Mick Hartley

Benjamin Birely at the JC – How Italy became the dark heart of European Israel-hate:

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories and originally from a small town north west of Naples, appears frequently in Italian media, becoming a local “expert” voice on Israel. Her rhetoric, which frames the state of Israel as fundamentally illegitimate and criminal, has been consistently platformed and amplified in mainstream discussions on the war in Gaza.

Over the summer, the Italian LGBTQ Jewish group Keshet faced aggressive protests at Pride events. In Rome, they faced chants of “terrorists” and “murderers”, while in Naples they were shouted off the open-mic stage and plastic bottles were thrown at them over a rainbow flag bearing the Star of David. Their speaker pleaded in vain with the angry crowd waving Palestinian flags, emphasising they were Italian Jews and that the Star of David is a Jewish symbol. “Zionists aren’t welcome!” was the crowd’s response.

On September 22 and October 3, in two consecutive national strikes organised by the country’s largest trade union, CGIL, at least one million Italians protested against Israel and the war in Gaza. Both strikes received broad support from a diverse array of unions, centre-left regional governments, student and cultural groups, and Italian celebrities.

This is all only a small glimpse into a much larger movement that has taken Italy by storm and become a defining feature of Italian political culture: the new Palestinismo, or “Palestinianism”.

This movement goes far beyond anti-war sentiment or solidarity with the Palestinian national cause. Deeply rooted in Italy’s Catholic cultural past, the complicated legacy of the fascist period and influential post-war leftist propaganda, Italy’s intense focus on Palestine brings together powerful trends in Italian history and culture to develop a new popular religion that leaves no room for dissent.

The current obsession with evil Israel and poor baby Palestine feeds right into the old Catholic teachings of Jews killing Christ.

This is exemplified by a votive shrine to the “Palestinian Madonna” on one of the narrow alleyways in the historical centre of Naples, which I regularly pass on my daily walks. The traditional statue of Our Lady of Sorrows is wrapped in a veil with the Palestinian national colours and dedicated to the suffering children of Gaza.

When the Italian Cardinal and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, stated this summer that “Christ is not absent from Gaza, he is there, crucified in the wounded, buried under rubble”, he was speaking to a long tradition of religious symbolism that has been historically weaponised against Jewish communities.

Dangerously, it is yet again the archetypal Jew responsible for the crucified Christ – only now he’s buried under rubble in Gaza.

It is precisely within this symbolic context that the mainstream centre-left Italian newspaper La Repubblica published a cartoon in July 2025 following the IDF shelling of the only Catholic parish in Gaza. In the cartoon, Netanyahu appears with the text: “It was a regrettable mistake… we were aiming at the bambinello” (baby Jesus).…

Why the idea that you can just “pause” puberty is nonsense…

Do puberty blockers work like a harmless “pause button” when it comes to the developing brain? In SEGM’s medical education course, University College London neuropsychologist Dr. Sallie Baxendale evaluates the evidence. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/0ngpHSjniQ

— SEGM (@segm_ebm) November 20, 2025

Full lecture here.

.This morning.

We’ve heard about Ally “Alexandra” Goebert before, back in February 2023. He’s the man who was denied access to the women’s section of a Korean New Jersey sauna and spa, where nudity is the norm, because….well, because he’s a man. Being a law school graduate, Goebert decided to sue.

And it looks like he’s won. We’re not privy to the backroom dealings, but the sauna has capitulated:

While the case was originally scheduled for a jury trial on August 11, King Spa came to a settlement agreement with Goebert instead. An August 28 filing refers to a “separate, confidential settlement agreement between the parties resolving all claims” in the case, with no insight provided into how much King Spa agreed to pay Goebert for his “distress.”

In addition to the financial settlement, King Spa also signed a Consent Order and agreed to implement a number of “corrective” policy measures to satisfy Goebert.

Among the measures were that it was obligated to force every employee to undergo at least one hour of training conducted by an independent consultant specializing in “gender identity and gender expression.” The Consent Order notes that Goebert’s counsel would receive confirmation from the consultant once every employee had undergone the training, including a list of all of the employee’s names.

From King Spa’s new handbook:

“Regardless of any physical or other traits which may or may not align with traits stereotypically associated with that gender”. Like, for instance, a penis – stereotypically associated with males.

The all-too-stereotypical male in question:

If the government aren’t interested in providing guidance, there are others who can. It is, after all, the law. All you need to know about workplace toilets, from Sex Matters:

The Supreme Court judgment therefore means that all employers need to make clear in their policies that whenever a space is marked as being for one sex or the other, it is not for use by members of the opposite sex, regardless of claimed identity, certification or lifestyle. 

