Before it had even started on Friday, the FiLiA feminist convention was beset by conflict and violence. Trans rights activists had smashed windows at the Brighton Convention Centre, claiming the conference — Europe’s biggest feminist event, with more than 2,500 delegates — was hosting “some of the most vicious transphobia in pop politics”.

But inside the Convention Centre, another row that had been brewing for two years finally came to a head. At the opening plenary of the event, Rahila Gupta, chair of the Southall Black Sisters — which in the past has attacked the “ideological weaponisation” of sexual violence used by Hamas on 7 October 2023 — declaimed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. She then led the room in a cry of “Free Palestine” even though, according to FiLiA sources, she had been explicitly told not to mention the war.

Several Jewish women left the room in tears alongside angry allies such as feminist Julia Long, who explained on GB News afterwards how she walked out because the event was so one-sided and had omitted discussion of the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. While this was a serious and — for many women — important conference investigating knotty subjects including prostitution, surrogacy, and male violence, its good work was undermined by an undercurrent of anti-Israel sentiment.

Within the arena itself, Jewish feminists described how they were made to feel unwelcome. One, Susie Nelhans, detailed how she had previously faced down anti-Israel activists on demonstrations, but that being attacked for her identity in the supposedly safe space of a feminist conference was far more painful.

After a woman sitting near Nelhans spotted her Star of David necklace, she “turned to me to ask if I was Jewish”. Nelhans added: “She then asked what I thought of the genocide. I explained politely that it wasn’t a genocide, just a very horrible war. I couldn’t believe she used my Jewishness as a launchpad to complain about Israel and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

She went on: “I felt so uncomfortable that I left the auditorium and unexpectedly burst into tears for about an hour. I was just so devastated that here in a conference for women I was being singled out for my Jewishness as if I’d personally sent missiles into a nursery school.”

While FiLiA — which began as the Feminism in London Conference in 2013 — has asserted its neutrality on the conflict following an internal battle which has seen people on both sides leaving, the conference felt particularly one-sided for many attendees. A “Women in Hebron” stall was selling hijabs — controversial enough in itself at a feminist conference — as well as Palestinian tea towels and keffiyehs.

Most contentious of all was a group that created Total Woman Victory, a “radical feminist newsletter”, and handed out their latest issue at the conference. Alongside quotations from Chairman Mao, the pamphlet’s opening paragraph included the statement “When you cut open an occupying Zionist soldier, a fragile Nazi general bleeds.”

One of the founders of the newsletter, Sathi Patel, also appeared on the panel at a FiLiA event called “Beyond A Backlash: The Resurgence of Misogyny in Culture and Politics”. A quick look at her social media feed reveals an admiration for a terrorist group which raped and kidnapped Israeli women, with one post reading: “I love Hamas I love the resistance I love hearing about the missiles hitting Sderot and Haifa.” To combat the already one-sided nature of FiLiA, a fringe event was hosted on the Saturday evening for Jewish women and allies, at which I was a speaker, called “Solidarity Means All Women.”

Later that evening, a FiLiA party took place, during which a group of women began dancing on stage with Palestinian flags. It led to several people filming, and one woman had her phone knocked out of her hand. Drinks were thrown, and the next day several high-profile delegates found they were banned from the event, while the women who had sported the keffiyehs were not. All the women who were banned have denied wrongdoing.

Yesterday, as anger mounted, FiLiA hosted an impromptu event for Jewish women and their allies who demanded an apology for antisemitism at the conference. Freya Papworth, a former volunteer for the organisation who is not Jewish, said she and many others were “deeply concerned about the dissemination of disgustingly antisemitic material at the FiLiA conference”, adding: “We love FiLiA but they made an egregious error in platforming a speaker who has openly shared antisemitic and pro-Hamas material.”

One FiLiA activist expressed her fear that those at the top of the organisation “don’t understand radical Islam”. She added: “They just want to be inclusive. People weren’t vetted enough, and there was a lot of just depending on goodwill and sisterhood. But they have to understand that there were people in that room who just hate Jews.”

FiLiA was contacted for comment.

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Nicole Lampert is a journalist based in London.

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