A British TikToker, recently sentenced to a suspended prison term for antisemitic posts, is now facing backlash for calling on her followers to "make Christmas Palestinian again."
In a video posted Sunday, Fiona Rayan, who was convicted just days earlier, told her followers, "What I think we need to do is to make Christmas Palestinian as much as we possibly can." She went on to suggest ways to incorporate Palestinian themes into holiday traditions, such as decorating Christmas trees with Palestinian ornaments and educating family members on how "Jesus was a Palestinian" and how "Christmas is a Palestinian story."
Watch the video:
Rayan also advocated for supporting Palestinian businesses during the holiday season, whether through gift-giving or donations.
Last Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that Rayan, 40, from Salisbury, had been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, for "grossly offensive antisemitic posts." The posts, which included comparing Ashkenazi Jews to Nazis and alleging that Jewish doctors performed sex change operations on children, were deemed to cross the line into hate speech.
Despite claiming that her posts were protected under freedom of expression, Rayan’s defense was rejected in court. CPS Wessex demonstrated that her actions exceeded the limits of free speech, and the court made clear that any future violations would result in a prison sentence.
