The British government yesterday announced an extra ￡25 million (US$34 million) to fund security for Jewish communities after two Jewish men were knifed in London a day earlier.
“People have a sense of deep insecurity ... and that is why the government is bringing forward investment, an additional [￡]25 million to invest in the security of our Jewish community. That will pay for more protective security for our Jewish synagogues, schools, places of worship, community centers,” British Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood told Sky News.
The attacks on Wednesday in north London come in the wake of a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the region, and a deadly attack in which two people died at a synagogue in Manchester last year.
Photo: AFP / Metropolitcan Police
British Minister of State for Security Dan Jarvis told Times Radio the government would fast-track legislation that would allow the prosecution of people acting as a proxy of a state-sponsored group under the British National Security Act.
The government said the new powers would mean that proxies could be dealt with in the same way as foreign intelligence services.
The two men were stabbed and injured on a London street in what police called an act of terror. Police arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder.
Photo: AFP
The Metropolitan Police said that the attack in the Golders Green area left two men, ages 34 and 76, hospitalized with knife wounds.
Counterterrorism police are investigating whether the stabbings are linked to arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the British capital.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a meeting of the government’s emergency committee and vowed to “deal with the roots of anti-semitism and extremism.”
Some expressed anger over failures to keep the public safe.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley faced shouts of “shame on you” and “resign” from bystanders when he made a statement at the scene of the stabbings.
The Shomrim security organization said that a suspect “was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public.”
The suspect was detained by Shomrim members and arrested by police, who used a stun gun on him, it said.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man beside a bus stop donning a kippah, or traditional skullcap, before a passerby with a knife lunges at him.
Rowley said the suspect, whose name had not been released, had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.”
The number of anti-semitic incidents reported across the UK has soared since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust charity.
The group recorded 3,700 incidents last year, up from 1,662 in 2022.
Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said that Jews face a campaign of violence and intimidation, and that words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.
“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country,” Mirvis said. “This is a hatred that we must face down together.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
RSS