Gideon Falter & the Campaign for Antisemitism.

 

Gideon Falter - Head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism

I've watched the footage of this altercation between a London police officer and Gideon Falter, a journalist and Chief Executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). That police officer was trying to prevent a "breach of the peace" and seems to have handled the situation correctly and reasonably. Falter, who was wearing a Kippah skull-cap, said he just wanted to cross the road. Where he wanted to cross, was directly where a pro-Palestinian march was taking place. The police officer told Falter, "You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march. I'm not accusing you of anything but I'm worried about the reaction to your presence." He accused Falter of trying to antagonise others by deliberately trying to walk "right into the middle" of the march. He also told him that he was being "disingenuous."

Falter was there to provoke a reaction for political purposes and the police officer suspected that. The police officer threatened to arrest Falter after he tried to push past police officers, but said he preferred not to do so. He then politely offered to escort Falter and his group, to a more appropriate crossing point, but Falter refused his assistance. After the incident, Falter told the BBC that he'd found the experience "frightening" and said he felt like he "was being treated like a criminal for being Jewish." He accused the Met's Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, of "curtailing the rights of law-abiding Londoners including the Jewish community to appease lawless mobs." He told ITV's Good Morning Britain, that his members often attend pro-Palestinian marches to "force the police to make sure these things are safe for Jewish people" - and he would turn up at the next one.

Although the Met have apologised twice to Gideon Falter and have offered to meet with him, he has called on Sir Mark Rowley to resign. A Downing Street spokesman said that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was "as appalled as everyone else by the officer calling Mr Falter "openly Jewish."

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is understood to have full confidence in the commissioner. The CAA was at the forefront of antisemitism allegations against Labour under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. The organisation Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), which has had dozens of members investigated by Labour for alleged antisemitism, has alleged that the CAA - a registered charity- is a "partisan political campaigning group." JVL have alleged that the CAA engages in "persistent conflation and equating of antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel."

Charity regulations state that "an organisation will not be charitable if it's purposes are political." In 2023, the Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case against the CAA, after receiving complaints that the organisation was "politically partisan." The Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, a former CAA patron, tweeted that the charity was "more concerned with undermining Labour than rooting out antisemitism." In 2016, a number of British Jews wrote to the Guardian dissociating themselves from what they described as "the pro-Israel lobbyists of the Campaign Against Antisemitism" after the CAA criticised a report into antisemitism by Shami Chakrabarti.

Gideon Falter, is an Executive Board Member of the Jewish National Fund UK (JNF UK). which is believed to fund the CAA. The Jewish National Fund is Israel's quasi-governmental settler-colonial agency. Honorary Patrons include Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.