London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2025

By backing housing charity’s ‘Jewish only’ rule, UK court drops the ball. Aren’t we all equal in Britain?

By backing housing charity’s ‘Jewish only’ rule, UK court drops the ball. Aren’t we all equal in Britain?

A small legal challenge has turned into a precedent-setting case about whether someone in today’s Britain can be prioritised or denied housing on the basis of their religion.
The law isn’t always right and it’s not just people who can be taken hostage.

In a disgraceful decision deemed legitimate by the UK’s highest court, a single mother with four children was refused social housing – because she wasn’t a Jew.

It’s that simple.

The charity Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA) owns 470 houses in the London borough of Hackney. Local authorities promised, in October 2017, the next available home to the woman and her kids, two of whom are autistic.
AIHA refused to hand over the keys to any of its SIX four-bedroom, unoccupied flats.

Their argument was it makes offers “only to members of the Orthodox Jewish community.” As Britain is a secular nation, the woman’s legal team found this claim astonishing and argued it had the same sentiment as the ‘No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish’ signs that were once displayed in some pubs.

Lord Sales stated the charity’s use of positive discrimination was lawful, under the Equality Act 2010, in order to correct the disadvantage faced by the community. The issue apparently was not racism, but discrimination on the grounds of religious observance. The court considered the “widespread and increasing overt antisemitism in our society.”

Intolerance or hate speech of any form is unacceptable. But it’s hard to believe the courts and public reaction would have been the same, if this had been Islam or a group of Pashtuns from the Iranian border region.

Jewish affairs are treated differently. There's a 'kid gloves' approach and they’re deemed to be culturally valuable, while other communities are sometimes dismissed as interlopers. AIHA’s founder Ita Cymerman-Symons, speaking last year about the legal action, offered the view: “Which non-Jewish person honestly speaking wants to live in the midst of a building full of Haredi men with all the beards, and all the chanting on a Friday night and all the children?”

A homeless single mother with four children for one, along with many others.

Plenty of people in social housing endure noisy neighbours, potent cooking smells and screaming kids. But isn’t that wonderful? Diversity and living cheek by jowl with people who see, think and believe different things to you.

That’s a rich learning experience for anyone.

The fallacy of the AIHA’s superiority complex of viewing Orthodox Jews above others is, every public service is available to their members. And, of the charity’s 2019 income of £105,710, the sum of £39,716 came from British government grants. They won’t be stonewalled at hospital or refused entry on a bus, so why should they be allowed to create their small-minded kingdom with impunity?

These Jewish community leaders seem to be shutting out anyone who doesn’t align with their beliefs. It’s unhealthy and depressing, especially in a multicultural metropolis like London.

The judgement also referenced issues that Orthodox Jews don’t like to live outside of the Stamford Hill area and they tend to be poorer than the wider Jewish community. Many of us would prefer not to live outside of the millionaire’s playgrounds of Kensington, Knightsbridge and Mayfair – but we tend to be poorer, so can’t afford it. That doesn’t mean the courts would support us founding the Republic of Poverty Housing Association, and letting us administer who can move in.

Even if we concede that Orthodox Jews appear to support AIHA’s ghetto-isation, aren’t the courts supposed to rule for the greater good? It makes no sense to encourage people to live in self-imposed enclaves. How are they going to progress in life, or do they never plan to leave the streets around their homes?

There’s also a wider impact of the judgement. It raises the hackles of the population. It hacks away at the concept of respecting every other citizen. The far-right will jump on this and sadly there’s no defence. It will birth more discontentment and raise tensions.

The law lords have dropped the ball, because they are the highest court in the land, they had the chance to set a precedent. They seem to have been influenced by Jewish sensitivity, that labels anyone who disagrees with the faith an anti-Semite. It’s hard to see how justice, fairness, compassion and understanding are applicable. But superiority, tokenism and favouritism have been advanced.

Why?

Well one of the court’s final points was AIHA was "a small housing provider, but similar discrimination by a larger one might not be allowed.”

We’re all equal, right?
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
×