by Charles Hymas, Telegraph
Force rules artwork condemned as ‘anti-Semitic’ does not meet threshold for hate crime or non-crime hate incident
Drawings at an “anti-Semitic” art exhibition allegedly showing Jewish people eating babies are not “directly abusive or insulting” to Jews, a police force has decided.
Kent Police has ruled that art in the exhibition condemned by leading Jewish figures and politicians for portraying anti-Semitic tropes has not reached the threshold to be considered either a hate crime or a non-crime hate incident.
The force was responding to a complaint after the exhibition, called Drawings Against Genocide, prompted an outcry from Jewish campaign groups and politicians who said the artwork was “grotesque” and “not just sickening, but dangerous”.
In a letter to the complainant, the force said: “The artwork is critical of the Israeli state and its actions but does not include content that is directly abusive or insulting toward Jewish people as a group.
“There is also no indication of an intent by the artist to stir up racial or religious hatred, which is a specific requirement within the legislation.”
The Drawings Against Genocide exhibition at an independent gallery in Margate, Kent, featured hundreds of crudely drawn pictures that critics claimed contained anti-Semitic tropes.