Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) is a British non-governmental organisation established in August 2014 by members of the Anglo-Jewish community.^[1][2][3] It publishes research, organises rallies and petitions, and conducts litigation.

CAA was set up in early August 2014, after an increase in antisemitic incidents that accompanied the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.^[4][5] A grassroots campaign, it grew largely out of social media activity among those who felt more should be done to promote the Jewish community's concerns after a meeting to discuss responses where a campaigner had her concerns dismissed by Board of Deputies president Vivian Wineman.^[6]

In January 2015, the then-UK Home Secretary, Theresa May, praised CAA for its work and undertook to ensure that the law against antisemitism is "robustly enforced".^[7] On 1 October 2015, it was registered as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO).^[8] Its chair is Gideon Falter and its first director of communications was Jonathan Sacerdoti.^[9]

CAA publishes primary and secondary research based on opinion polling and Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests. CAA's National Antisemitic Crime Audit collects and analyses antisemitic crime data from all police forces in the United Kingdom. CAA uses the report to assess trends in antisemitic crime and to make recommendations to the British government.^[10][11]

CAA's first demonstration was in 2014 against the Tricycle Theatre in London, which had cancelled its hosting of that November's UK Jewish Film Festival due to the contemporaneous conflict in Gaza, unless the festival rejected funding from parties involved in the conflict, specifically a £1,400 sponsorship from the Israeli embassy, which the Tricycle Theatre offered to replace.^[12] In August 2014, following discussions with the festival organizers, the Tricycle withdrew its condition.^[13]

In August 2018, CAA organised a demonstration outside Labour Party's headquarters to protest against the handling of antisemitism in the Labour Party, and to condemn the-then party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.^[14] That same month, the organisation launched a Change.org petition titled "Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and must go";^[15] it featured a Labour slogan modified to read "For the many not the Jew", which was signed by over 30,000 by 30 August 2018.^[16] A counter-petition against CAA with the title "To Get the Charity Commission to Deregister the Zionist Campaign Against Anti-Semitism" was signed by almost 7,500 and sent to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, which said in response that it was "assessing concerns raised about the Campaign Against Antisemitism's campaigning activities".^[17] In October 2018, the Charity Commission said that charities must be independent of party politics and insisted that CAA reword its petition.^[18]

In November 2018, CAA asked the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to investigate the Labour Party.^[19] In May 2019, following complaints submitted by CAA and the Jewish Labour Movement, the EHRC launched a formal investigation into whether Labour had "unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish".^[20]

On 26 November 2023, following several pro-Palestinian marches in London during the Israel–Hamas war, the CAA organised the March Against Antisemitism, starting at the Royal Courts of Justice. Estimates from police indicate that between 50,000^[21] and 100,000 people attended the march; it was claimed by the organisation to be "the largest gathering of its kind since the Battle of Cable Street"^[22]

On 18 April 2024, footage emerged of Gideon Falter being stopped and threatened with arrest by Metropolitan Police officers adjacent to a pro-Palestine march in London on 13 April 2024. In the footage, a police officer says: "you are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestine march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence." The Metropolitan Police apologised for the incident, which appeared to be a case of them profiling a person on the basis of their visible Jewishness, though retracted an initial statement that was accused of victim blaming. On the incident, Falter stated: "Despite being told repeatedly that London is safe for Jews when these marches are taking place, my interactions with police officers last Saturday show that the Met believes that being openly Jewish will antagonise the anti-Israel marchers and that Jews need protection." Calls for Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, to resign, have intensified since the footage was released, including from former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman.^[23][24] Later, a longer, 13 minute recording of the encounter was released, which showed that the officer had offered to escort Falter away from the demonstration, and accused Falter of being disingenuous about why he wanted to cross at that particular point. Rowley subsequently praised the conduct of the officer as "professional" and stated no disciplinary action would be taken against him.^[25]

CAA has used the process of judicial review in English law to scrutinise and reverse decisions made by the government and authorities. In March 2017, CAA forced the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to quash a decision not to prosecute an alleged far-right leader over a speech in which he issued a call to "free England from Jewish control".^[26][27][28]

