Three Unite the Kingdom Fascists Failed to Disrupt Our Picket of Barclay’s Bank in Brighton

Why does 5 Pillars Interview & Give Uncritical Publicity to Nick Griffin, Former Chair of the BNP Who Believes Islam is A ‘Vicious & Wicked’ Religion?

Brighton Picket of Barclays Bank & Fascist Counter-Protest Seen Off 17 January 2026

There is a nationwide campaign to Boycott Barclays Bank because Barclays now invests over £2 billion in, and provides financial services worth £6.1 billion to, companies arming Israel. 40 years ago Barclays was investing heavily in Apartheid in South Africa so nothing much has changed. Barclays is and always has been a racist bank.

Fascist Mother and Her 'Sweet' Zionist Princess

The Fash Minder with a Hitler Moustache

It is therefore not surprising that supporters of the openly White Supremacist Unite the Kingdom should seek to mount a counter-protest, albeit only 3 of them, to demonstrate their support for a ‘British’ bank.

I went along to the picket in North Street, Brighton and noticed after a while a Union Jack with 2 women on either end of it side by side with our own banners, so I thought it would be a friendly thing to go and talk to them.

I asked one of them why it is that fascists are such ardent supporters of Zionism and Genocide and why they were opposing our picket.  The woman I spoke to didn’t seem able to answer my question. Instead she insisted that I should get out of her private space which seemed to extend well beyond her rancid features.

She then pushed me in the chest so I pushed her at which point the other woman came and tried to attack me. I parried her flailing arms and then the male minder with a Hitler moustache joined in as did a load of protesters and the Police.

Picket of Barclays Bank – BHPSC (see their banner at the 30s mark)

They made a bogus complaint of assault but the Police could see it was a case of much ado about nothing and apart from taking my details weren’t inclined to do anything.  Meanwhile these creeps had lost their place on the wall besides other protestors and the police told them to go onto a side street out of the way which meant that no one could see their patriotic mugs.  Mission accomplished.

What is interesting about this is how British fascists now overtly support Zionism and Israel as integral as part of their political agenda thus giving the lie to the assertion that it is us who are anti-Semitic.

There was a time when British fascists used to disguise their anti-Semitism with a self-proclaimed opposition to Zionism when what they meant was Jews. Today their main targets are Muslims and they hide their anti-Semitism behind support for Zionism. Which is of course understandable since even the thickest Zionist now accepts that Zionism and Jewish Supremacim is a manifestation of White Supremacism.

Dilly Hussein Interviews British Neo-Nazi Nick Griffin - For the Second Time

 I mention this because the Islamic fundamentalist site 5 Pillars which is run by Dilly Hussein, doesn’t seem to understand that anti-Muslim racism/Islamophobia and Zionism are two sides of the same racist coin.

In December 2025 it interviewed Nick Griffin, the former Chair of the British National Party in a podcast Civil war, the American deep state and the Zionist lobby.

Griffin has been a longstanding feature of the British neo-Nazi Right. This was the second interview Dilly had with Griffin. The first Jews, Zionism, the far-right, and Islam in Europe was in November 2023.

5 Pillars, which claims to be the most popular Islamic site in Britain, seems to have a fondness for far-right Islamophobes and anti-Semites.

Dilly Hussein

In February 2024 it interviewed Mark Collett, who characterised Jews as ‘shapeshifters who purport to be “normal white” people but are not.’  Mark Collett is a British neo-Nazi who was chairman of the Young BNP. In 2019 he went on to form the fascist, white supremacist Patriotic Alternative.

In an interview later that year with BBC Radio Leicester Collett condemned the wearing of the veil by Muslim women, describing it as a “powerful statement against integration.”

5 Pillars is vehemently homophobic and anti-women's rights, going so far as to praise the Taliban’s exclusion of girls from education. It would seem that their reactionary position on social questions has led them to embrace the worst Islamophobes.

