British Man Convicted in Anti-Semitic Campaign Against Jewish Lawmaker
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josefin Dolsten December 7, 2016
— A British court found a man guilty of waging an anti-Semitic internet campaign against a Jewish lawmaker.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine,24, was convicted Wednesday of racial harassment for posting a series of articles online in which he targeted parliamentarian Luciana Berger. The campaign, which Bonehill-Paine named “Operation Filthy Jew B***|h,” referred to Jewish lawmaker as evil and responsible for the death of Jesus. It also included Berger’s face superimposed onto the body of a rat, according to The Evening Standard.
Bonehill-Paine, who was arrested for the campaign in February, is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for promoting a far-right nationalist protest against the “Jewification of Great Britain” last year.
Berger testified in front of the court that Bonehill-Paine’s articles left her afraid.
“I felt sick, really … I have received, as an MP, anti-Semitism since I was elected. The scale and body during this period, combined with articles, I felt very much under attack. It was all-consuming,” Berger said, according to The Evening Standard.
Berger has been the subject of anti-Semitic death threats and a hate campaign on social media.
Earlier this year, another British man, John Nimmo, pleaded guilty to sending Berger a death threat. He was investigated after Berger called police.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
