Displaying posts categorized under

ANTI-SEMITISM

International Law or Antisemitism? by Bat Ye’or

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20461/international-law-or-antisemitism

In his study on this subject, David Elber demonstrates that the UN has no possession of territorial sovereignty and therefore cannot decree the allocation of a territory over which it has no sovereignty (on the basis of the universal principle of law nemo dat quod non habet — no one can give what he does not possess), especially when this decision violates previous treaties endorsed by the UN itself. Resolution 181 only made suggestions to avoid the threat of war from the Arabs.

With the Venice Declaration, the European Economic Community demanded the creation of a Palestinian state on the territories liberated by Israel in 1967, which had been illegally occupied and rendered Judenrein [ethnically cleansed of Jews] by Arab countries since 1949. Since that time, the EEC/EU have never ceased to impose the concept of “Palestinian people” instead of Arab refugees, in order to justify its claim to a state that it has been striving to build for decades by monitoring, restricting and harassing Israelis in their own country, recognized by international treaties.

For the past 40 years, the EEC/EU, which wants to get rid of Israel at all costs, has invented a false people, the Palestinians, devoid of national particularisms and history, artificially constructed as a look-alike to Israel, even though they claims to follow the Koran, embody jihad against unbelief and adhere to Nazism.

UN Resolution 181, falsely called international law, authorizes the delegitimization of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem according to the 2,000-year-old anti-Semitic tradition, and the reduction of the Jewish state to an indefensible parcel that will soon be made to disappear. It has already created Palestinian ministries and ambassadors for a people that is not a people, but which it is determined to create in homage to the Hitler-Husseini alliance that symbolizes the jihad against Israel.

Over the last few decades, the EU’s alliance with the Palestinian jihad — a war to Islamize the planet… In its relentless fight against Israel, Europe has sacrificed its own territory and people to Palestinianism. Today, in a strange coincidence, we see the same alliances as in the 1940s: the majority of European countries, united under the government of the Third Reich, allied with Islam and at war with Russia and the Jewish people in a global anti-Semitic tsunami.

It is commonplace to hear it proclaimed everywhere and at every turn as a proven truth that the State of Israel is violating international law. Interviewed by Sonia Mabrouk on February 11, Manuel Bompard once again made this accusation, even specifying a date to a violation that dates back 70 years! This accusation, which determines all the European Union’s relations with the Jewish state, justifies, for example, discriminatory practices against Israel that are unprecedented and never applied against any other state. Thus, we can read in the Journal Officiel (24/11/2016, no. 81) under the heading “Miscellaneous,” regulations relating to:

“the indication of origin of goods from territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 published in the Official Journal of the European Union on November 12, 2015.

The menacing truth about the ‘boycott Israel’ campaigns The calls to erase every trace of the Jewish State are deeply sinister. Daniel Ben-Ami

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/03/06/the-menacing-truth-about-the-boycott-israel-campaigns/

A man goes into a store to buy a can of Pepsi. The proceeds of the sale go through a chain of cash-thumbing, financial intermediaries. Eventually the money is handed over to someone to pay for the manufacture of a missile. The missile is fitted on to a combat aircraft, which closes in on its target. Eventually the missile locks on to a (presumably) Palestinian child. As it explodes, the word ‘boycott’ flashes up on screen.

This video, distributed on X by Palestine Online, is just one of countless anti-Israel clips on social media. But it bears closer examination as it helps to illustrate the nature of contemporary anti-Semitism. Here, as in many other cases today, Jews are not overtly identified. There is not even an explicit mention of Israel. Instead, the video assumes the target viewer will recognise the not-so-subtle anti-Semitic pointers, such as references to financial speculation and the age-old ‘blood libel’ of child murder. Not identifying Jews directly also gives some degree of deniability to anyone who wants to claim they are not anti-Semitic.

That’s not to downplay the existence of overt anti-Semitism. This has increased dramatically since 7 October. In the past few days alone, an Orthodox Jewish man has been stabbed in Zurich while another was beaten outside a Paris synagogue. But a great deal of Jew hatred still tends to take a disguised form.