Later in 2024 IMPRESS, a press regulator, ruled that a podcast episode featuring Jayda Fransen, former deputy leader of Britain First, included unchallenged antisemitic conspiracy theories. Fransen is a Christian fascist and it would seem that support for a reactionary social agenda, anti-gay and anti-trans forms common ground between Dilly and Britain’s far-right.

Nick Griffin | Civil War in Britain, American Deep State & The Zionist Lobby

Before writing this I contacted 5 Pillars twice to ask why they were interviewing fascists but I got no response. I did this after having come across an interview by Dilly with one Nick Griffin, the former Chairman of the British National Party.

This is the same Nick Griffin who was acquitted of incitement to racial hatred in November 2006 for describing Islam as a ‘wicked, vicious’ faith.  Griffin today proclaims that he is opposed to Zionism when it is, or should be, obvious that Griffin’s opposition to Zionism is a thinly disguised anti-Semitism.

Griffin was charged after making a speech to BNP supporters at a pub in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in January 2004. During his speech he said that Muslims were turning Britain into a “multiracial hellhole”.

Griffin was acquitted alongside the BNP's head of publicity, Mark Collett. Collett had referred to asylum seekers as “cockroaches”, telling the gathering: “Let's show these ethnics the door in 2004”.

At the time of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 the BNP was a fulsome supporter of Israel, so much so that Ruth Smeed, of the Board of Deputies of British Jews admitted that the BNP website

is now one of the most Zionist on the web – it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel.’ [‘BNP seeks to bury antisemitism and gain Jewish votes in Islamophobic campaign The Guardian, 10.4.08.]

In an article Nationalism and Israel on the BNP’s site Lee Barnes, their legal advisor wrote:

As a Nationalist I can say that I support Israel 100% in their dispute with Hezbollah. In fact, I hope they wipe Hezbollah off the Lebanese map and bomb them until they leave large greasy craters in the cities where their Islamic extremist cantons of terror once stood.

Now it might be that Nick Griffin has had a Damascene conversion to anti-racism and anti-imperialism but somehow I doubt it. In the little of the interview that I watched Griffin made it clear that he doesn’t want Muslims in Britain.

It is issues like homophobia that enable Muslim fundamentalists like Dilly Hussein and anti-Muslim racists like Nick Griffin to find common ground. This is one reason why anti-racists should never compromise on their opposition to homophobia and transphobia or be tempted to adopt a reactionary social agenda.

Tony Greenstein

 BNP leader cleared of race hate charges

The Growing Divorce Between American Jewish Youth and Israel

This is one of the most positive stories yet to come out of America and indeed the Jewish community as a whole.  Before 1945 the majority of Jews world wide rejected Zionism.  The reasons were quite simple.  Most Jews assert that they are part of the nations amongst whom they live.  Zionism posits that they are members of another nation- the Jewish nation.  Since you can’t be a member of 2 nations at the same time, what this means in practice is that Zionism alienate people from the nations amongst whom they live.

It was the Holocaust, the failure to defeat fascism, which led to support for Zionism and the Israeli state.  It seems as if Zionism had been right all along when it said that anti-Semitism is inherent in the non-Jew, that it could not be fought.  Germany was a terrible example of the truth of this.

However in the 72 years of its existence Israel has been in a permanent state of emergency, an artificial war-like nation that is always seeking an excuse to make war on somebody somewhere.  Israel is a state in search of enemies and where it has none it does its best to invent them.

So in its time we have had Gamel Abden Nasser, the President of Egypt called the Hitler on the Nile, Arafat/Ahmedinajad and anyone else Zionism doesn’t like has been called a new Hitler.  Hamas are genocidal Jewish baby eating monsters as are Hezbollah.  At the same time Israel has dropped the verbal attachment to collectivism as it has adopted neo-liberalism with an enthusiasm not matched anywhere in the world.

Combine all this with the Occupation, the daily human rights abuses, Ahed Tamimi, the racist laws and house demolitions and it is not easy to be a supporter of Israel and yet demand equality at home.

