Police in London are searching for five attackers who assaulted a 22-year-old Israeli man after hearing him speak Hebrew in the Golders Green neighborhood of London. Authorities are treating the incident, which left the victim with cuts and bruises to his face and body, as an antisemitic hate crime.
The young man, who lives in London, left an apartment in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood at 2:00 a.m. on Monday in order to speak on the phone without disturbing his roommates. Five masked men speaking Arabic were walking nearby, heard him speaking, and suddenly began chasing him. They caught him, dragged him across the street, and brutally beat him until he nearly lost consciousness.
According to reports, the attackers tore the Israeli man’s clothing, threw away his shoes, and shouted insults at him in Arabic. Fortunately, a neighbor heard the commotion and called the police. The five attackers managed to flee before officers arrived.
The victim told the British-Jewish newspaper Jewish Chronicle: “I had this feeling, like I thought I was going to die. They completely caught me off guard. I wasn’t ready. I saw them approaching me, and I had a suspicious feeling about them, but in one second, suddenly one of them ran at me and jumped on me."
He said that after being dragged across the street, several of the attackers formed a circle around him and repeatedly kicked him while he tried to protect himself with his eyes closed.
“They were shouting at me in Arabic," the young man recounted. Although he lost track of time, he estimated the assault lasted “about five minutes." Before fleeing, the attackers also stole one of his shoes.
A spokesperson for the Jewish security organization Community Security Trust said: “This was a violent and shocking attack in the heart of Golders Green. The incident is being handled by the Metropolitan Police as an antisemitic hate crime, and we thank them for their swift response. CST is providing support to the victim and his family. We urge anyone who witnessed what happened to contact the police and CST immediately. At a time of rising antisemitism, incidents like this highlight the real dangers facing Jewish communities."
The Metropolitan Police stated: “We urge anyone who witnessed the incident to contact police immediately. At a time of rising antisemitism, incidents like this underscore the real dangers facing Jewish communities."
A growing number of antisemitic hate crimes have occurred in London recently. Over the weekend, police searched for a pro-Palestinian man who threatened to “behead Jews" during a confrontation outside a mosque in east London. Last month, two Jewish men were seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in Golders Green. A month earlier, masked individuals set fire to ambulances belonging to a Jewish emergency organization outside a synagogue in the neighborhood.