There goes the neighbourhood! Brighton on front line of anti-Israel hysteria

Brighton’s Jewish community is holding fast in the face of an unprecedented onslaught of virulent anti-Israel speakers and events, ahead of the Labour Party conference in the seaside resort.

Almost every well-known anti-Zionist activist is scheduled to make an appearance at conference fringe events at the Brighton conference

They include people who have resigned before being expelled from the party, such as former London mayor Ken Livingstone, or those expelled such as former Momentum vice-chair Jackie Walker.

Jewish Voice for Labour and Labour Against the Witchhunt are holding meetings, or giving platforms to, among others, the former Israeli Knesset member Haneen Zouabi, who believes Tel Aviv to be “occupied territory” and Asa Winstanley, who runs the fiercely anti-Israel website the Electronic Intifada, and describes the Community Security Trust as “Mossad-linked” and “anti-Palestinian”.

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Jenny Manson, chair of Jewish Voice for Labour, will be speaking as will anti-Zionist Israeli academic Ilan Pappe and, it is rumoured, controversial Israeli Miko Peled, who galvanised Labour’s 2017 conference by suggesting at a meeting of “Free Speech on Israel” that the Holocaust was a matter of historical debate.

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Suspended Labour MP Chris Williamson, who claims that the party is “too apologetic” about allegations of antisemitism, is also believed to be taking part in some of the events.

Labour Against the Witchhunt, which campaigns on behalf of those it believes have been wrongly expelled from the Labour Party over antisemitism, is currently promising on its website a parade of Palestinian flags and several “secret stunts” during the Brighton conference. Both the Brighton Jewish community and the CST have expressed serious concerns about the content of some of the fringe events planned for Labour’s conference.

Mark Gardner, communications director of the CST, told Jewish News that it had been “planning for weeks as to what can best be done to support our Brighton CST team, the local community and police in order to ensure that communal life continues as normal during the Labour conference period”.

Gardner said there was concern about “the fringe events and the far-left activists they attract, many of whom treat mainstream British Jews with suspicion and hostility due to the current controversy surrounding Labour and antisemitism.” CST also believed the far-right could use the opportunity of the Labour conference “to stir upset and fear.”

Fiona Sharpe, communities consultant to the Brighton Jewish community and a leading activist for the Sussex Jewish Representative Council, said: “Of course we do not want those who seek to taunt and offend our community in our city — no one wants racists and bigots on their doorsteps. That those who are suspended, or have been expelled from the party, for antisemitism, to be allowed to speak at the conference Fringe, is totally disrespectful and would not be tolerated by any other minority community”.

Nevertheless, despite reports of fear and discomfort among Brighton’s Jews, Sharpe insisted the community “will not be intimidated by those spreading hatred under the guise of anti-Zionism. Nor will we be dragged down to the levels that we have witnessed on social media recently”.

She added: “We hope that one day hosting Labour in Brighton will be something that our community can look forward to and play a role in. However, this year, we just hope that it comes and goes quickly without causing any of the hurt and offence to the community that it caused last time”.