Police are failing to tackle anti-Israeli hatred and leaving the door open to anti-Semitism, the Government’s anti-terrorism watchdog has warned.
Independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, said some protesters are being allowed to ‘demonise’ all Israelis.
Mr Hall pinned the blame firmly on police forces which have allowed protests against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza to stray into broader attacks on Israelis and even Jews in general.
Forces including the Metropolitan Police have been repeatedly accused of operating ‘two-tier policing’ by, for example, failing to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters who cross the line into anti-Semitism.
‘I have lost count of the times that hatred against Israelis has been stirred up on British streets,’ Mr Hall said in a speech.
‘I do not believe the law is being enforced as it should be.
‘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 wiggle room for those who indulge in anti-Semitism but formally disavow it.
Activists defy the Palestine Action ban by holding illegal signs in Trafalgar Square, ventral London, on October 4 last year
Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said police were failing to enforce the law to protect Israelis and the wider Jewish population
‘Once hatred to Israelis is tolerated, then it’s carried around like a flame.’
He told an event in central London organised by the Policy Exchange think-tank: ‘Enforcement of laws is more important than the laws themselves. And the people responsible for enforcing laws are the police.
‘Ultimately, police have got to be responsible for safety of their citizens, and I include expressly within that Israeli citizens as well as Jews living amongst them.
‘So I would encourage the police to think about their number one obligation which is to keep the peace, put the resources in there and use the laws that are available.
‘But ultimately, it comes down to the police, I’m afraid; no one else.’
On the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans last November, Mr Hall said: ‘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.’
The watchdog said that for some people in Britain ‘any signs of Israeli life are illegitimate’, citing a protest outside an Israeli restaurant in Notting Hill, west London, last week.
Mr Hall said the Public Order Act 1986 already prohibits stirring up racial hatred, including on nationality and citizenship grounds.
‘The offence of stirring up racial hatred … is a vital precursor offence to deal with some of the public hatred we’ve seen on our streets before it leads to violence or even terrorist violence,’ he went on.
‘I do not want myself or my successor to be wrestling with a possible extension to terrorism legislation when the law is already there.’
He added that when deciding whether to allow protest marches the police should ‘use the tools that are available’ and give more weight to the ‘risk of stirring up racial hatred’.
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘Jonathan Hall’s intervention recognises, as Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and GMP Chief Constable Sir Steve Watson did in their joint letter following the terror attack at Bondi Beach, that when the threat changes so must the response from policing and the wider justice system.
‘The Commissioner and Chief Constable were very clear that the words and chants used at protests matter and have real world consequences. They committed to recalibrating the policing response to be more assertive in tackling the scourge of antisemitic hate and that has been evident in the response to offences at protests in the weeks since. They said we would act decisively and make arrests – and we have.
‘Mr Hall’s comments focused on the role of policing in dealing with this threat. Our view is that this is a challenge that needs to be confronted by the justice system as a whole, including not just the police but also the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts.
‘The decision by the Home Secretary to appoint Lord Ken Macdonald KC to review the current public order and hate crime legislation is welcome and we are cooperating fully with that review.
‘The Commissioner has repeatedly raised concerns about whether existing legislation, including terrorism legislation, adequately deals with hateful extremism. He has done so not just since his return to policing, but also in a report he co-authored in 2021 for the Commission for Countering Extremism.’