‘Plethora’ of Anti-Semitism Sweeping Throughout the Freedom Movement, Warns Jewish Expert

Karen Harradine speaks to NTD's "British Thought Leaders" programme. NTD

A leading journalist has warned of the rise of anti-semitism in the freedom movement as well as anti-Israel propaganda on mainstream media.

Speaking to NTD’s Lee Hall for the “British Thought Leaders” programme, Karen Harradine, an anthropologist and journalist who specialises in anti-semitism, told the show that anti-semitism “doesn’t only discredit, it destroys.”

“It’s very dangerous, and it’s wrong. But anti-semitism is its own virus. And like all viruses, if it’s not kept in check, it will proliferate and grow,” she said.

She has been forefront of pushback against Chinese Community Party COVID-19 lockdowns, mandatory vaccines and school closures at the heart of what is generally known as the “Freedom Movement.”

“The West weakened itself through its listening to propaganda from China, on lockdowns, etc. That was, you know, the death knell for the West,” she said.

However, she noticed just over two years ago, right in the middle of lockdown when one of the first lockdown protests was held, that anti-semitism “started to rear its ugly head” within the movement.

These included blood libels as well as conspiracy theories that came from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged 19th-century document that claimed to reveal a Jewish plot to take over the world.

She said that she had been working on articles with Professor Norman Fenton, published in the Conservative Woman, before the current war in Israel, exploring the subject of “misdirected and ill-informed rage over Israel and Jews” in the movement.

They warned it serves only “to divert attention away from the real violation of people’s democratic rights and freedoms—the ready transfer of authority, power and wealth from governments to supra-national elites and organisations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, OSF, the World Economic Forum, the U.N. and its subsidiaries such as the World Health Organisation.”

But she added that “anti-semitism now has literally exploded to frightening levels.” I have never seen so much anti-semitism from everywhere. It’s not just the left is not just the right, not just academia, it’s not just the guy working in a pub. It is everywhere,” she said.

UK

The UK has seen regular large pro-Palestine protests after Hamas’ attacks on Israeli citizens on Oct. 7.

Ms. Harradine said that, as a Jew living in Britain, it felt “absolutely horrific.”

“I think some people really think Hamas is some kind of progressive movement that’s going to liberate everybody from the tyrants that rule us,” she said.

“Hamas is a genocidal Islamist cult. It’s a death cult cut from the same cloth as Al Qaeda as ISIS,” she added.

She noted that Islamist cults are responsible for the “heinous” persecution of Christians in Africa.

“Hamas are exactly the same, backed by Iran. Iran wants to establish a global caliphate. It’s got the money thanks to Western-deluded politicians and useful idiots. And it’s pretty frightening,” she said.

She said that anti-Semitism in this country reached “a crescendo” during the Corbyn years when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader.

In 2020, Mr. Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party for denying that anti-Semitism was a serious problem within the party, despite an official report finding that it was.

“But you felt that most of the British people were against anti-semitism, which was a fringe movement. Now, it’s the other way around. It’s almost like the fringe movement or those who are standing with Israel, and with us Jews, and the majority are screaming for our blood in the streets of London and Birmingham and Bristol,” she said.

Anti-semitism Mainstream Media

Ms. Harradine said that there is “anti-semitism propaganda” in mainstream media.

“Propaganda is the only way to put it in the mainstream media, the BBC is forefront of it all,” she said.

She pointed to The Balen report about BBC anti-semitism, which came about amid complaints and allegations of anti-Israel bias in 2004.  The 20,000-word report examined hundreds of hours of BBC coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“And they never released it. Because obviously, it would show a huge amount of anti-semitism in the BBC,” she said.

“They will question everything that Israel says but take everything Hamas says as the truth, even if its blood libels,” she added.

The BBC recently apologised after it ran a report speculating that the cause of the explosion of the hospital in Gaza was caused by an Israeli air strike. The Israeli military said al Ahli hospital was instead hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.

“Everybody suddenly lost sympathy for the Israelis slaughtered by Hamas operators, by these terrorists. And then the narrative changed ‘Oh no, Israel’s terrible. Look at how many children they’re killing,’” she said.

“The BBC was front and centre. This is normal for the BBC and Sky News and the mainstream media,” she said.

‘Woke Version’ of Anti-Semitism

She also agreed that anti-semitism has been misused at times.

“I think the issue is, unfortunately, a lot of the official Jewish organisations in this country are very much dominated by the left,” she said, adding that they have also bought into the “COVID-19 narrative.”

She said that a “woke version” of anti-semitism is damaging as it “trivialises and diminishes” the term.

“Andrew Bridgen, who I think is a very brave man, was accused by these organisations of Holocaust denial, which I thought was the most absolutely ridiculous thing ever,” she said.

Andrew Bridgen MP was kicked out of the Conservative Party this year, later on joining Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party, after he posted an article on Twitter saying, “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”

She also said it is not anti-semitic to criticise the left-wing billionaire activist George Soros’s organisations, though it would be to focus on his ethnicity.

“His society Open Society Foundation sponsors a huge amount of anti-Israel NGOs and organisations because Israel is a strong nation-state and for Soros and his organisation who want a global so-called utopia with no borders, that’s an anathema,” she added.