When you find that those in society who are most anti-Semitic, like neo-Nazi Richard Spencer of the alt-Right, Steve Bannon, Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Nick Griffin of the BNP, Pastor John Hagee and assorted racists and fascists all love Israel whilst, at the same not liking Jews then it begins to occur to young Jews that Israel is not all that it is cracked up to be.  In addition a Jewish state suggests that Jews don’t belong in America.

It is therefore not surprising that in this survey of the Bay Area district in California, only 11% of Jews between 18 and 34 were ‘very attached to Israel’.  Even better only 40% of young American Jews are ‘comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state.’

 It is becoming ever clearer that it isn’t Jews but racist non-Jews who most love Israel.  In Fire & Fury it describes how Jared Kushner felt Steve Bannon’s support for Israel was a cover for his anti-Semitism.  Today the normal response from anti-Semites is that they love Israel.

Tony Greenstein

Young Jews Are Actually Winning The Generational War Over Israel

By Batya Ungar-Sargon, The Forward, February 13, 2018

George Duffield

Ever since the late 1960s, Israel has been a defining feature of American Jewish identity. But for the first time in fifty years, this is changing.

Wedge issues have been alienating liberal Jews from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hawkish, pro-Orthodox, pro-settlement platform, issues like prayer accommodations for Reform and Conservative Jews at the Western Wall and the treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Now, a new study joins mounting evidence that young American Jews are abandoning Israel. And unless this trend is somehow reversed, American Jews in their newfound ambivalence towards Israel will lose a key part of who they are, or at least, who they have been for the past half century.

The study, conducted by Steven Cohen and Jack Ukeles, was commissioned by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. In it, over 3,000 respondents from the Bay Area took an online survey in which they were asked questions about Jewish life.

This is what Cohen and Ukeles found: Only 11% of Jews age 18-34 said they were “very attached to Israel,” as opposed to 25% of those 50 and older. Only 37% of American Jews age 18-34 said the Jewish state was “very important,” compared to 61% of American Jews 50-64 and 68% of American Jews 65 and older.

More shockingly, only 40% of American Jews age 18-34 said they were “comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state,” compared to 64% of American Jews 50-64 and 73% of American Jews 65 and older. And only 30% of American Jews age 18-34 said that they sympathized more with Israel than with the Palestinians when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to 47% of American Jews 50-64 and 56% of American Jews 65 and older.

A Portrait of Bay Area Jewish Life and Communities

Now, California is the most liberal state in the union, and the Bay Area is its most liberal area, and Jews are the most liberal of America’s ethnic groups, all of which is to say, the data might not be completely representative of the larger Jewish community. But the findings are compatible with a recent Stanford study, which found that Jewish college students don’t want to engage in debates or conflict around Israel, and resist being labeled as pro-Israel either by Israel advocates or by those critical of Israel.

These results were also consistent with the Pew Research Center’s survey of American Jewish life from 2013, as well as with a Pew study that came out last month, which found a deep political polarization and generational divide among Americans generally on the subject of Israel. A full 79% of Republicans say they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, compared to just 27% of Democrats. And while 56% of Americans 50 and over sympathized more with Israel than with the Palestinians, only 32% of 18-29 year olds did.

Just as it’s dividing Americans, Israel is dividing American Jews. The Bay Area study’s researchers concluded that there are four main predictors for feeling a connection to Israel: age, politics, your level of Jewish engagement more generally, and affluence. “People who are conservative, older, more Jewishly engaged or wealthier feel more attached to Israel than people who are liberal, younger, less Jewishly engaged and less affluent,” Steven Cohen, one of the researchers, told me. “All these factors are interrelated.”

Which brings us to young Jews. “What we’re seeing in comparing younger with older Jews is that younger Jews are moving towards a more neutral position regarding Israel,” explained Cohen.