Academics Attend to Their Jew Diligence Timothy Cootes

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/the-universities/2024/03/academics-attend-to-their-jew-diligence/

Monash University lecturer Elliot Dolan-Evans, I’m pleased to report, is likely to have fewer enrolees in his courses next semester. The Herald Sun has highlighted the young academic’s recent social media activity, which, I suspect, is not part of any extracurricular load. On October 7, Dolan-Evans was joining in the general online giddiness regarding the success of Hamas’ pogrom, a revelation which has made Jewish students at Monash feel uncomfortable on campus, to put it mildly. The long-term reputational damage — fingers crossed — has now been done, and if Elliot Dolan-Evans has difficulty finding future students, we can certainly count that as a win.

Though I’m always pleased to see a public campaign of ridicule against our nation’s academics, fairness obliges me to note that Dolan-Evans’ social media transgressions are a bit tame, at least when set against those of some of his colleagues and co-thinkers. Sydney University professor of politics John Keane, for example, isn’t a mere liker of pro-terror posts; no, he takes the initiative and creates some of his own. On October 7, as the carnage got underway, Keane took to X to share an image of the green flags of Hamas. To be fair, he later attempted to clarify this post —which some might have found untimely — by haughtily denying he was a supporter of the terrorist organisation. He defended himself, for some reason, by writing that the flag was only used by Hamas’ military wing, and then he started banging on about its “sacred viridescence”, “polysemic” meanings, and some other academic wankery.

Keane’s University of Sydney colleague, linguistics lecturer Nick Riemer, on the other hand, is refreshingly forthright about his anti-Israel mania. “Resistance is the right of occupied people,” he declared, as the body count was rising at the Nova festival. “Unconditional solidarity with Gazans.” A little later, socialist student group Solidarity decided to bring at least the spirit of October 7 to the Sydney campus. The radicals began advertising an event called ‘Palestine: The Case for a Global Intifada’, with accompanying posters of Hamas bulldozers ripping through border fences. When the university cancelled the get-together on the reasonable assumption that it appeared to be terror-sympathetic, Riemer had one of his noisiest tantrums yet. Unembarrassed, he even openly published his letter to the vice-chancellor, where he whinged about this apparent affront to academic freedom.

UCSB Black Studies faculty plan ‘day of interruption’ to protest protections for Jews Lisa Schiffrenn

https://www.thecollegefix.com/ucsb-black-studies-faculty-plan-day-of-interruption-to-protest-protections-for-jews/

The UC Santa Barbara Black Studies Department has organized a “day of interruption” for March 7 and subsequent “work slowdowns” to protest steps administrators recently took to support Jewish students and quell antisemitic protests on campus.

Campus leaders last week closed the Multicultural Center and suspended its social media accounts after pro-Palestinian students occupied the venue and hung a parade of antisemitic posters with statements such as “Zionists not allowed,” pictures posted on social media show.

Other signs included: “Get these Zionists out of office,” “Zionists not welcome,” “When people are occupied, resistance is justified,” and “It was never about Hamas, never will be.”

The student government president (pictured), who is Jewish, was also called out and threatened by name. One sign said, “You can run but you can’t hide, Tessa Veksler supports genocide.”

Veksler, the daughter of refugees from the Soviet Union, has been an outspoken supporter of Zionism in her year as student president. In response, she said on Instagram “I am not afraid and I’m not going anywhere.”

Campus leaders temporarily closed the Multicultural Center in response, prompting outrage from Black Studies faculty, who released a statement a few days later calling for the “day of interruption.”

The professors called the MCC closure a “displacement” of students of color, and also cite proposed policies that would allow administrators to have editorial control of UCSB departmental websites, a proposal to allow police on campus for major events, and leaders’ refusal to condemn Israel.

