Antizionist antisemitism ‘institutionally embedded’ in public sector, new report warns

In his foreword, Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, said: “For the last three years, honouring the victims of the Hamas-led pogrom against Israel has taken place amid both the continuing threat to Israel by Iran and its allies and an antisemitism crisis in the UK.

“Despite years of warnings from the Jewish community that year-on-year levels of unprecedented antisemitism would lead to a fatal attack, our worst fears were realised on Yom Kippur 2025.”

Highlighting the 1,926 antisemitic incidents reported in the first six months of a year – the second-highest total for that period – Levy went on: “Terrorist attacks and plots, and much of the everyday antisemitism now routinely encountered by Jews, have one thing in common: they are antizionist.”

He warned that antisemitism cannot be confronted without “recognising its antizionist nature – and then acting robustly on that acknowledgement”.

While the report praises “commendable” increased government spending on Jewish security – which was boosted to £251m in July – it said this must be accompanied by policies that will tackle anti-Jewish exclusion and intimidation that comes in the form of antizionism.

“Higher and thicker walls are not the answer to a social ill which requires structural realignment, including addressing the manner in which antizionism sits at the heart of the antisemitism crisis facing the country,” it says.

The report notes that antizionism as an ideology was “first promulgated by the Soviet Union and [is] now a major feature of far-left and Islamist extremism”, which “denies the Jewish right to national self-determination”.

“Antizionist antisemitism is now institutionally embedded across the UK, especially in the public sector – with many Jewish students and NHS staff and patients unable to visibly identify as Jews and facing regular antisemitic harassment,” the report states.

LFI’s proposals would require all public bodies to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism “in full and without amendment”, alongside mandatory collection and reporting of data on antisemitic incidents and complaints.

Lord Mann’s review of antisemitism in the NHS also recommended NHS Trusts adopt the IHRA definition.

LFI also calls for an independent reviewer of antisemitism in the public sector who would publish an annual report.

Universities are another focus of the recommendations, with LFI calling for a statutory framework to handle hate crime in higher education and stronger powers for regulators to hold students’ unions accountable.

And the report states that the Charity Commission, Office for Students and other regulatory bodies should be empowered to impose sanctions where student unions fail.

It proposes formal taskforces bringing together police, universities and government to tackle criminality and extremist activity on campuses, supported by clearer public order guidance. Higher education should be a "designated a priority area” under the government’s Protecting What Matters social cohesion action plan, the report adds.

The briefing links its proposals to a broader warning about the place of Jewish people in British public life.

“An obsession with Israel – which detracts from threats to Britain’s national security and increases the threat to the Jewish community – increasingly dominates our politics,” it says.

“As Hamas sought to isolate Israel from the world, so too are Jews being frozen out of society in their own country.”

The report cites the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters attending the Aston Villa match in Birmingham in 2025 as undermining “confidence in policing”.

Beyond public sector reform, LFI calls for legislation allowing organisations to be designated as “prohibited hate groups”,

Drawing on Australia’s Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Act, the LFI report urges a permanent ban on the annual Al Quds Day march and an aggravated offence for “hate preachers” who advocate or threaten violence.

Writing the JC ahead of the report’s release, Labour MP and Parliamentary chair of LFI, Mark Sewards, said: “We need action across government to tackle the Iranian domestic threat, a key driver of antisemitism, radicalism and extremism. We need to identify and dismantle soft influence networks that advance Tehran’s objectives under the cover of cultural, academic, charitable or media activity.”

The report also proposes a cross-departmental taskforce to identify and dismantle these Tehran-linked networks.

It calls for sanctions against Iranian regime media, including Press TV; a review of links between Iran and the charitable sector; sanctioning of Iranian regime oligarchs, elites and proxies in the UK, including expelling the supreme leader’s representative in the UK; and following Australia’s lead in expelling the Islamic Republic’s ambassador.