The reason for this is twofold, says Cohen. The first stems from the fact that American Jews are defining their identity in more personal and less collective terms. “They are more spiritual and less ethnic,” he explained. “And Israel falls in the ethnic compartment.”

The second reason younger Jews are less invested in Israel has to do with Israel itself. “Israeli policies are far more appealing to political conservatives and more alienating to political liberals,” said Cohen. “American Jewry outside Orthodoxy remains overwhelmingly liberal and overwhelmingly associated with the Democratic Party.”

But Jews stand to lose a lot more than non-Jewish Democrats when they lose their ability to proudly identify with Israel. The Israeli policies which appeal to conservatives and alienate liberals are actually costing American Jews a core piece of their identity. When young Jews stop identifying with Israel or caring about it, this reinforces a lack of engagement with their Jewish identity overall. Which means that losing our connection to Israel is catastrophically, existentially dangerous for the Jewish diaspora community.

“Israel’s policies are depriving American Jewry of a major pillar of inspiration and mobility,” Cohen said.

Others are worried, too.

“It’s a huge concern,” said Jason Isaacson, Associate Executive Director for Policy of the American Jewish Committee. It’s why AJC puts an emphasis on contrasting Israel with what Isaacson called Israel’s “more autocratic neighbors” and stresses Israel’s “hunger for peace with the Palestinian people whose leadership has resisted the course of the negotiations.”

But Isaacson admits that it’s a case that’s becoming increasingly difficult to make, thanks to the inherent tension between some of Israel’s actions and the liberal values that matter to American Jews – especially young Jews. “Obviously the actions of the government on matters relating to the Palestinians color this,” Isaacson said.

Then you have the Israeli government’s embrace of the Trump administration, which is hardly popular among liberal youngsters. “All this is part of this mix, so cutting through that and introducing the reality of Israel and the reality of Israel’s situation is a challenge,” Isaacson said.

And it’s not just young Jews. Based on polls the AJC regularly conducts, Isaacson says that the mainstream American Jewish community is “uncomfortable with the occupation.” “It’s not in our nature and it’s not the destiny of the Jewish people to occupy another people,” Isaacson said.

But the days when American Jews will support Israel in spite of illiberal policies are coming to an end. Other data strongly suggests that that when American Jews perceive a tension between Israel and leading an ethical life, they will choose their ethics.

Take, for example, the poll that found that American Jews ranked remembering the Holocaust, leading an ethical and moral life, being intellectually curious, and working for justice and inequality as more important to their Jewish identity than Israel. The same poll found that as important as Israel to being Jewish is having a good sense of humor (Israelis disagreed – strongly).

In other words, for huge amounts of Jews, their core beliefs about what is ethical and just — beliefs which preclude the occupation of the Palestinians — are more definitive of who they are as Jews than the nationalism represented by the fact of a Jewish state.

Indeed, nationalism has been tainted by the rise of white supremacists in the US, and its stain is spreading through President Donald Trump to everything he touches – which now includes Israel. And while there is still a minority willing to support Israel on its own terms, the younger generation and the majority of Jews no longer fit into that category.

And yet, we know from the past that American Jews want an Israel they can identify with — fiercely. What’s more, they need it to survive in America as Jews, as Cohen pointed out. Absent the strong ties of community and religion, Israel has provided a source of inspiration that kept Jews connected to each other even in the Diaspora.

Values-driven millennials wont endorse something that doesn’t fit within their belief system. If moneyed American Jews want to strengthen Jewish continuity, they should stop spending money trying to convince American Jews that they aren’t seeing what they say they are seeing when they look at Israel, and start convincing Israeli leaders to pursue policies that American Jews can be proud of.

In fact, this does seem to be happening. Recently, Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League criticized Netanyahu’s efforts to deport African refugees on the ground that it seems racist. “African refugees, who seem like the Dreamers in the US — young people who by dint of their parents’ decisions have grown up in this country — who speak fluent Hebrew, when you start physically picking them up and sending them over the border back to South Sudan or Rwanda all the while, while you don’t do the same to Ukrainians or Eastern Europeans who overstay their visas, guys, this is not going to end well,” Greenblatt said.

