Two victories over Zionist censors
JVL Introduction
The days before Christmas brought news of victories for free speech and freedom of expression for two artists attacked and cancelled by pro-Israel lobbyists.
As highlighted by Owen Jones in the article re-produced below, a judge hauled the misnamed “Campaign Against Antisemitism” over the coals for abusing the justice system to cancel pro-Palestinian comedian Reginald D Hunter.
At the same time Avon and Somerset Police concluded that rap duo Bob Vylan had no case to answer over the chant “Death, death to the IDF” during a performance at the Glastonbury festival.
District Judge Michael Snow quashed a CAA attempt to prosecute Hunter, calling their action “abusive” and saying that they had sought to use the criminal justice system for “improper reasons”. Judge Snow directed that a copy of his judgement, which is well worth reading for what it tells us about the CAA’s modus operandi, “must be disclosed by the CAA and attached by it, in all future applications.” The judgement includes references to the questionable activities of well known pro-Israel zealots such as Mark Lewis, Mandy Blumenthal and Gideon Falter and the way in which the CAA wields the IHRA definition of antisemitism as a weapon against supporters of Palestine.
It is ironic that a BBC report on the same day, December 23, quoted the CAA as if it were an authoritative source on the police decision not to bring charges against Bob Vylan. The BBC went into total meltdown when attacked for allowing the band’s IDF chant to be broadcast live from Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage, disciplining staff it held responsible for incurring the wrath of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Israeli Embassy, the Community Security Trust and, of course, the CAA.
NWI
This article was originally published by Owen Jones Battlelines on Wed 24 Dec 2025. Read the original here.
Two crushing defeats for pro-Israel lobby
These victories for free speech are crucially important
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Total respect to Reginald D Hunter and Bob Vylan and to the DJ Michael Snow…at the end of the day you have to live with your conscience. The tide is and will turn…our shared humanity will ensure it. Its why we’re still here. Thank you for reporting this (as per)..our brave Jewish comrades x
McCarthyism on a global scale, promoted by institutions which have always claimed that freedom of opinion is a cornerstone of democracy even as they give their moral support to agencies who regard freedom of opinion as a tool of the enemy. McCarthy was relatively easy to humiliate: but despite these welcome legal judgments, the pressure to humble the Zionists inevitably calls for a much harder, continuous, long-term effort. We will take heart from moments like this, and just keep on keeping on.
The purpose of both prosecutions was to damage the performers and also to warn off anyone else who might be thinking of being critical of Israel. It’s about using the law to threaten and prevent.
Thank you for this article.
CAA’s barefaced manipulation of the legal system to “cancel” conscientious artists, silences other artists who will fear being cancelled too.
Initially, All the media ran with accusatory articles about Vylan. But now there is no such publicity on the case being thrown out.
I don’t suppose there is any compensation payable by CAA in respect of their abusive prosecution of Reginald D Hunter and his subsequent loss of earnings?
The CAA will hopefully have to pay Reginald D Hunter’s legal costs.
The article and introduction doesn’t make clear that the two people who disrupted his performance were CAA members Michael Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal. The audience booed them and they were chucked out.
The judgement linked to above uses the precedent on the IHRA definition set in May 2025 in another case, Husain v SRA, in which the appellant was contesting his disbarment from the legal profession for antisemitism. He lost, but that judgement goes into detail about how the IHRA definition is being misused and said that a CAA “expert witness” on the IHRA was too partisan to be useful and should not have been there. It’s important, as it really makes the IHRA examples that concern Israel pretty useless e.g. on double standards about Israel and other democracies, comparing Israeli and Nazi actions and saying Israel is a racist endeavour.
This is a useful summary of the Husain v SRA judgement:
https://www.2harecourt.com/2025/07/29/husain-v-sra-2025-ewhc-1170-admin-antisemitism-and-free-speech-on-the-middle-east-the-limits-on-comment-for-a-professional/
This is such good news. The CAA should of course be compensating Reginald D Hunter for all the earnings he has lost through cancellations following their false and malicious allegations. But of course just as the BBC won’t criticise the CAA, the cancellations of Hunter, Bob Vylan and numerous other anti zionists will continue.
Macarthyism eventually failed because maybe the world had more common sense than it does today. Zionism is a much more difficult one due the conflating any critism of Israel gov as anti semitic. It has to be confronted much more forcefully than it has been to date.