British television personality Bushra Shaikh claimed earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “Jewish blood on his hands” after the attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.
Shaikh, who appeared on The Apprentice and a reality show about immigration earlier this year, claimed in a video statement published on X there was a “direct link” between Israel’s “crimes” in the war on Hamas in Gaza and the “atrocity” against British Jewry.
“The Manchester attack is on Netanyahu. He has Jewish blood on his hands,” she captioned the video.
"For some reason we can’t call things out as they are,” she claimed. “There is no space for Islamophobia, anti-anything, antisemitism, whatever it is… Is it partly because our government, our leaders are refusing to acknowledge what is causing this spike in hate crimes?”
"I blame this on Benjamin Netanyahu. He keeps telling the world that those atrocities that are taking place in Gaza are for the security and the safety of Jewish people all around the world,” she continued."When things like that are said...you’re going to get people on the fringe minority that are radicalised by that s*** and end up putting Jewish communities in danger, which is what we’ve just seen here now.
"One man is putting millions of Jewish lives and millions of Muslim lives in danger so he can continue committing the crimes that he is in Gaza. That’s the connection.”
Wrapped in a keffiyeh, she later posted "
The UK is facing some troubling times and I am sad to see where our country is heading. 'With hardship comes ease' (Quran 94:5-6) 'The storm will pass, the sun will rise' (Revelation 21:4) 'Gam Zeh Ya'avor' Sending a prayer, unity and love to everyone."
Despite blaming Netanyahu and the state of Israel for the attack on Manchester's Jewry, Shaikh acknowledged in 2021 that antisemitism in the Muslim community predated the conflict.
"I cannot deny that the narrative to despise ALL Jewish people still exists in pockets through out our global Muslim community. So many Imams, teachers, parents continue to generalise & push this dangerous ideology onto the youth even today. Now is the time to address this," she wrote. "I went to Mosque a very long time ago & this 'hate the Jews' conditioning was very much present back then. I had to unlearn all of it, start from the very beginning, teaching myself & most of my Muslim friends did the same but not everyone could and so it continues in 2021."
About the Manchester synagogue attack
On Yom Kippur, this holiest day in the Jewish calendar, 35-year-old university dropout Jihad al-Shamie drove his vehicle into a Heaton Park Synagogue and began stabbing congregants.
Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed, one by Shamie and one by a responding officer.
The Syrian-born Shamie was out on bail at the time of the attack after being accused of rape. British media reported that someone by the same name was behind threats against pro-Israel Members of Parliament in 2012, long before the war in Gaza commenced.
Shamie’s father, a surgeon who worked for the Red Cross, praised the October 7 massacre before Israel began a military response to the terrorists in Gaza.
“Where is this so-called resistance with the Haifa rockets... May God’s curse be upon the hypocrites, the traitors pledged to a disgusting and filthy sectarian agenda – the moment of truth is inevitably coming,” he wrote on October 10, 2023, complaining of a lack of support from Arab nations as rockets were launched at Israel by both Hezbollah and Hamas.
“You told me [about the] Haifa rockets... Our brothers in Palestine are publicly asking for help from anyone who still has a part of honour or humanity, but with God’s permission, they will be victorious, oh you who sold your religion, your honour and your humanity to the mullahs of Tehran, and whoever sells his honour, there is no hope from him... As for the Arab governments, leave them to wander blindly in their tyranny. Long live the brave men of Gaza #Palestine_is_Arab.”