What on earth has Amy Winehouse got to do with Gaza?

There are plenty of legitimate ways to protest what is happening in the Middle East, writes Emmy-winning documentary maker Teddy Leifer. But defacing a statue of a dead British singer who had no connection to Israel is not one of them

‘Amy Winehouse being a famous Jew was enough to make her statue a target’ (Getty)

Amy Winehouse, who was immortalised after her death with a lifesize bronze in Camden Market, famously wore a Star of David around her neck. This week, that necklace was covered over with a sticker of a Palestinian flag.

Whoever did this could have placed it anywhere on her statue – but they chose, very intentionally, to cover her only Jewish marking. Winehouse, who was Jewish, had no notable connection with Israel, and she died 12 years before the current phase of the conflict in Gaza began. Being a famous Jew was enough to make her a target.

I have sometimes told Jewish friends that they were being a little hysterical about antisemitism in this country. I said so during Jeremy Corbyn’s years as Labour leader. I even said it to my parents. I was wrong. They sensed something that was, perhaps, often under the surface, waiting to ignite.

It is now well documented that there has been an exponential rise in anti-Jewish racism in the UK since 7 October. Statistics published by the Community Security Trust last week noted that, for the first time, every police authority in the UK had reports of antisemitic incidents. In total, racist incidents directed at Jews increased by a staggering 589 per cent in 2023, compared to the previous year.

I have nothing good to say about Benjamin Netanyahu, and I don’t personally know any Jews who do. As a British Jew, I ought not to have to set out this political position – but it now feels like a necessary qualifier in any conversation even remotely related to the war. I, and everyone I know, is heartbroken by the deaths of all innocent people in Gaza and Israel.

Other than signing in to Facebook a couple of times a year, I used to stay away from social media entirely. I decided some time ago that it wasn’t really for me; 7 October changed that. Suddenly, I was hearing from friends and colleagues that social media was hosting a noticeable spike in antisemitism. Incidents that, although not exclusively online, now peppered the internet with Jew hatred with perpetrators doing so mostly with impunity.

The statue of Amy Winehouse in Camden Market defaced with a sticker of the Palestinian flag (Supplied)

When I peer into the cesspit of X/Twitter and Instagram, one of the things that disturbs me most is the frequent reference to the Holocaust, and the casual drawing of parallels between the near extermination of the Jewish people with the awful images coming out of Gaza. Typical is the pairing of images from Auschwitz with Gaza, morphing the Star of David into a Swastika, and positioning clips from Schindler’s List or The Zone of Interest adjacent to present-day footage.

But why the Holocaust? If you want to make a point about human suffering there are, sadly, many powerful and more recent images with which to draw equivalence. But those aren’t so useful if what you’re really doing is Jew-baiting.

Inverting the Holocaust, a singularly horrific event in relatively recent Jewish history, is cruel and it targets Jews – not the Israeli government. It is unequivocally defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance as antisemitic, using Jewish trauma to attack Jews. It denigrates the memory of murdered Jews and, as academic Lesley Klaff explains, presents the Holocaust as a moral lesson for, and even a moral indictment of “the Jews”.

Inverting the Holocaust, a singularly horrific event in relatively recent Jewish history, is cruel and it targets Jews – not the Israeli government

Holocaust inversion is a pernicious and cynical form of masking hardcore antisemitism and there is an easy-to-play-along version of it on social media right now where people post material best summarised as: “See? The victims have become perpetrators.”

Those who lead the way on this know exactly what they’re doing. Many who repost this material however might not even understand the impact it has and may believe they’re doing so out of empathy with Palestinians or to protest Israeli government policy. But this doesn’t help Palestinians and it won’t impact Israeli policy – it just hurts Jews.

There are umpteen ways to protest legitimately, both online and physically. Targeting Amy Winehouse’s statue because she’s a famous Jew and pointing towards the Holocaust because it’s the most famous Jewish tragedy, are not included.

Teddy Leifer is a five-time Emmy winning documentary producer and Academy Award nominee