Public outrage mounts amid plans for Stamford Hill anti-Jewish rally

Joshua Bonehill in uniform with flag 460 x 276

Joshua Bonehill has called for an anti-Jewish rally in Stamford Hill. Image: Joshua Bonehill

A white supremacist group’s plans for an anti-Semitic march in Stamford Hill has sparked public outcry.

On Friday 30 January, the group Liberate Stamford Hill began promoting plans for a march to be held on 22 March, prompting calls for counter-protests on the day.

Liberate Stamford Hill announced the event on Twitter and Facebook in protest against what it labels the ‘Jewification of Great Britain’. The announcement is accompanied by anti-Semitic images and slogans.

Stamford Hill is home to one of the country’s largest ultra-Orthodox Charedi Jewish communities.

The plans have been led by Joshua Bonehill, a 22-year-old far-right activist based in Yeovil, Somerset. Speaking to the Citizen, Bonehill described himself as “a proud anti-Semite”.

Bonehill is a member of the far-right National Action party. He has previously supported the Conservative party, then the United Kingdom Independence Party, and the British National Party.

Bonehill has written to Hackney Council and the Metropolitan Police on behalf of Liberate Stamford Hill requesting permission for a road closure through Clapton Common to Rookwood and Egerton Roads, to the A10 at Stoke Newington station, from 2pm on Sunday 22 March, culminating in a rally at Clapton Common.

Hackney Council has said it is committed to stopping the march from taking place in the borough’s parks. Deputy Mayor, Cllr Sophie Linden said:

“This is completely at odds with the long and proud history we have in Hackney of our diverse communities working and living together.

“Any attempt like this, by an individual from outside Hackney, to fracture our communities and create division through anti-Semitism is unacceptable and has no place in our borough. We are in contact with the police to urge them to ensure this divisive march does not go ahead and we certainly would not allow it to take place in one of our parks.”

Permission to hold protests and marches must be granted by the Metropolitan Police. A Metropolitan Police Notification of Public Procession document seen by the Hackney Citizen outlines Liberate Stamford Hill’s request for road closure.

Superintendent Andy Walker from Hackney Police said: “We’re aware of a message on social media suggesting that a ‘protest’ is planned for next month in Stamford Hill. We have contacted the individual who posted this message to see if it is genuine and we are waiting to hear from him.

“In the meantime, I have spent today talking to members of our local community and I am unequivocal that we won’t tolerate any activity in Hackney which seeks to stir up racial hatred or which is intended to frighten and intimidate people.”

Bonehill has insisted that if he is blocked from closing roads, the rally at Clapton Common will go ahead regardless.

Speaking to the Hackney Citizen, Bonehill said: “If roads can’t be shut we will be holding the rally at Clapton Common anyway, with or without the council’s permission.”

Bonehill told the Citizen that he expects up to ten different nationalist groups to participate in the rally.

Shomrim ‘undemocratic’

The plans are targeted at the volunteer community police force Shomrim, which Bonehill claims is “illegal and undemocratic.”

He told the Citizen: “Shomrim police drive similar cars to the real police, they wear similar uniforms to our police and yet they have not been arrested for impersonating the police.”

In the wake of the announcement, various activist groups are calling for counter-action against the rally.

Hackney Councillor Michael Desmond called the plans “a pathetic attempt to cause strife in an otherwise peaceful neighbourhood”.

The group Hackney Stand Up To Racism said: “”We are shocked that a far right group calling itself the National British Resistance is planning to hold an anti-Jewish rally on 22 March in the Stamford Hill/Clapton area, under the grotesque banner of ‘Liberate Stamford Hill’… We ask that people in Hackney are vigilant and prepared to mobilise on 22 March.”

The announcement came days after Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

An anti-racism march through central London is scheduled for 21 March, commemorating the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Shomrim has been approached for comment.

 

 

35 Comments

  1. Paul Marsh on Monday 2 February 2015 at 22:58

    Bonehead is a troll. Nothing more. No event will take place and he knows it. What he’s doing is getting publicity for his (most likely) one-member ‘organisation’. And everyone’s falling for his little game.



  2. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Monday 2 February 2015 at 23:45

    “Bonehill is a member of the far-right National Action party.”

    Boney J IS the National Action Party: a one-man army dedicated to his own self-aggrandisement! And almost no one on the British far right takes him seriously, which goes to show just how marginalised and delusional he is.

