Some pro-Palestinian demonstrations could be stopped, the prime minister has warned, as the UK’s most senior police officer said the threat to the Jewish community was greater than it had ever been.
Keir Starmer indicated he wanted the language expressed on some protest marches to be subjected to “tougher action” as he sought to allay the fears of British Jews after a series of attacks on their communities in recent weeks.
“When you see, when you hear some of those chants – ‘globalise the intifada’ the one that I would pick out – then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that,” Starmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
While he said he would not interfere in day-to-day policing, he said “there are instances” in which he would support stopping some protests altogether.
The prime minister’s comments came as Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said a “dangerous and troubling” mix of hate crimes, terrorism and the involvement of hostile states was coming together in the UK to create a terrifying atmosphere for British Jews.
Asked if the threat to their community was greater than it had ever been before, he said polling suggesting the prevalence of antisemitic views showed “that has to be true”.
He told the Times that Jewish communities felt the hostility, adding: “You can see that in how they talk, how it’s making them change their lives. That’s an appalling state of affairs.”
Rowley said British Jews were on the “hate” list of every racist and extremist group, “whether you’re extreme left, whether you’re Islamist terrorist, whether you’re rightwing terrorist, and some hostile states as well now with some sort of Iranian-related threats. There’s a sort of ghastly Venn diagram that they’re at the middle of.”
He added: “What troubles me is that this isn’t just about a few racist idiots, this is standing on something that is more embedded in society that isn’t being challenged. There’s too much licensing of it in public debate.”
There have been a series of incidents in the months since the deadly antisemitic terror attack on the Heaton Park synagogue last October. In March, four Jewish community ambulances were torched in Golders Green in north-west London and, the following month, a memorial wall to commemorate Iranian protesters was targeted.
Between those two incidents, there were several other separate attacks, including an attempted arson at Finchley Reform synagogue in north London, as well as items being found near the Israeli embassy on the day a former Jewish charity building was attacked in Barnet in north London.
In a separate incident, a court heard a teenage boy smashed the window of Kenton united synagogue in Harrow before lighting a bottle and throwing it inside.
Starmer stressed his suggestion some protest marches could be banned was “not a discussion that has only been had this week in response to this awful incident. That is a discussion we’ve been having with the police for some time”.
He told Today: “In relation to the repeated nature of the marches, many people in the Jewish community have said to me, it’s the repeat nature, it’s the cumulative effect.”
Asked if he supported calls for a moratorium on pro-Palestinian marches – notably from his independent adviser on terrorism Jonathan Hall – Starmer said: “I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect. I think it’s time for, I would say, some people protesting to just reflect on what the Jewish community is going through and the overall impact that this is having.
“I will defend the right of peaceful protest very strongly and freedom of speech. I have defended those principles all my life and I will continue to do so. And so I’m not stepping back from that one bit. But if you are on a march or a protest where people are chanting, ‘globalise the intifada’, you do have to stop and ask yourself, why am I not calling this out?”
