English mayor resigns after boosting claim Jewish ambulance arson was ‘false flag’

JTA — 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 with 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,” he said.

Days after the March 23 torching of four Hatzola ambulances in London’s Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green, Pankhania shared comments and posts on X 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 by the apparent victim to garner sympathy 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.

An Anti-Defamation League survey found in January 2025 that one in four Americans believed recent attacks on Jews were false flags; an analysis by the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate released last week suggested that the rate of false-flag allegations around antisemitic incidents had risen since.

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.

“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, [he] 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.

Police in London arrested two men in connection with the ambulance arson. The men have since been released on bail, and their identities have not been made public.

A group previously unknown to investigators, calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, has claimed responsibility for the attack, in addition to a number of other attacks throughout Europe.