UK: David Icke’s disciples tell us what antisemitism really is, and why their hero is not an antisemite

Via CAA:

Earlier this week we asked Manchester City Council to impose a fine and licence conditions on the O2 Apollo theatre for providing a platform to antisemitic hate preacher David Icke, who delivered a twelve-hour sermon on his world view, including his notorious segment on the supposed conspiracy he calls “Rothschild Zionism”. We asked witnesses to the performance to e-mail us, and interestingly Icke’s associates urged his disciples to contact us. We have received numerous e-mails from Icke’s devotees unanimously reassuring us that Icke is no antisemite, and his message is one of love and compassion.

We decided to publish extracts below, unedited save for the grammar and spelling.

While their comments are patently risible, they are also highly dangerous. They illustrate how easy it is for a demagogue like Icke to convince people that age-old antisemitic conspiracy myths are real. Icke passionately warns his followers that the “Rothschild Zionists” have the world in their grip, and that even the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion should be heeded. It is perhaps unsurprising that people who are willing to pay up to £80 to be lectured for twelve hours straight by Icke are susceptible to his views. It is, nonetheless, extremely alarming. He preys on ordinary people who are suggestible, and persuades them that he is revealing a hidden truth, and that they cannot trust anybody else to be honest with them. Like a cult leader, he “wakes them up” from the “dreamworld” they were living in before they met him.

Take David Wright for example. He resoundingly endorsed Icke’s philosemitic credentials, telling us: “Just because he believes a Jewish elite run the world doesn’t make him an antisemite.” In a separate e-mail, he assured us that: “David Icke is nothing like an antisemite,” reinforcing the point with a link to David Icke’s “Rothschild Zionism” speech.

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