Prime Minister tells police to do their job, but that demand needs to be backed by action
On Friday evening, the Prime Minister made a speech responding to the surge in antisemitism and extremism in our country.
His comments were nothing short of a rebuke of the Metropolitan Police Service’s well-honed practice of making excuses for extremism instead of arrests, and putting their frontline officers in impossible situations. He has demanded in no uncertain terms that the weekly anti-Israel marches no longer be merely managed, but actually policed.
In other words: it is time for the police to do their job.
Following this important intervention, we now look to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to announce concrete solutions to address this dire situation, which leaves the Jewish community in fear for its safety and our democracy in peril.
We welcome the Prime Minister’s call for police to do better when policing protests, and for protesters to think twice about the consequences of their actions, but for months, we have heard protesters and protest organisers tell us that they will continue on their current path and that they feel that they are under no obligation to deviate from it.
The true test of the effectiveness of the Prime Minister’s national address will come when we see what happens at the mass demonstration next Saturday, and in the weeks to come as these marches continue.
While the words were welcome, firm action is long overdue.
Extremists are not simply hijacking protests: they are organising them. The Prime Minister condemned the anti-Jewish genocidal “From the River to the Sea…” slogan projected onto Big Ben, but we have heard march organisers testify to MPs that they actively promote that language.
Yesterday, the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph on Whitehall once again required lines of police officers to stand guard over them. This has been necessary countless times since 7th October.
Over the past few weeks we have seen the extremism on our streets penetrate our politics. Now it has entered Parliament. We know, as the Prime Minister does, that nothing is likely to change without firm action from his Government and the authorities.
That action must materialise urgently.
We look forward to learning what measures will be introduced. We have made clear recommendations to the Government and the police.
In recent weeks, our democracy has faced a grave assault by anti-Israel protesters
Anti-Israel protesters have not hesitated in using intimidation to get their message across, brazenly threatening our elected representatives and launching direct attacks on the very foundation of our democratic institutions.
We are offering free legal representation to MPs who have been subjected to antisemitic threats or intimidation, including obtaining court orders to unmask the authors of anonymous comments made online.
Enough is enough.
Inaction against these marches has led to a feeling amongst many extremists and antisemites that they can get away with brazen acts of racism against Jews, and too often they are right.
On Thursday, we reported on an incident that occurred on the London Underground where an identifiably Jewish man noticed a fellow passenger staring aggressively at him. The passenger then proceeded to tell the man: “Your religion kills Muslims.”
British Transport Police is investigating and we are continuing to support the victim.
The incident occurred between Camden Town and Chalk Farm on a Northern Line train to Edgware at approximately 19:45 in carriage number 52585.
If you have information, please contact British Transport Police with crime reference number 2400026154 or e-mail [email protected].
It is shocking to see how this man was treated for daring to be Jewish in public, but perhaps it is not that surprising in these dark times.
Too little too late
On Tuesday, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee released its report on the policing of protests.
Last year, our Chief Executive, Gideon Falter, gave evidence before the Committee, which was included in the report, as well as our written evidence.
The report fails to address the increasingly urgent need to restore the confidence of the British public and ensure the safety of Britain’s Jews.
Staggeringly, it appears that the only concrete recommendation from the Committee for the protests is that the organisers should give more notice to the police, which would not change the actual nature of these marches and therefore solves nothing other than timesheet planning for our overstretched police forces.
After months of intimidatory marches, the report offers no concrete recommendations for the here and now, just a long-term policy discussion about workforce planning and new laws that will take years to agree.
Read our full statement here.
We need action urgently.
Protest-organisers should be made to follow the March Against Antisemitism as an example of good practice.
The police seem to think so too. In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, one officer told the presenter that the march was a good example of how a protest can be “done well and respectfully”.
Why can the same not be said for the weekly anti-Israel protests on our streets?
Britain’s newest MP
On Thursday, the constituents of Rochdale voted in the by-election. After weeks of turmoil in Rochdale leading up to the parliamentary by-election, George Galloway is once again an MP.
Mr Galloway has an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community.
He has previously and infamously declared Bradford an “Israel-free zone”. He said of his previous election loss that “the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating”. He described David Baddiel, a Jewish comic who is well-known for not closely associating himself with Israel, as a “vile Israel-fanatic”. He claimed that the institutional antisemitism within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn was really “a disgraceful campaign of Goebbelsian fiction”, in reference to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist. He was sacked by TalkRadio despite his protestations, over an incident in which Tottenham Hotspur accused him of “blatant antisemitism” for a remark about keeping “Israeli flags” off the cup.
More recently, he has described the atrocity carried out by Hamas on 7th October as a “concentration camp breakout” and referred to Hamas terrorists as “fighters”.
Now, Mr Galloway has been chosen by the voters of Rochdale. Given his historic rhetoric and the current situation faced by the Jewish community in this country, we are extremely concerned by how he might use the platform of the House of Commons.
Is Charlotte Church tone deaf?
Earlier this week, we led the media outrage after singer Charlotte Church led a choir, which included children, singing, “From the River to the Sea…”.
The genocidal chant “From the River to the Sea…” refers to the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, and only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state — and its replacement with a Palestinian state. It is a call for the annihilation of half the world’s Jews, who live in Israel.
Since 7th October, when Hamas committed their barbaric terrorist acts, we have heard this chant on the streets of Britain during anti-Israel marches, accompanied by all manner of anti-Jewish racism.
Singing “From the River to the Sea…” is not standing up for human rights. At best Charlotte Church has been tone deaf, but at worst she is using the voice for which she is so well known to fan the flames of hatred.
You cannot stoop lower than using your stardom to teach kids to sing extremist lyrics in a village hall.
We are writing to the Charity Commission to ask them to investigate how this was allowed to take place on a charity’s premises.
Five years since Hizballah was banned in the UK
Five years ago this week, following a gruelling effort over several years by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies, Hizballah was proscribed as a terrorist group in the United Kingdom.
Hizballah is a violent, genocidal and dangerous antisemitic organisation whose leaders have praised the 7th October Hamas terrorist atrocities as “heroic”.
Hizballah is suspected to have been involved in terrorist attacks targeting Jews from Burgas to Buenas Aires, where they bombed a Jewish community centre in 1994, killing 85 people. They continue to make their violent, murderous intentions towards Jews clear to this day.
As people continue to glorify the axis of violence to which they belong on our streets, their legal designation as a terrorist organisation, like their allies Hamas, has never been more important for the safety of Jews in Britain.
Recent arrests
Earlier this year, three Jews were physically attacked by ten men in Leicester Square, which resulted in serious injuries. No bystanders helped and police only showed up after half an hour, after the perpetrators had fled the scene.
One of the suspects involved in the alleged assault has now been arrested.
We are continuing to assist the victims during this time.
There are still more arrests to be made. If anyone has any further information, they should contact the Metropolitan Police.
On Monday evening, protesters were seen walking down Upper Street in Angel, London, chanting, “from London to Gaza, long live the intifada.”
An arrest was made shortly after a member of the public informed the police. We commend the Met for its swift action in this incident.
An individual believed to be involved with a violent attack in December has also been arrested.
The alleged assault was on a group of Jewish people in North West London on the bridge between Chalk Farm and Primrose Hill.
The group of five were putting up posters showing the faces of people taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. One of the members was an identifiably Jewish woman who wore a Star of David.
If you have any further information, please inform the Metropolitan Police.
Whilst the news of these arrests is welcome, prosecutions are few and far between, and the events of this week show serious weaknesses in our democracy. This is extremely alarming. We will continue to expose where our institutions fail to protect us from anti-Jewish hatred. We must demand better.
