Cuddly Octopussies Are Not Antisemitic

When is a cuddly toy octopus not a cuddly toy octopus? When its being used as a way to covertly spread hatred to all Jews obviously or so one Conservative Baroness, Jacqueline Foster, thought who accused the team from University of Oxford’s Christ Church college who appeared on University Challenge with the offensive stuffed cephalopod's front and centre as they answered questions on the chromosomal complement of a cell.
'The students had chosen an antisemitic symbol for the mascot. The octopus is a longstanding trope of antisemitic conspiracy theories, as a supposed symbol of the power exerted by Jewish people' so said Foster but the students said it’s literally a cuddly toy and took her to court and the court agreed because the peer has been made to apologise and pay costs and substantial damages.
Dave Rich, an expert on antisemitism and Director of Policy at British charity Community Security Trust, tweeted that: 'Sometimes an octopus is just an octopus, and not an antisemitic reference at all' but it does drive home just how the word 'antisemitism' gets bandied around so easily as a way to shut down any criticism of Israel and comes hot on the heels of Science Minister, Michelle Donelan, paying £15,000 to two members of Research England’s advisory group after accusing them of sharing 'extremist views'.
The extremist view shared was that Suella Braverman urging police to crack down on Hamas support in UK was disturbing' but after an investigation she was forced to make a grovelling apology saying that she had 'now withdrawn her false allegations and agreed to pay damages and costs'.
Obviously if any antisemitism is spoken then it is right it is called out but to go off shouting it all the time at anything and anybody not only gets pretty expensive when it is decided you are spouting nonsense but more importantly it waters down the real antisemitism when it does happen.