TWO shock incidents of antisemitic intimidation were last night blamed for the “erasure of Jews and Jewish culture from Britain’s public space”.

British Museum chiefs were accused of “running scared” after they postponed a Jewish history lecture when it was found that pro-Palestine activists planned to deliberately disrupt the address.

Trouble Bosses pulled the talk at the last minute after being warned a “significant proportion” of the audience intended to cause trouble.

While disturbing online footage showed actress Dame Helen Mirren, 80, being screamed at in the street at night by a man calling her an “evil Zionist b****”.

Dame Helen, who starred as Israeli PM Golda Meir in the 2023 film Golda, was accosted alongside her director husband Taylor Hackford, 81, by a pro-Palestine supporter who ranted obscenities at them as they walked Near Tower Bridge in London. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the museum’s decision to cancel an event meant to promote awareness of Jewish culture achieved “precisely the opposite”. She added: “Jewish acts and actors are now being routinely cancelled from events.

“As with the marches and protests going past synagogues and knocking on doors intimidating Jews, the end result is an erasure of Jews and Jewish culture from Britain’s public space.”

While Labour MP Luke Akehurst said it was a “thoroughly depressing and bad decision”, adding: “We need our important public institutions to be standing up to antisemitism, not running scared of it.”

The museum said yesterday’s lecture The Ancient History of Israel and Judah was postponed amid fears of pro-Gaza protests.

Museum chairman and ex-Chancellor George Osborne, said the announcement was “worth reading before speculating” after the move attracted immediate criticism.

But leading historian Simon Schama, who is Jewish, blasted bosses for “pathetic cowardice”, saying: “Absolutely the wrong decision..sends a terrible message.”

The museum said: “We were informed that a significant proportion of registered attendees were individuals intending to deliberately disrupt the event, preventing others from participating in good faith and undermining the purpose of the programme.

“Following discussions with organisers and security partners, a joint decision was taken to postpone the event to a later date when it can take place in an environment that properly safeguards both the audience experience and the integrity of the programme itself.

“This decision was made to protect the event, not to diminish it. We will continue to support Jewish Culture Month and remain committed to providing a space where history, culture and scholarship can be explored openly, respectfully and without disruption.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “Institutions across Britain must stand firm in the face of racist intimidation and hatred.

“There is no place for antisemitism in our country and this postponement of an event about ancient Israel at the British Museum is a sad indictment of the hatred our Jewish communities are experiencing. It is equally appalling and unacceptable to see public figures abused in the street simply for defending Israel.This behaviour reflects a toxic growth of antisemitism and it must stop.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism called the haranguing of Dame Helen mob behaviour, adding the UK was at a point where “public figures can be screamed at and abused simply for being perceived as being sympathetic to the world’s only Jewish state”.

Dame Helen, who is not Jewish, has publicly supported Israel and opposed cultural boycotts of it.

In the video clip, first posted in November by Instagram account Antifascist Action UK, she smiles at a man filming her and asks if he is “OK” – but he launches into a vile tirade, saying: “And there is Helen Mirren the avowed Zionist.

“You said Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust.And she was very happy the Palestinians’ houses were gone.You evil old bag. You are an evil Zionist b****. And you [Mr Hackford] as well, f*** you and all.”

Shimon Cohen, campaign director at Jewish humane society Shechita UK, said: “Why are we signalling that intimidation, vitriolic abuse and violence against Jews works?

“The British Museum can ‘celebrate the contribution of our communities’ except the Jewish community. Instead, their message is clear: let them cower, be cancelled and be exposed, through the cowardice of our passivity, to ever more hatred, and why? Simply because Jews don’t count.”

Tory MP Bob Blackman said of the abuse of Dame Helen: “We have allowed this hate to build up.

“Action should have been taken earlier. All antisemitic actions should lead to arrest, prosecution and punishment.” Dov Forman, author and great-grandson of Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert MBE, wrote: “When a society can no longer protect its Jews in the public square, cannot guarantee that a talk about ancient archaeology will not be shut down by a mob, it has already lost something foundational.”

He went on: “The British Museum will, no doubt, host the talk eventually. It will be rescheduled for a quieter moment, with more security. It will be…a diminished thing. And the people who believe that Jewish culture has no place in British public life will note that their tactics worked.”

Stephen Pollard, ex-editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said the term “security concerns” was the new “Jews aren’t allowed”. He said the museum “thought it was doing the right thing…but in fact all it was doing was giving a veto to the lunatics to cancel events that are either for, or with, Jews”. The museum said the talk had been rescheduled to “next month” and it was working to “ensure robust arrangements are in place”.

The Met Police said of the Dame Helen video: “Officers are currently reviewing the footage and making attempts to contact the victims to establish whether they would like to report the incident.”

Dame Helen’s representative was contacted for comment.