Anti-Israel protesters protest outside of London synagogue who was hosting a pro-Aliyah event.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a report in the Times of Israel, a British Jewish communal organization says that a demonstration near a synagogue in London that was hosting an event promoting immigration to Israel is “obnoxious with a strong whiff of antisemitism.”
“We will continue to discuss with police and government if there are any further attempts to repeat,” reads the statement by Andrew Gilbert, vice-president of the Board of Deputies, the Times of Israel noted. According to the report, video posted to social media appeared to show the anti-Israel protesters chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” seen by many as a call for Israel’s destruction.
“We don’t want no two states, Palestine ‘48,” masked activists chanted as seen in videos posted on social media by Labor Against Antisemitism director Alex Hearn, the Jerusalem Post reported. “From the river to the sea, Zionism is f**king treif (unkosher).” According to the report, Hearn wrote on X/Twitter that he was told by an activist to “go away, Zio.”
Announcements on pro-Palestine social media that the central London synagogue was being “targeted” for a demonstration had put the Jewish community on high alert, coming weeks after an Israel-hating jihadi murdered Jews at a synagogue in Manchester, the Jewish Chronicle reported. According to the report, even though the Met Police had issued a Section 14 order blocking protests from the streets around the synagogue, Gaza protesters arrived earlier than the 5pm start time for the ban.
London’s Metropolitan Police said that it had arrested two people at the demonstrations, one for a suspected racially aggravated public order offense – and the other for failing to comply with the conditions that it placed on the synagogue’s vicinity, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the report, the demonstrators were told that they couldn’t protest in the synagogue’s area, and the Met claimed that most left when informed of the condition.
“There is no legal mechanism to ban the protest from taking place; however, we have used Public Order Act conditions to prevent disorder and disruption,” the Met told the Jerusalem Post.
A member of Stop the Hate present at the Tube station told the Jewish Chronicle: “The pro-Palestine protesters have got no respect for our holy places. We cannot rely on the police to protect us because they don’t. I would go as far as to say to make their lives easier they would rather arrest us than to keep them from rioting – than to do their job.”
According to the Jewish Chronicle, Campaign Against Antisemitism, whose Chief Executive, Gideon Falter, attended the protest, slammed the “total failure of policing policy”. The Campaign against Antisemitism added: “Not only have police chiefs abysmally failed to combat antisemitism over the past two years and midwifed an explosion of extremism in our country, but they cannot even protect Jewish institutions in Jewish neighborhoods from the mob.”
Saul Taylor, the president of the United Synagogue, told the Jewish Chronicle of the scenes outside St John’s Wood Shul: “It cannot be that in modern Britain it is seen as acceptable to protest outside a place of worship where Jews come together to pray and to attend community events. I commend the police for their swift action in putting in place and implementing the exclusion zone and thank the CST as ever for their support…I call on those demonstrating to think again about the appropriateness of targeting our buildings and Jews who simply want to attend a synagogue and Jewish community center.”
Photo from @antisemitism: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wbb6JQNW_1A