The widely promoted idea that people may choose the facilities that suit their gender identity, or that they feel comfortable with, is legally wrong. Facilities are either for one sex only or for both sexes, with no exceptions. There can be no excuse for an employer to let people use the facilities marked for the other sex. This deprives everyone else of the single-sex provision they are entitled to under workplace regulations. 

The signs on the doors of workplace toilets and other facilities are health and safety signs. They should no more be ignored than signs that say not to block the fire exit or warnings about hazardous materials. 

The JC, on the Birmingham ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

West Midlands Police (WMP) are facing calls for an independent probe after a dossier seen by the JC shows strong evidence that claims of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans hooliganism were wildly exaggerated to justify their ban.

The force cited claims that up to 600 of the club’s supporters committed “hate-motivated crimes” in Amsterdam last year, it is understood.

Yet on the night of the Ajax match Israeli fans were assaulted in large numbers on the city’s streets, in what was later revealed to be a planned and organised “Jew hunt”.

The official report by the Amsterdam authorities obtained by the JC says Maccabi fans “do not have a violent reputation”, and makes clear it was the Israeli club’s supporters who were the victims of “groups that are looking for a confrontation”.

The document also stated that of the 59 suspects arrested, only ten were Israeli while the others were from the Netherlands.

Both Labour and Conservative politicians are urgently demanding transparency from WMP over why they stopped the Israeli club’s supporters from attending the match against Aston Villa two weeks ago.…

The findings by the prosecutor and police in Amsterdam contradict statements by senior WMP officers to justify the ban, which was condemned at the time by the prime minister and home secretary as well as leading Jewish groups.

The force have admitted they failed to engage adequately with the local Jewish community, the JC can also reveal.

Labour peer and former Birmingham MP Lord McCabe told the JC: “These contradictory reports demand swift and open clarification from West Midlands Police.

“The handling of the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture has been an unedifying saga from start to finish.”

The WMP, it’s clear enough, were intimidated into the ban by the threats from Islamist-hard left groups. To save face – to admit that they weren’t in control of the streets – they blamed the Jews. As always.

The JC Leader:

There can be little doubt of what is the new reality: in the second city of the United Kingdom, it is extremists who are effectively making public order decisions.

We have seen the results. When a JC reporter visited Villa Park on the night that Maccabi Tel Aviv played without their fans to cheer them on, he was confronted outside the stadium by a hooded gang, one of whose members exclaimed: “F**k Israel. F**k every Jew.”

The Rabbi of Park East Synagogue, NY, lived through Kristallnacht.

Last night, antisemites were chanting for intifada outside his synagogue.

He survived this hatred once. Now, he’s forced to watch it rise again.

This was never about Gaza. It’s an attack on the Jewish people. pic.twitter.com/7MSUZzDPGy

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 20, 2025

The Times lead article – Trans people could be banned from single-sex spaces based on how they look. It’s an unfortunate way of introducing what should be a fairly straightforward piece about how the Labour government is sitting on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance about single-sex spaces, which it received three months ago. It’s about stopping men using women’s single-sex facilities, of course, but as usual the headline implies some kind of anti-trans agenda – and invites the response that this involves a return to old sexual stereotypes if a woman doesn’t look like a woman.

Oh dear. It should all be quite straightforward – no men in women’s spaces, and particularly no men in women’s toilets. Trans women – transified men – should use the Gents. If they insist on wearing short skirts and high hells, in a pornified caricature of a woman, well – men have to be kind now, just like women have been instructed to be kind for the past decade or so. It’s their fetish – so live with it.

If a man has genuinely transified – and no, I’m not sure what that means exactly, but there are rare cases – then I doubt any woman is going to be too horrified to see them in the Ladies. See how it goes. The problem is that the Labour government is excusing its delay in publishing the EHRC guidance by claiming that it’s trying to iron out all the difficult details, when we all know the real reason: they’re scared of the backlash from the not inconsiderable trans-friendly cohort of Labour MPs, and all the young party activists.

Also, Bridget Phillipson, the minister responsible, and Keir Starmer, both have their own particular reasons for the delay:

The Times previously revealed concerns that Bridget Phillipson, who is the women and equalities minister as well as the education secretary, was delaying publication in the midst of her deputy leadership campaign, which she denied. During that contest, Lucy Powell, who ultimately won, repeatedly emphasised her support for transgender rights and suggested the EHRC guidance was flawed.

With the race now over, attention has shifted to Starmer’s standing among MPs and the Labour membership.

