On Wednesday, two Jewish men — Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76, known locally as Moshe Shine — were stabbed in north London in what police are treating as a terror attack.
A 45-year-old British man, named in reports as Essa Suleiman, was arrested at the scene after being tasered by officers.
The Metropolitan Police later confirmed the suspect had been referred to the Government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme in 2020, but the case was closed the same year.
The Prime Minister was heckled with chants of “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer” as he visited Golders Green on Thursday morning to meet emergency services who responded to the terrorist attack.
Demonstrators protesting as Keir Starmer visited a Jewish community ambulance service following a terror attack (Image: Erik Olsson/PA Wire)
In a speech from Downing Street, Sir Keir said Jewish people in Britain were now living in fear after a succession of attacks.
“Nobody should live like that in Britain, but Jews do,” he said.
He added that Wednesday’s stabbing had pushed the Jewish community’s long-running anxiety “to another place, to terror, frankly”.
“At moments like this, we often say this is not Britain, that these attacks are an affront to British values, to British tolerance, British decency, but they keep happening, do not they? And so today, instead, I will simply say that our values are not a gift handed down generation to generation, they are something we earn each day through action. They come from us.
“Anti-Semitism is an old, old hatred. History shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back. Yet far too many people in this country diminish it. They either do not see it, or they do not want to see it.
“Take the marches that happen regularly across Britain. Of 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.
“If you stand alongside people who say ‘globalise the intifada’, you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.
“It is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong.
“So I say again, this Government will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.”
Sir Keir confirmed an additional £25 million would be invested in visible policing and protection around Jewish sites, taking total security funding for the year to £58 million.
He said ministers would fast-track new laws to give the Government proscription-style powers against organisations and individuals acting on behalf of hostile foreign states.
“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,” he said.
The proposals are likely to be included in the King’s Speech on Tuesday May 13 and are intended to create a new regime allowing ministers to pursue state-linked extremist networks in a similar way to banned terrorist organisations.
Sir Keir also pledged stronger powers to close down charities found to be promoting anti-Semitic extremism and said criminal justice agencies had been instructed to ensure prosecutions following anti-Semitic attacks were “swift, agile and visible”.
The suspect was a British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally as a child in the 1990s, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Thursday.
Mark Rowley previously said the suspect had a “history of serious violence and mental health issues”.
