Israel campaigner mobilises thousands through WhatsApp

“And so I moved Shield of David onto WhatsApp and that made it a lot easier for people to receive action alerts and our email campaigns. That’s when it really began to gain traction.”

Caplan says she has “always spoken up for Israel and against anti-Jewish racism”, but felt more could be done. “I’ve always wanted to organise something where the whole community would be sending out one big message about the same things – the same letters, making the same point.”

The organisation’s following has ballooned recently, according to Caplan. “We’ve now got 3,000 people over three different WhatsApp groups, and there are several thousand more on Facebook... and we’ve got another 2,000 on X.” Caplan says she has a good relationship with other Israel advocates who are doing similar work to her. “There are so many different fantastic communities and groups now all working so hard to try and advocate for Israel, and so we all try and share each other’s actions and amplify each other’s campaigns.”

Caplan hopes to expand Shield of David’s reach to Instagram. “It’s on my list. It’s just finding the time because I work full time, but now, thank goodness, I’ve got two fantastic people helping me write some of the emails because there’s a limit to how much I can do at the moment.”

The former journalist says her greatest achievement was in April, when a big march for Palestine in Essex went past several synagogues on Shabbat, during Pesach. “I was furious, and I know a lot of other people were livid. The march went past five synagogues...Some people missed shul as a direct result of not wanting to encounter the huge horde of people shrieking their hate for Israel, so we sent thousands of emails to police and also to the leaders of all the political parties.”

Caplan said that “the best response we got was from [Conservative Party leader] Kemi [Badenoch]. She sent us a lovely letter back, firstly thanking us for alerting her to what had happened because she didn’t know. She then gave us a written promise that she would urgently put our concerns to Essex police.”

At the time, Essex Police told the JC that “a proportionate, appropriate and visible policing plan was put in place which covered key areas of the event route” and that they had “engaged with local communities to ensure everyone’s safety and wellbeing”.

Caplan says one thing that motivates her is the power of grassroots mobilisation and the need for action to be taken. “We desperately need to be doing this. It is very hard for an MP or CEO or anyone to ignore thousands and thousands of messages all making the same point. If they saw five here, ten there, they could just dismiss them. But local MPs in particular cannot afford to dismiss thousands of complaints because they rely on their constituents.”

Caplan, who taught English in Israel, says her love for the country began when she was a teenager. “My mom lived in Israel for five years or so, and so I always grew up hearing that it was a special place. But I did a lot of reading myself, reading all the books for Israel, against Israel. I did all my own research, and then finally I went there when I was 16 and thought to myself, what an amazing place.”

​For more information, email: shieldofdaviduk@gmail.com