It has been yet another appalling week for Britain’s beleaguered Jewish community. Antisemitism may be as old as the Pharaohs but it is the normalisation of it in Britain that is becoming an intrinsic danger to the whole of our society.
One of the ways this normalisation can manifest itself is through art and culture. So amidst the darkness of recent days there was a positive moment when a London-based art gallery cancelled an art exhibition that had caused considerable controversy for alleged antisemitism in Margate last month. The London gallery owners said they had no idea what was going to be displayed.
As a former Minister for Art, Heritage and Tourism I recognise the power of images projected through art over history. After all, even as early as the year 1300, just a few years after Jews were expelled from England, an artist’s interpretation of a map of the world, known today as the Hereford Mappa Mundi, depicted Jews worshipping a golden calf in the form of a devil, age-old antisemitic propaganda.
But in Britain in 2026 Jews should not be left to explain why it is so offensive. When Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel described her experience visiting the Margate gallery as “the most disgusting – for such stuff is disgusting, like excrement or violent porn – display of anti-Semitic imagery”, that should be clear to all.
It should be obvious that drawings depicting Israeli figures drenched in blood and controlling British politicians cross the line – but that is not how it was seen by Kent Police. Hence the exhibition was emboldened to try to move to London – and no doubt if another venue can be found it will try to display its wares again elsewhere. So what can be done about this?
Complaints to Kent Police about Jews depicted eating babies were dismissed. Like so many complaints about antisemitism the police seem not remotely interested. Whilst on a hair trigger to throw the book at the smallest infraction if any other minority is offended, and to imprison people for deleted tweets, when it comes to Jews there is seemingly just a shrug of the shoulders. This should be no surprise. Police in recent times have questioned a Jewish man about his Star of David while under caution and stopped another from walking down a street as he looked “openly Jewish.”
In the Margate case the Police were apparently quick to conclude that no offence was committed even though there is no indication that they sought professional legal advice from the Crown Prosecution Service. This is a bizarre approach. It raises questions about why more specialist legal advice was seemingly not obtained before a conclusion was drawn.
There are actually options possible when “art” crosses the line, even in our liberal democracy. Under Section 18 of the Public Order Act 1986 “a person who displays any material which is threatening, abusive or insulting is guilty of an offence if he intends to stir up racial hatred or, having regard to all the circumstances, racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.”
Other sections of the same Act even include theatre performances and broadcasting so art galleries are not exempted from the law.
There is also the rarely-used common law offence of Outraging Public Decency. There have been enquiries before when displays have courted controversy. In 1987 a mannequin’s head was put on display which featured a pair of earrings made from frozen human foetuses. A prosecution and conviction for Outraging Public Decency followed. This topic was raised again in the early 2000’s when an exhibition of flayed human corpses was first displayed, although in that case that was later found not to have been an offence in this country and such displays are nowadays often licenced. But at least the police in those days made enquiries.
Prosecutions of art displays are possible under both statute and the common law. What is rather odd is that the police seem to have been disinclined to even consider their options in this case. Sadly therefore, like so many other examples where action has not been taken, we can predict more trouble ahead.
English law has historically been revered around the world for its clarity and fairness but those upholding it seem to have had limited appetite to do so when it comes to hate marches and other instances of antisemitism since October 7.
Our current laws are largely adequate to deal with the vast majority of problems facing society today. I should know, I prosecuted and defended cases in the courts for 17 years before going into politics.
It is only by enforcing existing law that we can begin to roll back the tsunami of antisemitism. A persistent failure to act in many cases by the police, Crown Prosecution Service and the courts has created a permissive environment for Jew hate to run riot.
There can be little hope that the police and justice system will be able to address the national emergency of antisemitism if they cannot deal with an art exhibition.
Sir Michael Ellis was Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism between 2018-2019 and Attorney General in 2021 and 2022
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