Calls are continuing to grow for the Mayor of Bath to resign today after he shared support on social media platform ‘X’ for antisemitic conspiracy theories following the arson attack on the Jewish ambulances in London.
Cllr Bharat Pankhania, who represents the Combe Down ward on Bath & North East Somerset Council, shared a post which claimed the attack on a Jewish ambulance service in Golders Green was an ‘Israeli false flag’ operation. The councillor also shared two others that incorrectly claimed the arson attack in north London, on Monday, was insurance fraud.
Nathan Hartley is the Director of the Bath & North East Somerset Faith Foundation, an organisation that works with businesses, schools and charities to tackle antisemitism and to raise awareness of the European Holocaust in the 1930s and 40s.
He said: “The Mayor of Bath’s comments and promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories are nothing short of abhorrent.
Organisations like ours have worked hard over the years to raise awareness of anti-Jewish hatred and how we all have a duty to stand up to it.
To have these sorts of comments being made by one of Bath’s most senior representatives, is not only a disappointment, but an absolute disgrace!
It was antisemitic conspiracy theories that led to the mass killing of six million Jews in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.”
Cllr Pankhania’s Combe Down ward is home to the district’s only Jewish cemetery, which for almost 200 years, has been a place of religious and cultural significance in the city.
The most senior local politician to call for the Mayor of Bath’s resignation is Cllr Karen Walker, Leader of the Independents for B&NES Group on the council, who has written to the Mayor’s office and the Charter Trustees asking for the process to now begin for the Mayor to be removed from office.
Karen is a former two-time Chairwoman of the Council and has worked with the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) on a number of projects across the district.
Cllr Walker said: “The Charter Trustees, that’s the body of councillors who represent wards in the city of Bath, have the power to remove the Mayor from office.
Cllr Pankhania’s comments and support for ideas that breed antisemitism have no place in our great city. He now needs to tender his resignation. The Bath Mayoralty, which has lasted for almost 800 years, deserves much better than this.”
