A comedian has apologised for posting an article on Facebook which asked why terror group Daesh was not killing Jews.
Kate Copstick, a Jewish Comedian of the Year award judge, said she was “extremely sorry” if her decision to re-post the piece had caused offence.
“None was intended. Of course I do not agree with the content. It is badly written extremism. The post has now been taken down,” Ms Copstick responded to a complainant who had emailed her.
The conspiracy-theory piece engaged in Holocaust denial, stated that Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "is a Jewish Mossad agent" and accused Jews of collaborating with the terror group.
In a similarly-worded explanation on her podcast on Saturday, Ms Copstick said she had “pinned” the article to her Facebook timeline to read later.
“I do have some appalling views as everyone knows,” she said, “but antisemitism is not one of them.”
Ms Copstick said she had been working in a slum in Kenya last week and was unaware of the reaction to her comments. She also attacked what she called “mob rule” and “people who don’t know me and have probably never heard of me” who “hurled abuse” at her. It had been an “unbelievable over-reaction,” she said.
In the emailed apology she added: “I believe that all conspiracy theories should be read and picked over. I did not have time online to read it and, as I always do with something I see and intend reading later, I reposted it to make finding it easier.
“Now that was undoubtedly ill-advised at best, stupid at worst. But that is what I did. I did not make a comment on the reposting. Because I had not read it. I most certainly did not make any suggestion that I agreed with the contents.”
Ms Copstick had also been criticised for a podcast appearance last December in which she referred to the JW3 community centre in north-west London as “Jew central”.
After judging a comedy awards event at the venue she attacked Jews’ concerns about security and appeared to poke fun at security measures taken at the site, which she described as “built like a f---ing fortress”.
The comedian explained this week: “I thought the fortress-like structure with its sort of moat was extraordinary in north London. Which, on first seeing it, I did. Again, if this offended you I am sorry.”
In a blog posted last Friday, Ms Copstick’s podcast co-host, comedian John Fleming, claimed he had been targeted on Twitter by users complaining about Ms Copstick’s comments, including Jewish actress Tracy-Ann Oberman.
Mr Fleming wrote that after being tweeted by one Jewish complainant he “assumed” the woman had had the podcast removed from the internet. He responded on the social media site by telling her to “f--- off”.
Those who had contacted him were “as bad as the fascists they hate”, Mr Fleming concluded before adding: “F--- ’em. The origin of their hatred is fair enough. But they’re now just mindless trolls.”
The reaction had amounted to “school playground silliness”, he added.
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