Two guilty of assaulting pro-Palestinian activist

Two members of an extremist Jewish organisation have been found guilty of assaulting pro-Palestinian activists in London.

Roberta Moore, leader of the UK arm of the Jewish Defence League and leader of the Jewish division of the English Defence League, was convicted of two counts of assault and one count of possession of an offensive weapon. Her accomplice Robert De Jonge was convicted of assault.

The unprovoked attack on Andy Simons, a retired British Library professor, and Simon Assaf, assistant editor of the Socialist Review, erupted at the Tottenham Palestine Literature Festival on 20 September last year, after Orim Shimshon, a pro-Israel activist, staged a protest during a series of talks on the Balfour Declaration.

De Jonge punched 62-year-old Simons in the face while attacking him with a rolled up paper. Moore then discharged a dye spray in Simons’ face before turning it on festival bookseller Assaf.

District Judge Julia Newton rejected De Jonge’s defence that he had accidentally hit Simons with a rolled-up piece of paper while intervening to defend Moore and ruled that De Jonge had acted with full intent to cause injury.

The two were released on bail until sentencing on condition they did not attend any event involving Haringey Justice for Palestinians. Sentencing will take place 23 March. The hearing this week took place over two days.

Simons, who was hospitalised after the incident, told MEMO of the “thuggish behaviour of civilian soldiers of Zionism as they embrace the English Defence League”.

“These aren’t the naive ‘Liberal Zionists’ who give Israel a warm hug,” he said, “these are proto-fascist thugs.”