Jewish father whose baby had 'Israel' defaced from baby's birth certificate 'will sue the staff members responsible'

22 February 2024, 05:41

A Jewish man whose baby had 'Israel' scribbled out on her birth certificate during a passport application plans to sue the people who did it.

Members of staff working for a private company hired by the Home Office are said to have been suspended after North London parents Israel and Dorin found that their six-month-old daughter's birth certificate had been defaced.

The birth certificate, which had Israel down as the father's birthplace, is now invalid and the couple have now been issued a new version.

The Home Office launched an investigation after it emerged that the document had been defaced, with some members of staff now suspended as it continues.

But Israel said that he wants to sue the individual staff members responsible.

He told Mail Online: "I am worried because the Home Office said some staff had been suspended - not just one person - which for me raises concerns that these people working for the company were in a hostile environment."

Israel added: "We are very happy that the Government took swift action but I hope whoever this public servant is banned.

"I would like to sue them personally for the damage they have carried out to my daughter's birth certificate, my property."

He said he was discussing with a lawyer whether to report the incident to the police as a hate crime.

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Israel also said he was worried that people were working with the government without proper checks.

"How are they accepting [staff] who do not meet the Government's standards or values?,' he added. 

"The government absolutely needs to make sure when they get people working in their system they should be vetted and everything should be checked to ensure they are not part of a hate gang or any sort of hateful organisation."

Israel earlier told LBC News that his wife's first reaction was: "'Why my baby, which is not six months old yet, needs to suffer such discrimination because of where her father was born?'

"She felt very upset about that," he said.

• Listen to the full interview on LBC News on Global Player

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Israel said that the episode had made him and his wife, who have three children, consider their future in the UK.

He said: "We are here in the UK, it should be a place for everyone....what came yesterday to our post made us think, maybe this is not the right place for us? Maybe we just need to pack up and go to our only land?"

Israel said that he wanted a formal apology from the Home Office to his daughter. He added: "She's not six months old yet and she's already suffered discrimination on her ethnic background."

He said that the person who defaced the birth certificate person "decided to take his personal opinion into the workplace, which is paid from our taxes, and the person failed to serve us as a public sector worker."

Israel added that while he wasn't comparing the incident to the Holocaust, it gave him an insight into how its victims may have felt.

He said: "It reminds me of that era when my grandparents needed to flee from the Netherlands and Germany because they cannot be there as a Jew....it feels like a systemical discrimination.

"We don't feel safe over here. Now I understand my grandparents who fled from Europe, how they feel."

Israel earlier told MailOnline that incident made him and his wife feel "as if we had been taken back to 1930's Germany where the Nazis would put notes on Jewish people's documentation.

He said he wanted the government to apologise, and for the person behind the vandalism to be removed from their position.

Israel added: "Unfortunately this birth certificate is not valid any more because it's been scribbled on. So this person has destroyed my child's identity, their birth certificate, just because it's a Jewish person.

"We are terrified because if this is the environment within the Home Office this is not a place we want to live. We are just as British as everyone else."

The Campaign against Antisemitism said: "Two weeks ago, a member of the public sent off a passport application to @ukhomeoffice for his six-month-old baby girl.

"Today, the birth certificate was returned ripped with the word 'Israel' scribbled out. The parents are understandably very concerned about this incident.

"We are asking the Home Office to investigate how this happened. The Home Office has responsibility for law enforcement and the security of the Jewish community."

Home Secretary James Cleverly said in response that he had "asked Home Office officials "to investigate this urgently and will see that appropriate action is taken."

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It comes amid an explosion in anti-Semitism in the UK, according to a report by the Community Security Trust (CST), which provides security to Jewish institutions in the UK.

The group said that there were 4,103 anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in 2023, up from the previous annual record of 2,261 incidents which had been reported two years previously.

CST said in its report, released last week, that much of this was driven by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Policing minister Chris Philp said the report made for "deeply disturbing reading".

"There is no excuse for the behaviour outlined in the CST report, or seen in some of the shocking incidents that have occurred recently," he told the Commons.

"Whenever and wherever criminality involving antisemitism occurs, this government expects police to fully investigate the incident, and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to bring the perpetrators to justice."

Discussing the latest incident, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "This is completely unacceptable. When sending off a passport application to the Home Office, the last thing one should ever expect is to have their child's birthday certificate returned, torn, with the parent's place of birth scribbled out, just because it is the Jewish state.

"We are assisting the parents, who are understandably very concerned about this incident. We are also asking the Home Office to investigate how this happened.

"The Home Office has responsibility for law enforcement and the security of the Jewish community and the wider public. Confidence in the authorities among British Jews is at painfully low levels and must be restored."