Scottish anti-Israel activist fined for antisemitic bullying

The Glasgow Jewish Representative Council and the Jewish Council of Scotland welcomed the verdict by the Glasgow Sheriff Court.

By JNS

A court in the United Kingdom convicted an anti-Israel activist from Glasgow of intimidation motivated by antisemitic bias over a filmed exchange that he had with a local Jew in June.

Mick Napier, co-founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, behaved “in a threatening or abusive manner” toward the victim and his actions were “aggravated by prejudice relating to religion or, in the case of a social or cultural group, perceived religious affiliation,” the verdict said on Tuesday, the Jewish News of London reported. Napier was fined £600 ($810.)

Napier, 78, called the victim, Samuel Stein, who is a member of the Glasgow Friends of Israel group, a “baby killer.”

He asked Stein to comment on what Napier falsely described as an expression of support for rape during wartime by the Israel Defense Forces Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Krim. Krim was misquoted in the Israeli media on this matter in 2016.

The Glasgow Jewish Representative Council and the Jewish Council of Scotland welcomed the verdict by the Glasgow Sheriff Court.

“There must be no place for antisemitism—in any guise—in Scotland,” the groups said in a joint statement.

The anti-Israel Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee group staid in a statement that Napier’s lawyer was “launching an immediate appeal against shocking verdicts of ‘racially aggravated’ conduct handed down today at Glasgow Sheriff Court.”

Also on Tuesday, police in London arrested three anti-Israel activists, including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.

She was held for expressing support publicly for a domestic terrorist group, Palestine Action, whose activists are on trial for bludgeoning a police officer. The other two detainees are said to have thrown red paint on a building.

The British government outlawed Palestine Action, which was established in 2020, and declared it to be a terrorist organization in July following a series of similar break-ins and what the group called “occupations” of firms with Israeli ties.

One of those actions happened after the designation, on Aug. 6, prosecutors said. Six Palestine Action activists are on trial for breaking into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol, where one of them was allegedly filmed bludgeoning a police officer with a hammer. The defendant has denied the actions attributed to him.