Anti-Semitic cases surge in London, frightening Jewish community
(AFP, London, 30th) Since the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched a raid on Israel earlier this month, the Jewish community in London, England, has been panicked, and synagogues, schools and other buildings have stepped up security.
Raymond Simonson, chief executive of JW3, a Jewish arts and entertainment center in north London, said: “People feel very vulnerable and scared, and anti-Semitic incidents are now being recorded at a record high.”
“The UK… has never seen so many cases as we have in the past 20 days,” he said.
He also mentioned: “We doubled our security and quadrupled the patrols of the (London) Metropolitan Police to make sure we were safe. This is all we can do.”
JW3 installed “The Empty Shabbat Table” on the 27th to commemorate the more than 200 hostages whom Israel claims were kidnapped by Hamas. More than 200 empty chairs surrounded the long table, with the names, ages and nationalities of the hostages marked on the backs, as well as the word “captured.”
Simonson said he had always spent the Sabbath with his family, but the attack made him realize he had taken the day for granted and not fully appreciated it.
Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Israel from Gaza on the 7th of this month. Israel claimed that more than 1,400 people were killed, mostly civilians. This is the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
The Gaza area is now controlled by Hamas. The local health ministry stated that Israel’s non-stop retaliatory bombing has killed more than 8,300 Palestinians, 3,457 of whom were children.
Several large-scale demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza have previously been held in London. The police said that between the 1st and 27th of this month, 408 anti-Semitic criminal incidents had been registered, compared with only 28 in the same period last year.
Police also said there were 174 Islamophobia-related crimes during the same period, compared with 65 in the same period last year.
After the conflict between Hamas and Israel broke out, many Jewish schools in London were temporarily closed. Local synagogues and religious schools also called on members and parents to volunteer to strengthen security.
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2023-10-31 09:05:01