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retary. He was the first Jew to hold this office since the brief
tenure of Rufus Isaacs, the Marquess of Reading, in 1931.
After the death of John Smith MP, in April 1994 the Labour
Party chose Tony Blair MP, as its new leader. He actively
sought to heal the breach between British Jews and the Labour
Party so marked in the 1980s. Blair promoted a number
of Jewish MPs and political activists. Blair’s closest advisers
include Peter Mandelson MP, and David Miliband. In October
1995, Barbara Roche MP, a former headgirl of the Jews’
Free School, was elevated to the ranks of the Labour shadow
government. The veteran Jewish Labour MP, Greville Janner,
former president of the Board of Deputies and chairman of
the House of Commons Employment Select Committee, announced
that he would not stand again for Parliament at the
next general election.
The far-Right enjoyed a modest revival in September
1993, when Derek Beackon, an unemployed 47-year-old former
steward for the neo-Nazi British National Party (BNP),
won a local council by-election in the Milwall ward of the Isle
of Dogs in London’s docklands. However, the election of the
first BNP councilor proved to be a local quirk. Beackon took
34% of the vote, winning by seven votes, in a contest with a
disorganized Labour Party opposition. The vote was more of
a protest gesture than an endorsement of neo-Nazi ideology.
The BNP “triumph” was universally deplored by mainstream
politicians and triggered the revival of a national anti-racism
campaign. In the May 1994 local council elections, Beackon
increased his vote by 500. But he polled only 30% of the total
vote on a much higher turnout that resulted in a Labour victory.
The BNP won over 25% in two other east London constituencies,
but failed to elect a single councilor.
The Board of Deputies reported that antisemitic incidents
numbered 346 in 1993 (as against 292 in 1992) and 327
in 1994. In 2000 the number was 405 and in 2002, 350. Jewish
cemeteries were desecrated in Newport in May 1993; Southampton
in August 1993; East Ham, London, in December
1993, January 1994 and June 1995; Bournemouth in July 1995.
A Manchester synagogue was daubed with swastikas in August
1993 and the following month a Jewish nursery school
in Stamford Hill, London, was destroyed in an arson attack.
There were mailings of antisemitic literature in September and
December 1993. In April 1994, 80-year-old Lady Birdwood was
found guilty of distributing material liable to incite racial hatred.
Upsurges in antisemitic incidents were generally related
to events reflecting the conflict in the Middle East, like 9/11 or
the 2002 Israeli military action against Jenin. In this context, in
a particularly outrageous act, Britain’s 48,000-member Association
of University Teachers decided in April 2005 to boycott
Israel’s Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities. In the face of international
pressure it rescinded its decision a month later.
Jewish leaders made numerous representations to the
government for stronger legislation against racism. In December
1993, the Board of Deputies gave evidence of escalating
anti-Jewish activity to the House of Commons Home Affairs
Select Committee. The Board assisted the drafting of a private
members bill, introduced into the House of Commons by the
Conservative MP Hartley Booth, to impose tougher penalties
on criminals convicted of racial crimes and outlaw group
defamation. In January 1994 the Runnymede Trust published
a report, “A Very Light Sleeper: The Persistence and Dangers
of Anti-Semitism,” charting the increase of anti-Jewish attacks
and urging that religious discrimination be outlawed. The
Home Affairs Select Committee report in April 1994 recommended
making “racial harassment” an offense and tightening
the penalties for racial crimes.
Michael Howard promised to clamp down on racial violence,
but rebuffed calls for tougher legislative action made by
a Board delegation in February 1994. The government refused
to support Booth’s widely backed bill, and in June 1994 rejected
the recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
However, in October 1995, the minister of state at the Home
Office gave instructions to the police and the courts to be as
harsh as possible within the existing legal framework when
dealing with racial crimes. Meanwhile, Howard flagged new
measures to reduce illegal immigration and curb the number
of “bogus” asylum seekers. His proposals were regretted by
Jewish representatives.
Following the Washington Peace Accords in September
1993, anxiety about communal security focused on militant
Islamic groups allowed to operate in the UK. In February 1994
the Board complained to the Home Office about Hizb ut-Tahrir,
an association of mainly overseas Muslim students attending
British universities. After the March 1994 Hebron massacre,
which was condemned by the chief rabbi and president
of the Board of Deputies, there were attacks on Jewish targets
in London, Birmingham, and Oxford. After the bombing of
the Israeli Embassy and JIA offices, in London on July 26–27,
1994 (see below), Jewish organizations reiterated their concern
about radical Islamic groups. The Board unsuccessfully
called on the Home Office to ban a rally organized by Hizb ut-
Tahrir at Wembley Conference Centre in August 1994. After
much prevarication, in November 1994, the governing body
of the London School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS)
banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from holding meetings on SOAS premises.
Hizb ut-Tahrir held a mass meeting in Trafalgar Square
in August 1995 at which speakers called for the destruction
of Israel and denied that the Holocaust had taken place. British
Jews have also been concerned by the growing influence
of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam among British blacks.
In 2002 Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal was arrested for incitement
to murder Jews.
War crimes cases continued to cause controversy. In February
1994 the Scottish police war crimes unit was wound up
and the Crown Office later announced that there was insufficient
evidence to charge Antony Gecas, the sole subject of
investigations, under the 1991 War Crimes Act. In December
1994, Lord Campbell of Alloway introduced into the House
of Lords a bill to stop war crimes trials in England, basing his
case on the need to harmonize English with Scottish practice.
It was opposed by the government. In July 1995, Simeon Se-
426 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6