Jewish comedian Matt Lucas harassed on Underground by ‘free Palestine’ activist

Jewish organisations have condemned the ‘racist intimidation’ of comedian Matt Lucas, who was harassed on the Underground by an individual attempting to engage him in an argument about Palestinians.

A video published on social media this weekend showed comedian, actor and presenter Matt Lucas, being filmed as he was going up an escalator at a Tube station.

The individual filming says “Free Palestine. Free Palestine, Matt Lucas. Free Palestine”.

At the top of the escalator, Lucas says: “Hi, how are you”, to the person filming,

“You don’t like what I’m wearing”, the person filming says, with the Little Britain and Great British Bake Off star responding, “no, I have no comment about it either way.” The individual filming continues to follow Lucas, asking him: “You have a problem with Palestinians?” Lucas responds: “No”, before attempting to push the phone away from his face. The individual filming says “you can’t do that, you can’t touch my stuff”, before muttering “Zionist”.

A social media account called “whitebritishmuslim”, understood to belong to a convert to Islam named Thomas Abdullah Bourne, posted the video, saying: “You ever meet someone you grew up watching…and wish you hadn’t? Appalled doesn’t cover it”, before adding various “Little Britain” and “Free Palestine” hashtags. After significant backlash, the video was later deleted, later followed by deletion of the account itself.

Bourne, who usually walks around dressed in a keffiyeh, was arrested last year during a demonstration in support of “Death to the IDF” chanter Bob Vylan. He has previously been photographed with some of the UK’s leading anti-Israel politicians.

Responding to the video of Matt Lucas being targeted, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said:

“If you’re Jewish in Britain, there’s a good chance you may be harassed by pro-Palestine fanatics as they attempt to force you to denounce Israel – the world’s only Jewish state – in order to pass their perverse purity tests.

“This type of racist intimidation makes no exceptions, as actor and comedian Matt Lucas found out when he was accosted while simply trying to go about his day. Intimidating Jewish celebrities is not some righteous form of progressive activism. It is the behaviour of dangerous obsessives and needs to be called out as such.”

A spokesman for the Jewish Leadership Council said: “Shouting ‘free Palestine’ at a Jew isn’t supporting Palestinians, it’s just plain antisemitism. This incident is symbolic of the treatment of too many Jewish people over the past two years, as demonstrated in the latest CST figures.”

A Community Security Trust (CST) spokesperson said: “It is absolutely shocking that a public figure would be harassed in this way simply because he is Jewish. No one should be subjected to this kind of behaviour, which appeared to be a frightening and threatening experience. TfL must investigate this incident urgently.”