A senior judge was under investigation after being accused of making antisemitic remarks in court that may have swayed his jury into acquitting a group of protesters.
Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.
Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law.
The judge added that ‘there may be much to be admired’ about the chief protester, and that ‘in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal’.
The Office for Judicial Complaints, which deals with objections over the conduct of judges and magistrates, confirmed that an inquiry into how Judge Bathurst-Norman handled the trial of five political activists at Hove Crown Court in June is under way.
Its findings will be considered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who have the final say on any disciplinary action.
He criticised what he called “the Israeli colonialisation and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem… the Israeli colonial settlement policy”. He described Operation Cast Lead as “a turkey shoot; the civilians had no escape”.
The judge suggested: “If the members of the Israeli Air Force commit war crimes they can be prosecuted in England, as can anyone who knowingly helps the Israeli Air Force to commit such crimes or is complicit in their commission.”
Judge Bathurst-Norman also referred to the Gaza flotilla incident, which had not taken place at the time of the break-in to the EDM factory.
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