Police must act against antisemitic speaker in London’s Hyde Park
We have heard reports of antisemitic ranting at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park on a number of occasions, but none matched the brazen ferocity of the speaker captured in a video circulating online.
Claiming to be against all religion, on the two occasions caught on video, the speaker issued a non-stop tirade against Jews, shouting at any identifiably-Jewish person who passed.
To one orthodox Jewish man he said: “You’re a very f***ing dirty Jew. Don’t take it personally, take it to hell,” continuing to passersby, “His cock has been brutalised by a rabbi paedophile who cut his foreskin off. That’s how f***ed up the Jews are.”
He told another orthodox Jewish male who was passing: “Look at the Nazi Jew and see him for what he is…Your time is coming as it did in my father’s country, Deutschland…Why do you think our ancestors kicked you out of Deutschland? You learn nothing, you smug, fat Jew. Smug, fat, bearded Jew! Scum!”
The speaker referred to Jews as “Twelve tribes of head-banging schizophrenics praying to a wailing wall.” He also repeatedly claimed that Jews were Nazis as well as being their victims, for example: “They started Nazi Germany, and they got it back, Adolf Hitler style.”
As Joseph Cohen recorded him, the speaker shouted: “The day the Jew becomes a human being will be the day the Jew becomes free of the s*** of Judaism! Simple. Record it and tell your f***ing rabbi to stop molesting boys.”
No police action appears to have been taken and we are helping one victim to make a criminal complaint.
Most disturbing was that the video showed not a single member of the public remonstrating with the speaker. On the contrary, one man approached him and shook him by the hand, and a woman was recorded defending the speaker, saying: “What the Jews are doing to Gaza, to the Arabs, I think it’s a nightmare…This does not mean I don’t have friends that are Jews.”
Contrary to common perception, Speakers’ Corner is covered by no special laws and incitement to racial and religious hatred by a bigot standing on a ladder at Speakers’ Corner is just as illegal as it would be anywhere else.
Speakers’ Corner is famous for freedom of speech, but that threatening and illegal hate speech is not permitted anywhere in our country. While we are for freedom of speech we do not believe that anyone has the absolute right to abuse freedom of speech to threaten and intimidate minorities. The law agrees with us.
We are keen to identify the speaker in the video. If you can help, please contact [email protected].