Tama Haslett
Police are investigating after a group of pro-Palestine canvassers were accused of engaging in a ‘Jew hunt’ as they went door-to-door asking locals to boycott Israeli products.
Campaigner Jean Hatchet and her partner confronted members of the Sheffield Apartheid-Free Zone (AFZ) campaign on Sunday as they went canvassing in the Woodseats area of the northern city.
The altercation turned ugly as Ms Hatchet and her partner yelled ‘Jew Hunt’ at the trio of men. One of the men appeared to headbutt Ms Hatchet’s partner.
And later, after being followed to outside a local Asda, another activist appears to grab a sign out of Ms Hatchet’s partner’s hand and fold it up; video footage appears to show the woman’s hand grabbing his backpack before he spins around.
Police say they are investigating multiple reports of assault. They are also enquiring whether video footage of the incidents was ‘edited’.
The Sheffield AFZ is one of a number of grassroots groups that has sprung up seeking to encourage people not to support Israeli businesses amid the country’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
But critics say that groups like these may actually encourage antisemitism – or leave Jewish people frightened if they are confronted on their own doorsteps.
Ms Hatchet – who is not Jewish – told the Daily Mail that she and her partner went to find the doorknockers after being alerted to their activities on social media.
She later shared multiple videos of the confrontation online. Some were filmed on her phone, while others were captured on her partner’s body-worn camera, which appeared to be worn underneath a jacket.
‘We thought we’d go down there and see what they were doing,’ Ms Hatchet said.
‘That was the only intention we had, to see if it was as bad as it looked and sounded.
‘We found these guys in the street and as you can see in the video it was a few questions about what they were looking to do.
‘They were handing out leaflets that they were targeting a specific set of people [Jews] even if they weren’t naming them.
‘One of the men stood on the path and he headbutted her. We began shouting what we thought they were doing, which was “Jew hunt”, trying to embarrass them into leaving, which worked.
‘They packed up and headed off down the street. We were walking behind them when one of them grabbed the sign from my partner. She reached to grab it and she was assaulted. She has put that to the police.’
Ms Hatchet said that video footage showing the man in red stumbling backwards before he headbutted her partner was the result of ‘a very steep hill’, and alleged that he had stepped into her path.
The AFZ activists say they are advocating for a boycott of Israeli products because Israel ‘thrives on international support’.
A leaflet it makes available online reads: ‘When we choose not to buy Israeli goods, it hits them where it hurts most – their economy. Boycotts have worked before.
‘They were a powerful factor in ending South African apartheid and together we can make them a success again.’
However, Ms Hatchet is convinced that the group is deliberately marking out homes that do not show support for the boycott.
‘It makes no real difference what they think they are doing. They are taking addresses of people who don’t agree with their point of view,’ she added.
‘We have GDPR in this country. They are not a political party. They aren’t governed by a private company. They’re overstepping a mark.’
The Daily Mail has made attempts to contact the Sheffield AFZ group for comment.
South Yorkshire Police says it is investigating reports that a man was assaulted and that a person was the victim of a religiously motivated assault in Woodseats, Sheffield on Sunday morning.
NPT Inspector Amy Mellor said: ‘I am aware that videos about yesterday’s incident in Woodseats are circulating on social media, and that some of these may have been edited. Our officers are working hard to understand the full circumstances.
‘I know that residents may be concerned, and I would like to reassure you that our officers have been in the area over the weekend and will be back today to provide reassurance to the community. If you have any concerns, please speak them, they are there to support you.’
Last week, Jewish activists in Brighton accused pro-Palestine canvassers of engaging in a ‘campaign of intimidation’ by knocking on the doors of locals and asking them to boycott Israeli products.
Members of the Brighton and Hove Apartheid-Free Zone group were filmed going door-to-door in the city on February 7, asking residents to sign a pledge against goods manufactured in Israel.
The group says it is expressing solidarity with Palestinians who have been killed and displaced in Gaza, taking inspiration from the Anti-Apartheid Movement that targeted South Africa in the latter half of the 20th century.