In December 2017, the CPS decided not to prosecute an Islamic Human Rights Commission director who was one of the organisers of a Quds Day rally; during the rally, the director allegedly stated that Zionists were responsible for the Grenfell Tower fire, called for Israel's destruction, and said that he was fed up with Zionists, their rabbis, synagogues, and supporters. CAA attempted to begin a private prosecution for inciting racial or religious hatred, which was blocked by the CPS, as they had determined there was no "realistic prospect of conviction".^[29][30][31]

In early 2018, CAA brought a successful private prosecution against Alison Chabloz,^[32][33] a Holocaust denier who released three YouTube videos of self-written antisemitic songs characterising Auschwitz as a "theme park" and the Holocaust as the "Holohoax".^{[34][35][36][37]} Chabloz was subsequently imprisoned for breaking the conditions of her suspended sentence.^[38] In July 2018, Gilad Atzmon was forced to apologise to CAA chairman Gideon Falter and pay costs and damages after being sued for libel. Atzmon acknowledged that he had falsely stated that Falter had personally profited from fabricating antisemitic incidents.^[39][40][41]

In 2019, the CAA was sued by Tony Greenstein for libel in relation to what is or is not antisemitism following five articles it had published about him. In 2017, Greenstein had launched a petition asking the Charity Commission to deregister the organisation, claiming its purpose was to limit freedom of speech by calling opponents of Israel antisemitic.^[42] Greenstein's libel claim was dismissed.^[43]

A February 2017 letter to The Guardian, which was signed by 250 academics,^[44] stated that CAA cites the Working Definition of Antisemitism in asking its supporters to "record, film, photograph and get witness evidence" about Israeli Apartheid Week events, and CAA "will help you to take it up with the university, students' union or even the police." The signatories said: "These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom ... . It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about antisemitism."^[45][46][47]

In August 2019, CAA asked Goldsmiths, University of London, to cancel a booking made by the Communist Party of Great Britain because they objected to some of the speakers who they said "have a history of baiting Jews or outright antisemitism". The university in response referenced their commitment to free speech and that hiring event space to legal organisations was a common practice amongst universities.^[48]

In January 2015, the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism wrote: "We were somewhat disappointed to note that not all of the messages from that group [CAA] have been in line with CST's stated approach of seeking to avoid undue panic and alarm." They added "it is important that the leadership do not conflate concerns about activity legitimately protesting Israel's actions with antisemitism, as we have seen has been the case on some occasions."^[49] That same month, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research said that a CAA survey about antisemitism was "littered with flaws", and "may even be rather irresponsible".^[50] After criticism by CAA of Shami Chakrabarti over her 2016 report into antisemitism in the UK Labour Party, a number of British Jews wrote to The Guardian dissociating themselves from what they described as "the pro-Israel lobbyists of the Campaign Against Antisemitism".^{[51][citation needed]}

In July 2018, the Labour MP Margaret Hodge became one of a number of honorary patrons of CAA. In the run up to the 2019 United Kingdom general election, CAA asked her to resign as a patron because she was standing as a Labour Party candidate; she did so but described their request as "both astonishing and wounding", showing a lack of respect and impugning her integrity.^[52] In February 2020, the Morning Star reported that Shahrar Ali, the Home Affairs spokesman of the Green Party of England and Wales, had made a formal complaint to the Charity Commission that the CAA had failed to be independent of party politics, which is a legal requirement for charities, and that the commission was assessing.^[53] CAA had previously described a 2009 speech by Ali, who described Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and Ehud Olmert, as "warmongers",^[54] as antisemitic and an "offensive rant".^[55][56]

In 2023, following the CAA-led March Against Antisemitism, the British Jewish organisation Na'amod released a statement about their decision not to attend the CAA-led demonstration, stating: "we know this march is not just about antisemitism. It’s clear from the event description that CAA has organised this march in response to huge weekly ceasefire demonstrations in London."^[57] Na'amod publicly denied CAA's characterizations of the prior ceasefire marches as antisemitic, saying "This could not be further from the truth. Pitting Jewish safety against Palestinian freedom doesn’t make Jews safer; it makes fighting antisemitism harder."^[57]