The JC - Jewish News, Comment & Culture

Influencers Hussain Makke, Batool Subeiti, Mohammad Khani and Hassan al-Qadri have all been listed as speakers at Absoc events across UK campuses (Photo: JC / Instagram / YouTube screenshots)

5 min read

Winter Olympics

Golden girl! US women’s ice hockey team triumph at Winter Olympics with goalie Aerin Frankel

By Ben Conway

3 min read

BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time panellist Bunny Guinness has been criticised for making the 'Moneybags Rothschild' comment in one episode of the programme (Photo: YouTube)

BBC

BBC rejects complaint over ‘Moneybags Rothschild’ remark on Gardeners’ Question Time

Corporation says Bunny Guinness’s reference to Jewish family was ‘not in any way antisemitic’

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

KRIME is a Plymouth-based graffiti artist who produces extreme anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-police, and anti-capitalist artworks

Art

British artist who depicts murder of Zionists and appears to celebrate Hamas is convicted graffiti tagger

By Daniel Ben-David

3 min read

Francesca Albanese

Antisemitism campaigners urge UK to call for removal of Francesca Albanese as UN rapporteur

By Jamie Shapiro

3 min read

Adam Mitula (Image: Facebook/ Adam Mitula)

Reform UK

Reform UK probes campaign manager over alleged antisemitic posts

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

Zach Margs is back – along with his hilarious Israeli alter egos

The Jewish cemetery reclaimed by nature – and my husband

Meet the Holmes (and Watson) of pre-war East European Jewry

The antisemitic rot is creeping into the beautiful game

JW3 to host b’mitzvah party to celebrate 13 years of culture and community

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Gaza Board of Peace

Board of Peace set to hold first Washington summit today

World leaders and senior officials, including Sir Tony Blair, are expected to attend, though the UK and EU, as well as the Pope, will be notable absentees

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

US President Trump (C) alongside (L-R) President of Paraguay Santiago Pena, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Shaikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain's Minister of the Prime Minister's Court, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, President of Argentina Javier Milei, and Prime Minister of Mongolia Gombojavyn Zandanshatar at the Board of Peace signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026 (Getty Images)

United States

Jesse Jackson: Tracing the civil rights leader’s complicated relationship with the Jewish community

Jackson died on Tuesday aged 88

By Mike Wagenheim

2 min read

Jesse Jackson has died at 84 (Image: Getty Images)

Gaza

US ‘recruiting organised crime gangs’ for post-war Gaza police

Washington has reportedly presented plans for a law enforcement body made up of existing anti-Hamas militias to Western allies

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Gazan police officers gather at a checkpoint in Gaza City on January 20, 2025 (Getty Images)

Iran

Second round of US-Iran talks set to begin in Geneva

President Trump has confirmed he will be ‘indirectly’ involved in the negotiations this time around, but did not specify exactly what his role would be

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Protesters hold placards and portraits as they demonstrate in front of the United Nations' office ahead of indirect nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva on February 17, 2026 (Getty Images)

World news

Books

Eli Sharabi memoir ‘Hostage’ named Book of the Year at National Jewish Book Awards

By Daniel Ben-David

1 min read

Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot (Image: Getty)

Brit milah

Belgian government comments on circumcision row ‘misleading’

By Simon Rocker

2 min read

US President Trump (C), flanked by Vice President JD Vance (L) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), joins leaders for a group photo during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, on February 19, 2026 (Getty Images)

Gaza

Board of Peace commits $17bn to Gaza reconstruction

By Jacob Jaffa

3 min read

Gaza

Inside Gaza, the ceasefire holds… at least for now

By Jonathan Sacerdoti

6 min read

Australia

Australian bar shut down over posters depicting ‘Netanyahu in Nazi uniform’

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Emily Damari

Emily Damari visits Bondi Beach to meet survivor of Chanukah terror attack

By Daniel Ben-David

1 min read

Psychology

The American Psychological Association (APA) headquarters in Washington DC (Wikipedia)

