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‘Islamophobic’ Board official was ‘criticising the Paris terrorists’
Gary Mond claims he was referring to the Bataclan attackers
January 20, 2022 16:52
Gary Mond claims he was referring to the Bataclan attackers
January 20, 2022 16:52The Board of Deputies official who resigned over allegedly Islamophobic social media posts was criticising the terrorists behind the 2015 Paris attacks, not Muslims in general, he has told the JC.
Gary Mond, treasurer of the Jewish National Fund UK, resigned on Thursday after the Board launched an investigation into his online activity.
One of Mr Mond’s messages, posted in 2016, said: “We just have to hope that our leaders wake up to the fact that all civilisation … is at war with these evil bastards, and I have to say it, at war with Islam. And, just as Islam has lost before in history, it will lose again.”
In an email to the JC, Mr Mond claimed: “My reference in the tweet to ‘evil bastards’ was certainly not aimed at Muslims generally.
"It was directed at the three Islamist terrorists who had carried out the Bataclan attack in Paris in November 2015, where they murdered about 130 innocent people.”
Mr Mond resigned with a broadside against the Board’s leadership, accusing it of having “cancelled” his views. The Board leaned to the left and was intolerant of different perspectives, he said.
He apologised “for any hurt that has been caused as a result of the excavation into my Facebook activity,” adding: “This cannot be a justification for any attempt to silence contradictory thought”.
According to social media posts uncovered by the Jewish News, he allegedly also liked posts by the co-founder of the ‘Stop the Islamization of America’ group, Pamela Geller, who is banned from the UK.
In a letter to members of the Board of Deputies, its president Marie van der Zyl wrote: “We greatly regret the circumstances which have led to Gary’s resignation, which are a matter of public record. As an organisation we are committed to fostering strong and positive relations with other faith and minority communities.”
It comes as more than 100 supporters signed an open letter in defence of Mr Mond and JNF-UK chairman Samuel Hayek – who is also under fire for allegedly Islamaphobic remarks – accusing the Board of “cancel culture”.
The letter was signed by pro-Israel activists Jonathan Hoffman, Damon Lenszner and Martin Sugarman, co-founder of the Campaign4Truth group Sharon Klaff, investigative blogger David Collier, former Hackney councillor Linda Ann Kelly and Board of Deputies member Yochy Davis, who state they are “neither racist nor anti-Muslim”.
But, they argue, “the complex subject of anti-Jewish racism within the Muslim community appears a taboo subject — and those who dare mention it are branded ‘Islamophobic’!” They declare support for Mr Hayek’s right “to express an opinion without being targeted, subjected to harassment or to calls for his resignation.”
They add: “Expressing an opinion with which others disagree should not be the subject of cancel culture nor misinterpreted as ‘racist’.”
Pointing to a global rise in antisemitism, they say: “The anti-Zionist and antisemitic threats are coming from all sides — the far-right, far-left — and Radical Islam — and it’s not ‘Islamophobic’ to state that.”
Claiming that pro-Israel supporters were “nearly lynched” at a rally during last May’s Israel-Gaza conflict, they said that many of the anti-Israel protesters were “visibly of Asian heritage”. “Why would Jews want to live in a country where there is a high risk of life-changing injuries simply for holding an Israel flag in the street?” they write.
They also accuse the Board of “double standards” in acting against Mr Mond, saying that the committee dealing with disciplinary complaints had ruled that a left-wing deputy’s denunciation of others as “fascist sympathisers” fell outside the organisation’s code of conduct.
Last week, the Board’s community and education division overwhelmingly voted to refer two motions critical of the JNF for discussion at a full Board meeting.
One censured JNF trustees for not disavowing Mr Hayek’s remarks, the other called on it to suspend its Board membership until he stepped down.
The motions were proposed by Union of Jewish Students president-elect Joel Rosen and Finchley Reform Synagogue member Robert Stone.
A statement on behalf of the right-wing Zionist movement World Herut and its UK affiliate said they were “disturbed by the apparent takeover of the Board of Deputies. There now appears to be an aggressive mob that is organised to silence voices which elements on the Jewish left do not want heard.”
JNF UK has previously said it “does not take a stance on British domestic policies and in expressing his recent views Mr Hayek did not speak for the charity or its trustees, as has already been made clear.”
Last week the Charity Commission opened a “regulatory case” on JNF UK to assess “concerns” raised with it.
In the meantime, the Board has made David Mendoza-Wolfson its senior vice-president.
At 29, he became its the youngest vice-president when he was elected last May.
Elections for a new vice-president to replace Mr Mond will be held later this month with former vice-president Edwin Shuker among candidates for the role.