Several unions remain furious about the party’s retreat from self-identification. Younger activists and parts of the parliamentary party believed publishing the code would amount to endorsing discrimination. MPs have written to ministers over the issue.

Some ministers fear that an already fractious parliamentary Labour Party could use the guidance as another proxy battle over the party’s direction. Women’s groups, meanwhile, said the delay left public bodies in limbo.

Now, those in Whitehall have become so frustrated at the lack of action that a copy of the code has been passed to The Times due to fears that it is being delayed over concern of a political backlash.

Arguably for the government, a fresh fight over gender identity could not come at a worse time.

One reason why the Archbishop of York was sounding off about Israel committing genocidal acts in Gaza: when he visited the West Bank recently, he was with this Palestinian cleric. From Jewish News:

The Board of Deputies has criticised a decision by Lambeth Palace to host an event featuring a Palestinian cleric who describes Zionism as “an ideology of supremacy” and “having turned God into a racist tribal deity of their image”.

Munther Isaac, a Christian Pastor based in Bethlehem, is best known for his involvement in organisations which specifically try and identify the Palestinian experience with that of Jesus, such as ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’. In 2023, Isaac gave a Christmas sermon in which he claimed that if Jesus had been born today, it would have been under the rubble. He is believed to have joined the event at Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, via video link-up on Tuesday.

Last week, Isaac published a document which accused “many churches” of having “adopted the colonizer’s narrative or remain silent in the face of genocide” and accused Israel of “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, “settler colonialism”, “apartheid”, “Jewish supremacy…codified in the Nation-State Law”, “Environmental genocide”, “Christian Zionism as a theology of racism, colonialism and ethnic supremacy” and “the misuse of antisemitism to silence the Palestinian voice of truth”.

That would seen to cover everything – genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism. The full monty.

The document, named “Kairos Palestine II”, also states that “We reject the very concept of conflict. The reality on the ground is colonial, oppressive tyranny…to call this a conflict is to participate in erasure. This language is not neutral; it is complicity…equally dangerous is the refusal to name settler colonialism — replaced with slogans of reconciliation or ‘dialogue.’ Kairos II exposes such avoidance.”

The event at Lambeth Palace comes after Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, returned from a trip to the West Bank, part of which was spent in the company of Isaac. In an interview with Church Times this week, Cottrell described what he termed as Israel’s “genocidal acts” in Gaza, and described the situation in the West Bank as amounting to “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing”.

The Church of England is swimming in very murky waters here. They should keep well away from this ridiculous man and his obsessive Israel-hatred.

Last year the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, initially declined to meet Isaac, having been advised that it would adversely affect the Church of England’s relationship with the UK Jewish community. However, after furious responses from Palestinian supporting Anglicans, Welby reversed his decision, publicly apologising for the “hurt, anger, and confusion” it has caused, and saying “I was wrong not to meet with my brother in Christ from the Holy Land, especially at this time of profound suffering for our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters. I look forward to speaking and praying with him next week.”

How pathetic. How typical of Welby.

More on the BBC’s pro-trans bias, with its effect on children, from the Telegraph:

Hundreds of parents have accused the BBC of damaging their children with a “constant drip-feed of one-sided pro-trans programmes”.

The Bayswater Support Group (BSG), which represents 650 mothers and fathers of primary school-aged children and teenagers who believe they are trans, has called on Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, to launch an investigation into the corporation’s coverage….

The BSG said the BBC’s biased approach stretched back nearly a decade, promoting trans lifestyles to young people who were already vulnerable because of their age and mental health needs.

At times, the BBC even appeared to encourage children to undertake irreversible medical transition, the parents claim.…

The spokesman for the BSG said: “For the past decade, the constant stream of propaganda about gender and trans activism the BBC has transmitted has played a significant role in creating a dangerous culture for children.

“Specifically, non-conforming children who have been led to believe simplistic identity labels and extreme medical interventions can resolve complex feelings of adolescent and neurodevelopmental distress.

“The end result of this is a generation of teens and young adults who have come to severe harm, frequently self-diagnosed and self-medicated, estranged from families. The role of the BBC in marketing and promoting these identities to them throughout childhood has been a key influencer, not just of children but schools, policymakers and the public, meaning families have faced unnecessary hostility for trying to protect their child.”

Like the episode of Doctors last year, in which a mother said she knew her daughter was transgender because, when she was six, her best friend was a boy and she liked playing with mud. The girl’s father was portrayed negatively for not accepting his daughter’s desire to be a man.

Or the “transgender” medic in an episode of Casualty, broadcast before the watershed last year, who said before undergoing a double mastectomy: “I’m just happy that I’ll look like the person I feel on the inside”.

Plenty more, of course…