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| UPDATED
EVERY THURSDAY
Thursday
26th February 2004 |
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| All
content © New Journal Enterprises, 2004. |
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Poet Tom Paulin
Jonathan Weinstock hides behind his father as they leave court |
| Protester’s
attacker told to do community work |
AN ENRAGED student
who assaulted a protester outside a Hampstead bookshop was sentenced
to 60 hours’ community service and ordered to pay £250 compensation
on Tuesday. Jonathan Weinstock, 23, attacked Claudia Manchander while
she demonstrated against the scrapping of a literary event hosted
by poet and critic Tom Paulin at Waterstone’s in Hampstead High Street
in March last year. Waterstone’s had withdrawn an invitation to Mr
Paulin – well known for his appearances on BBC2’s Late Review – at
short notice after he was quoted in a newspaper interview saying Israeli
settlers in the West Bank should be shot. In response, protesters,
including Ms Manchander, wore gags over their mouths in the street
outside the shop and handed out fliers to passers-by claiming that
free speech was under attack. But when Weinstock, who was described
by his lawyer Steven Gilchrist at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court
as “a committed and observant Jew”, walked past and saw the flier
he flew into a rage. He attempted to snatch the leaflet, bending back
Ms Manchander’s fingers, and shouted: “I will not have this crap!”
He then pushed another protester, Radia Bouzani, to the ground as
she fled in fear. Weinstock, from Hertfordshire, had denied common
assault and threatening behaviour but was found guilty last month.
On Tuesday Mr Gilchrist said his client had expressed “a degree of
remorse” for his actions, which had been provoked by the “offensive”
leaflet and “came against the backdrop of an increase in anti-semitic
attacks”. But James Benson, prosecuting, said the attack on the peaceful
demonstration “remained a serious matter”. The court had earlier found
that the leaflets were not racist. Weinstock was ordered to pay £400
costs as well as the £250 compensation to Ms Manchander. But he will
pay only £10 a month because he is a hotel management student who
lives with his family and has no income of his own. Mr Gilchrist said:
“Although his family are middle-class and are of some means it would
be unfair for them to meet the burden.” Weinstock’s 60 hours of community
service will be spent working with the elderly or disabled, or working
in public gardens. His father, who was ordered out of the court by
magistrates last month for interfering in the hearings, made a bizarre
whooping sound while flapping his arms like wings as he left the court
building in an attempt to prevent photographs being taken. Weinstock,
wearing a woolly hat and a trench coat pulled up over his face, ran
off while his father grabbed a New Journal photographer’s lens. Speaking
after the case, Ms Manchander said: “Being accused of anti-semitism
added insult to the injury he caused. Being in favour of human rights
for Palestinians is not the same thing as anti-semitism. “It was just
a small protest with about six of us handing out leaflets for 30 minutes
and I ended up being assaulted. But in court I was made to feel I
was the guilty one.” |
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