For several years I had a press card to provide a layer of security while covering hostile street protests. My recent experience with the National Union of Journalists shows how behind the scenes, British Jews are being ‘othered’ by hostile actors and excluded from society. This is a personal journey of abuse and discrimination.

The need to be protected

Those who have been following my work for a long time are aware that I frequently take to the streets to report on anti-Israel demonstrations taking place. This is an important part of what I do. Just to give one example – it was only because I was on the streets reporting from the al-Quds demonstration in 2017, that I captured footage of the IHRC’s Nazim Ali publicly blaming Zionists for the Grenfell disaster. This led to the Pharmaceutical Council’s fitness-to-practise hearings that were to find some of his statements antisemitic. If we are not there – antisemitic ideologies become free to develop and spread unchallenged.

Over the years my identity became known, and with publications such as Electronic Intifada targeting me in several articles,  a risk factor entered the frame. Not only was I receiving threats online on a daily basis, but many of the key anti-Israel agitators on the streets knew who I was. At a protest outside SOAS, one of a group who had made online threats to ‘bash my head in with a baseball bat’, made ‘cut throat’ signs when he spotted me. This is the atmosphere I work in and it does not always stop with gestures. I have been physically assaulted on the street twice and my car has been vandalised outside of my home.

As a way of helping to protect myself it became important for me to carry a press card.

The National Union of Journalists

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is the most common press card issuer in the UK, issuing ‘more than half of the cards in circulation’. So back in about 2016 – I joined and received a press card. I was clearly a news gatherer who needed protection – and the NUJ supplied it.

The NUJ are quite clear about the dangers of being a journalist in the rising toxic atmosphere on our streets and has recently launched a new online reporting mechanism to help build up a picture of ‘the intimidation, threats and violence they (journalists) are facing simply for doing their jobs’.

But over time my research had evolved, and the need for me to cover anti-Israel demonstrations on the streets dwindled. As a result I let my last press card expire without renewal. The expiry date? October 2023.

The need for a new application

Everything changed following October 7.

As Jews across the world were still reeling from the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, 100,000s of people took to UK streets waving Palestinian flags. Amongst them were people calling for Jihad, holding up signs of support for Hezbollah, or defending the actions of Hamas.

I went back to the streets. But one evening, as the police tried to control a tense situation – they told me I needed to go and stand with the protestors – forcing me to stand alongside the anti-Israel activists who often threaten me. I did try to explain, but their position was clear. If I did not have a press card to produce, I could either join the protestors or leave. I chose to leave.

It was time for me to reapply. I had done it twice before, so did not give it much thought. I made the application in April 2024 expecting a swift turnaround. This time however, things were going to go very differently.

The NUJ starts digging into my finances

After my initial application in April, things stalled, and I continually needed to chase up those dealing with membership enquiries. By the end of July I sensed they were playing games with me.

On August 5 I received puzzling and detailed questions further probing into my income. I had been clear, and it was easy to see from what I had provided, that my income was in line with the amount stated on my application. But that wasn’t enough for them this time – they wanted more ‘clarity’. They wanted more solid evidence. This time they even wanted bank statements.

I had become tired of the process. I addressed their questions clearly and went over the numbers again – but added that I had no intention of handing over bank statements because (I told them) that was unnecessarily intrusive.

And on every occasion – I reminded them, that my application was rooted in a need for protection:

“I need protection on the streets and the ability to identify myself as a journalist. The NUJ should be a natural place for me to be.”

This did not seem to bother them, as I received another delaying response on August 27 stating the ‘freelance branch’ would deal with my application at their next meeting – on September 9 – almost FIVE MONTHS after my application had started.

The rejection

On 5th September, due to difficulties I experienced while out reporting on an event, I sent the NUJ membership another email. And for the first time, I indicated that I did not understand why they had been ‘hesitating for months’ and told them I believed ‘something else was going on’.

I may have been told that the freelance branch would not meet until the 9 September, but on 6 September I received an email stating that my application would not be accepted. I was told I engage ‘in political blogging, rather than journalism’.

This raised immediate questions over why my finances had been probed so deeply and what had taken so long. If I was not even considered a bona fide newsgatherer- why wasn’t I rejected outright? Five months it took to get here – and they needed to see my bank statements?

The NUJ response was nonsensical, not least because I had been a member before and on this occasion received a rejection three days before the committee was due to meet – but there was another important nugget included in the rejection email – the name of the official gatekeeper who had turned me down. His name was David Ayrton.

So who was this man – this gatekeeper – who had been playing games over my application, asked to see my bank statements, and was now rejecting me even before the freelance branch had met?

The hard-left, anti-Israel activist

I searched for the gatekeeper David Ayrton online and found he was a lead of the NUJ’s freelance division. But instead of an impartial and objective journalist, I found a hard-left activist, chair of an antifa group opposing NATO support of Ukraine, and a man with a history of aligning with communist causes:

I also saw, that as I was making an application to join last spring – he was helping to raise funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians. At this point it began to be clear that I had not been given a fair hearing.

