Over the weekend, an incendiary device was allegedly thrown through a window at Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow. Smoke from the broken window was spotted by passing police officers and the device, a bottle filled with accelerant, was removed and the shul sustained only smoke damage. Two males, 17 and 19, have been arrested.
Weakness will only invite further outrages and, sooner or later, British lives are going to be lost
This is becoming an all-too-familiar story for London’s Jews. Last week, a video was reportedly posted online by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, an Islamist group suspected of being a front for Iran. It depicted Israel’s embassy in the UK coming under drone attack by operators in biohazard suits. On Friday, counter-terror police were called after containers of an unknown powder were left outside the embassy. The authorities later confirmed the material to be ‘non-hazardous’.
Friday also saw an alleged arson attempt at the former site of the charity Jewish Futures, in Hendon, where police say a suspect was seen trying to ignite three bottles of fluid outside the shopfront before fleeing. Two days earlier, in Finchley, canisters of accelerant were reportedly deposited at the Reform synagogue, but did not ignite. A woman, 47, and a man, 46, were arrested and subsequently bailed.
This ongoing spate of alleged arsons and attempted arsons appears to have begun with the torching on March 23 of four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish medical charity. At the time of the attack, which took place in Golders Green, I speculated on Coffee House that Iran had launched a war on British Jews via a proxy – namely, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Subsequent events seem to lend credence to this theory, not least that in addition to British Jewish sites there have been attempts made on premises connected to Iranian dissidents, including a corporate headquarters for Iran International, the Persian-language news channel that exposes the Tehran regime’s repression of its own people and terrorism against British, American and Israeli interests.
Whether all of these incidents represent the dirty work of Iran or some are unrelated anti-Semitism, London’s Jews are understandably anxious. The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, is a thoughtful figure, a man of letters who chooses his words judiciously. He says: ‘A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum.’ Something deadly is stirring. The Metropolitan police says 15 arrests have been made in the past few weeks. The efforts of the constabulary are to be commended, but the bridge from seeming criminal enterprise to apparent national security threat has surely been crossed.
The Prime Minister has offered warm words. The Prime Minister is a treasury of warm words whenever Jews are persecuted in this country or overseas. Enough warm words. There must be concrete and resolute action. Proscribe Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Proscribe Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (because, yes, a terrorist organisation banned in the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries is still lawful in this country). Summon Ali Mousavi, the Iranian ambassador, and inform him that if Britain’s Jewish community is hit again, his admirers and enablers at the Foreign Office won’t be able to save him. He and his entire legation will be expelled and Britain will roll out a suite of painful sanctions on the Iranian regime.
When British citizens are targeted on British soil, Britain’s response must be forceful enough to end the attacks and deter any thought of their resumption. Weakness will only invite further outrages and, sooner or later, British lives are going to be lost. King Charles Street might be home to Britain’s greatest agglomeration of self-hatred and suicidal empathy not to enjoy university status, but Keir Starmer should overrule Whitehall and do something novel in this area: put British interests and national security first. If he doesn’t, and one of these arson attacks turns fatal, British blood will be on his hands.
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