Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem accused of stoking race riots in UK
Jerusalem city council member Aryeh King (center, with black mask) visits at the Beit Orot yeshiva on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, 26 April 2021
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 7 August 2024:
The deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King, has been accused of attempting to stoke far-right riots and tensions in the UK after posting repeatedly about the violence in recent days.
On Sunday 4 August, as anti-Muslim and racist mob attacks wracked cities and towns across the UK, King posted a cartoon image showing a brown Muslim-looking man with a beard and skullcap embracing a white British police officer, who has his arms around the Muslim.
“Together we will make this country yours,” the speech bubble from the policeman said. “Thank you for being so weak,” the bubble for the Muslim read. Lee Harpin, a journalist at Jewish News, denounced the post as “disgraceful”. “Somehow has it in himself to suggest anti-Muslims riots in the UK are some kind of Muslim plot. Far-right narrative.”
Rabbi David Mason, executive director of the London-based refugee support organisation HIAS+JCORE, said: “This is just not real and basically Islamophobia drawn from conspiracy theory. That it is coming from a Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem is shameful.” British journalist Aaron Bastani remarked that “if this was a Russian or Iranian account, and official, it would be covered by the media as overseas disinformation, foreign intervention, etc.”
Carl Zha, a prominent podcast host with over 150,000 followers on X, accused King of “trying to incite riot in England”.
‘Radical Islamic Movement’
Arieh King’s parents immigrated to Israel from England. He was elected to Jerusalem’s city council on the United Jerusalem party slate in 2020 and subsequently became deputy mayor the same year.