifada” for an hour and a half, unchallenged by attending police. Though officers assured me they had gotten her details, she was not identified nor arrested. Sussex police later put out an appeal to find her.

FRFI’s revolutionary dreams came true. They constructed a victim narrative that Maya was being persecuted by the State and the Zionists. Perfect conditions for them to begin their long sought after “Fight Back”. The group threatened a confrontation in the centre of the city, conveniently coinciding with the time and place of a regular Israel advocacy event by Sussex Friends of Israel.

I arrived early to see not a single communist though the Socialist Worker stall was there, albeit quickly moved along by police. This was not their circus. Eventually the FRFI stall appeared but with no more than 10 comrades. I could see that other plans were afoot as whispered conversations and anxious looking phone calls were made. The local Palestine Solidarity Campaign organiser Russell Crockett was huddled among the communists. That could never be good.

Little by little the communists began to drift away in different directions. I guessed this was designed to confuse the police and prevent detection of their real agenda. I started to walk up to the train station as their ridiculous subterfuge was plain as day. As I moved closer, chants floated on the sea air. A jumbling echo of shouts and blurred movements as the pack got nearer. Then I spotted her. Maya had donned a surgical mask and pulled a grey hoodie over her mousey locks. She was surrounded by tall men on all sides and held prime position with a megaphone in the centre of the gaggle.

She was chanting for Intifada. Again.

A dare I suppose. A taunt.That was all this meant to her and her minions. To my ears it was a call for murder, a battle cry to kill me and mine. Our lives and safety was being wielded as a weapon in a war between a fringe ideology and the perceived agents of the State. Sometimes I wonder if we featured at all. With a flourish Maya ripped off her mask and pulled down her hood. A Shakespearean reveal without poetry or beauty. Here was the hate chanter and she was proud.

All the while she continued to screech “Globalise the Intifada” until moments later two officers snatched her from the protection of her comrades and bundled her into a waiting police van. The pre-rehearsed play began and the communists began chanting “Zionist police” accompanied by some performative shoving. I moved towards the van to see her blank face and dead eyes while a police officer tried to talk to her. This was taking too long though. There is always the danger that normal procedures will allow time for the van to be blocked and a protracted stand off ensue.

A wise commander spotted that possibility and shouted for them to go and the vehicle dramatically sped away, thus stymying the rebellion. It took the wind out of the sails of their shouts and the budding revolution was reduced to standing on the pavement shouting into the ether. I stayed with them just in case they became brave. An older woman with angry dyed red hair shoved her sign in my face: “Brighton hates bigots”. Oh the irony while her comrades shouted “Zionists off our streets”. This is a rather dull ploy by the hateful to block me from filming. A police officer recognised the dynamic as she relentlessly harassed me. Usually police do not intervene even though it’s my right to film in a public place. Sometimes the pro-Pals feign upset at my presence and a police officer once caved to the fakery and threatened to arrest me for causing a breach of peace.

Today was different. As the authorities always should have done, they protected my rights as well as theirs. He told her I had a right to be there as did she. I moved away because I had no faith in this dynamic. She followed. So did he. He told her off for pursuing me and she childishly and insinuatingly whined: “Do you like her?” In her tainted mind there could be no other reason why I would be defended.

The fifteen or so communists continued to chant their playlist:

“Resistance is justified..”

“We want Palestine ‘48”

“From the river to the sea”

Then two of them approached me. One had his camera rolling and the other ‘interviewed’ me for their website. I ignored them and they gave up very easily. Seems it is possible to make communists feel awkward. Soon after they tried a different tactic and a woman pushed near me with the man filming. Uncomfortably close. She asked why I had helped the police get her friend arrested. I replied I had nothing to say and to please leave me alone. She asked another question. I asked again for her to go away. That’s officially harassment. She refused and continued, getting more frustrated and aggressive. I told her this was harassment and then another miracle occurred. Two police officers got between us and shifted them away, telling them to leave me alone.

The senior officer turned to me and said he was happy for me to be there but for my own safety, if they got worse, then I should consider moving. It was polite and gracious. Supportive even. An unfamiliar experience.

The hateful did not approach me again and I had a very strange and pleasant feeling.

I felt safe.

Protected.

