We Believe in Israel (WBII) has announced it will be campaigning for music streaming service Spotify to remove extremist content which incites and promotes hatred, violence, and disinformation against Jews and Israelis. WBII’s research is ongoing, but the group has already identified dozens of instances of problematic material. WBII will be contacting Spotify directly in the coming days and ensuring that its supporters are kept up to date as this campaign develops.

WBII’s findings include the following:

• Rapper Lowkey’s “Long Live Palestine – Part 2” states that is time to have “globalised the Intifada”, that he had “studied the Torah and learnt by their own admission Israel's actions are not kosher in their own religion”, while contributing artist Hasan Salaam rapped “So whether it's the Mossad or the FBI policing you it's all one struggle till the final breath is leavin' you”
• His earlier “Long Live Palestine” echoes a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory with “Every coin is a bullet, if you're Marks and Spencer and when you're sipping Coca-Cola that's another pistol in the holster of the soulless soldiers. You say you know about the Zionist lobby but you put money in their pocket when you're buying their coffee”
• Rapper Ambassador MC (whose real name is Safeer Hussain)’s “Free Palestine” claims “what happened in America on 9/11 happens in Palestine, 24/7” and that “The Zionists and Jews are different types of people. The Jews ‘ain't bad, but the Zionists are evil. Even the Rabbis know the Zionists are crazy”. His 2021 rap “Free Palestine 2” states “Most [Palestinian prisoners] are killed brutally but some are set free”, and that “Israel wants every Palestine to bleed”
• Shadi al-Bourini and Qassem al-Najjar’s “Strike A Blow At Tel Aviv” says “Oh you settler, with your sidelocks, in your shelter you cower with fear” and “We don't want no truce or solution. All we want is to strike Tel Aviv”

Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe In Israel says: “Spotify has a responsibility to uphold its platform rules which quite clearly state that content promoting, threatening, or inciting violence is unacceptable. Our research has identified dozens of such breaches, and we expect timely action to be taken. Following the high levels of antisemitism experienced by British Jews during and after last May’s escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, it is remarkable that content directly inciting violence and hatred remains available. The presence of Lowkey’s music is particularly offensive. We view his comments about globalising the Intifada as a direct incitement of violence towards Jews and Israelis, while Hasan Salaam promotes commonly held and nefarious antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination.”

Rachel Blain, Campaigns Manager of We Believe In Israel says: “We will put pressure on Spotify to ensure that problematic content is removed in a timely fashion. We Believe In Israel’s research is an ongoing project and we will continue to highlight music and podcasts which breach the platform’s rules.”

Welcoming the Home Secretary’s announcement of a long-awaited extension of the UK’s proscription of the military wing of terror group Hamas to its political wing, Director of campaign group We Believe in Israel Luke Akehurst said:

“It is very important that this ridiculous and dangerous loophole is being closed. We have campaigned for many years for the entirety of the terrorist organisation Hamas to be banned in the UK so that it cannot propagandise and spread its antisemitic message of hatred of Israel and Jews here. Thousands of our grassroots supporters emailed their MPs to call for this action in recent months. We welcome the Government’s decision to listen to this concern and act on it. We call on all MPs of all parties to support this move.”

Earlier this year thousands of WBII activists were part of an email campaign to persuade the UK to not attend the UN’s Durban IV summit, as this series of events had been marred by antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel rhetoric.

Not only did this contribute to the UK being one of 34 countries to withdraw from the event, on Monday 11 October the UK called for a roll-call vote on a UN Human Right Council pro-Durban motion and prevented the text passing by consensus. 10 countries opposed the resolution: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine and the UK.

“Racism should be tackled in all its forms, and regrettably, for far too long, the UN has downplayed the scourge of antisemitism. This must end.” British diplomat Simon Manley told the UNHRC. He added “The UK is clear that we will not attend future iterations of the Durban Conference while concerns over antisemitism remain.”

Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe in Israel, said:

“We are delighted that the British Government is joining the USA, Canada and Australia in refusing to attend this September’s UN commemoration of the anniversary of the notorious Durban conference.