And the AJC’s Isaacson told me he, too, speaks to Israeli officials and leaders about the ways in which they are alienating young Jews. He sees his work as cutting both ways. “It’s hasbara, but it’s not just hasbara,” Isaacson said, referring to Israeli government propaganda presented in a positive light. “It’s action. It’s policies. And obviously these are issues that we discuss intensively and continuously with our friends and brethren in Israel.”

Young American Jews are having an effect on the American Jewish leadership. By refusing to endorse Israel’s shortcomings, they are pushing their leaders to demand change.

It’s a good thing. Our future as Jews – even in the Diaspora – depends on it.

Batya Ungar-Sargon is the opinion editor of the Forward.

Jo Cox – A victim of Farage, Boris Johnson and the Daily Express’s Hate Campaign

Farage, Johnson & the Daily Express Editor should be in the Dock with Thomas Mair

We can and never will know what went through the mind of Thomas Mair.  What we do know he was composed enough to answer, in response to a request to give his name, ‘"Death to traitors freedom for Britain"  As far as he was concerned Jo Cox, who was well known for her campaigning for and in support of Syrian refugees, was a traitor. 

Thomas Mair (centre) on a Britain First picket of a Muslim stall - Let's see Britain First proscribed as a terrorist organisation

The idea that he was suffering from mental health problems is irrelevant.  People who are mentally ill don’t carefully construct a gun from manuals, which they’ve ordered from neo-Nazi sites in America, they don’t subscribe to Apartheid South African magazines, they don’t picket Muslim stalls with other members of Britain First. 

Jo Cox 5th from left outside the House of Commons with fellow MPs

Mair's problem was that he was an aggressive, violent fascist.

Muslims who end up in court for murder, like those who killed Private Clegg, aren't considered mentally ill, though it is highly likely at least one of them was.  They were considered, rightly, as responsible for their actions and that should be the same with Thomas Mair.

Louise Mensch, Zionist and former Tory MP makes excuses for Jo Cox's murderer - Nick Griffin of neo-Nazi BNP approves of her comments though

What is true though is that  Mair was emboldened to go out, with a knife and a gun and kill Jo Cox because in Britain at the moment there is a European Referendum campaign in which refugees and migrants are being demonised. 

By chance I was in Leeds the very day that Jo was murdered, as I was speaking there that evening.  As I came into the city I noticed a large poster saying that Turkey was going to join the European Union (a lie) and underneath that something about 78 million migrants. 

If anyone bears responsibility for the death of Jo Cox MP it is Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and the Daily Express Editor amongst others, with their toxic and racist campaign.  They should be in the dock alongside Mair as accomplices to murder.

See We mourn and will miss Jo Cox

In January this year, Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab) moved that the House consider damning reports into Israel’s system of martial law that is now in its 49th year, including allegations that “alleged ill-treatment of children during arrest, transfer, interrogation and detention have not significantly decreased in 2013 and 2014”. Cox made one of the earliest contributions:

Jo Cox (Batley and Spen) (Lab)

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. She will be aware that evidence from Military Court Watch suggests that 65% of children continue to report being arrested at night in what are described as terrifying raids by the military. Will she comment on that worrying fact?

She was preceded by the execrable Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op) who asked Champion if she accepted that “the context in which these situations occur is an organised campaign conducted by the Palestinian authorities of incitement, to try to provoke young Palestinians to carry out acts of violence towards other civilians, some of which result in death, including the death of young children?”

Cox’s contribution was followed by that of Conservative Friend of Israel Vice-Chairman, Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con) who suggested Champion “knows full well that the difficulty of arresting people during the day instead of the night is that it has led to deaths and riots. The authorities are operating in a very difficult context.”

It is worth noting here that Jo Cox was joined in her condemnation of Israel’s actions by Naz Shah MP, who made a memorable and complementary contribution:

Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) on securing this very important debate, and it is a great honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Chope.

