Vanessa Feltz: ‘I was chased down the street because I am Jewish'

Telegraph

6 days ago

Broadcaster Vanessa Feltz has revealed she was chased through the streets by a pro-Palestine activist who hurled anti-Semitic abuse at her.
Feltz, 63, said a 'white man' tried to whip up fellow protesters after spotting her heading from work while he screamed 'fascist Zionist scum' at her with his speaker.
The broadcaster feared she was set to become the victim of a mob attack before a female stranger intervened and told her to run for the Tube.
Speaking on her LBC show on Friday, Feltz said: 'I'll tell you what happened to me not long ago. Often when I arrive here at Global, which is in Leicester Square, my arrival coincides with, as I walk along Piccadilly, one of the pro-Palestinian or pro-Gazan marches.
'But there was no march that week and when I came out of the building at six o'clock when the show was finished, there was a protest going on in Piccadilly.
'I was walking to get to the Tube station when suddenly I heard very, very loudly, 'Vanessa Feltz, Vanessa Feltz, fascist Zionist scum'.
'I wheeled round and there was a guy, he looked like a white guy to me, not that I know what his origin was, and he was chasing me, screaming into a megaphone and chasing me shouting.
'I'm a grandma, I'm 63-years-old, I've never been an athlete, I was wearing wedge shoes and carrying a handbag, and I thought, Oh my God, I can't run and if he catches me what will you do to me, is he going to beat me up?'
Feltz revealed her ordeal when she was discussing Diane Abbott's claims that Jewish people do not suffer the same racism as black people.
Feltz, speaking to Royal Holloway politics lecturer Michael Bankole, said: 'I'm only saying it because that's what I was called in the street. Obviously it wasn't because of the colour of my skin but it was because I'm known to be Jewish.'
Ms Abbott was suspended from Labour again last week after she defended her 2023 comments about racism.
The veteran MP apologised and was readmitted to the party before the 2024 general election, but in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme last week, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.
Ms Abbott said: 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism, which is about colour, and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know.
'You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them. But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. They are different types of racism.
'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.'