By Sam Tobin and Sarah Young
LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) – Two Jewish men were stabbed in north London on Wednesday by an attacker who ran down a street targeting Jews, the latest in a spate of UK antisemitic attacks which has drawn demands for urgent action from leaders in Britain and Israel.
The two victims, one in his 70s and one in his 30s, were both in a stable condition in hospital, police said.
Officers arrested a 45-year-old man after stopping him with a taser and were considering “all possible motives” as part of their investigation, they said.
The stabbings follow a series of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London in recent weeks. Last October two people and an attacker were killed after a man drove at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester.
Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the British government needed more than just words to face down such “hatred”, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog said urgent action was needed after it became “dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew” in London.
Starmer, who has promised to defeat the rise of antisemitism after the Manchester killings, said: “The antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling”.
POLICE WANT TO ESTABLISH SUSPECT’S NATIONALITY, BACKGROUND
Over the last month, officers have arrested more than two dozen people as part of investigations into attacks on Jewish-linked premises, including the torching of Jewish ambulances, in an area close to where Wednesday’s stabbings took place, and attempted arson attacks on synagogues.
Golders Green in north London is home to a large Jewish population and has been the location of several of the attacks, along with sites near to the Israeli embassy in west London.
Police said they were working to establish the background and nationality of the suspect in Wednesday’s attack.
Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show a man in a traditional Jewish skullcap being attacked with a knife as he stood at a bus stop.
The suspect had tried to stab police officers, the police statement added, although none were injured. The unverified social media footage showed officers repeatedly kicking the suspect in the head as they attempted to take the knife away from him.
POSSIBLE IRANIAN LINKS TO ARSON ATTACKS IN NEARBY AREA
The arson incidents over the last month are being investigated for having possible Iranian links, amid warnings from security officials that Iran has sought to use criminal proxies to carry out hostile activity in the UK.
Pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, which says it was behind other incidents across Europe, has claimed responsibility for some of the London attacks on social media.
On Tuesday, Britain had summoned the Iranian ambassador over what it called the Iranian embassy’s “unacceptable and inflammatory” comments on social media.
While Britain did not specify the comments, the Iranian embassy had called on Iranians in Britain to volunteer for a campaign to declare their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country.
Antisemitic attacks have risen around the world since the October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, including a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people in December last year.
Britain has seen a similar rise and since the Manchester attack in England, Jewish communities have stepped up their private security.
The local lawmaker for the area, Sarah Sackman of Starmer’s governing Labour Party, said on X that she was meeting with interior minister Shabana Mahmood to discuss the situation, while Mahmood posted on X that her thoughts were with the victims of the “abhorrent” attack.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Additional reporting by Muvija M, Sam Tabahriti: Editing by William James, Kate Holton and Alison Williams)
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