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London — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was heckled Thursday during a visit to North London, a day after two Jewish men were wounded in a stabbing attack — the latest in a series of incidents that one of Starmer’s cabinet members has called an antisemitism emergency.
As he arrived in the Golders Green neighborhood, which has long been a hub of the British Jewish community, to meet members of the emergency services, loud booing could be heard and some residents shouted insults including “traitor” and “coward.”
A string of recent attacks, including arson targeting synagogues and other Jewish sites, has raised alarm within the community.
“It’s utter horror,” an Orthodox Jewish resident, who also asked to remain anonymous, told CBS News. “I can’t believe what’s going on. We have to live in fear — constantly looking behind our backs, wondering if someone might attack us with a knife … and even if we leave, where do we go? There are people trying to attack us everywhere.”
Residents told CBS News after the stabbing that they initially felt shocked and saddened, but not surprised. Those feelings gave way to anger for some, and demands for the government to take concrete action.
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“There’s been a number of arson attacks on synagogues, and a huge uptick in antisemitism locally in our community,” Ben Grossnass, a volunteer with the Jewish community security organization Shomrim, who was among the first to reach the scene of Wednesday’s attack, told CBS News. “The community is in shock, understandably.”
Later on Thursday, the government raised the national threat level from “substantial” to “severe,” citing the increasing threat of Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorism in the country.
“We need the silent majority to start standing up”
Dov Forman, a 22-year-old author and activist from Golders Green who said his great-grandmother Lily Ebert survived internment in the Nazi regime’s concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War II, said violence has been widely feared in the area for some time.
“No one here is shocked or surprised that this has happened,” Forman said. “We all knew after previous attacks that this was not a question of if there would be another attack, but simply when.”
The government has sought to show it is taking action, announcing plans on Thursday for an additional $34 million to combat antisemitism with additional police patrols and enhanced security around synagogues, community centers and schools.
But it comes after critics say antisemitic rhetoric has been normalized for too long.
Forman noted chants at some pro-Palestinian protests in Britain during which people chanted “calls to ‘globalize the intifada’,” which he said had been “allowed to go unchecked in this country for years.”
Forman said that rhetoric was manifesting in real-world violence, with people “listening to those calls, taking them seriously, and acting on them — not just attacking Jewish people, but Jewish institutions, too. That includes synagogues, shops and areas like Golders Green.”
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Britain’s two biggest police forces, the London Metropolitan Police and the Greater Manchester Police, announced in December last year that officers would take an “enhanced approach” to counter antisemitism, arresting protesters who use certain slogans and phrases, in response to a surge in hate crimes targeting Jewish people in Britain.
“We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as ‘globalize the intifada,’ and those using it at future protest or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action,” the police forces said in their statement at the time.
Forman called the stabbing “not just an attack on the Jewish community — this is an attack on Britain. We need the silent majority to start standing up, because it may become too late if we remain silent.”
“It’s very sad — but unfortunately, it was expected,” agreed another Golders Green resident. “We’ve been warning about this for a long time. We saw the smaller antisemitic incidents building, and we knew something bigger was coming. It’s like a tsunami — you see the smaller waves before the big one hits.”
“We really need action from the government now,” they said. “There’s been too much tolerance. … What’s happening on social media, and with some preachers — rhetoric that starts as anti-Israel often turns into anti-Jewish hate, and this is the result.”
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He said it “puts fear into every Jewish person in this community,” and that anxiety is still mounting.
“People are going out to eat, sitting in restaurants, and now they’re looking over their shoulders, wondering if someone might come at them with a knife,” he said. “Before today, I felt relatively safe. I thought more could be done, but I didn’t feel unsafe … After today, I’m not so sure. Unless there is real, decisive action from the government, I don’t think the Jewish community will feel safe.”
“It’s utter horror,” an Orthodox Jewish resident, who also asked to remain anonymous, told CBS News. “I can’t believe what’s going on. We have to live in fear — constantly looking behind our backs, wondering if someone might attack us with a knife … and even if we leave, where do we go? There are people trying to attack us everywhere.”
As U.K. leader vows justice, political rival says it’s no time for “kid gloves”
Starmer, in a statement issued Wednesday, said “the antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.”
He thanked community organizations for responding and vowed that “those responsible will be brought to justice.”
Starmer’s political opponent, opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, told CBS News the threat of antisemitism must be taken seriously.
“Some of this is ideological, and that’s why I set up a commission to look at Islamic extremism and what we can do to curb and root it out,” she said.”We haven’t yet heard exactly what the ideology of this attacker was, but I’m not surprised police are treating this as terrorism.”
“We should not deal with this with kid gloves. We spent a lot of time hoping this was temporary — it’s not. This is a national emergency,” she said.