That was all I had ever wanted. To feel that if these horrible people crossed the line, if they called for violence, if they threatened me, that those charged with the duty to defend us - would. It was surprisingly healing. A hole in my soul I hadn’t fully recognised was there. The terrible isolation that victims of bullying feel when nobody stands with them. I don’t know if it will last but I will enjoy that steadiness for now.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I went to the strangest event last night. It was a live recording of Leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski’s podcast — ‘Bold Politics’. The taping took place at the main arts venue in my city, the Brighton Dome. Capacity was 1700 and 1508 tickets were sold. The place was filled with a quiet hum of middle-class chatter and politely subdued excitement. I had expected to be surrounded by keffiyehs and Palestine flags but I only saw one woman wearing the scarf and a small badge on another’s bag.

The branding was all green, but this time not for Hamas.

That didn’t mean the ‘genocide’ wasn’t referenced, albeit with a liberal sprinkle rather than a loud chant. Polanski began with a rant about the American tech company Palantir who he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about. He bragged that a petition he started to kick them out of the NHS had reached over 100k. Attached onto the end of the company’s sins was being “complicit in genocide”, though it was never made exactly clear how.

That was the vibe of the evening. Big, grand slogans and talk but little substance. I spent two hours listening to them speak yet I could not tell you a single thing they would do, except for the petition. Polanski interviewed veteran Green ex-MP Caroline Lucas. That made sense given she was the MP in Brighton Pavilion for over a decade. A frontierswoman, single handedly holding the Party together for years. You can tell because she is a consummate politician.

To my great surprise, they spent the first half hour actually talking about the environment. Something that I haven’t seen from the Greens of late as they obsess about Gaza and try to pass motions smearing Zionism as racism. Lucas is an accomplished speaker who knows her subject well. Though this version of environmentalism is enmeshed with the socialist politics of redistribution and ‘climate justice’. She explored the human connection with nature and spiritual and philosophical ideas.

Then the topic turned to death.

You see Lucas is training as a ‘Death Doula’. As with birth doulas these are people who aid with the end of life process. She believes that we can make death more meaningful and dignified. The audience was enraptured, silent and transfixed. I have heard of death doulas before, when I had cancer and faced my own mortality. They seemed like a helpful person to advocate for the dying and generally have around. Just in case. Lucas has a wider agenda on this. She thinks ritual has been lost to us, that community connection for when death comes is so important.

For a moment I was with her completely and then I remembered when our memorial to the victims of October 7th was vandalised fifty times, she said nothing. When Green councillors tried to get it removed, she was absent. Our ritual, the community we built in grief, none of that mattered to her. Her empathy and compassion had limits. That jolt of that reality and the chasm of hypocrisy separated me from those all nodding along. This wasn’t my community and would never be.

The first question asked from the audience came from a twenty-something blonde woman who gently told us all that she had accidentally ended up in a “far-right march”. She had decided to speak to people and show them compassion and try to find common ground. Her voice cracked and broke and tears came as she recollected the conversations she had with these people who knew the billionaires were their real enemy. She wanted to continue this work of reaching those who’d been hoodwinked into hate. Lucas ran with it. The Greens are about love and hope and Reform are about hate and divisiveness.

I almost snorted in derision out loud and just caught it in time. These people just do not see their own darkness even as they elected a Deputy leader that called October 7 a “fight back” and embraced every antisemite and extremist they could find. Their sense of virtue is so strong that there is simply no chance of self reflection or awareness. I felt like I was having an out of body experience. They nodded and grunted in agreement from their £30 seats at the less fortunate being tricked by the far right into blind hate. Money does not make you wise.

I tried not to succumb to anger and left instead with disdain. The entire evening was filled with words like hope, community, love and empathy. Lucas said she sought nuance. It felt like manipulation. A fake smile to hide eyes full of contempt, an outreached hand while the other held a knife. None of this felt genuinely inclusive, because I knew the foundational hate they hold for Israel and anyone associated with the only Jewish State. I knew the people they welcomed into their tribe hated me and mine and would see us all dead.

Soon the Greens may become the only antizionist Party in the UK. Perhaps Lucas will be the death doula to her own organisation.

I will not mourn them.

When I was pregnant with my daughter 17 years ago, we decided to move from London to Brighton. A dream of life in a tolerant city where our child could choose any path. Have the beauty of nature and the opportunities of a cosmopolitan place. Now she’s a teenager on the frontline of a fight where her identity as a Jew, as a British Israeli, is a battle she never chose. One she has lost before uttering a single word. Our dream has become a nightmare.