The more I looked, the more blatant the discrimination became. In the summer of 2024 – as he was busy rejecting my application – David Ayrton was reporting in the NUJ magazine about how freelancers needed protection from thugs on the street. Everyone it seems, apart from Jewish journalists like me.

The anti-Israel demonstrator

And then I found this image – which looks very much like David Ayrton (grey shirt) taking part in an anti-Israel demonstration in 2014:

The badge on the shoulder of the man in this image is a ‘free Palestine’ badge with the Friends of Al Aqsa logo on it. Friends of al Aqsa is an extremist Islamist group headed by Ismail Patel. In the image below Patel is seen in Gaza with Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas. Patel is the head of the group of the badge the NUJ gatekeeper is wearing.

Friends of Al Aqsa are also one of the key organisers of the post October 2023 demonstrations in London. The very demonstrations where I need protection. It appears as if my request as a journalist for protection from antisemitic thugs and Islamist groups was rejected by someone who wears their badges and walks alongside them.

And it made the earlier request to see my ‘bank statements’ all the more sinister.

If they knew they were going to turn me down using the excuse I was not a journalist – then why did they want to see evidence of precisely how my work was funded?

And remember, seeing David Ayrton at an anti-Israel demo is not out of place. Here is the communist fanboy running an event against NATO action in Ukraine, and hosting toxic figures such as Jorge Martín from International Marxist Tendency,  Andrew Murray (Stop the War Coalition and Communist Party of Great Britain, Lindsey German (Stop the War Coalition) and Richard Brenner (Left Unity).

Very much the type of event I would have wanted to cover – but would certainly not be welcome.

What happened next

Even though I knew the cause was lost, I still fought my corner. I went through the posts of the last twelve months on my website – and sent them a list of all the pieces I had published. All of them were investigative pieces. Several of my exclusives had received national news coverage. The email I sent accused them of unacceptable discrimination – and I pointed out I had uncovered that the gatekeeper would be ideologically hostile towards me.

This obviously struck a chord, and put them on the back foot, because I received another response on the 11th September telling me that I would be considered on 19th September 2024 by a separate unit.

And then it went dark again.

The right to reply and the GDPR request

Exactly two months later on the 19th November I sent two emails. The first was a right to reply email covering the evidence laid out above and accusing them of rejecting my membership on discriminatory grounds. I received no reply.

The second email was a GDPR article 15 request for access to the personal data that the NUJ was holding. The law requires them to acknowledge receipt and provides them with a month to respond in full. I received no confirmation of receipt.

Two days later on the 21st I sent them an email pointing out that ‘a confirmation of receipt would be best practice’ and asking them to confirm it was being dealt with. I finally received a response confirming receipt.

And then it went dark again.

There was no response within the one month limit, nor any correspondence informing me they needed more time.

So on the 25 January – over two months later – I sent them an email pointing out they were now well over a month late. Two days later (27/1), I received a response telling me I would get the data requested the following day.

The nonsense in the GDPR response

Everything that followed my GDPR reminder on 25th January should be taken with a pinch of salt. This is a hard-left, antisemitic outfit that had already displayed a blatant disregard for the process. The GDPR response was not just late, what I received was clearly incomplete with lots of holes.

I also received a document that suggested an executive meeting had taken place on 15th November which finally confirmed the rejection. The main problem with believing this document was genuine and not created later, was that I was never told about it – nor did I receive any communication at all following the decision. And the date given is coincidentally four days before I had sent the GDPR. My guess? They invented it later – which is why I never received the response that the document suggests would be sent.

In any case, it still contained incredible information that brought additional charges to my ‘rejection sheet’. They stated that my correspondence had been ‘aggressive and hostile’  (which it wasn’t until a pro-Palestinian activist had rejected my application). And incredibly they raised objections over membership due to my position on the Israel – Gaza conflict – which ties membership to opposing Israel’s right to exist:

Objections were also raised because I attacked the BBC over ‘fake news’ and was therefore ‘not supportive of other NUJ members’.

This is just childish deflection. These are descriptions of BBC News from the anti-Zionist conspiracy theorist Asa Winstanley. Here he is describing the BBC as ‘the enemy’, ‘racists’, ‘Nazis’ and ‘Zionist puppets’

Why is it important? Because when Asa Winstanley ran into trouble with the Labour Party. The NUJ stepped up to fight his corner. And the man leading the fight to protect Asa was David Ayrton – the same man who rejected me.

There is this nugget, which given my experience with the NUJ is just comical:

“NUJ organiser David Ayrton said: “It is wholly unacceptable for a journalist to be refused access in this way. An individual journalist’s political affiliation or party membership has no bearing on their work.”

I have a press card now. I applied elsewhere and received a card two weeks later. It was a simple process – after all, for a journalist who has made as many headlines as I have, why on earth wouldn’t it be?

Behind closed doors decisions are being taken that are excluding Jews from the community. In the case of my application to the NUJ the police have allow these thugs to be gatekeepers to a pass that affords protection. Which clearly makes the police co-conspirators in this discriminatory practice.

 

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