Former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg is director of outreach for UK-based campaign group CAGE and a public-speaker. He is also promoted as a human rights campaigner and as an advocate for justice and dialogue. This seems odd; a review of Begg’s social media output reveals apparent anti-Jewish narratives, extreme antisemitic content, and a seemingly obsessive hate for the state of Israel:
– In January 2015 Begg made this antisemitic Holocaust analogy:
– In MAY 2021 Begg shared a video from 2018 featuring white supremacist neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier Patrick Little. In that video, Little is seen stomping and spitting on an Israeli flag while saying that the California Republican Party is “nothing but Zionist stooges.” He also pushed several other antisemitic allegations in that video, including:
- “We know there are Israeli fingerprints all over the 9/11 attacks.”
- “United States servicemen dying in wars to expand Israel.”
Here is a segment from the video in which Little made the antisemitic dual loyalty accusation.
Commenting on the video, Begg said, “what he’s saying seems unprecedented and pretty powerful” and “it’s clear that the tide and narrative against Israel is beginning to turn”, appearing to cheer for and agree with Little’s bigoted antisemitic tropes. We find it odd that a “human rights advocate” would agree with a Neo-Nazi on any level.
Antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism
Moazzam Begg asserts that modern Israel is a Muslim land as this live tweet from 2013 shows.
Begg also implicitly denied Jewish indigeneity to Israel and the Jewish people’s basic human right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland:
“Whoever the Tailban [Sic.] are, they’re in their homeland. Zionists in Israel on the other hand…” A claim which he later reiterated: “like said, Israel’s crimes far outweigh Taliban’s who are in their own country. Zionist Israelis aren’t” (this tweet has since been deleted, but an archived copy is available here).
Begg continually refers to Israeli Jews as “invaders” and “foreign occupiers” and calls Israel an illegitimate state. He also repeatedly smears Israel with false and baseless accusations of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. This antisemitic “Israel apartheid” campaign seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state, demonise the Jewish people, and ultimately bring about Israel’s destruction.
Begg appears to fantasise about a violent take over of the Jewish state.
We believe that no one should take Begg seriously as a “human rights advocate” as he appears to deliberately try to spread hatred of Jews. In our opinion, he is a dangerous antisemite who advocates for violence.
These allegations were put to Moazzam Begg in writing, but no response has been forthcoming.
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