Brighton has had an antisemitism problem for a while. When Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party and their conference arrived in my city in 2017, controversy erupted. A fringe event featured speaker Miko Peled saying “Holocaust, yes or no?” in an apparent legitimation of denial. The then leader of the Labour council, Warren Morgan, even threatened to ban his own party from Brighton if they didn’t clean up their antisemitic act. It was of course only when the EHRC ruled against them three years later that the issue was finally taken seriously. By then, the racist rot ran deep.

Despite changes to Labour, the pro-Palestinian movement here continued unabated, active and spiteful yet limited. Manageable, ignorable.

Everything changed on October 7, 2023.

The day after the massacre the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a rally in the centre of the city. While terrorists still roamed Israel murdering civilians, pro-Palestinian activists got out their megaphones and compared the killers to Nelson Mandela and the French Resistance. While my husband Adam watched and filmed them in horror, a British Palestinian student made a gleeful speech encouraging the audience to celebrate. I posted that terrible tirade online and she was the first person arrested and charged in the UK after October 7 for a terrorism offence. That night we found out that Adam’s cousin Tsachi Idan was kidnapped and his daughter Ma’ayan murdered. The following week was a blur of shock and grief and interviews with police.

A dark, new universe was born and life would never be the same again.

This was the first of many antisemitic and terrorism supporting incidents to come. A tree dedicated to refugees from the Holocaust was mown down, hostage displays vandalised, a Jewish man kicked, Hamas praised in speeches, 60 children walked out of school and chanted “from the river to the sea”. Men shouted “baby-killers” at Jews during a Chanukah lighting, a memorial to the victims of October 7 was vandalised over fifty times, an Israeli teen was punched in school, Hamas rapes were denied in a Women’s Day event, a Jewish community centre was graffitied with “free Palestina”. Gun gestures were made at Jews outside a synagogue and behind the heads of Jews at the memorial.

But recently it got much worse. On the day that Jews were killed at a synagogue in Manchester, my husband was guarding his shul. Men drove past shouting “baby-killers” and calling them “scum”. Meanwhile on the other side of the city, I witnessed hundreds of pro-Palestinians invade the train station chanting “Zionism is a crime” and “There is only one solution. Intifada revolution”. Jews being murdered didn’t give them a moment’s pause. In fact, the blood was up. It thrilled them, spurred them on. It terrified me.

Antisemitism has spiralled out of control. Reports have tripled in Brighton & Hove since October 7. Sussex leapt from tenth place in the ranking of antisemitic incidents in 2024 to fourth place in 2025. Per capita to the local Jewish population, that’s the highest in the country. The City of Sanctuary. But who for?

In recent days, Brighton has made national and international headlines because a new antisemitic campaign was launched. The “Apartheid-Free Zone” door knockers shocked the world. An organiser made a speech saying their intention was to “isolate the Zionist State until it shrivels and dies.” They presented themselves as ‘respectable’ canvassers going door-to-door with the narrow goal of asking people to boycott a few Israeli products. Yet knowing the darker motivation is to destroy the only Jewish State in the world imbues a sinister feel to their activities.

Jews in Brighton are already feeling under pressure in the cultural and political life of this so-called tolerant city. Home is their one true sanctuary. Yet now, that retreat is threatened by the spectre of antizionist antisemites banging on their doors to demand they sign a purity pledge. If not, their address is marked. Noted. This has sent a chill through the community. It’s not only Jews who are appalled. The home is a refuge for most and in an increasingly divided society, a place where politics can be left at the door. No one wants that peace violated.

Our ‘City of Sanctuary’ may not be real, but our homes must be. As antisemites have become bolder, those who are supposed to protect us have weakened. That is the truly dangerous aspect in all this. The door knockers repulsive campaign is perfectly legal. They cannot be stopped. That is where the pogrom-like feel is triggered. Pogroms aren’t always actively supported by those in power, and inaction has the same effect. If Jews can’t be protected by authorities, then we are really in trouble. That’s when I cannot honestly say to my daughter that everything will be alright.

That dreaded day is almost here.

Last Saturday on a windy and wet seaside day, I stood in the centre of my city of Brighton and watched as antizionist door knockers gathered. They met in the open and hated publicly. The weather reflected an ominous intent. They were there to launch a new campaign to canvas homes and ask people to sign a ‘pledge’ to boycott Israeli produce. Organisers compared it to the anti-apartheid campaign against South Africa. That boycott had the goal to destroy the apartheid governing system and replace it with human rights and democracy for all. Yet these people had larger and darker aims.

A speaker Ori Selkirk said it clearly:

“Our city will become an anti-apartheid stronghold. We can and we will isolate the Zionist State until it shrivels and dies.”

