Anti-Israel Graffiti 'A Hate Crime'?
- David Hitchen
- Aug 14
- 3 min read
A small act in Accrington has set off a large debate. Anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed on hoardings near the town hall. Hyndburn Council have called it “abhorrent”. Lancashire police have opened an inquiry and said they will try to find those responsible.
The graffiti was short. It attacked a state and its army. Some locals saw a hate incident. The council said it will not tolerate racism. The police have treated the case as one that could be a hate crime. That choice matters. It raises questions about where law, politics and grief meet.
Under UK law, hate crime is flagged when an offence shows hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. The Crown Prosecution Service says motive or perceived motive is key. That means officials may treat attacks on Israel as religious or racial if they target Jewish people or use antisemitic tropes.
In practice, this effectively means that ANY graffiti criticising Israel's actions in Gaza IS treated as 'antisemitic' - ironically, this breaches the IHRA guidelines, which state that conflating Israel with all Jewish people is of itself antisemitic...
The decision in Accrington sits against a wider backdrop. Religious hate crimes rose sharply in recent years, with spikes after conflict in the Middle East. Police forces and charities have warned of a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic offences since the fighting began. Those facts shape how chiefs and councils plan policing and community work.
At the same time, Gaza has seen huge loss of life and a deepening humanitarian crisis. UN and aid agencies report major shortages of food, water and fuel and high civilian casualties. Many in Britain say this reality changes how public anger should be read. Critics say calling graffiti a hate crime feels out of step with the scale of loss in Gaza. Supporters of the police choice claim that verbal and visual attacks in the street can feed real violence at home.
Unsurprisingly, Israel's assault on Gaza has sparked widespread graffiti, posters, guerilla ad campaigns, rallies, marches, T-shirts etc over the last 22 months - a headteacher was recently arrested for holding a placard showing a cutting from Private Eye, another man for wearing a 'Plasticine Action' T-shirt. Are these 'hate crimes'? Expressing support for Palestine Action is now, they tell us, 'terrorist sympathy'...
Even in Jerusalem itself, a Jewish man was arrested last week for painting 'There is a Holocaust in Gaza' on the Western Wall - an Israeli court ordered him sent to a psychiatric hospital...
This tension is not new. Debates over the IHRA definition of antisemitism and historic policing of protests show the same fault lines. In 2023 and 2024, the Metropolitan Police and other forces faced scrutiny over how they treated placards and chants at pro-Palestine marches. That history makes local decisions in places like Accrington feel national.
The near term will bring more tests. Police will need clear reasoning when they record hate. Prosecutors will need clear evidence when they charge. Political leaders must use careful words and choices. What the right sees as necessary law and order, many on the left view as overreach or moral inconsistency.
For those who support Palestine, the moral scale seems tipped. For others, even small public acts that risk community fear must be acted on - critics have said that pro-Israel groups have reported 'community fear' where there is none, simply in order to have criticism of Israel deemed a 'crime'.
The work now is to hold both concerns in view and to stop small acts from being read as anything more than what they are, while also confronting the far larger loss of life beyond our streets.
References
Jacobs, Bill, “Abhorrent anti-Israel graffiti in Accrington town centre sparks police hate crime investigation”, Lancashire Evening Post, 5 Aug 2025, https://www.lep.co.uk/news/crime/abhorrent-anti-israel-graffiti-in-accrington-town-centre-sparks-police-hate-crime-investigation-5258536.
“Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2024”, GOV.UK (Home Office), 2024, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2024.
“Hate crime | The Crown Prosecution Service”, CPS, (web page), https://www.cps.gov.uk/crime-info/hate-crime.
“Humanitarian Situation Update #300 | Gaza Strip”, UN OCHA oPt, 2025, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-300-gaza-strip.
“Religious hate crimes at record levels in England and Wales, official figures show”, Rajeev Syal, The Guardian, 10 Oct 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/10/religious-hate-crimes-at-record-levels-in-england-and-wales-official-figures-show.
“Israel bombards Gaza City; Hamas leader visits Cairo in bid to salvage ceasefire talks”, Reuters, 12 Aug 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-bombards-gaza-city-hamas-leader-visits-cairo-bid-salvage-ceasefire-talks-2025-08-12/.
“IHRA definition of antisemitism has long been a target in anti-Zionist campaigns”, The Guardian, 13 Aug 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/aug/13/ihra-definition-of-antisemitism-has-long-been-a-target-in-anti-zionist-campaigns.
“Police 'actively looking' for individuals over antisemitic signs at pro-Palestinian march”, Sky News, 11 Nov 2023, https://news.sky.com/story/police-actively-looking-for-individuals-over-antisemitic-signs-at-pro-palestinian-march-13005665.
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