The Latest Despicable Anti-Israel Lie The libels become canonized before the truth even gets out of bed. by Michael Brown

https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2024/03/02/the-latest-despicable-anti-israel-lie-n2635984

According to a quote widely attributed to Winston Churchill, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” This is absolutely true when it comes to reporting about Israel, except even more so. We could say that anti-Israel lies become canonized, even becoming part of sacred religious lore, before the truth even gets out of bed.

This will now be the case with the lie that the IDF massacred more than 100 Gazan civilians trying to get desperately needed food supplies.

So, not only do the Israelis cruelly and inhumanly starve these Gazans to death, but they cynically send in limited numbers of food trucks and then massacre the starving masses trying to get food for themselves and their families.

Before sharing what really happened in Gaza this week – and it is quite tragic – and without minimizing for a moment the very real suffering of the people of Gaza, let me share with you an Instagram post commenting on the event shortly after it took place. (I’m not linking to the comment since I have no desire to draw attention to the individual who posted it for quite a few reasons. It was sent to me by a pro-Israel pastor.)

“Israeli tanks and snipers MASSACRED over 100 starving, defenseless Palestinian refugees and injured over 700 more this morning while they were waiting for trucks to deliver food and other humanitarian aid. It is indisputable that this is a war crime atrocity of epic proportions by the genocidal sociopaths who run Israel’s current government and the IDF.

“The most disturbing part is that American Christian Zionists will support it – even CELEBRATE it . . . .” (The post gets even worse after this, repeating some of the more ridiculous antisemitic libels of the day.)

So, Israeli tanks and snipers carried out an intentional massacre of more than 100 starving and defenseless refugees, something that will now be celebrated by American Christian Zionists.

Yes, these “brainwashed” Christians (to use a word found later in this same post), it’s as if their sentiments will be, “Way to go Israel! Slaughter and butcher those defenseless Palestinians! God bless you, Israel! Kill them all in Jesus’ name!”

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Not even a war can stop Israel building on its 75-years of success in rebuilding a Jewish State.

Israel continues to build up its basket of subsidized medical treatments, create new remedies for global diseases, discover the secret for building bigger families, and construct medical centers for rehabilitating the injured.

The latest news includes the Israeli woman who oversees the building of Israel’s missile defense system; an Israeli app that rebuilds broken speech into coherent conversation; and 30 Israeli NGOs rebuilding lives in Africa. Israeli startups are restoring the environment, while building efficient EV batteries, hydrogen-powered flying cars, and creating sustainable aviation fuel.  Michael Ordman

 

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
He lied to his wife to rescue survivors. On Oct 7, IDF veteran Eran Masas, from Haifa lied to his wife that he had been called up by the army. He put on a uniform, took his sidearm and drove 220km to the Gaza border. He then coordinated multiple search and rescue operations as survivors thought he was an on-duty IDF officer.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-oct-7-killing-grounds-a-vigilante-army-vet-inspires-grieving-us-jewish-leaders/
 
Have a nice flight! IDF reservist Itay returned to Israel on an overbooked El Al flight from Bangkok with a seat in a washroom. The other 14 washrooms also seated IDF reservists, plus 10 in the cockpit and elsewhere. Luckily, he had a pre-flight massage. Two days later he was dodging terrorist bullets in Huwara, near Nablus.
https://www.jns.org/idf-reservist-flies-home-to-fight-hamas-in-planes-washroom-seat/  
 
US mission for volunteer doctors in Israel. (TY Yanky) Israeli Doctors in America, together with the Israeli Ministry of Health and Israel’s Economic Mission to the USA – East Coast, have launched the IL-USDocAID Initiative. It brings US medical professionals to work either in Israeli hospitals or with Magen David Adom.
https://www.ilusdocaid.org/
 
1,000 hugs. Operation Hug (see here previously) has now brought over 1,000 parents from over 50 different countries to visit their children who are lone soldiers serving in the IDF. Thanks to Nefesh B’Nefesh, JNF-USA, and FIDF (Friends of the IDF).  Watch some of the recent reunions here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06D6EpiGnZU
 
