Our Fight and Stop The Hate UK exposed: who is behind these pro-Israel groups?

We investigated the networks that claim to be grassroots organisations fighting antisemitism. But underneath the surface, all is not as it seems.

Our Fight and Stop The Hate UK have been active since October 2023. Both present as independent groups fighting Jewish discrimination, putting themselves amongst grassroots communities fighting antisemitism in the UK. Seems good, right?

Yet from our findings, which are so unbelievably shocking, we don’t understand how they are still operating.

Two groups, one mission

To the public eye, they are completely separate groups, but it turns out they are very close to one another.

Stop The Hate UK has been seen online praising the work of the founder and CEO of Our Fight, Mark Birbeck – a software developer from the UK who has worked with the likes of Shell and Lego. They have been vocal about how honoured they are to stand alongside him.

Stop The Hate UK claims they attend protests to ensure the ‘media coverage includes our voices and doesn’t solely focus on pro-Palestine activism’. In our opinion, this look less like an antisemitism campaign but more a PR mission.

The network within Our Fight

Our Fight was founded by Mark Birbeck. After 7 October 2023, the group’s website presents itself as if one person is writing all the articles under the author name of ‘Our Fight’. However, independent investigation website Power Base Info has found that there are in fact multiple people behind the site’s articles.

Investigations have led us to confirm that Mark is involved, with his name being shown as an author. We found this information via the website’s site map. One of the links had ‘author/mark’, which confirms to us he runs the website and publishes the articles written by himself and the contributors.

Most writers on the site have major connections to the LM Network, a libertarian ideological network with a long history of controversy, including Mike Fume, who is the founder of Living Marxism, now rebranded as Spiked. (The magazine has a habit of denying genocides.) Fume worked in communications for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party in 2019 and has spoken at many Our Fight events.

Sabine Beppler-Saphl, a German reporter for Spiked and a contributing author for Our Fight, has published Facebook posts stating that ‘Islam deserves no special protection’.

Another Our Fight journalist, Thomas Deichmann, is famously known for his article claiming ITN fabricated footage of Bosnian Muslim protestors in a concentration camp. Of course, the courts found this indefensible, and this resulted in the magazine that published it, Living Marxism, having to cease trading and rebrand to Spiked because they couldn’t afford the £375,000 in damages. Deichmann is also part of the LM and Spiked networks, along with Beppler-Saphl.

Then we have Niyak Ghorbani, an Iranian dissident and journalist, and arguably the most visible public face of the organisation. Ghorbani is pro-Israeli and is known to attend pro-Israeli demos in London. He is also a fan of GB News and Tommy Robinson, sharing their content across his platforms. So much for stopping the spread of hate.

Finally, we have Kurpa Patel. She is the most active on the ground among Our Fight activists. But her involvement goes far beyond that; she has been pictured wearing pro-IOF materials at demos and was even arrested by the police for doing this outside a Bob Vylan concert.

Calling yourself a ‘campaigner against hate’ whilst wearing the merchandise of a military that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians is a contradiction. It’s hard to wrap your head around. Her Facebook profile is also emblazoned with the term ‘Proud Zio’, just in case anybody was unsure.

The pattern

Looking behind both groups’ banners, it’s plain to see a constant pattern of the same belief: any criticism of Israel is antisemitism.

The consistent theme of posts and articles is to heap blame upon Muslims and pro-Palestine activists. This has no doubt been the source of much animosity. Many pro-Palestinian journalists have found themselves in conflict with these groups. They have been labelled as antisemites for speaking out about a government responsible for the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Let’s be clear: speaking up about the actions that Israel has taken towards the people in Gaza is not antisemitism. Nor is standing with the Palestinian people or calling for a ceasefire.

Choosing to say it is, is a deliberate political decision. It aims to protect a military force from facing the truth of its actions.

Who is funding this?

To date, we have found no evidence to suggest who is funding either of these groups. That said, it’s clear to see that multiple people involved across both organisations have connections to other networks that may be funded by pro-Israeli lobbies operating in the UK. Such networks have been known to fund these types of groups in the past.

Possible GDPR violations?

Our Fight has a section on its website where you can sign up to be a member and support via donations, handing over their personal data. Through our investigations, we saw they had no page on their site that contains any privacy policies. This is a legal requirement if you’re storing and handling other people’s data.

Our Fight and Stop The Hate UK: instruments of hate

Neither Our Fight nor Stop The Hate UK are the grassroots organisations they claim to be. Nor are they making any attempt to stomp out hate. If anything, both have been instrumental in amplifying hate, spreading discord, and celebrating the deaths of thousands of people in Gaza.

Muslims, pro-Palestinian activists, and independent pro-Palestine journalists have been consistently targeted by both groups. Some individuals have even been doxxed.

Palestinians and Muslims are an undeserving target of Zionist groups. But they will continue to be, as long as groups like Our Fight and Stop The Hate UK are publishing their vitriol.

Real antisemitism is unfortunately still alive and well, and we should treat it seriously when we are presented with it. But branding any and all condemnation of a genocide as antisemitism is reductive and disrespectful. It does nothing to bring an end to any conflict.

Featured image via the Canary