​Neo-Nazis threaten to burn Jewish Talmud, destroy Israeli flag at London march

17 Jun, 2015 15:30 / Updated 10 years ago

British fascists plan to destroy Israeli flags and burn Jewish religious texts during a march in northwest London next month, it has emerged.

Organizers of the July 4 demonstration plan to march against the “Jewification” of Britain in Golders Green, a traditionally Jewish area known for its Orthodox population.

White supremacist Joshua Bonehill-Paine called on activists to bring their own Israeli flags to the march so they could “dismember them by hand.”

He also said a private ceremony would be held where copies of the Talmud, a Jewish holy book, would be burned.

Bonehill-Paine, 22, said Israeli flags would be destroyed in solidarity with those “oppressed” by the “illegal" state.

In order to avoid prosecution, the group will not burn the flags but instead “dismember them by hand.

In northeast England, police in Newcastle upon Tyne in March arrested two neo-Nazi activists for burning Israeli flags at a small far-right demonstration in the city center.

The “White Man March” was organized by the small, but social media savvy neo-Nazi group National Action.

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London’s protest is orchestrated by Somerset-born Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a self-styled “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights.

Writing on his website, Bonehill-Paine said: “This will be a show of solidarity by English people who recognize that Israel is a corrupt state which is responsible for horrific war crimes.”

Mark Gardner, a spokesman for Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that monitors anti-Semitic hate crime, told RT that the community stood defiant.

Gardner said: “We’re in a fairly constant dialogue with local police, council and the Jewish community concerning this demo.”

Our intention is that it should not damage the life of our community on the Sabbath,” he added.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Gardner said Bonehill-Paine’s planned protest comes in the wake of a similar neo-Nazi demonstration in London last month.

It follows a similar demonstration in Stamford Hill that was quite pathetic and was largely ignored, but we are fully aware of the possible impact of such an event in Golders Green and are planning accordingly.

Bonehill-Paine said the protest would target Jewish Shomrim volunteers, describing them as “undemocratic and illegal.”

Shomrim, the Hebrew term meaning “guards,” are neighborhood watch organizations established by Orthodox Jewish communities in the US and Britain.

Bonehill-Paine claimed that London Shomrim groups had invited far-right activists to patrol with them.

But Shomrim representatives “categorically denied” any contact with the fascist march’s organizers, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

Bonehill-Paine has previously been arrested for his online activity, which includes sending anti-Semitic tweets to Luciana Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree.

The far-right activist was labeled an “internet troll” by prosecutor Dafydd Paxton in 2014 after he was charged with sending malicious messages online.