Former US Envoy donated an ambulance. Former US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and his family donated a mini-lance (mini-ambulance) emergency response vehicle to Israel’s United Hatzalah. He requested that will be specifically driven by a female Arab volunteer and deployed in eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
https://www.jns.org/wire/former-middle-east-envoy-donates-mini-ambulance-to-israeli-ems-team/
 
Displaced Israeli kids learn and play in mobile tech lab. More about the work of the charity Machshava Tova (see here previously), which uses funds from CJP in Boston to purchase computers, projectors, 3D printers, VR goggles and other equipment for children evacuated from Sderot.
https://www.israel21c.org/displaced-israeli-kids-learn-and-play-in-mobile-tech-lab/
 
Displaced boy finds 2,000-year-old coin. 11-year-old Nati Tokiyar from Kibbutz Magen was evacuated to the Dead Sea to avoid Hamas rockets from Gaza. As he was exploring the area, he found a coin of Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Jannaeus (104-76 BCE). The Israel Antiquities Authority gave him a certificate.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/archeology/1708520147-displaced-young-boy-finds-2-000-year-old-hasmonean-coin-in-dead-sea-area
 
We will still sing. Some 7,000 Netanya children came to the city stadium to demonstrate unity and solidarity and express their desire to see the return of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. See other videos of adults and children displaying that Israelis will never surrender to those that hate us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlok2hsPKpU    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hptZdP_hulY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaPhvOLDXjI  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rzq-m8_9bE
 
“I survived for a reason”. Watch an example of the incredible spirit of Israeli soldiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6nTy72rJo0
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
110 new medications and technologies. Israel’s 2024 subsidized health basket will see an expansion of genetic testing, treatment for adult ADHD, innovative diabetes management, and new treatments for cancer and chronic and rare diseases. The 110 additions will help 317,000 more people at a cost of NIS 650 million to the State.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-2024-health-basket-gets-110-new-medications-and-technologies/
 
Hope for Huntington’s disease patients. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified two small molecules capable, in the laboratory, of penetrating the blood-brain barrier and reducing the levels of a defective protein that causes Huntington’s disease.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-researchers-take-step-toward-cure-for-huntingtons-disease/
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/toward-treatment-huntington%E2%80%99s-disease
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44321-023-00020-y
 
Hi-tech medical analysis. Tel Aviv University Prof Noam Shomron digitizes human DNA and uses AI to discover genetic diseases. That’s his day job – in evenings and weekends he helps the IDF identify fallen soldiers. He explains how functional genomics and AI can help make better medical decisions.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-scientist-using-ai-to-build-a-more-resilient-society/  
 
Israeli sunshine increases fertility. Women wishing to expand their family might consider making Aliyah. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have found for the first time that exposure to the sun in women aged 30-40 can increase fertility. Their ovaries secrete more Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) due to higher UV levels.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/sun-exposure-may-have-a-positive-effect-on-fertility-in-women-aged-30-40/
https://safrabio.cs.tau.ac.il/carmit_levy_exposure_to_sun_may_increase_fertility_among_women
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0039128X23001356
 
Migraine?  You’re covered. US non-profit health insurer Highmark has added, to the items covered by its insurance policies, the Nerivio Remote Electrical Neuromodulation (REN) migraine band, developed by Israel’s Theranica (see here previously). Highmark covers around 7 million people in the Pennsylvania area.
https://nocamels.com/2024/02/us-health-insurer-adds-israeli-migraine-treatment-to-coverage/
 
New rehab center. (TY Yanky) Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality has approved the construction of the Reuth TLV Rehabilitation Hospital – the largest and most advanced rehabilitation facility in Israel. It will take 7 years to build, contain 450 beds, clinics, hydrotherapy pool, hyperbaric chamber, etc., and cost some NIS 850 million.
https://www.reuth-mc.org.il/en/news-in-the-field-of-rehabilitation-a-plan-to-establish-the-largest-rehabilitation-facility-in-israel-is-underway/
 
Walk-in, walk-out surgery. Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center has opened 10 underground operating rooms for ambulatory surgeries. Costing NIS 100 million, they are expected to shorten the waiting periods for operations that do not require general anesthetic, or pre- or post-operative overnight hospital stays.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/surgery-without-a-stay-ichilov-hospital-unveils-new-operating-rooms-to-cut-wait-times/

