Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, repeated Hamas propaganda in his Eid greeting. The Israeli embassy in London pointed this out.
That’s really all there is to this story. It’s not a he-said-she-said situation, despite the fact that Khan and everyone in the mainstream news organizations that cover Israel would like it to be a matter of opinion.
It’s not. And Israel and its defenders should embrace every opportunity to say so.
Here’s what happened. In Khan’s end-of-Ramadan message, he lamented that “more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, including more than 15,000 children.”
In addition to using Hamas’s false numbers, Khan had some pointed comments about the Jewish state: “These betrayals of humanity should weigh heavily on our collective conscience. But I’m proud that, while the international community has chosen to avert its gaze, Londoners have not.”
That is very strong language, “betrayals of humanity.” Technically he’s not wrong about that part—every one of the deaths from this war is another betrayal of humanity—by Hamas. Khan is simply transferring responsibility from where it belongs to where his left-leaning Labour constituency is more comfortable with it being placed.
The Israeli embassy correctly noted that those numbers are “Hamas propaganda,” and then offered some strong words of its own: “It is alarming that, throughout the message, there is no mention of Hamas or any condemnation of terrorism and a call for the release of 59 hostages that are being held in horrific and inhumane conditions,” adding that “in recent days, Hamas has tortured and murdered many Gazans protesting against the terror group, including Uday al-Rabbay. The values that Mr Khan speaks of must not be applied selectively.”
Khan fired back with a “Who? Me?” shtick that is getting tiresome. “The Mayor has repeatedly conveyed his outrage at attacks by Hamas on Israel and has strongly condemned these acts of terrorism. He is deeply saddened by the loss of all lives, and continues to support calls for a permanent ceasefire.”
This was not a foreign-policy speech to some think tank; it was Khan’s message to the Muslims of Britain on a religious holiday. His words were chosen very carefully and the intent—to stoke the flames of sectarian resentment in a country already feeling their heat—was transparent.
It’s not as if Khan doesn’t know exactly how the Jews of Britain are feeling these days. Last year, one survey found that “50% of respondents had considered leaving Britain due to antisemitism,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Younger participants were more likely to have contemplated leaving the country, with 67% of adults 18 to 24 years of age and 63% of adults 25-49 years of age agreeing with the sentiment.”
In a study of anti-Semitism in the UK in 2024, the Community Security Trust reported that the year saw the second-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents since the CST started keeping track 40 years ago.
“These hatreds are compounded by the stony silence with which Jewish concerns are met in far too many places of work, education and culture,” Mark Gardner, CST’s chief executive, said at the time. “It leaves Jews feeling ever more isolated and worried for the future.”
He was not exaggerating, especially regarding the anti-Semitism at work. On Thursday, the Times of Israel reported that “Nearly two-thirds of Jewish employees in the UK have encountered antisemitism in the workplace.” The response to those incidents was concerning as well: respondents said they sometimes got some empty words of support, a hollow gesture or two, but nothing materially changed.
And why might that be? Perhaps, just perhaps, Britain has a problem in which its ruling party parrots literal Hamas propaganda.
And the Labourites put in a surprising amount of effort to do so, constantly searching for new and creative ways to mine the bottomless pit of anti-Israel incitement. Over the weekend, two British Labour parliamentarians showed up in Israel claiming to be on a parliamentary delegation. Israeli officials checked and the story was false—the two MPs were left-wing agitators not on an official delegation but on a mission to use their diplomatic cover to egg on the movement to boycott the Jewish state. They were refused entry—Israel has a policy of helping Israel-boycotters maintain their boycotts by putting them back on a plane.
The UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and its Foreign Minister David Lammy made petulant statements about the incident in support of their awful Labour colleagues.
Again, all of this is being done not for the purposes of advancing a diplomatic settlement but to search beneath the couch cushions for any Hamas propaganda they might have missed. Hamas propaganda is a drug to them, and their behavior is that of addicts who have yet to hit rock bottom but are working hard to get there.
As everyone knows, the first step toward recovery is admitting the problem. So, yes, call them Hamas propagandists. For everyone’s sake, don’t sugarcoat the problem.