They want the State of Israel to be destroyed. A nation, a whole country. The only Jewish majority State in the world. Selkirk even admitted there was a “psychological effect” they were going for too. He wanted Israelis to feel there was no future for them in Israel and “leave”. Another organiser stated plainly to Sky News in their damning piece that the campaign was “antizionist” in nature.

This wasn’t a targeted campaign to shift the behaviour of the Israeli government or change policy. It sought annihilation. So when these door knockers ring the bells of Jewish people around the city, they bring that violent politics to the homes of those already feeling isolated and fearful.

After about half an hour they split into smaller groups to ‘hit’ a residential area within walking distance. Sky News followed one group and filmed them interacting on the doorstep. One person who answered the door questioned “can’t I eat hummus anymore?” The antizonist replied laughingly “just not Israeli hummus”.

I suspect most of the door knockers will have limited understanding of the conflict and be surprised at the negative response to them. They are completely convinced of their virtuousness. That worries me more. There will be no awareness of just what having one of them show up at my door will feel like. Knowing what I do about their real agenda, their true aims. Knowing that they align with the goals of the terrorists who came to the door of my relatives on October 7.

This is not hyperbole on my part. The inspiration for the Brighton Apartheid-Free Zone is the counterparts in Bristol. They started two years ago and claim to have 100 businesses and thousands of individuals signed up. In an article on their website they reject the ceasefire and peace deal in part because Zionism remains “intact”. They didn’t like the UK recognising Palestine and bemoaned that “international law’s recognition of armed resistance under occupation is ignored in favour of insisting Palestinians submit to ’nonviolence’.

This is extremist politics.

I do not want someone with that worldview coming to my door and noting down when I disagree.

But this exposes a wider problem. Extremists will always extreme yet it is the mainstream response that matters. If those with power and authority do not condemn this then that leaves Jews vulnerable. There must be red lines. There must be instant outrage. So far only one local politician has made a public statement condemning it. One.

Regulation has not stopped them.

The law has not prevented it.

Who is left?

My speech when I presented the LCSCA’s Pete Newbon award for the greatest contribution to the public understanding of antisemitism on Sunday.

When LCSCA asked me to be one of the judges for this years Pete Newbon award, I was deeply honoured. And it reminded me of time passed. A whole year. A very long one. For us as a family, one of the worst. In February we got the dreaded confirmation that my husband’s cousin Tsachi was not coming home from Gaza alive. When I stood here last year accepting this beautiful award, we were still fighting. Two months later, our last flicker of hope was extinguished 30,000 feet in the air on a hastily arranged flight to Israel. Suddenly, we were flying in for a funeral and not a reunion.

We stood in front of Tsachi’s coffin alongside hundreds of mourners, with no spaces between us. We were physically and emotionally squeezed together. As Tsachi’s wife Gali spoke, waves of anguish flowed outwards. We convulsed and contracted. One body of pain, the very atoms charged with grief. It created an invisible web that held us up when all we wanted to do was collapse.

I see the same echoes of grief, connection and strength with this award. Pete fought hard. He was snatched from us so sharply that it supercharged the same sort of energised anguish. They feel the same because they are. Because it’s all connected.

My fellow judges were the wonderful Rachel Moiselle and the brilliant Jennifer Gerber. I knew Rachel from social media and had met her in person at the LCSCA conference. I hadn’t met Jennifer, yet we quickly fell together into an easy flow. An instant bond of mutual respect and sisterly warmth. It made a difficult decision much less fraught and I thank them for it. It was a true pleasure to work with them.

There were so many strong nominations. I guess because this has been a very good year for antisemites. We have needed every single one of those nominees and more. Needed them like we need life rafts. This was the year when deadly antisemitism came to the doors of a synagogue and stole even more from us. So we commend every fighter, in all the ways that this battle can be waged. This is a mission that calls to us all.

The Pete Newbon award is for public awareness of antisemitism. Of course, we would not be here today to be aware of the award of awareness if it weren’t for LCSCA led by David Hirsh. They are stationed on our most challenging frontlines and are fighting with everything they’ve got.

When we had to choose the winner of the award it was very hard because each one of our three nominees are so impressive. We decided we wanted to honour all of them in some way, so we will present them with something to recognise their incredible contribution and then I’ll announce our winner.

