Pro-Hamas protesters led by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) demonstrate outside the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 14, 2024. Photo: Derek French via Reuters Connect

Some college students affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an anti-Israel organization that has helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, have announced that they are forming a new group, citing dissatisfaction with what they described as JVP’s insufficient efforts to “dismantle Zionism.”

The students announced on social media on Sunday the formation of the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front, an organization which they claim will take a more adversarial stance toward Zionism on campus. 

“We work to dismantle Zionism in its entirety by confronting Zionist institutions on campus, to struggle for divestment, and to pursue the criminalization of Zionism as a white supremacist weapon of war,” the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front wrote on Instagram.

 

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The group characterized the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel as a form of legitimate “resistance” and declared the Israeli military response as a “horrific expansion of the Zionist project” and a supposed “genocide.”

“In one month, we also mark two years of the strongest sustained resistance by the might of Palestinian journalists, doctors, men, women, and children, refusing to abandon national liberation and continuously defying vicious onslaught, backed by American dollars,” the group continued. 

The Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front claimed that it adheres to the Thawabit, a Palestinian nationalist framework that includes the so-called “right of return” for millions of Palestinians and their descendants to Israel, claims to Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, and explicit support for so-called “resistance” against the Jewish state. Palestinian leaders and activists have described the Thawabit as a set of principles aimed at eliminating Israel and establishing a Palestinian state in its place.

Critics of the organization often point out that many JVP chapters do not have a single person of Jewish faith. The organization does not require a Jewish person to found a chapter and has even helped orchestrate anti-Israel demonstrations in front of synagogues.

Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism

An estimated 70,000 people participated in Britain’s March Against Antisemitism in London on Sunday, while new research revealed a surge of antisemitic attitudes among the British population — particularly manifesting among those aged 18-24, 40 percent of whom embraced bigoted views against Jews.

The British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) organized the demonstration in partnership with Jewish community groups and featured speeches from Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Deputy Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice, and journalist Jake Wallis Simons. The UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and CAA’s chief executive Gideon Falter also spoke.

The march progressed from Broadcasting House (the BBC’s headquarters,) to Parliament Square, where a rally began with Mirvis speaking first.

“These are awful times,” Mirvis said. “We have seen an explosion of hatred right across the UK. Antisemitism is rife right across the UK. You will see it. You will hear it. You will feel it. Britain, wake up now.”

Coinciding with the Sunday march, CAA released research conducted by YouGov which showed that those characterized as embracing “entrenched” antisemitic attitudes in the UK had grown to 21 percent, the highest figure on record, showing a jump from 16 percent in 2024 and 11 percent in 2021.

The poll found that nearly half of Britons (45 percent) said Israel treats Palestinians like the Nazis treated Jews, up from 33 percent last year, and with 60 percent of young adults agreeing.

Researchers also found a cohort of Hamas supporters among British young adults, with 10 percent expressing a favorable view and 14 percent rejecting classifying the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel as terrorists. The number justifying the mass slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages by Hamas reached 19 percent.

A striking 20 percent of young voters said that Israel does not have a right to exist as a Jewish state, while 31 percent disagreed.

A sizable group of young Britons — 42 percent — also embraced the conspiracy theory that Israel “can get away with anything because its supporters control the media.” Among the broader UK population, 26 percent choose to believe this longstanding antisemitic trope.

“Our country is clearly at a tipping point. These are the highest antisemitism figures that we have ever recorded, having doubled in less than five years. The findings in relation to young people are nothing short of terrifying. Our young people are being radicalized into adopting hateful ideologies before our eyes. Britain will lose its soul to extremists unless the silent majority wakes up,” a CAA spokesperson said in response to the research.

“This nation will be safe, and it will be free. I don’t want a single Jewish person to feel like they have to leave,” Tice said during Sunday’s march. “The sad truth is, we shouldn’t need to be here at all. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that if those marches had been banned as they had in other countries we would not have seen the increase of antisemitism in this country. We need to stand United. United as proud Britons.”

