Antisemitic Holocaust denier and musician found guilty in landmark case after posting grossly offensive videos

Alison Chabloz has been found guilty today by Judge John Zani at Westminster Magistrates Court, after broadcasting antisemitic songs on YouTube. Chabloz is a prolific social media user who was reported to CST on numerous occasions for antisemitism, particularly on Twitter and YouTube. Chabloz has a long history of engaging in antisemitism and working with neo-Nazi groups. Chabloz is due to be sentenced at a later date.

Alison Chabloz, 54 from Derbyshire, uploaded several videos to YouTube about the Holocaust and Nazis. She described, in the videos, the Holocaust as a “Holohoax” and called Auschwitz, where 1.1 million people were murdered, including 960,000 Jews, a “theme park”. In court when her videos were played her supporters in the public gallery were “laughing and singing along.” Chabloz was defended by Adrian Davies, who previously defended Holocaust denier David Irving in his case against Deborah Lipstadt, and lost. 

In November 2016, CST worked closely with Twitter to ensure that several extremely antisemitic accounts were removed from the platform. This included Chabloz’s @AJCTMusic account which had engaged antisemitic abuse including Holocaust denial and “using Nazism to attack Israel, Zionists or Jews, in order to undermine and attack Jewish users in the most offensive way possible.”

Karen Robinson prosecuting the case against Chabloz in Westminster Magistrates Court said:

“The [YouTube] songs can only be assessed by placing them in the historical, religious and cultural context of the Holocaust and the history, more generally, of the Jewish people. Jewish individuals and events in history affecting Jews are portrayed in a mocking, denigrating and insulting manner, deliberately. The songs, specifically the language used within them have been carefully considered and composed with the language chosen deliberately.   The songs are designed to provoke maximum upset and discomfort. By the standards of an open and multi-racial society, they are grossly offensive.” 

Chabloz previously attended a meeting hosted by the far-right and racist group the London Forum, whose leader, Jeremy Bedford-Turner, was convicted this month for calling on his “soldiers” to liberate the UK from Jews. Bedford-Turner was also unsuccessfully represented by Adrian Davies. Chabloz’s own racist and bigoted views became evident in her police interview where she stated:

“My grandfather didn’t fight for our towns and cities to be taken over by non-whites and by non-Christians and he didn’t fight for rules that enable two men to get married and adopt children.”

Chabloz had earlier gained notoriety after performing the Quenelle outside Edinburgh Castle in 2015 during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Unfortunately, the Fringe Festival organisers refused to act after this was brought to their attention. The Quenelle arm gesture, invented by antisemitic comedian, Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, is considered antisemitic as it represents an inverted Nazi salute and is often performed in places linked to Jews, such as at Auschwitz and at Ohr Torah School in Toulouse, where four Jews were murdered by an antisemitic gunman, Mohammed Merah. CST’s Head of Policy, Dr Dave Rich, stated: 

“Dieudonné’s antisemitism is very much of the old variety, blaming Jewish speculators and globalists for the erosion of Europe’s moral core and the sapping of the nation’s strength…It is claimed by Dieudonné’s defenders that the quenelle and what it represents—call it Quenellism—is an anti-system, not antisemitic, posture….In place of the massed ranks of saluters or marchers that were the political theatre of totalitarianism, we have the viral online spread of quenelle selfies…Quenelle at Auschwitz? Fine. Quenelle at Upton Park? Fine. Quenelle in your living room? Fine. As long as you then tweet or post or blog your quenelle, you’re in.”

CST wishes to thank the Campaign Against Antisemitism for bringing a private prosecution against Chabloz after the Crown Prosecution Service initially decided not to proceed with the case. This case will send an important message to those who disseminate antisemitic posts, videos and images on social media, wrongly believing they are shielded from prosecution.