I will keep my speech very brief. The hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) referred to a doll. I would argue that people do not need dolls to promote hate and violence. What we have before us in Israel and Palestine is children between the ages of nine and 12 experiencing discrimination. I have children of my own who are aged eight and 11, but I cannot begin to imagine the trauma and the stamp on Palestinian children’s brains and hearts of hatred towards the Israeli military as they grow up and face discrimination, as well as the way they are tret in custody. So I would argue that we do not need props.

Only recently, Shin Bet told the Israeli Government that Abbas was not encouraging terror and was actually promoting peace. So, I disagree with my hon. Friends when they say that the Palestinians are promoting this kind of propaganda.

As a former chair of a mental health charity and having my own children, I really struggle to understand why the Israeli Government and the world are silent on dealing with the trauma that these Palestinian children are growing up with. Surely we know that hate breeds hate; laws aside, that is just common sense. There are children who are blindfolded and tortured. We have got evidence before us. How can my hon. Friends ignore that? How can anyone even present a counter-argument to it? We are talking about the basic humanitarian right of children, which we in this House have signed up to, and we must support these children with conviction. There should be no excuse for taking children aged nine away from their homes, detaining them and sending them to prison. That is absolutely unacceptable.

Mrs Ellman

I note my hon. Friend’s comments that a child should not be detained, and I assume that she means in any circumstances. Suppose a child was involved in an act of violence that resulted in the deaths of other human beings. That is what has happened with young Palestinians throwing stones—people have been killed. In those circumstances, surely she thinks that there should be detention.

Below is a tribute from Medical Aid to Palestine to someone who was an outspoken advocate for Palestine.

Remembering Jo Cox MP

17 June 2016

The team at MAP were saddened to hear about the tragic death of Jo Cox MP. 

She frequently spoke out in Parliament on issues in Palestine. Below is her intervention on Gaza made last year. 

Jo Cox (Batley and Spen) (Lab): As a former Oxfam aid worker for many years, I have worked for far too long on and in the conflict that we are debating, but I still believe that there will be a resolution in my lifetime—hopefully in the next few years.

Because of the time constraints, I will focus on three things. First, I would love a response from the Minister about what confidence-building action the Government are taking, particularly on Gaza. The Gaza reconstruction mechanism is clearly not working, but it is also not a substitute for easing the closure. There is a need for urgent expansion of access to Israeli markets for Palestinian exports. 

What measures are the Government taking to that end? We also need to remove the last restrictions on the export of Gazan products to the west bank.

I would like construction materials to be allowed into Gaza urgently. The facts are clear: only one home has been rebuilt in the past year, since the bombing, and the projections are that it will take hundreds of years to rebuild at the current rate. There is a need for materials to get into Gaza so that people can rebuild their lives. What is the Government’s view on that?

In addition, people need to get in and out of Gaza. In 2000 about 500,000 people were leaving and returning to Gaza, for work or to see family members. This year the number is 18,000, which is very low, and we need to raise it quickly. We also need the Israeli Government to continue to believe that there will be a cost to their allowing further settlement expansion in the west bank. I would love to know what the Government are doing to get that message clearly heard by the Israeli Government. I would be interested also in the Government’s view of the Israeli Government’s silent policy of retrospectively legalising illegal outposts.

Finally, the allegations—including allegations of war crimes—in the commission of inquiry’s report must be investigated fully by Israel and Hamas. Both sides of the conflict deserve access to justice and accountability. For the most part domestic mechanisms and investigations are poor; they are either rejected quickly or not run to international standards. Indeed, the report notes that Israel has a

“lamentable track record in holding wrong doers accountable” and that investigation by Hamas is “woefully inadequate”. Following the UK’s welcome endorsement of the report last week, I would love to hear what the Government intend to do to support international mechanisms to pursue justice and accountability, particularly in relation to preliminary work by the International Criminal Court.