Amy Winehouse and the fanaticism of the Israelophobes The defilement of her statue was an act of racial animus. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/02/20/amy-winehouse-and-the-fanaticism-of-the-israelophobes/

Not content with pillorying living Jews, now they’re coming for the dead ones. Witness the desecration of the statue of Amy Winehouse in Camden Town in London. Some lowlife covered the statue’s Star of David necklace with a Palestine sticker. Just when you thought woke anti-Semites couldn’t get any more repellent, they go and defile the likeness of one of modern Britain’s greatest cultural icons. And for one simple, chilling and sickening reason – because she was a Jew.

There have been many gross acts of Jew hate in the UK since the Hamas pogrom of 7 October. Posters of kidnapped Israeli kids have been daubed with Hitler moustaches. The word ‘Gaza’ was spraypainted outside a Holocaust library. Jews have suffered a tsunami of ‘hate incidents’. But there’s something about the posthumous racial harassment of Amy that feels especially egregious. It’s the fanaticism of it. For me, it’s the realisation that there are people in London so in thrall to Jew hate that they can’t even walk by a statue of a singer who died 13 years ago without furiously eradicating its Jewish symbols.

The violation of Amy was an act of brazen racial bigotry. It has eerie echoes of a darker past when Jewish institutions and symbols – synagogues, Jewish-owned shops, Jewish gravestones – were frequently set upon by mobs of the hateful. Yes, it’s good that the weapon in this case was a mere peelable sticker, easily removed, rather than stones or fire. But the fact that the thing is happening again, the fact we’re witnessing a return of seething intolerance for outward expressions of Jewishness, should leave us truly cold.

The shaming of Amy the Jew confirms that the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is now so thin as to be virtually imperceptible. The git who put up that sticker no doubt thought he was being pro-Palestinian when in truth he was being anti-Jew. The racist probably thinks he is anti-racist. For all the defensive bleating of the activist class about their ‘anti-Zionism’ being a zillion miles from anti-Semitism, it is everyday Jews who are getting it in the neck on the back of the Israelophobic hysteria these people have whipped up since 7 October.

Indeed, long before the late Ms Winehouse had her Star of David hidden, many British Jews had taken to hiding their Jewishness. The Campaign Against Antisemitism found that 69 per cent of Britain’s Jews say they are less likely to show ‘visible signs of their Judaism’ right now. Kids at the Jewish Free School in London were given permission – for ‘security reasons’ – to remove their school blazer and tie when travelling to and from school. Some Jewish uni students have stopped wearing their kippahs after getting flak from campus leftists. Tell me – if anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have nothing in common, why are their consequences so unnervingly similar?

Anti-Israeli Sentiment in Ireland Is Getting Worse By Barry O’Halloran

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/02/anti-israeli-sentiment-in-ireland-is-getting-worse/

Recent cultural and political controversies in Ireland suggest a worrying — and growing — hostility to Israel.

In James Joyce’s Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus is asked why Ireland has “the honour of being the only country that has never persecuted the Jews.” When he can’t answer, he’s told it’s because Ireland “never let them in.” Despite the fact that the Jewish population there is very small, antisemitic prejudice in Ireland — and in the United Kingdom — has been a recurring issue.

Outside of the sports’ pages, Ireland’s international basketball games usually pass without much notice. Last Thursday’s Women’s EuroBasket 2025 qualifier game between Ireland and Israel was an exception. It was originally slated to take place last November in Israel, but, because of conflict in the region, it was rescheduled to a neutral venue in the Latvian capital, Riga. The venue may have been neutral, but everything else about this game quickly became toxic.

Basketball Ireland (BI), the sport’s governing body, had been under sustained pressure to boycott the game. However, as the organization noted, “FIBA Europe has not excluded Israel from competing internationally,” so a unilateral Irish boycott would be “an effective 5-year ban from competing at international level” for Ireland. The organization’s CEO said, “I’m not prepared to destroy my sport for a gesture that will have no impact.” There would be no boycott.

