'Anti-fascist' demonstrators have a troubling blind spot

A flyer calling for the expulsion of an ethnic group from parts of London was widely shared online yesterday. There were also reports of menacing chants being made outside a place of worship. Were the far-right thugs of riotous Britain up to no good again? Actually, this time the bigotry was coming from the other side, from the self-styled anti-fascists of the radical left.

I thought these protests were about riotous bigotry here at home, not conflicts in the Middle East?

Yes, it seems yesterday’s anti-racist gatherings may not have been entirely anti-racist. A group called Finchley Against Fascism shared a virtual leaflet inviting people to gather in Finchley in north London to show their opposition to the bigotry and chaos of recent days. We need to mobilise, it said, in order to ‘Get fascists, racists, Nazis, Zionists and Islamophobes out of Finchley!’

Wait – Zionists? Jews who believe their people have a right to a national homeland? To lump Zionists in with fascists and Nazis is bad enough.