A man faces a trial by jury after he denied that he carried out a religiously aggravated attack on a Jewish woman in the centre of Brighton.
Jemal Keddad, 40, of North Road, Brighton, appeared at Brighton Crown Court on Friday (15 May) having pleaded not guilty last month at an arraignment hearing – when the charge was formally put.
Matthew Hodgetts, prosecuting, told Recorder Quincy Whitaker that the assault happened at the Clock Tower, in North Street, Brighton, on Saturday 8 November last year.
Recorder Whitaker told the defendant that he would go on trial on Thursday 15 April next year and that the trial was expected to last two days.
She also told him that a pre-trial review would take place on Monday 22 March next year and remanded him on unconditional bail.
Keddad pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman when he appeared before Judge Mark Van Der Zwart in a hearing at Lewes Crown Court on Friday 10 April.
It feels like the law is beginning to wake up a little and starting to play its part in halting this tsunami of Jew hate, that has been sanctioned by the casual attitude of the hate marches and inflammatory gesture politics of the Labour Council repeating and endorsing racist lies against Jews over the war against Hamas.
Except the peaceful “hate marches” you are talking about are against Israel’s genocide, war crimes, apartheid and breaking of international law. They are not against Jews they are against Israel and its actions.
Genocide scholars, including from Israel, including previously pro-Zionist Jews who served in the IDF like Omar Bartov, recognise Israel’s mass murder in Gaza as genocide. The UN has recognised Israel is committing genocide. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights organisation b’tselem recognise Israel is committing genocide. These human rights organisations also recognise that Israel is an apartheid state.
The term genocide was created by Rafael Lemkin exactly to create a legal term to describe the mass murder of a group because it was a common human action that happened regularly and there wasn’t a law that described it. The Holocaust was arguably the worst genocide in human history. But genocide is not another term for the Holocaust. Genocide is a legal term.
The crime of genocide is so serious it differs from other crimes in there isn’t innocent until proven guilty. The world can’t wait until a genocide is complete to then decide. The ICJ is investigating genocide and it takes years but in the case of genocide it makes a preliminary finding, that finding was that Palestinians are at risk of genocide from Israel, the ICJ specified actions Israel needed to take to prevent genocide, which Israel ignored.
Many Jews go to those marches and many march openly visibly as Jews in a bloc. They are not only welcome they are integral to the marches. Anybody who is pro-Palestinian human rights will be friends with the many Jews who are appalled at Israel’s actions. Polling shows that while the majority of Jews identify as Zionist (which means different things to different people) a very large minority of Jews are non-Zionist and anti-Zionist and that group is growing in particular amongst younger Jews.
So while there is clearly very serious antisemitism in the UK and the Jewish community must be protected from the real threat of violence and terrorism target at it, please don’t use antisemitism for political ends and misrepresent peaceful marches that believe in humanism. Thank you.
There is no genocide in Gaza
These are hate marches. I’ve witnessed them for myself. Foaming at the mouth anti semites, every last one of these awful people. I’m not Jewish but have had to console Jewish people in Western Road as these disgusting bigots spew their bile on their ‘peace marches’. There is no place for this on the streets of the UK. Enough is enough.
LOL like many of Israels supporters you lie through your teeth!
Millions have peacefully marched through the streets of London and elsewhere in the UK protesting against Israels clear war crimes and whilst there may have been the odd incident these have been minor and very few and far between with minimal arrests and even less subsequently facing charges!
I have witnessed it with my own eyes in this town and the hate being spewed at these hate marches are there for everybody to see. I am not Jewish. I am not pro Israel. I am British and sick of the sight of these mentally ill, green hair, septic ring lunatics spouting their anti semitic nonsense on the streets of this country. If you care so much, get off your backside and go to Israel/Palestine to demonstrate. But stop terrorising Jewish people in this country. You have no right and you do not speak for anybody other than your own marxist anti-western group of incels.
Let’s not forget the continuous attacks on Christians in Israel especially in Jerusalem. The authorities do very little to investigate or discourage these daily occurrences.