Mick Hartley

More on that Margate exhibition of antisemitic scrawls – from the Telegraph:

Labour-led Thanet council apologised for promoting the event on its tourism website after being accused of supporting the exhibition.

A spokesman said: “Once the council was contacted regarding the nature of the content, the link to this exhibition was removed. The council is not affiliated with the gallery or this exhibition and apologises sincerely for any distress or offence that has been caused.”

Fair enough. Good for them.

The police, on the other hand, decided that blood-soaked images of Jews eating babies were not antisemitic:

The historian Sir Simon Schama, speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival, said the police needed to be given formal education in anti-Semitism.

“What it comes down to is educating the police,” Sir Simon said.

“There is no question that it’s perfectly legitimate to criticise Zionism or the actions of the Israeli government, but it’s also extremely clear when that morphs into something that is destructive and harmful to the safety and peaceful self-respect of Jewish communities.”

Speaking after he delivered the festival’s inaugural lecture on anti-Semitism, Sir Simon said: “Somebody was so horrified by the exhibition in Margate that they contacted Kent police. Two perfectly nice policemen came along, were surrounded by this absolute symphony of emblems of blood-soaked, child-eating Jews, and said, ‘No, we think this is perfectly legitimate criticism of the state of Israel.’

“It’s very hard to set up a college course in Jewish history for police forces around the country, but something really has to be done educationally.”

Sir Simon said he knew the artist, Matthew Collings, many years ago. “He was a brilliant art presenter on Channel 4 in the late 90s – and now a rabid anti-Semite.”

It’s the by-now familiar use of “Zionist” instead of “Jew”. Makes it seem political. Fooled the police here, anyway.