    “Bonehill told the Citizen that he expects up to ten different nationalist groups to participate in the rally.”

    Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? A legend in his own mind and nothing more.



  3. Peter Nunn on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 00:38

    This case raises important issues regarding free speech and the right to protest. You may not agree with Joshua Bonehill’s politics, but does that mean we should not support his right to protest. Point made here: http://nunners.uk/joshua-bonehill-vows-to-liberate-stamford-hill-from-shomrim-jewish-police-jewification-with-protest-demonstration/



  4. Ms Adventures in Hackney on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 11:02


  5. Bingo O'Leary on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 12:19

    The suffragette movement was subject to similar hostility from the establishment and media in its day. The difference between free speech and hate speech is subjective. Who is arrogant enough to decide which is which? Certainly not any Councillor. Whether you disagree with what these people want to do or not, it is their right to express themselves peacefully.



  6. Ms Adventures in Hackney on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 12:35

    And the slave trade was once legal. I’m guessing that was subjective too?



  7. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 13:01

    So, Boney boy’s trolling here under multiple names – so far, so predictable!

    Seriously li’l Josh, are you as media-illiterate as you appear to be (the ‘photo ops’ on your Facebook page are comedy gold!), or do you just imagine that the rest of us are?



  8. hackney resident on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 13:03

    come on man, people asking for the right to vote isn’t at all the same as a racist rally and you know it



  9. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 13:08

    I’m happy to support anyone’s freedom of speech, but quite frankly Boney’s day trip to ‘that London’, with an optional visit to Wetherspoon’s on the way to the park, merits the oxygen of publicity. Also, freedom of speech isn’t an excuse to indulge in libel, defamation and harassment, so I’m glad that the English legal system is in the process of teaching this Walter Mitty a hard lesson in grown-up behaviour.



  10. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 13:09

    ‘doesn’t merit the oxygen of publicity’! :-O



  11. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 13:11

    Also, I note that at least one far right splinter group is instructing its members to NOT wear its insignia if they go on this day trip!



  12. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 15:19

    Boney’s event page on Facebook has been taken down.



  13. Jimmy Mac on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 15:53

    This guys sounds like a total dick. I bet his favourite place to shop is Tesco’s, Marks & Spencer or Sainsburys all of which root back to jewish heritage. Being such a white supremacist I bet he even owns quite a few Asia devices such as a smart phone, if he can even afford one or a car.



  14. GT on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 17:29

    Whereas the Zionist EDL is allowed to go wherever it wants spreading its message of hate. Je suis Charlie!
    Why has his page been removed when Zionists and Muslim haters are allowed to say what they want on Facebook? You pathetic freedom hating cry babies.



  15. Adam on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 18:02

    ‘GT’, the commenter above doesn’t know what Zionist is and is using it as a word to mean ‘in the service of the Jews’ which the EDL clearly is not. That is antisemitic speech.



  16. Anne O'Connor on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 19:11

    This is absolutely hideous. It is definitely hate speech targeted at one ethnic and religious group.



  17. mukka chucka on Tuesday 3 February 2015 at 21:05

    Mukka chukka pukka mukka.

    Bingo wings wingo bings.

    Smashing dashing



  18. Bingo O'Leary on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 08:28

    Adam, I believe you have misunderstood GT. There are several forms of Zionism…Political Religious, Socialist and Territorial. In terms of Political Zionism and, to a lesser extent, Territorial Zionism, GT is correct in the use of the term. He/she is not using the term ‘Zionist’ to mean ‘in the service of the Jews’.



  19. Pritt on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 13:54

    …[Deleted by moderator]…



  20. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 14:47

    Notice how certain nutters jump on the bandwagon of Wurzel Bonehead’s plans for a one-man sponsored walk in order to peddle their pet conspiracy theories about the ‘ZOG’ and the ‘Jew World Order’? Yes, these bedsit web warriors were all over the Facebook event page too!



  21. Bingo O'Leary on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 15:01

    The Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932-33 was very real and Genrikh Yagoda was instrumental in perpetrating it. Not a conspiracy theory but historical fact. Since 2006, Ukraine officially marks a Holodomor memorial day on the fourth Saturday of November.



  22. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 21:45

    Wurzel, the grim reality of the Holodomor – estimated 2.5-7.5 million deaths from avoidable starvation – isn’t proof of global Jewish conspiracy, nor does it disprove the reality of the Holocaust. I agree that people in general need to take a better look at the appalling human rights record of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact in general, and the murderous psychopathy of Stalin in particular (and the precedents for it under Lenin), but that has nothing in particular to do with Stamford Hill!



