British counter-terrorism agency says demonizing Israelis is a ‘means of hatred of Jews’

The British government’s terrorism watchdog has criticized British police for failing to properly enforce racial hatred law against Israelis, fueling anti-Semitism.

“Demonization of Israelis is important because it is a tool for hatred of Jews,” the appointed independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, said on Tuesday in a speech at a Policy Exchange think tank event.

Hall said police had failed to enforce anti-hate laws, which also apply to hate speech against Israelis.

“In my opinion, not dealing with anti-Israel hatred leaves room for those who indulge in anti-Semitism but formally disavow it,” he explained. “Once hatred of Israelis is tolerated, it spreads like a flame.”

“I don’t think the law is being enforced the way it should be,” he said. “I’ve lost track of how often hatred against Israelis has been stirred up on British streets.”

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“Ultimately, the police must be responsible for the safety of their citizens, and I specifically include Israeli citizens and the Jews living among them,” he said.

Screenshot from a video by the UK’s independent reviewer of the UK’s terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall, during an event on January 13, 2026. (YouTube)

British Jewish organizations have long called on the country’s government and law enforcement to take stronger action against anti-Israel protesters, who they say are fueling unchecked anti-Semitism across the United Kingdom.

Hall cited the Public Order Act of 1986, which prohibits incitement to racial hatred against any nationality, and said targeted attacks on Israelis were a violation of that law.

Police prioritized the maintenance of public order over the application of the law, particularly when pro-Palestinian protests included chants of “Death to the IDF,” “Globalization of the Intifada” and “From River to Sea,” Hall said, arguing that failure to apply the law posed a risk to national security.

Stirring up racial hatred “is an important preliminary offense to combat some of the public hatred that we have seen on our streets before it leads to violence or even terrorist violence,” he said.

“Israelis are a group like any other, whose individual members, like members of any other group, deserve protection,” he warned. “We have lost our collective mind if we as a society allow the demonization of holders of any nationality living in our tolerant and open society.”

Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters hold placards and wave flags in central London on October 11, 2025. (HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP)

Noting the spread of anti-Israel violence around the world, including the attacks in London, Hall said: “Hate towards Zionists invites hatred of every Israeli and of Jews worldwide.”

“The silence of sections of academia and international reporters at the risk of stigmatizing Israelis and Jews is deafening,” he said.

The International Center for Justice for Palestinians, a group of lawyers and politicians focused on human rights, rejected Hall’s comments, The Guardian reported.

“Hall’s conflation of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is deeply problematic, a well-worn line that erases the existence of the many anti-Zionist Jewish people at pro-Palestinian marches,” said Jonathan Purcell, the group’s director of public affairs and communications.

Months of growing fears among British Jews culminated in the Yom Kippur terror attack in Manchester in October this year, when a man drove into pedestrians outside a synagogue, then got out of the vehicle and attacked people with a knife. Two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed in the attack, Daulby by a shot from a police officer who was trying to take down the terrorist.

Then, in December, three men were convicted of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired rampage targeting England’s Jewish community.

The British King Charles III. looks at bouquets of flowers during a visit to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester on October 20, 2025. (Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP)

According to the Community Service Trust, a Jewish security organization, anti-Semitic incidents in Britain have increased sharply since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Just days after the attack and before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, massive anti-Israel protests broke out in London. Rallies continued to take place throughout the war, ending with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October.

In his speech, Hall also commented on the police ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at a British soccer match last fall. Birmingham, host city and home to a significant Muslim population, was the site of regular pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies during the two years of the Gaza war.

The controversial decision to exclude Israeli fans from a match against Aston Villa on November 6 was initially made after West Midlands Police advised the group responsible for issuing safety certificates for the game to exclude Maccabi’s fans due to “public safety concerns”.

Hall said that if West Midlands Police had been aware that Islamists were planning to attack the fans, they should have dealt with the threat in accordance with the law.

“If, according to West Midlands Police intelligence, local Islamists were arming themselves and preparing to track down and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, it can only be because of their hatred of Israelis,” he said.

In December, police admitted to lawmakers that they had used fictitious evidence to justify the ban, then apologized to the local Jewish community after falsely telling the parliamentary committee that the community had supported the ban.

Screenshot from UK Parliamentary Television of West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford testifying before the Home Affairs Committee on policing in football, January 8, 2026 (House of Commons/PA Images via Getty Images)

Jewish groups in the UK have called for the removal of West Midlands Police chief Craig Guildford, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry has called for “accountability” over the matter.

Last week, a British parliamentary court tightened scrutiny of the police department’s decision-making after widespread criticism. Addressing the tribunal, chairman Dame Karen Bradley accused local police forces of looking for a reason to justify the ban.

On Monday, Guildford wrote to the committee that some of the information used in the police assessment, which mentioned a non-existent Maccabi Tel Aviv football match against London club West Ham, was automatically generated using artificial intelligence that is part of the Windows operating system.