A row erupted in a council chamber about the possibility of financial links such as pension fund investments in Israeli firms.
The seven-hour meeting was adjourned three times and delayed by about 30 minutes after clashes between councillors and heckling from the public gallery at Hove Town Hall on October 13.
Members were accused of antisemitism as Brighton and Hove City Council debated a motion proposed by Green councillor Ollie Sykes.
The disruption followed an earlier wrangle as a Jewish widow called on civic leaders to show support with their actions rather than just voice it.
During the meeting, from the gallery, members of the public shouted: “Shame on you! This is hatred against Jews … Lies… It’s not genocide!”
The febrile atmosphere reached its height during one of the final debates of a long night as the Greens called for a report into whether the council had any financial links with Israeli companies linked to the war in Gaza.
The public gallery erupted in booing as Cllr Sykes said: “We have to do this because what’s happened in Gaza is genocide.”
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons, who is Jewish, called out: “This is antisemitism!”
The mayor of Brighton and Hove, Amanda Grimshaw, who was chairing the meeting of the full council, asked Cllr Lyons to stop calling out.
Cllr Grimshaw asked the public gallery to quieten down to allow the debate to continue as she had done earlier in the evening when the Labour council leader Bella Sankey was speaking.
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows addressed the mayor, saying that the speech was “antisemitic abuse” to cheers from the public gallery.
Cllr Lyons called out: “This should not be tolerated in the chamber.”
The mayor adjourned the meeting.
When the meeting resumed, Cllr Lyons challenged the motion as “posturing drivel to give an undemocratic, racist hate mob something to cheer about”.
The numbers were against him as the council passed the motion by 36 votes to five – with only the Tories voting against. There was then further disruption from the gallery.
There were shouts of “dead Jews on the streets of Brighton will be on your hands” and “you wonder why that happened in Manchester” and “how can you betray us?”
The outcry led to another adjournment.
Tensions were already high after a pro-Palestine protest outside Hove Town Hall before the meeting with a highly visible security presence in and outside the town hall.
There was shouting as Cllr Sankey condemned the attacks on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue, in Manchester, on Yom Kippur, and the arson attack on the Peacehaven Mosque three days later.
A deputation from members of the Jewish community asked for the council’s support, with Susan Sheftz describing the Labour government’s decision to recognise Palestine as a “betrayal”.
Mrs Sheftz said: “At a time when Jews and Israel are fighting for survival, this decision has been felt as a blow – and, yes, by many, as antisemitic.
“Every year, you stand with us at Holocaust memorials. You say: ‘Never again is now.’ And you mean it. But this is the ‘now’. Jews again face an existential threat – and too often we feel we do not have your support.”
The mayor asked Mrs Sheftz to stick to the words printed in the agenda – and this was met with vocal criticism from the gallery.
Later, the Sussex Jewish Representative Council criticised the Greens’ “performative action” and the council’s vote to ask for a report into its pension fund’s possible Israeli investments.
The Jewish group said: “At a time when community tensions are so high in our city, including the recent torching of a mosque here, this council should be doing everything in its power to listen to all its minority communities and focus on bringing them together rather than supporting unnecessary actions that only serve to divide.
“After two long years, we welcomed a new day in the Middle East with the opportunity of peace for all.”