  23. Bingo O'Leary on Thursday 5 February 2015 at 08:06

    Smelly… fair point but wouldn’t it be lovely if the Stamford Hillers met this Bonehead fellow with a nice pot of tea and a plate of custard creams, rather than vicious animosity and threats of violence? I reckon that would take the wind out of his sails.



  24. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Thursday 5 February 2015 at 13:07

    I agree, actually: I’d rather see the good people of Stamford Hill not rise to the bait of his solo effort, than for the SWP and their spin-off groups to put on their usual act in response to a token appearance by the far right. Chances are though, they’d be better off sending those custard creams to Wurzel c/o H M Prison Service!



  25. Tarquin on Saturday 7 February 2015 at 13:11

    Loads of people I see (including the UAF who are planning a demonstration) stand up with silly little dickheads like this bloke tries to advertise his one man ‘Party’. However, the police have had to step up patrols in Stamford Hill because of raised concerns that the Orthodox community will be attacked by Islamic extremists. Which of the two do you think the Orthodox community think more of a threat? Shocking as usual hypocrisy from the left: white racism must be railed against, any other form of racism must go totally unopposed.



  26. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Sunday 8 February 2015 at 00:02

    That’s a fair point, Tarquin: Wurzel (who has a history of being all mouth and libels) starts playing the Glorious Leader online, and the SWP front organisation UAF (amongst many others) takes him seriously, right on cue; meanwhile Islamists spout antisemitic rhetoric left, right and centre…and UAF says precisely NOTHING about it, because the SWP’s leadership has never met an Islamist it didn’t like!



  27. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Sunday 8 February 2015 at 14:32

    Wurzel Bonehead’s back on Facebook:

    https://www.facebook.com/events/789617431131334/



  28. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Monday 9 February 2015 at 20:10


  29. Paul on Friday 27 February 2015 at 18:17

    “Freedom of speech” doesn’t actually exist for many, many demographs in this country, as not everyone has the same access to channels in which their voice can be heard. It’s a privileged position to able to speak “freely” and have your views accounted for. It’s a liberal myth that presupposes an equal society, which we obviously don’t have. Therefore defending anything under the notion of “freedom of speech” or seeing it as something to protect is futile.

    If the notion of freedom of speech means that fascists speak “freely”, then it’s not an idea I can get behind.



  30. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Saturday 18 April 2015 at 18:35

    From Avon & Somerset Police:

    “A 22-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an investigation into homophobic messages posted on social media…”

    https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/newsroom/man-arrested-in-hate-crime-inquiry/



  31. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Saturday 18 April 2015 at 18:37

    “If the notion of freedom of speech means that fascists speak ‘freely’, then it’s not an idea I can get behind.”

    Paul, in that case, who do you think should be the gatekeepers of public speech, and which set of criteria should they use?



  32. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Saturday 18 April 2015 at 19:31

    It would appear that the 22 year old man sending those homophobic messages was targetting food writer Jack Monroe:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-32366295



  33. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Monday 20 April 2015 at 00:46

    The following entry has been made on Joshua Bonehill’s Wikipedia page:

    “On 19 April 2015, Bonehill revealed on his website that he had been arrested earlier on suspicion of sending ‘hate’ tweets to Jack Monroe, the anti-poverty campaigner and Guardian columnist. After being questioned, Bonehill was released on bail.

    “Among many tweets from a hoax account purporting to be from a former UKIP candidate were assertions that ‘gays should be sterilised’ and Monroe, a lesbian, should leave the UK. UKIP found the comments ‘vile’ and reported the account to the police.

    “In a statement on his website, Bonehill did not admit responsibility, but said that the tweets were ‘of a comical nature and [I] commend the level of free speech used’. He has not been found guilty of an offence.”

    The incident has also been reported in the national press.



  34. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Monday 14 December 2015 at 14:20


  35. TheGreatSmellOf Brute on Wednesday 16 December 2015 at 22:02

    Boney’s been found guilty of Incitement to Racial Hatred at Southwark Crown Court – sentencing tomorrow:

    https://antisemitism.uk/guilty-joshua-bonehill-paine-instigator-of-anti-jewification-demonstrations-guilty-of-incitement-to-racial-hatred/



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