Psychologists’ coalition opposes Jewish ethnic association because ‘most Jewish-Americans identify as white’

The Coalition of National Racial and Ethnic Psychological Associations said antisemitism is a form of religious, rather than racial, discrimination and that Jews are ‘not under-represented’ in their field

By Daniel Ben-David

1 min read

‘An insult to our name’: Family of Jewish founders of German motorcycle firm call on AfD to stop using its bikes Effigy of Israel ‘executed’ and set on fire in ‘disturbing’ ceremony at Andorra carnival

UK News

Purim

Rob Rinder and Rachel Riley star in Purim special of Celebration Kitchen on BBC One

Dedicated episode of Saturday Kitchen spin-off will feature hamantaschen and other beloved festival treats

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

Barrister and television personality Rob Rinder (Photo: Getty)

CPS

CPS claimed Gaza ‘genocide’ was ‘confirmed’ in response to hate crime complaint

Prosecutors forced to apologise for ‘poor quality of advice’ following JC enquiries

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

Exterior view of the Royal Courts of Justice in 2024 (Getty Images)

World Jewish Relief

King Charles pops in to refugee jobs fair at St James’s Palace

The employment event was supported by World Jewish Relief

By Ben Conway

2 min read

His Majesty The King meeting Sara, refugee and employee at PwC, at the Refugee Employment Network job fair (Photo: Ian Jones)

CST

Inside the failed Isis–inspired plot to murder Manchester Jews

Counter-terror operation foiled plot to kill as many Jews as possible at Manchester rally against antisemitism

By Jane Prinsley

5 min read

Jailed: Walid Saadaoui, left, and Amar Hussein (Photo: CPS)

Opinion

Britain is still our country as well – and we will not be driven out

I don’t think complacency is warranted. Sadly, it is not warranted at all. But a little defiance certainly is

By Daniel Finkelstein

3 min read

Rabbi Daniel Walker and King Charles III view floral tributes for the terror victims during a visit to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on October 20, 2025 (Image: Getty)

By Maureen Lipman

I haven’t even mentioned the life-sized stuffed tiger and the furry sloth collection. Sigh…

The sobering task of clearing my home left me gazing into space worrying about the vanished whereabouts of those precious years.

5 min read

By Stephen Pollard

The Lancet’s dubious Gaza casualty figures and the BBC’s selective scepticism

The corporation treats a report in a notoriously biased journal as settled fact but doubts Iranians counting their own dead

3 min read

By Alex Hearn

Reduced to one word – Jew

Comedian. Actor. National treasure. None of it protected Matt Lucas on that escalator from Soviet-era totalitarian racism right here in Britain

3 min read

By The JC

Letters to the Editor February 20 2026

5 min read

By Charlotte Henry

Ed Davey’s shameful stance on Palestine Action

By backing the judgement overturning the terror proscription, the Liberal Democrats do nothing but encourage extreme anti-Israel forces and, ultimately, put Britain’s Jewish community at risk

3 min read

By The JC Leader

The BBC will fail its final test if it marks its own homework

BBC Arabic should be a jewel in the corporation’s crown, but it has too often become a platform for extremism and antisemitism

1 min read

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine: Eliana and Max on their wedding day (Credit: Divine Day Photography)

Conversion

I had the snip at the age of 36 so I could marry the love of my life

By Simon Rocker

7 min read

ballet

Giselle review: Marianela wins hearts with her meltingly beautiful movement ★★★★

This traditional production of the great romantic ballet offers a pleasing, if unsurprising, performance, with several standout debuts

By Joy Sable

2 min read

Theatre

Dracula review: Cynthia mesmerises but the show lacks real bite ★★★★

The performer’s acting gifts are on full display in this spectacular adaptation of the gothic novel, but the evening never achieves the tension generated by many other West End dabblings in the supernatural

By John Nathan

2 min read