UK: Mayor Who Claimed Jews Set Fire to Ambulances of Jewish Emergency Services Resigns
Four ambulances belonging to the Jewish emergency services group Hatzalah were set on fire in Golders Green, London on March 23. The mayor of Bath, a certain Bharat Pankhania, shared on X his belief that it was Jews themselves who had set the ambulances on fire to collect the insurance money. More on his charge, and the fallout from it, can be found here:
Bath, UK mayor resigns after amplifying idea that Jewish ambulance arson was ‘false flag’ attack
by Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA, April 1, 2026:
The mayor of Bath, in southwestern England, resigned from his post Monday after drawing criticism for amplifying the idea that the London arson of ambulances owned by a Jewish emergency service was a “false flag” attack.
“I have been made aware that I have reposted or replied to some posts which have never aligned to my values and beliefs, and which are abhorrent,” Bharat Pankhania said in a statement issued last week, prior to his resignation from the honorary role. “I am incredibly apologetic that I have not lived up to the standards I set myself. I have, of course, deleted them, and I wish to apologize unreservedly.”
Days after the Mar. 23 torching of four Hatzola ambulances in London’s Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green, Pankhania shared comments and posts on X/Twitter that suggested the fires were set by members of the Jewish community and an instance of insurance fraud, multiple British outlets reported. Law enforcement has deemed the fires an antisemitic attack.
A “false flag” operation is staged to look like an attack in order to garner sympathy for the victim or attribute blame to another party. Accusations that antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents are false flags have surged as such incidents have grown more commonplace….
After an investigation, the local branch of Pankhania’s political party, the Liberal Democrats, suspended him last week. On Monday, the group said he had resigned from both the mayoralty and the political group.
He had political ambitions beyond the honorary role of mayor; Pankhania’s resignation and his mea maxima culpa apology spell their end.
“Cllr Pankhania again apologized for his interactions on X, and reiterated that he has spent his life working with all communities, whilst acknowledging the hurt he had caused. In resigning, Cllr Pankhania is taking clear personal responsibility for his actions,” the group said.
“As a group and as a party, we reject discrimination wherever it occurs and reiterate our stance against antisemitism,” it added….
A good result. Pankhania’s vicious and idiotic charge that Jews set fire to their own ambulances to win sympathy and obtain insurance money was roundly criticized. As a result, he felt compelled to issue a mea-maxima-culpa apology, resign from his own party, the Liberal Democrats, and — the unkindest cut of all — had also to resign from his honorary role as mayor of Bath. His incipient political career is likely at an end.
But other officeholders who have accused Jews of staging “false flag” attacks on themselves have managed to remain in power. The most egregious example of this was in California, where the mayor of Richmond, California, Eduardo Martinez made claims similar to those of Bharat Pankhania regarding the Bondi Beach jihad massacre at a Hanukkah event, but was not compelled to resign.
This was a much graver offense that that of Bath Mayor Pankhania. Mayor Eduardo Martinez was accusing Jews not of arson, but of being responsible for faking the story of a mass murder of Jews on Bondi Beach in Australia. In that terror attack, that took place at the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025, where a Hanukkah party was being held, fourteen Jews were murdered — 11 men, 3 women, and a 10-year-old girl. There were two gunmen; one was shot dead by police and the other was apprehended. Yet despite the eyewitnesses, despite the dead Jews, despite the police statements and the apprehended Muslim terrorist, Mayor Eduardo Martinez made his charge of a “false flag” operation. After a firestorm of protest from the Jewish community and others, he made an apology, not nearly as contrite as that of Bharat Pankhania, but he neither offered to, nor was asked to, resign. Despite his outrageous remark, he remains the mayor of Richmond.
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