First, this person has been steadfast in the fight. She was there up to her knees in the muck of Labour antisemitism and fought alongside Pete. Her attention to detail and willingness to go toe to toe with some of the worst haters is a treasured quality. She is both dogged and brave. For her dedication to the fight against antisemitism, please come up and receive your special recognition - Gillian Lazarus.

This person has been the bane of the Beeb. He has exposed more institutional antisemitism than anyone I know. I am positive great groans echo around the hallways of organisations when they see one of his exposés coming. For his contribution to exposing antisemitism in institutions please come up and receive your special recognition - David Collier.

I guess that leaves no surprise to who will receive the award this year. She was nominated last year and – if you can believe it – has done EVEN MORE on antisemitism since. She works harder than anyone I know and is laser-focused. She’s exposed antisemitism across the music industry, academia, unions, the NHS, and among celebrities. I was honoured to speak alongside her at a recent feminist conference in an inspiring fringe event. Sitting beside her, it felt like real change was possible. Her work ethic is exhausting. In all the horror, she still manages to keep reminding us of the allies we have, the joy to be found and the fun to be had. For the Pete Newbon award for the greatest contribution to the public understanding of antisemitism 2025 please come and accept your award - Nicole Lampert.

You can watch the full event here. Congratulations to all the nominees and to the winner Nicole!

A few hours before it began I heard that antizionists were planning to protest outside a synagogue in St John’s Wood. I know the synagogue. I visited there early last year for an event about the hostages in Gaza. It’s a beautiful place. When I went inside, there were pictures of the hostages on each seat. By some cosmic coincidence, my husband’s cousin Tsachi Idan’s poster smiled up at me from mine.

Yellow ribbons hung all around the space and the lawyer for a few of the British connected hostages spoke passionately about their plight. But even so, as I sat in that room a spark of a campaign I could take home to Brighton came into focus. And the Yellow Ribbon Campaign was born. So you see, this particular synagogue is very special to my family.

When I heard it would be targeted, sitting at home didn’t feel like an option. I jumped on a train and went to bear witness in person. It was the least I could do. As I arrived at the St John’s Wood tube station I began to hear a roar of voices. But I didn’t recognise the usual cacophony of hateful chants. It wasn’t the antizionists. Jews were just outside the entrance waving Israeli and British flags and singing. There were four antizionists inside the station talking to police and seemingly hesitant to step outside.

I decided to start filming.

One of them spotted me and whispered to her friend wearing a black jacket with a white stripe who immediately whined to the police “now this lady here she shouldn’t be here, she’s filming for them”. I had only just arrived and was filming in a public space and she tried to get police to stop me. The entitlement is absurd. These people were on their way to protest outside a place of worship and were complaining about my presence.

I left the station and walked into a loud, joyous wall of noise. Songs in Hebrew, flags flapping and a few bemused commuters. Some passersby were clearly pro-Palestinian and gave the finger to the Jews or yelled “F**k Zionists”. This was the wrong crowd to abuse and they didn’t linger long. One shouted “”F**k you” and a Jewish man reasonably and a little cynically asked a nearby officer: “Are we allowing ‘f**k you’ tonight then?” The police officer said yes, adding pathetically: “But we’re recording” pointing to his intelligence gathering colleague.

After a few minutes, a booming voice of command came. The officer in charge declared the station off limits for protest and everyone must go now over the road. He invoked Section 14 of the Public Order Act and as conditions had been placed on this area, no one could protest there. The blue shaded area the Metropolitan Police had published earlier applied to all, even Jews who were there to defend their synagogue. It meant that several times Jewish people were blocked from attending the very event the antizionists were targeting. I asked the commander if those inside the station also had to leave and he replied that the station was not covered but if the antizionists stepped outside they’d risk arrest. Except minutes later the complaining woman in the white striped jacket and her antizionist friends escaped the station and began abusing Jews outside the synagogue.

While Jewish people present listened to the police and moved, the hateful didn’t. We will always be at a disadvantage expecting the law to protect us against people who do not have any respect for it. The gross irony of public order policing is if we comply, then they consider that a successful operation. If we do not, we risk arrest. It’s a no-win. The antizionists just push and push the law to its limits and the implicit threat of violence keeps the police trying to avoid it and so they appease and cajole and never push back. In some ways I don’t blame them, as soon as they did remove an antizionist from outside the synagogue she started claiming they were racist.

These are not good people. They are malicious and manipulative.