The survey showed ignorance among respondents, with 54 percent admitting not knowing the meaning of “Zionism,” while 32 percent did claim an understanding of the term as signifying support for Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel.

Falter said in his speech that “the question now is not whether we will thrive, but will British Jews thrive here.”

Speaking last, Simons, author of the upcoming Never Again: How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself, said that “we didn’t ask for this, but since Oct. 7, the Jews and our allies have become the conscience of the nation. Betray the Jews and you betray Britain. Betray the Jews and you betray the west. Betray the Jews and you betray yourself. With extremism raising its ugly head above societies it’s the future of the West truly hanging in the balance. Stand up for the Jews. Stand up for the west. And for the love of God stand up for yourself.”

The CAA’s spokesperson stated that “politicians, police and prosecutors, regulators, media organizations, cultural institutions, universities, trade unions – they are all complicit in the creation of a climate of hatred in Britain. Jews may feel it most sharply now, but for all of us, this is not the country that we used to know. Soon it will be too late for our country to change course.”

The YouGov survey included 2,245 adults who provided answers online between Sept. 1-2. The researchers weighted the sample to correspond with a representation of the population in Great Britain.

The survey came after the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, published a report last month showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.

In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism and an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks at a press conference in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, China, Sept. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Xihao Jiang

Spain has recalled its ambassador from Israel after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of antisemitism, following Madrid’s latest measures against the Jewish state.

On Monday, Sánchez unveiled new policies targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.

The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.

“Protecting your country and your society is one thing, but bombing hospitals and killing innocent boys and girls with hunger is another thing entirely,” Sánchez said during a televised speech.

“What [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu presented in October 2023 as a military operation in response to the horrific terrorist attacks has ended up becoming a new wave of illegal occupations and an unjustifiable attack against the Palestinian civilian population – an attack that the UN special rapporteur and the majority of experts already describe as a genocide,” the Spanish leader continued.

“That isn’t defending yourself; that’s not even attacking. It’s exterminating defenseless people. It’s breaking all the rules of humanitarian law,” he said.

Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas started the war on Oct. 7, 2023, when they invaded southern Israel from neighboring Gaza, murdered, 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostgaes while perpetrating widespread sexual violence against the Israeli people.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Saar announced sanctions against two Spanish ministers, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.

“The government of Spain is leading a hostile, anti-Israel line, marked by wild, hate-filled rhetoric,” Saar wrote in a post on X, accusing Sánchez’s “corrupt” administration of trying to “divert attention from grave corruption scandals.”

“The obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela,” the top Israeli diplomat continued.

In his post, Saar announced an entry and contact ban on Spanish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz and Minister of Children and Youth Sira Rego.

He accused both ministers of promoting antisemitic rhetoric, citing multiple examples of statements calling for Israel’s destruction and endorsing violence against Israeli citizens in the aftermath of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“It is no longer possible to avoid imposing personal sanctions on members of the Spanish government who have crossed every red line,” Saar wrote.

“Not every criticism of Israeli policy constitutes antisemitism. However, when such criticism is characterized by demonization, delegitimization, and double standards — it is antisemitism, according to the IHRA definition,” he added, referring to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) widely adopted definition of antisemitism. “Statements by members of the Spanish government, and its policy as a whole, fall squarely into this category. This is antisemitism.”

Earlier this year, Spain urged the European Union to suspend its association agreement with Israel — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with Jerusalem — to protest what it calls human rights violations in Gaza.

The Spanish government has also pressured the EU to approve an arms embargo on Israel and to impose sanctions on individuals accused of undermining the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One of Spain’s most recent anti-Israel initiatives came after an EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.

According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.

While the document acknowledges the existence of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war.

Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Jerusalem’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has actively pushed for anti-Israel measures on the international stage, while portraying himself as a dedicated supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain halted arms shipments from its own defense companies to Israel and launched a diplomatic campaign to curb the country’s military response.

At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

Last year, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster peace in the region. However, Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”