But local Jewish activists have accused the group of engaging in a targeted campaign to whip up feelings of antisemitism towards British Jews.
Vicky Bhogal, who runs local campaign group Jewish and Proud, alleged that by engaging in door knocking the group was ‘finding out who has got Zionist leanings and who hasn’t, and where they live’.
‘It was insidious, and it was dangerous,’ she told the Jewish Chronicle, describing their activities as a ‘campaign of intimidation that is next level’.
She followed the Brighton AFZ group – who wore bright pink high-visibility jackets – around, filming them as they went door-to-door. The campaigners, in turn, appeared to be filming her on a body-worn camera.
The group says it wants people to boycott Israeli goods in line with the wider Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel into ceasing its military action in Gaza as it continues its war with Hamas.
Describing Israel as a ‘racist and genocidal state’ on its website, it accuses the country of the ‘illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land’, a claim Israel denies.
Activists told Sky News that they viewed Zionism – the movement that supports the creation and maintenance of a Jewish homeland – as akin to apartheid, but have denied claims that they are antisemitic or racist.
Asked if the group was antisemitic, one doorknocker called Seymour, told the broadcaster: ‘No. We’re anti-racist.’ But asked if they were anti-Zionist, he replied: ‘Yeah, sure. Because the Zionist ideology is an apartheid ideology in our view.’
He added of door-knocking: ‘It’s no different from the actions of a political party like the Conservative Party or the Labour Party who also go door to door and ask people how they feel.’
Challenged on the fact the activists were not asking people to oppose Jews, Ms Bhogal said: ‘They know they can get away with this.
‘They know they can go around door to door eliciting support for this seemingly really nice… ‘just don’t buy Israeli avocados’.
‘Any campaign against Israel is a campaign against British Jews. You can’t separate it. The way I see it, the modern face of antisemitism is anti-Zionism.’
The Brighton AFZ did not respond to a request for comment. But the issue has split communities in a city normally famed for its reputation for tolerance and inclusion.
It prompted Peter Kyle, MP for Hove and Portslade and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, to call for police to investigate the AFZ activists.
But Sussex Police says it had been unable to find any evidence of criminal activity and will not be investigating.
Mark Sewards, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, wrote to local Green MP Sian Berry urging her to condemn what he called the ‘dangerous, divisive and intimidatory’ door-knocking campaign.
But Ms Berry told Sky News that she believed the activists were ‘well intentioned, and were not intending to alarm any Jewish residents specifically with this choice of engagement activity’.
She added: ‘Seeking to raise awareness of the horrific recent actions against Palestinians in Gaza of the current government in Israel, and the wide international recognition of these as war crimes, is legitimate, and can extend to boycott(s).’
Israeli boycott groups like the Brighton and Hove AFZ have sprung up in greater numbers following Israel’s incursion into Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed over 1,200 people, mostly Israelis.
Since then, the war with Hamas has killed an estimated 72,000 Palestinian people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Authority. It has also levelled most of the Gaza Strip and displaced 1.9million Palestinians.
Israel’s actions in Gaza under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have prompted accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, which it denies.
But those who believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians are behind campaigns like the AFZ and calls to boycott companies that do business with the state, and companies of Israeli origin.
The BDS movement calls for direct action against firms that invest in Israel, among them oil giant Chevron, IT frms Intel, Dell and Microsoft, as well as companies with business interests in the country such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
It has also pressured local councils into divesting pension funds from Israeli firms.
The campaign against Israel has echoes of the Anti-Apartheid Movement of the late 20th century, which was credited with putting the issue of South African apartheid, and how to oppose it, front and centre among the general public.
By the 1980s, almost every region in the UK had an AAM group seeding local opposition to South African goods; wider campaigns even targeted sports teams, musicians and global corporations that continued to do business with the country.
In the years since the October 7 attacks, and Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, there has also been a rise in antisemitic incidents across Britain.
A poll by YouGov last year, commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, also found that half of young Brits feel uncomfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel.
It also concluded that half of Brits believe Israel is treating Palestinians in the same way that Nazis treated the Jews.
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