One of Britain’s biggest publishers, Random House, has apologised and paid significant libel damages to a Jewish activist in Manchester who is co-chairman of the North West Friends of Israel, Raphi Bloom. Mr Bloom has told the Jewish News that he intends to donate the money to Israeli charities.
The case relates to a Random House book published last year, written by James Fergusson, called Al-Britannia, My Country: A journey through Muslim Britain. In the book Mr Fergusson alleged that an unnamed individual — in fact, Raphi Bloom — had led a campaign of harassment and intimidation against a Muslim woman doctor. She is Dr Siema Iqbal, who was one of the most prominent boycott campaigners against the Israeli Kedem shop in central Manchester.
The Kedem shop sells beauty products made in Israel. The protests outside the shop began in 2014, against the actions of the Israeli government. In a a statement read out in the High Court on Monday, by barrister William Bennett, the court was told that “groups who described themselves as pro-Palestinian began to protest outside the shop in order to prevent members of the public from buying its products on the ground that they were made in Israel.”
Mr Bloom, as co-chairman of the North West Friends of Israel, had led a counter-protest.