Keir Starmer has called on people to \u201copen their eyes to Jewish pain\u201d in the wake of the Golders Green terror attack, and accused anyone marching alongside supporters of Hamas of \u201cvenerating the murder of Jews\u201d.<\/p>\n
The prime minister made his strongest ever remarks on antisemitism after visiting the area of the attacks for a meeting with emergency workers and community leaders.<\/p>\n
His presence was greeted by heckling from Stop the Hate protestors, a group campaigning against antisemitism, with one branding him a \u201ctraitor\u201d for failing to keep Jews safe.<\/p>\n
In a statement in Downing Street, Starmer said new powers were needed to protect the Jewish community after the stabbing attack, which was \u201cnot a one-off\u201d. Two Jewish men were hospitalised with knife wounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntisemitism is an old, old hatred, history shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back,\u201d he said. \u201cYet, far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don\u2019t see it or they don\u2019t want to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He strongly criticised people who march alongside supporters of Hamas without calling it out. However, the government has stopped short of endorsing the idea of a pause on pro-Palestine marches, which has been suggested by Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer on terrorism.<\/p>\n
Protesters demonstrated Starmer\u2019s visit, accusing him of failing to keep Jewish people safe. Photograph: Neil Hall\/EPA<\/p>\n
In his statement, Starmer said: \u201cOf course, we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest in this country, but if you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you stand alongside people who say \u2018globalise the Intifada\u2019, you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer also pledged more funding for Jewish security services and stronger powers to shut down charities that promote antisemitic extremism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will prevent hate preachers from entering our country, bar them from our campuses, our streets, our communities. Work with our justice system to speed up sentencing on antisemitic attacks so there is a stronger deterrence factor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we need stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran, because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews, which is why we will fast track the necessary legislation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Shabana Mahmood earlier promised to \u201cdo everything in my power\u201d to keep British Jews safe, as police said the suspect in the stabbing of two men on Wednesday was a 45-year-old British national born in Somalia.<\/p>\n
Graph showing victims of religious hate crimes<\/a><\/p>\n The government said a further \u00a325m would be invested to increase security for Jewish communities after the suspected terrorist attack. The funding will be aimed at boosting police patrols and protection around synagogues, schools and community centres. But the government is facing pressure to go further, including calls to ban pro-Palestinian marches.<\/p>\n Legislation creating proscription-like powers to pursue people and organisations acting on behalf of malign state-sponsored groups will also be \u201cfast-tracked\u201d in the coming weeks,<\/p>\n It is understood the draft laws will be included in the king\u2019s speech setting out the government\u2019s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session on 13 May.<\/p>\n The home secretary said the suspect, named as Essa Suleiman, was born in Somalia and came to the UK lawfully as a child in the 1990s and was a British national. She said the two victims, Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, continued to be treated in hospital and were in a stable condition.<\/p>\n The Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, said on Wednesday the individual in custody had a \u201chistory of serious violence and mental health issues\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mahmood said she understood \u201cthe very real fear that is being felt\u201d in the Jewish community. \u201cThe government has already been responding, and we are now doing more as well,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will always take every step within our power in order to keep our community safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Police are treating the stabbing of two men in Golders Green, which happened just after 11am on Wednesday, as terrorism, with the suspect described as having been allegedly looking for anyone \u201cvisibly Jewish\u201d to attack. The stabbings follow a series of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London since March<\/a>, including two previous incidents in Golders Green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has called on people to \u201copen their eyes to Jewish pain\u201d in the wake of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-559083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}