Prof Norman Fenton

In the last 2 years Neil Oliver Neil Oliver, especially through his powerful monologues on GB News, has been a voice for sanity in the fight for individual freedoms and against those who wish to control every aspect of our lives. I regard him as a friend. I defended him (and others) against accusations of antisemitism for comparing the ‘othering’ of the unvaccinated with Jews prior to the Holocaust. However, I have become concerned that he increasingly uses language that implies the false narrative that Israel is committing a genocide against civilians in Gaza. A narrative that is helping stir up anti-Semites and widespread anti-Semitism so that Jews no longer feel safe in Western cities. It also denigrates the ramifications of the genocidal attack by Hamas against Israel on 7 October. At the end of his monologue on 20 Jan 2024, he said: “It’s not manna that falls from heaven on to babies in Gaza but white phosphorus that burns them to dust.” A statement I consider invoked the antisemitic blood libel construct, against Israel, the Jewish state. Even ignoring that previous accusations of Israel using white phosphorus against civilians in Gaza were debunked and that Israel has denied it this time the language that Neil used in this context was, I felt, likely to whip up further hatred against Israel and Jews. When, the next day, another champion of the ‘freedom movement’, Bob Moran Bob Moran, published an overtly anti-Semitic cartoon invoking the blood libel construct, the feeling among many in the Jewish community, and their sympathisers, was of a relentless, gratuitous and distressing assault. I had a long conversation with Neil about this. I made it clear I was a free speech absolutist and believed Neil had every right to say what he wanted, and I the right to call out underlying falsehoods and antisemitism. I asked him to use his next monologue to provide some balance, which Neil declined to do. So I said I would make this public statement which expresses my strongly held feelings. Using language which invokes anti-Semitic tropes like the blood libels is also manna, to those who want to wipe out Israel and Jews, and ironically plays into the hands of the collectivists who comprise and drive forward the so called ‘globalist’ movement Neil seeks to call out and of which Hamas is very much a part. I hope next time he will employ greater balance and circumspection.

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