Unwittingly, the Israeli Basketball Association reignited the controversy. It posted on its website photos of IDF soldiers visiting a team practice session. Then, a U.S.-based Israeli team member, Dor Saar, told the website, “It’s known that they are quite antisemitic, and it’s no secret.” In the febrile anti-Israeli atmosphere in Ireland, this set the cat among the pigeons.

BI blasted the comments as “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate” and stated, “There would be no formal handshakes before or after the game, while our players will line up for the Irish national anthem by our bench, rather then [sic] the centre court.”

The antisemitism crisis is out of control In both Britain and America, politics is becoming increasingly distorted Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-antisemitism-crisis-is-out-of?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The war in Gaza is prying open a potentially game-changing fissure in British politics that has wider implications for the western world.

Last weekend, a recording surfaced of a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party in late October. It revealed that Azhar Ali, who was subsequently selected as the Labour Party candidate for a parliamentary by-election that will be held in Rochdale later this month, said Israel deliberately allowed the October 7 pogrom to occur in order to give itself “the green light” to invade Gaza.

Despite this blood libel, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has pledged to rid the party of antisemitism, said he was satisfied that Ali had made a genuine apology for the statement.

Nearly two days later, after it emerged that Ali had also blamed people in the media “from certain Jewish quarters” for Labour’s suspension of one of its MPs for using the phrase “between the river and the sea,” Starmer stripped Ali of Labour support.

This was too late to stop Ali from standing in the by-election. Since Labour has withdrawn its endorsement, the party now has no candidate.

This chaos is potentially disastrous. Rochdale is 30 per cent Muslim. Also standing for election, as the candidate for the Respect party, is the demagogic, virulently anti-Israel George Galloway — who was himself expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 for opposing the “war on terror”. He is now well-placed to capitalise on the explosive Muslim hostility to Israel and win the seat.

Shortly after Ali was finally disowned, it was revealed that, at the same Lancashire meeting, Graham Jones — a former MP who is now a parliamentary candidate seeking to regain his former seat — repeatedly referred to “f***ing Israel”.

He also ranted that Britons who volunteer to fight for the Israel Defence Forces “should be locked up,” claiming falsely that such volunteering was illegal. Jones was suspended by the party, this time immediately.

There’s nothing funny about Jew-baiting When did it become acceptable to hound Jewish audience members out of a comedy show? Simon Evans

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/02/14/theres-nothing-funny-about-jew-baiting/

On Saturday night, at London’s fashionable Soho Theatre, Northern Irish comedian Paul Currie performed a largely non-verbal hour involving mime, slapstick, prop work and audience participation. Towards the end, he produced two final props – two flags, one Ukrainian, one Palestinian. He encouraged support for their respective causes. He then gestured to the audience to get on their feet for a comically contrived standing ovation.

Most of the audience played along. But a few did not. When Currie asked them if they didn’t enjoy the show, one of them said that he was enjoying it, until the flags emerged. He was Israeli.

Accounts vary as to exactly what happened next. According to a report on Chortle, Currie then ordered the man out of the theatre. ‘Leave my fucking show now’, he reportedly shouted. ‘Get out… get the fuck out of my show!’, he repeated. The Israeli audience members did indeed leave. And as they did, the crowd chanted ‘Get out’, ‘Ceasefire now’ and ‘Free Palestine’ at them. In a complaint to the theatre, the Israelis said they felt physically unsafe after crossing the stage under a barrage of abuse.

Soho Theatre put out an initial apology of sorts on Monday, saying that it was ‘sorry and saddened’ by the incident. Last night, it put out a considerably stronger statement, denouncing Currie’s ‘intimidation of audience members’ as ‘appalling’ and ‘unacceptable’. Soho Theatre says he will not be invited back to perform.

This is a delicate issue for a comedian to write on. It concerns one of the things I find it hardest to be funny about – namely, comedy. And also, you know, Jew-baiting.