Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, says his country will “demand” action against “rampant” antisemitism in the United Kingdom after Thursday’s deadly terror attack at a Manchester synagogue.<\/p>\n
Two people were killed and four more were taken to hospital in a serious condition after the incident, which began about 9:30am, local time, when a man drove a car into a crowd near the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the northern city.<\/p>\n
The man who was behind the wheel then got out of the car, police said, and began stabbing worshippers.<\/p>\n
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A bomb disposal technician secures evidence outside the synagogue on Thursday. (Reuters: Hannah McKay)<\/p>\n
A video filmed at the scene showed police officers shooting the offender, who was also killed.<\/p>\n
Officers later arrested two more people over the incident, which took place on Yom Kippur, the most holy day on the Jewish calendar, and confirmed the attack had been terror-related.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media, Mr Sa’ar said: “The truth must be told: blatant and rampant anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement, as well as calls of support for terror, have recently become a widespread phenomenon in the streets of London, in cities across Britain, and on its campuses.<\/p>\n
“The authorities in Britain have failed to take the necessary action to curb this toxic wave of anti-Semitism and have effectively allowed it to persist.”<\/p>\n
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People console each other after the deadly Yom Kippur attack in Manchester. (Reuters: Temilade Adelaja)<\/p>\n
Relations between Israel and the UK have been strained in recent times, particularly after Number 10’s decision to recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly last month, something Australia also did.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer returned to London early from a summit in Denmark to chair an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
He later made a statement in which he acknowledged antisemitic “hatred” had been rising around the country “once again”.<\/p>\n
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Sir Keir said he would do his best to “guarantee” British Jews “the security you deserve”.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack as “barbaric” in a statement, and said his country “grieves with the Jewish community in the UK”.<\/p>\n
“As I warned at the UN: weakness in the face of terrorism only brings more terrorism,” his statement read.<\/p>\n
“Only strength and unity can defeat it.”<\/p>\n
Authorities have traced rising antisemitism back to October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants, with help from other groups, launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel from neighbouring Gaza.<\/p>\n
The group, which the Australian government has designated as a terrorist organisation, killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostages that day, of whom 48 remain in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n
In the almost two years since, Israel has launched a wide-ranging bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 66,000 people, according to the strip’s health authority.<\/p>\n
In the 12 months to March 2024, the UK government recorded a 25 per cent increase in religious hate crimes compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n
It said this spike was driven by “a rise in hate crimes against Jewish people and to a lesser extent Muslims”, since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict.<\/p>\n
The latest data is due to be released next week.<\/p>\n
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Police and worshippers gather outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue after the attack. (Reuters: Phil Noble)<\/p>\n
Police increased their presence at synagogues around the UK after Thursday’s attack.<\/p>\n
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson said both victims were members of Manchester’s Jewish community.<\/p>\n
He said the offender was shot by armed officers within seven minutes of the attack beginning, thanking members for calling authorities.<\/p>\n
Police said the offender was wearing something with “the appearance of an explosive device”, although they later confirmed “it wasn’t viable”.<\/p>\n
Rob Kanter, 45, was among those in the synagogue when the attack began, and told the ABC it was “just surreal”.<\/p>\n
“Of course, you instinctively panic, but your first thought is safety, and thankfully, the police got here and got us out to safety,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Everyone has mixed emotions. Most people are very stoic, but it will probably sink in the days and weeks ahead.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, says his country will “demand” action against “rampant” antisemitism in the United Kingdom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9903,25653,6896,118593,59337,43,5752,44,118409,41,39,42,40,118592],"class_list":["post-185822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-antisemitism","tag-attack","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-british-prime-minister-sir-keir-starmer","tag-gideon-saar","tag-headlines","tag-manchester","tag-news","tag-synagogue","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-yom-kippur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}