An exclusive from the Daily Mail
Activists accused of engaging in a ‘Jew hunt’ as they planned to go door-to-door asking locals to boycott Israeli products were stopped after counter-protesters forced them to hide in a pub.
Members the Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone (AFZ) campaign had planned a door-knock encouraging people to boycott Israeli businesses amid the country’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
But more than a dozen activists turned up outside of Sainsbury’s at the pre-planned event and accused the group of engaging in a ‘Jew hunt’.
And chants of ‘Palestine will be free’, ‘Israel is a terror state’ and ‘occupation no more’ were met with shouts of ‘stop the Jew hunt’.
The AFZ campaigners ended up in a pub, while activists shouted ‘Jew hunt’ and ‘Nazis’ outside. The canvassers stopped their planned door knocks to avoid confrontation as well as shouting outside people’s homes.
The AFZ activists say they are advocating for a boycott of Israeli products because Israel ‘thrives on international support’.
But critics say that groups like these may actually encourage antisemitism – or leave Jewish people frightened if they are confronted on their own doorsteps.
Resident Sally Campbell, whose mother was a Jewish refugee, was passing by when she saw the protest outside Sainsbury’s supermarket. She said: ‘I wouldn’t want someone knocking on my door. I think it’s intimidating and I can choose what and where I buy from.’
Mark Birbeck, founder of ‘Our Fight’ – a group said to be reclaiming Bristol’s streets from the targeted harassment of Jews – told the Daily Mail the door knocks were a ‘purity test’.
He said: ‘People are organising activities where they knock on doors of local residents and ask people where they stand on Israel and Gaza. This is not just collecting information about where people stand, it’s a purity test. We didn’t oppose marches in London. We’re not against freedom of speech but we think this is harassment.’ He said the attacks in Bondi Beach and Manchester showed the rise of antisemitism and that he himself had been spat on and punched.
One member of the counter protest got up close to the faces of AFZ campaigners, shouting ‘f*** you’ and ‘show us your faces’. He added they were using phones with Israeli technology. A police officer took him aside to calm the situation.
The Daily Mail spoke to pro-Palestine supporters, who said they were not antisemitic but simply against genocide in Gaza.
One Response
So, the pro-Palestine supporters said they were not antisemitic but simply against genocide.
But by avowing there’s only one reason for their door-knocking, and since there’s no genocide in Gaza, that leaves them as protesters without a cause.
The despicable blood libel of “genocide” is a powerful tool for pro-Palestinians, but its strength is waning somewhat due to the blatant overuse and deliberate misuse of the term. Didn’t work here, so I guess it’s on to the next blood libel …