Joshua Bonehill-Paine

It is widely recognised that AI is changing the face of the political landscape. An algorithm fuelled fusion of technology with ideology, AI is frequently found to be manipulating news and fact, often presenting a distorted view of reality that is becoming increasingly difficult to separate from the truth. That’s the dark side of AI.

On the lighter side however, skilled satirists are using the technology to deliver unashamed spoofs of the great and the (not-so) good that can frequently be eye-wateringly funny, taking us back to the glory days of the BBC when satire was uncensored and unfettered and the phrase “politicaly correct” had yet to be invented.

AI-generated political satire in the UK is currently dominated by a pair of creative wizards based in Somerset who produce the Crewkerne Gazette. Available across all the usual internet platforms, the Crewkerne Gazette is merciless in their parodies of the UK’s leading political figures, frequently taking classic pop songs (or even Gilbert & Sullivan) and tweaking the lyrics to give a contemporary dissection. Add in AI generated videos to accompany the songs and the results are hilarious.

One of the brains behind the Crewkerne Gazette is Joshua Bonehill-Paine a man who in the last 15 years has been convicted and imprisoned for antisemitic hatred. While Bonehill-Paine’s criminal past is ugly, what is remarkable is the self-reforming journey that he has taken since leaving prison.

In an exclusive interview, I spoke with Joshua, who shared with me how the vile beliefs that he once held have been upended, and of his now support, not only for the Jewish people, but for Israel too. He told me:

“ It really began in my second year of prison. Before that point, a lot of my antisemitic views came from conspiracies, things that I’d read online, about the Jews being somehow responsible for the death of Jesus and things like that. But the point of where I changed was reading the Bible in prison. This was the first time I’d ever properly sat down and read the Bible. And I started learning about the history of Jewish people from the Bible, Israel, God’s covenant with Israel.

And I was looking at this thinking, I’ve got it fundamentally wrong. And in that moment, there was an enormous rush of guilt. I actually was crying in the cell thinking about what I had done and the things that I had said and I decided to reach out for help. I contacted my probation officer whilst I was in prison and enrolled on something called the Healthy Identity Intervention Programme, a Home Office accredited course that is essentially used to de-radicalise terrorists and extremists. The programme had been a bit hit and miss, only working for some people, but as they say: ‘you have to be the one prepared to make the change’.

I completed the programme and came to the realisation that a lot of the issues that I took with Jewish people, a lot of the conspiracies that I had shared, had in fact been shared to help me deal with my own problems in my life before I had been in prison, and I was absolutely ashamed. So while I was in prison I started working on counterextremism education and an agreement was then made that when I was to be released in 2018, I would then begin delivering seminars to schools, probation, the police, universities, educating about the dangers of antisemitism, exposing the conspiracies, especially with younger people.

And this was incredible work. It took me across many different schools across the country. Often young people would stand up and they’d say, “Oh, I’ve heard something about the New World Order, or I’ve heard something about the Rothschild banking family.” And it was things like that, that I was able to proactively challenge in that moment and try to change their thinking.

I also encountered the antisemitism that was within the Labour Party, particularly under Jeremy Corbyn. I found myself meeting with white working class, old school socialists who seemed like respectable people, but who seemed openly supportive of antisemitic conspiracies, and that was well before the attacks of October 7th 2023.

And then of course those attacks came and it just seemed to me that Israel was being questioned as to whether or not they were being honest about it. It was unbelievable. Clearly these attacks had happened. It was awful. It was the equivalent to Israel’s 9-11 and yet there was questioning over it.

I was aware from the work that I had done that there was so much antisemitism, so much anti-Israel sentiment in the country from leading politicians, from activists, from the media. It really was beyond belief.”

I asked Joshua for his opinion on the BBC’s reporting of the Gaza conflict:

“Israel had been horrifically attacked, and Israel was defending itself. And yet the BBC reporting of that seemed to be as if Israel was the problem. That’s how it came across, or Israel was somehow the instigator, but I felt that the coverage was incredibly unfair. I think a lot of that is down to perhaps some of the people that are employed by the BBC. Perhaps they have quite left-leaning views”

With Israel frequently accused of committing a ‘genocide’ in Gaza, Bonehill-Paine gave me his opinion:

“It outrages me, if I’m honest with you, because frankly there is no evidence of that, but it is so insensitive to make allegations like that when the Jewish people themselves have been subjected to a true genocide, six million Jewish people and more perished during World War II in the Holocaust. And that is fact. And yet the media, the mainstream media often are accusing Israel of doing exactly this, and it is totally false. I have seen no evidence of Israel carrying out any kind of genocide”

As a recognised expert in the use of AI, Joshua’s next comment was shocking:

“What I have seen evidence of, especially being extremely good with AI technology myself, is evidence of AI photos created to make it look like Israel have committed war crimes. And I think these photos are very easy to spot. I know there’s been big pieces previously dismantling them, but when I was seeing them on social media, it was quite obvious.”

With Joshua referencing the use of AI in propaganda, it seemed a good opportunity to ask him his opinion of the quality of the propaganda campaign that Hamas has waged. His response was scathing:

“The quality of Hamas’s propaganda has been astronomical. They have had some serious funding. One of the things that I’ve looked into have been just the sheer number of quite obvious bots on social media that are posting comments, posting the AI doctored photos, manipulating the media.

And on articles that are posted by the BBC or other organisations, underneath, it’s just stream after stream of bots agreeing with it. And a lot of these tactics are actually tactics that I was using when I was involved in some of the antisemitic groups that I was part of, creating fake accounts to promote fake and false statements and ideologies.

Hamas have certainly had a lot of money and they’ve invested it into social media. It is incredibly sophisticated. They have access to, I would say, the best AI that was certainly available at the height of that whole campaign, and they clearly have a lot of resources behind them.”

He went on to speak about having been influenced by Oskar Schindler:

“I take great inspiration from what Schindler did and I really want to dedicate the rest of my life now to educating people about the wrongs of antisemitism and directly confronting it as well.

A lot of my work going forward, separate to the Crewkerne Gazette, will see me engaging with the Jewish communities and seeing what they need and what can be done to help them fundamentally and educate people. I want it to be clearly stated that I am a friend of Israel.”

Joshua Bonehill-Paine undoubtedly has a troubling, criminal past for which he has served his time. But he is also a man transformed and who now offers the world a truly humbling potential.

Photo credited to Joshua Bonehill-Paine