After 15 minutes of intense confrontation outside the synagogue, with the threat of disorder looming, the police moved on the antizionists. They act quicker if the peace is in danger of being breached. But the hateful just went one street down and gathered there instead. It was a five minute walk from the synagogue and still deep in the heart of a very Jewish area of London, yet just outside the banned ‘blue area’. More hateful people came. Most were masked. This was another power the police could have invoked, no masks. When they have done this before, the numbers of protesters vastly reduced. Another opportunity missed.

When I arrived at the second protest site, the antizionists were already in full flow. They chanted “From the river to the sea”, “We don’t want no two-State, we want 1948”, “Judaism yes, Zionism no. The State of Israel has to go”, “Settlers, settlers go back home. Palestine is not your home”. Any one of these is an incitement to violence. Again the antizionists push and push and no one pushes back. The police officer near me was creating a physical barrier between the antizionists and two Jewish men who were filming. In fact the haters tried many times to get people removed who were filming. It is utterly bizarre that these people came to protest outside a synagogue and felt entitled to decide who recorded them.

At one point an antizionist in a full balaclava approached a Jewish man and started accusing him of killing children. He said that in 2026 Zionists would be done, finished. He went right up to the man and said close to his face that Zionists would have to leave back to Europe. This was all done in front of the police officer. If the Jewish man had responded then maybe he would have been arrested, or perhaps the authorities would have realised the powder keg this was. We will never know.

After an hour or so of the most disgusting antisemitism and hate, the antizionists moved off. I must say, they did seem a little humbled. They are so used to being in total control of the streets, that being outnumbered and feeling rejected must have been a shock.

I am well used to these people’s hate and abuse. I have armour. What made me tearful was when I realised they had managed to project the lie “Stolen lands sold here” onto the synagogue walls. This inspiring space where I had felt such love. Where the hostages had been embraced and fought for. Where my own campaigning had been conceived. This beautiful and sacred place had been violated. Tainted with libels that get Jews killed. It hurt. They can never be allowed near the community’s spaces again.

Not there, not anywhere.

Not ever.

1. Remove the 6 month time limit on ‘minor’ terror offence charges.

Kneecap member Mo Chara was arrested and charged with a terror offence in May 2025 for wearing a Hezbollah flag at a concert in November 2024. There was no action however on the chant “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at that same event. But there is only a six month window between the date of the offence and a charge being brought. Chara was charged ONE DAY LATE and so the court dismissed the case on a technicality. This was a travesty and severely damaged the British Jewish community’s faith in the justice system. I find it inconceivable that any terror offence would be considered minor so this needs to change.

2. The Home Secretary should immediately give guidance to police forces and the CPS that they can arrest and charge for the following chants and displays of symbols:

• “Intifada” and variations thereof

• “From the River to the Sea”

• “We don’t want no two State, we want 1948”

• The inverted red triangle

After the Manchester attack on Heaton Park synagogue, we can no longer be tolerant of calls for violence and the eradication of Israel. These chants are antisemitic. Plausible deniability has evaporated. We should also be treating chants that target “Zionists” as public order offences. Personally I believe that antizionism is antisemitism but the former is considered to be a valid belief. Just as with Christians who might hold bigoted views about gay people, the boundary should lie that those beliefs cannot be targeted at individuals or groups. You can hold your horrible beliefs but you can’t hurt or harm people with them.

3. Re-proscribe the PFLP and proscribe extremist pro-Palestinian groups like the Palestinian Youth Movement.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a terrorist organisation that participated in the October 7 attacks and murdered and kidnapped people from Israel. Bizarrely they were proscribed in the UK but during Brexit this fell through a bureaucratic hole and was never rectified. The EU and the USA deem them terrorists but the UK never got round to reproscribing. That has to change. This simple shift would denormalise the hero worship of PFLP members like Ghassan Kanafani and Leila Khaled on campuses around the country.

The PYM has played a particularly toxic and radicalising role on campuses and on the streets since October 7. They have previously organised events celebrating PFLP terrorists like Ghassan Kanafani and now spread extreme messaging and propaganda.

So those are my 3 recommendations, not that the government is reading my Substack. These are just a few procedural flaws within the system that could effect change. There are many, many more shifts in policy, regulation and direction that the government has to do to challenge the danger that we face. We have seen more arrests, disciplinary procedures and conditions placed on protests lately. We’ve seen universities call the police on disruptive extremist students and suspend those with visas making revocation and deportation possible.

We don’t always need new laws or guidance. We just need the authorities to use the powers they have. To choose to act. To prioritise shift perspective on the sinister nature and intentions of those who target Jews and Israelis.

We need action now.