Police in London on Sunday moved an anti-Israel protest away from St. John’s Wood Synagogue after dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the building, JNS reported.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a statement that protesters were resituated while “their ‘protest’ continued around the corner. Once again, a red line has been crossed in Britain.”
The group noted that both Jewish and non-Jewish anti-Israel activists were involved.
Earlier, police explained, “There is no legal mechanism to ban the protest from taking place; however, we have used Public Order Act conditions to prevent disorder and disruption. Anyone participating in the protest must not enter” the area directly outside the synagogue.
Police also banned a counterprotest organized by Stop the Hate from approaching the synagogue. The intervention followed calls by Jewish community groups to restrict the demonstrators after their mobilization was revealed.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism warned: “It is profoundly alarming that ‘Free Palestine’ groups have called on their followers to make sure that they look ‘visibly Jewish’ and protest at a synagogue filled with families and children attending various events, including an early evening choral concert. Were it not for the actions of the police, the synagogue would have been the scene of a confrontational protest at its gates.”
The group added, “Protesting at a synagogue, and encouraging protesters to look ‘visibly Jewish,’ must be a red line. This performative intimidation has no impact on events thousands of miles away but has an immense impact on British Jews at a time when we are still reeling from the murder of Jews at Heaton Park Synagogue just a few weeks ago on Yom Kippur.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the protest, writing, “We have been direct in saying that this is absolutely unacceptable.”
The Board added, “After the disgraceful scenes outside a synagogue in New York last week, and outside the JW3 Jewish community center in London last year, it is clear that the ugly, extremist and antisemitic face of parts of the global pro-Palestine movement, determined to wreck cohesion and spread hate and chaos on our streets, has gone unchecked for too long.”
Britain has seen a sharp rise in incidents of antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Last month, a lecture by Israeli academic Professor Michael Ben-Gad at City St. George’s, University of London, was disrupted when anti-Israel activists burst into his classroom, shouting accusations and threats.
Video circulating online shows protesters with covered faces interrupting Ben-Gad’s lecture, shouting that he had "blood on his hands" and accusing him of serving in the Israeli military. Chants of “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea” followed as security staff removed the intruders.
Earlier this month, University College London (UCL) reported academic Samar Maqusi to police following a lecture in which she repeated the centuries-old blood libel against Jews and promoted conspiracy theories about Jewish control of finance and information.