Member's statement: Anti-Semitism
Member's statement by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on .
- MLA
- Dr Steve Aiken OBE
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 23 September 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Anti-Semitism
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4543605
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The vile, endemic nature of anti-Semitism has been further demonstrated across the island in the past week. While the public support for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah on bridges in Dublin is bad enough, two other incidents are perhaps equally troubling. First, on 20 September, 'The Irish Times' published a cartoon that members of our Jewish community rightly called a "malevolent trope", redolent of the hideous use of the Jewish caricature that has been part of the anti-Semitic imagery for centuries and Nazi propaganda — not my words but those of the Jewish community. Furthermore, 'The Irish Times', which calls itself a "paper of record", would not publish a letter of complaint from Holocaust Awareness Ireland against the cartoonist's anti-Semitic bile. We then had the bizarre example of the Irish president, first, writing to the new Iranian president congratulating him on his election without even mentioning the malign influence that Iran has in the Middle East and Sudan or, indeed, in its support for Russia. Then, he complained in New York that a secret letter had been leaked by the Israeli embassy, blaming Israel for the letter he wrote and somehow implying that it had been stolen from his office. That was despite the fact that it was welcomed and published online by the Iranian embassy in Dublin. All racism is bad, but anti-Semitism is the oldest and vilest form of hate. That it is aided and abetted by cartoon tropes redolent of 1930s Germany and a president who falsely maligns Israel just shows how deeply rooted the scourge of anti-Semitism has become on this island. It is well beyond time that that racist behaviour is stopped, and, rest assured, all the anti-Semites on this island, you will not win. Washington, Brussels and other capitals around the world have now taken note of how prevalent such hate speech has become on this island.
313 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.47 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Identity framing (0.87); Controversy escalation (0.64).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.85).
- Subject area: Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice).
- The overall probability was low and the text did not adopt any identity-based framing.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.87 | Yes |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.09 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.53 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.12 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.64 | Yes |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.16 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.47 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.01 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.85 |
| Adopts it | 0.14 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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