We want to thank the thousands of activists who emailed their MPs in the campaign we ran with Israel Britain Alliance to call for this decision.

Sadly, while the headline objective of the “Durban” series of conferences has been noble, they have been marred by becoming what the Jewish community internationally have described as a “hostile showcase for open antisemitism.”

The NGO Forum of the original Durban conference described Israel as a "racist, apartheid state" that was guilty of "racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing".

The conference secretary-general, Mary Robinson, said of the whole conference that "there was horrible antisemitism present, particularly in some of the NGO discussions. A number of people said they've never been so hurt or so harassed or been so blatantly faced with antisemitism."

Given the antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel discourse associated with the original conference it is commemorating, which is almost certain to reoccur at the commemoration, we are pleased that the UK is not giving credibility to this event.”

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UK grassroots campaign group We Believe in Israel (WBII) has condemned NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) for issuing a new report today that accuses Israel of “apartheid”, a crime against humanity.

Original news article by We Believe in Israel Director Luke Akehurst can be found on the Jewish News website 

I don’t think many people engaged in the debate about Israel and the Palestinians have really absorbed yet the full significance of the Abraham Accords, the peace deal struck in Washington DC between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain on 15 September.

On the ground in the Middle East, where it most matters, the deal is a new kind of people-to-people peace that builds coexistence between the societies, not the rather hollow model of a purely state-to-state “cold peace” with Israel pursued by Egypt and Jordan, where the governments have good practical diplomatic and security relations with Israel but this does not trickle down to the cultural and educational spheres and does not penetrate public discourse. The UAE and Israel are making a big effort to promote grassroots civil society links between businesses, NGOs, universities and cultural institutions. The Abraham Accords are about Israel and Arab countries building peace together because it gives them the opportunity to improve prosperity and everyday life for everyone in the region.

But in terms of the debate here in the UK, once people begin to digest the significance of the deal it will become apparent that it has driven a coach and horses through four of the key parts of the ideological narrative of the anti-Israel camp.

First, the Abraham Accords sound the death knell for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. BDS was built on the foundations and legacy of the Arab Boycott of Israel, initiated as a boycott of the pre-state Yishuv by the Arab League in 1945. With key Arab states now formally embracing trade and diplomatic deals with Israel, it looks ridiculous and out of touch with the reality of the region or Arab opinion for radicals in Europe and North America to continue to pursue a boycott policy.

Secondly, the Abraham Accords demolish the narrative that Israel is engaged in a race-based and hence racist oppression of the Palestinians, and hence the apartheid smear and the BDS policies that flow from the false comparison with apartheid South Africa. Emiratis and Bahrainis are the same ethnicity as the Palestinians: Arab. If Israel is able to have normalised and mutually beneficial relations with other Arab states it stands to reason that the occupation is down to a political impasse with the Palestinians, not a race-based desire to subjugate them.

Thirdly, the Abraham Accords destroy the narrative that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is based on an inevitable religious clash between Jews and Muslims. The UAE and Bahrain are predominantly Muslim societies just like Palestinian society. If anything, they are more monolithically Muslim than Palestinian society is. This deal proves Israel can have good relationships with Muslim countries. The way in which the deal uses language about the mutual heritage of the three Abrahamic religions acknowledges that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East.

This last point links to the fourth aspect, which is that the Abraham Accords draw a line under historic Arab delegitimisation of Israel and the narrative that saw it as a temporary, colonialist imposition that could be destroyed. The deal shows the rest of the Arab world is growing impatient with Palestinian intransigence, and has moved to seeing Israel in pragmatic rather than ideological terms, as a permanent feature in the region that doesn’t just have to be accepted but can actually be a useful trading partner and security ally against Iran and its proxies. The contrast between practical steps by other Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority’s history of rejecting Israeli offers, even when its people would be the main beneficiary, is very stark.

As well as opening the door to a better life for many people in the region, the Accords have just made it a lot easier for all of us who have always proudly defended Israel here in the UK to win the ideological arguments with the delegitimisers, who increasingly find themselves on the opposite side to much of the Arab World, let alone Israel and its traditional allies.

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