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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday he would bring the “full power of the state to bear” on combating antisemitism, but he also faced heavy criticism after a string of arson attacks and a double stabbing on Wednesday targeting Jewish communities.
Starmer’s government has announced 25 million pounds ($46 million Cdn) for more police patrols and protection around synagogues, schools and community centres. But he was heckled by about 100 protesters holdings signs saying “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer” on Thursday when he visited Golders Green, the site of the stabbings that injured two men aged 34 and 76, leaving both in hospital in stable condition.
The north London neighbourhood is an epicentre of Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000 people.
Starmer left the site to give an address from 10 Downing Street, calling the attack “an affront to British values.”
Separately, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she is treating antisemitism as “an emergency,” describing it as “the top pressing issue in relation to security” she faced.
Police have arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder and labelled the attack as an act of terrorism. The suspect had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues,” according to police, and there were reports he was involved in an “altercation” in the area hours before the Golders Green attack.
Police said that in 2020 he was referred to the government’s Prevent program, which tries to steer individuals away from extremism. The police said his file was closed later that year, but did not disclose the reason for the referral.
Starmer, in response to a reporter question, said the government needs to “be open to learning any further lessons” for improving the Prevent program as an investigation is conducted.
Protesters decried U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer for failing to protect Jewish people and shouted out calls to protect them as he arrived at the site in north London where two Jewish men were seriously injured in a stabbing attack. Starmer, whose government said Thursday that the U.K. was facing an antisemitism ’emergency,’ went on to visit some members of the Jewish community.
‘Racism, extreme racism’
Britain’s Jewish community has faced growing attacks online and in the streets since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas-led militant groups and Israel’s resulting military campaigns in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
“People are really concerned, people are afraid, people are uncomfortable walking in the street, people are blaming, obviously, the government for not doing anything about what’s going on,” Shilome Rand, one of the men stabbed on Wednesday, told ITV News.
Last October, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and fatally stabbed one person. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.
Since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, there have been a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London, as well as on opponents of the Iranian government.
London’s Metropolitan Police called the daylight stabbing of two Jewish men in the suburb of Golders Green an act of terrorism. A 45-year-old man, also accused of trying to stab police officers, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Police say 28 people have been arrested as a result of those attacks, which did not cause any injuries. A handful have been charged and one teenager has been convicted after pleading guilty.
The heightened tensions have led to calls from some quarters, including from Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch of the Conservative Party, that pro-Palestinian rallies should be banned for the time being.
Starmer said that freedom of speech and assembly are important British values, but tbat protesters should be mindful of behaviour at their demonstrations.
“If you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews,” he said, a reference to aircraft employed in the Oct. 7 attacks.
“If you stand alongside people who say, ‘Globalize the intifada,'” the Arabic term for various Palestinian uprisings, “you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.”
Starmer added: “It is racism, extreme racism.”
Starmer did not push for a change to statutes in his remarks. Police have pursued charges over the use of that slogan under existing laws.
An online group claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s stabbing under the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Mahmood said authorities were investigating whether that claim is credible or “opportunistic.”
The same group, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, claimed some of the arson attacks. But security experts have warned that the name may be a flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims should be treated with caution.
The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting Iranian opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, says more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year ending in October.
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said Wednesday that “we know that some individuals are being encouraged, persuaded or paid to commit acts of violence on behalf of foreign organizations and hostile states.”